Today President Obama announced the success of CPL‘s YOUmedia center, a teen space and learning lab, as a model for the rest of the country to follow. The best part is that the President is following innovations in libraries, and in Chicago in specific. The announcement adds:
Transforming Libraries and Museums into 21st Century Learning Labs: In partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation will fund the creation of 30 new hands-on learning (“YOUMedia”) centers across the country. These centers, based on the successful YOUMedia Center at the Chicago Public Library, will be become hubs for youth engagement, creativity and hands-on learning, advancing the President’s goal of empowering young people to be “makers and creators of things, rather than consumers.” MacArthur and IMLS will provide more than $4 million in planning grants over a three-year period, and will be joined by a number of partners such as the Knight, Pearson, Mozilla, and Grable Foundations, and the Chicago and New York Community Trusts.
Will your library apply? Will your library adapt to these innovations? Will your library make a difference in the lives of kids, teens, patrons of all ages?
The Information Activist Librarian 