Harrison Public Library Receives Funding to Develop Youth Coding Programs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, November 29, 2018
Harrison, NY : The Harrison Public Library announced today that they have received $500 from the American Library Association (ALA) to help plan and implement coding activities during Computer Science Education (CS Ed) Week 2018 (December 3-9) and beyond. The Harrison Public Library is one of 250 school and public libraries around the country to receive this microfunding from Libraries Ready to Code, an initiative of the American Library Association sponsored by Google.
Library Director Galina Chernykh, said, “The Harrison Public library takes a lead role in providing access to digital content and technologies in our community. By offering non-traditional literacy programs like coding, we are empowering youth not to just use new tech toys but also create them. Coding opens up many new opportunities for learning.”
“This grant will help us continue to provide programs such as this to all of our community members. We enjoy helping our patrons and love to do programs like this,” said club facilitator and grant winner, Librarian Daniel Sabol.
“Libraries are the cornerstones of our communities,” said Google program manager Nicky Rigg. “We are proud to include Harrison Public Library in our CS Ed Week activities this year. We hope these libraries will join the growing number of libraries excited to offer CS programs that help youth create, problem solve and develop the confidence and skills to succeed in their future careers.”
“ALA is pleased to provide microfunding to Harrison Public Library and other Ready to Code libraries,” said ALA President Loida Garcia-Febo. “We hope this microfunding will not only generate enthusiasm for CS Ed Week, but spark year-round programming to develop critical thinking and digital skills youth can draw on over a lifetime.”
The 250 libraries selected for CS Ed Week funding will each host activities based on Google’s free CS First curriculum, which uses video-based instruction to introduce CS to kids through block-based coding. Libraries will pursue projects that reflect Ready to Code themes critical for advancing youth learning, especially for building computational thinking literacies. The Ready to Code team estimates that the CS Ed Week funding will support more than 60,000 youth all around the country taking part in coding activities throughout the week.
This opportunity for funding to run a program like Google’s One Hour of Code brings the community together in addition to jumpstarting year round Computer Science programming for youth.
About Harrison Public Library The Harrison Public Library has been providing responsive service to Harrison and Westchester County residents in New York State since 1905. The mission of the Library is to provide to the community outstanding information, resources, programs and services and to encourage the free exchange of ideas.
###