Tag Archives: American Library Association

The American Library Association’s Libraries Ready to Code initiative, sponsored by Google, released the beta version of the Ready to Code Collection at the 2018 Annual Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans, today, June 22.

The Libraries Ready to Code Collection is a cache of resources developed, tested, and curated by libraries, for libraries to create, implement, and enhance their computer science (CS) programming for youth. In the nine months since Libraries Ready to Code announced the 28 grantee libraries participating in the project, the cohort has piloted a range of programs:

• Middle school library and technology staff working with local nonprofits to identify needs of local businesses and nonprofits and enabling young library users to fill those needs through applied coding projects.
• A high school librarian collaborating with a local music mentorship program to teach youth in special education classes how to code music with assistive technology.
• Public librarians in a rural community teaching coding languages to help youth engineer and operate a FarmBot robotic gardener.
• Elementary school librarians leading 4th–8th-grade students through an interest-based coding club and helping students to develop their own workshops showcasing their skills as coding mentors to K–3rd graders.

Learning from these programs are presented in a comprehensive guide to enable library professionals to cultivate their young patrons’ computational thinking (CT) literacies—their ability to solve complex problems through a step-by-step analytical process. Everything on the Libraries #ReadytoCode site is a test run and feedback from librarians will ensure that when the full site is launched in fall 2018 it will meet the needs of library staff working for and with youth and families.

#ReadyToCode