The first Public Libraries and STEM conference was held in Denver, Colorado, August 20–22, 2015. Participation was limited and by invitation only. Sarah Waldrop, Science Museum of Virginia, and Enid Costley, Library of Virginia, were two of the 100 people invited to attend.  Waldrop presented information on the Science Bag project with the public libraries.   Using the research and best practices presented at this conference, and consultation with staff at the Georgia Public Library Services, the Library of Virginia contacted the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation to explore a cooperative program.  This resulted in a project with the Library of Virginia, the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation and the Science Museum of Virginia.  The project provides nature-themed backpacks designed to help families, Scout groups, home schoolers and other groups explore nature and learn science concepts while visiting a Virginia State Park.  Included with the backpacks is a free Virginia State Park pass.  Backpacks will be assembled by volunteers and then placed in public libraries in 2016 and be checked out for two weeks using a public library card.  

In 2013 the Library of Virginia, with the cooperation of the Virginia Department of Education, commissioned Edvantia (which later became McREL) to conduct a study on the impact of the summer reading program on reading levels of the participating young people.  46 city and county library systems involving 92 library buildings in rural and urban Virginia participated in the study.  The study included a comparison of peer to peer reading scores.  

The highlights of the third report show that  ̶

Children and teens who attended summer reading programs performed better academically and experienced greater gains in their academic performance than their nonparticipating peers.  Participants out-performed nonparticipants on tests across all measures and grades, kindergarten through 8.

The effect of summer reading programs did not differ by gender, limited English proficiency status, or economically disadvantaged status.

The overall findings suggest that students who attended the 2013 Summer Reading Program offered by Virginia’s library systems performed better academically and experienced greater gains in their academic performance than their nonparticipating peers. 

The fourth, and final, report focused on the long-term impact of participation in summer reading programs on children’s and teens’ reading outcomes.  This study involved a quasi-experimental design with matched comparisons with 4,199 students who were entering fourth, fifth, and sixth grades across 46 library systems in Virginia. 

Findings revealed that  ̶

Participation in summer reading programs may have a positive effect on student achievement outcomes by preventing learning loss even two years after participation.

Thirty-five percent of the 2013 Summer Reading Program participants and 5% of the comparisons also participated in the 2014 Summer Reading Program. 

Repeat participants benefited the most from their participation in the 2013 and 2014 Summer Reading Programs, followed by those who only participated in the 2013 program.

Taken together, summer reading programs may prevent summer reading loss or even facilitate learning gains when schools are not in session.  

Please note the final report was submitted to the Library of Virginia in December 2015, but I am sharing results now to provide context.

To provide STEM related activities and resources to communities with limited science related resources (i.e., quite a distance from the Science Museum of Virginia), the Science Museum of Virginia, with funds from Institute for Museum and Library Services,  in 2014 created 6 Science Resource Hubs, which contain resources and materials to support several science related activities.  The hubs are intended to be used by the hosting libraries (Augusta County Public Library, Blackwater Regional Library, Bedford Public Library, L.E. Smoot Memorial Library, Pittsylvania County Public Library, and Russell County Public Library) to support STEM activities in their library and community.  Also the hub is to be loaned to area libraries and organizations.  The Science Museum of Virginia then presented STEM workshops that focused on using the resources in the science hubs at five of the hosting communities with a total of 144 people attending.  As this was a community resource, invitations to the workshops were extended to schools and community organizations.  
In addition the Science Museum of Virginia sought and received grant funds to work closely with Richmond Public Library,Chesterfield County Public Library and Powhatan County Public Library. Each of these three libraries received a Science Resource Hub, as well as training and additional support to library staff to provide STEM related activities. In a survey to the 9 libraries that received Science Resource Hubs all were satisfied or very satisfied with the resources in the Science Resource Hubs and felt it improved the library services they provide.  Here is a comment from one of the libraries:  “The resources have provided staff with the ability to think beyond their normal programming. The books in particular have been of great interest,allowing staff to really consider other types of programs. The rocket launcher in particular has generated a lot of excitement.”

In 2014 the Library of Virginia began partnering with the Virginia Department of Health to promote library participation in the United States Department of Agricultural (USDA) Summer Food Service Program (SFSP).  In Virginia the Virginia Department of Health oversees the program that offers free meals to children and teens in areas of need.  Libraries participate by serving as food sites, or by providing a safe, clean place for the children and teens to eat while participating in literacy enhancing activities, or by going out of the library to provide literacy activities at another food site.  In 2014 eight libraries participated in the Summer Food Program.  In 2015 it was expanded to 26 sites participating in the USDA Summer Food Service Program.  Two library systems are supporting healthy eating during the summer, but not with the USDA program.  To support the summer food program in libraries, the Library of Virginia contracted with SoHo Foundation http://www.child2000.org/bookgiveaway.htm to provide a set of 112 books to these 28 participating libraries helping to ensure no child or teen goes hungry. Through a gift from the No Kid Hungry Campaign https://www.nokidhungry.org/, English and Spanish bookmarks were provided to libraries to promote summer food programs and provide information on finding a summer food site.

In May 2014 we were given the results of the study we commissioned with McREL to show the impact of the summer reading program on children’s reading skills.  The study closely matched children and teens who participated in the summer reading program with those who did not.  Using test scores from the Virginia Department of Education, it was determined that children and teens who participated in the summer reading program offered by Virginia’s public libraries performed better academically and experienced greater gains in their academic performance than their nonparticipating peers. 

The study supports something public librarians have always assumed   ̶   that summer reading programs have a positive impact in summer learning.  We are using this study and the third and final year of the study to help us transform the summer reading program to a community summer learning program.  We began this process in the fall 2014 by inviting the National Summer of Learning Association to make a presentation to staff from the library systems serving as pilots for the new summer reading program software – Great Reading Adventure.  The Great Reading Adventure http://greatreadingadventure.com/ was created by the Maricopa County Library System (Arizona) and includes electronic badges for reading and learning and game features to encourage reading.  The software allowsfor community partnerships and an outside organization to award points and badges for participating in activities and learning.  Libraries participating in the pilot were Colonial Heights Public Library, Chesterfield County Library, Handley Regional Library, Newport News Public Library System, and Roanoke Public Library. Our State partners for this project are the Virginia Department of Education, Virginia Historical Society and the Science Museum of Virginia. We are also working with the California Library Association to develop and improve the software program.  This will include a pretest and post test for third grade students and fifth grade students, which will be used to show the local impact of summer reading programs in each public library using the software.  The Virginia Department of Education has  provided us with comprehension passages and questions for the internal evaluation tool. We plan to have another five libraries join the project for the summer of 2016 as we tweak some of the developmental issues and enhancements, as well as creating some training materials before implementing it statewide.  In preparation for this new approach we have provided the summer planning guide by the National Summer of Learning Association "Summer Planning Begins in September" to the public libraries.  

During this transition from one online system to another we are maintaining our subscription to Evanced Summer Reader.  We are also support the public library summer reading program by providing manual, clip art, posters, bookmarks, and certificates.