Motivated by a desire to encourage girls to pursue science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) studies, librarians at the Marston Science Library (Marston) at the University of Florida (UF) developed Girls Tech Camp (GTC), a summer camp designed to introduce middle-school girls to creative technologies used in these fields. This week-long…

Academic libraries are often called upon to support their institutions by demonstrating value to their community and their state. Outreach to K-12 schools is a common tactic of college and university libraries, but traditional methods can be expensive or time-consuming. This case study describes a joint outreach endeavor by six academic libraries…

This paper presents the ongoing design, development, and implementation of a K-16 maker movement centered around a joint public school/university library whose minimal dedicated space has expanded opportunities for public participation, partnerships, and shared resources. As the library sought to circulate STEM resources for K-9 teachers and…

This article examines formative interventions as we understand them in cultural-historical activity theory and reflects on key differences between this intervention research tradition and design-based research as it is conceived in the learning sciences tradition. Three projects, including 2 Change Laboratories, are analyzed with the help of…

Over the last twenty-five years, the Minnesota Historical Society, the University of Minnesota Libraries, and Minitex have developed a partnership centered on creating pathways to higher education by engaging local middle school and high school students in immersive programs at academic libraries. These activities vary in scope and content, but…