The STEM Maker Library Grant

In all the craziness of last year, I forgot to blog about one of the grants we received.  Almost every year that I’ve been a media specialist, I’ve applied for a grant from the Hillsborough Education Foundation.  In previous years, I’ve applied for more graphic novels, books geared towards reluctant readers, and audiobooks.  This year, I wanted to create a grant that would help our library to support our growing Makerspace program.  I’d had many students come up to me asking for books about video game design, Arduino, 3D printing, etc.  Since I knew that the demand would only grow as students came to know more about Making, I knew that we needed to get some more resources available for students.  Yes, there are TONS of great resources online, but there’s still something about having a physical book in your hands.  And for some students, grabbing a book during their 5 minutes of library time might be the only way to expose them to current topics like this.  And it’s pretty cool to have a book on LEGOs or duct tape projects open as you’re actually working on them.

The grant was for a total of $1,000, and it was a matching grant, meaning that we had to match with $500.  I ended up using cash we raised during our spring bookfair.  It felt like a lot at first, but considering that it meant we were getting quality Makered books essentially at half price, it didn’t seem so bad.

I picked out several topics that I either knew the kids were already interested in, or that I predict they will become interested in as our Makerspace grows.  I tried to go with hardcovers as much as possible, but there were some paperbacks in there too.  Here’s a sampling of the topics and titles we chose:

Crafts

• The Kids’ Guide to Duct Tape Projects 
• Knit.101: The Indispensable Self-Help Guide to Knitting and Crochet
• Stick It!: 99 D.I.Y. Duct Tape Projects
• Tape It & Make More: 101 More Duct Tape Activities
• Trash Origami: 25 Paper Folding Projects Reusing Everyday Materials

LEGOs

• The LEGO Book
• The LEGO Ideas Book
• LEGO Play Book: Ideas to Bring Your Bricks to Life
• LEGO Space: Building the Future
• Planes for Brains: 28 Innovative Origami Airplane Designs 
• The Unofficial LEGO Builder’s Guide

Makered

• The Art of Tinkering
• The Maker Movement Manifesto: Rules for Innovation in the New World of Crafters, Hackers, and Tinkerers
• The Best of Instructables Volume I: Do-It-Yourself Projects from the World’s Biggest Show & Tell (v. 1)
• How to Build a Hovercraft: Air Cannons, Magnetic Motors, and 25 Other Amazing DIY Science Projects
• Unbored: The Essential Field Guide to Serious Fun
• Make: Arduino Bots and Gadgets: Six Embedded Projects with Open Source Hardware and Software 
• Making Things See: 3D vision with Kinect, Processing, Arduino, and MakerBot (Make: Books)
• Calling all Innovators Career Series
• Super Scratch Programming Adventure! (Covers Version 2): Learn to Program by Making Cool Games
• 62 Projects to Make with a Dead Computer: (And Other Discarded Electronics)
• Drawing Basics and Video Game Art: Classic to Cutting-Edge Art Techniques for Winning Video Game Design

Because of timing with vendors, we weren’t able to get the books until the very end of the year.  I got a chance to introduce the books to one of our science classes, and the reaction was good.  Several students immediately took the LEGO books over to our LEGO table and started working on a castle.  My video game design nerds excitedly flipped through our books on video game art and game design as a career.  A couple of 8th graders took the origami books behind the check out desk and started folding some scrap paper.  These books are going to be a fabulous addition to our library as our Makerspace program grows.