This engaging guide demonstrates how easy, fun, and rewarding it can be to teach and learn coding at the library. In our technology-obsessed society, computer coding is a highly valued and in-demand skill, but many people consider it an activity only for technology geeks and educated professionals-even more so to teach coding. Not so, says author Sarah Kepple. In this accessible guide, she explains why you don't have to be an expert to lead coding, shows how easy and rewarding learning and teaching coding can be, and provides step-by-step instructions to help you and your community get started. The book shows how to engage students quickly with learning activities that springboard off of the powerful appeal of video games. The author takes users through activities that introduce popular programming languages-including GameMaker, JavaScript, Python, and Scratch-to create video games, and in the process, to learn coding. These activities, themed around classic and popular stories, appeal to a broad age range-from elementary-age youth through high school and beyond to adults and seniors. Readers will see why school and public libraries are venues ideally suited for coding classes, workshops, clubs, or camps, and they will understand why teaching coding not only meets an important need but also serves to highlight the library's relevance to its community. Helps librarians-even those without prior experience and training-launch highly successful programs in computer coding that engage both traditional literacy and technology literacy Builds on the library's role as technology hub in the school and/or community Enables librarians to cultivate practical and valued skills among students and patrons-all while they have fun learning Offers insight from an instructor who leads coding clubs and classes in multiple libraries

A dive-right-in, quick-start guide for busy library professionals who want to build literacy, STEAM, and other 21st-century skills using simple robots in a fun, collaborative environment. Robotics in the library? Absolutely. Robotics can add a new dimension to library programming-one that can help America's youth build the Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM) and 21st-century learning skills they will need to be successful in an international, technology-infused workforce. This book provides a complete guide for launching a robotics program in the library and demonstrates the links between robotics programming and learning. It also includes complete instructions for various program models that employ robotics. Robotics programs are an ideal way for public and school libraries to demonstrate their vital roles as the hubs of community learning, and the subject is universally popular with students as well as parents and industrial funders. The book's clearly and succinctly written chapters begin by providing the information that librarians will need for stakeholders and to select equipment, then move logically into addressing guided activities and expansion ideas. Children's librarians, teen librarians, school media specialists (particularly those focused on middle school students), and adult and technology librarians looking to connect with "new adults" will find this book useful and appealing. Provides the only guidebook currently available about robotics written by a librarian, for librarians-a simple, practical guide that virtually any librarian can use, no prior tech experience necessary Guides librarians in using their knowledge of literacy, youth development, and guided-inquiry methodology to gain an accessible entry point to grow their technological skills alongside the youth they serve Includes lesson plans and activity guides to help you start a simple robotics curriculum as quickly as possible Supplies outcome measurement tools Discusses funding ideas and sample budgets