Each February our specialized library helps plan the annual Engineering Day event at the Peoria Riverfront Museum. Knowing there are many public libraries in our area that offer STEM resources, we sent out an invite for them to participate along with us.

Due to COVID, this year’s event was online. The Museum created a Virtual Engineering Day website with links to activities from local community groups. The website was promoted to teachers, parents, and the public.

For our part, we created a Peoria-Area Library STEM Resources Guide - a Google Doc showcasing library STEM books, events, clubs, take-and-makes, and more. To gather information, I used the RAILS Peoria-Area Libraries listserv and invited libraries to submit their STEM activities to me. I placed them into a single document, which was added to the Virtual Engineering Day website for all to view.

In addition, our Caterpillar library created an Engineers, Libraries and Using Science Journals presentation with activities and resources. It was also added to the Virtual Engineering Day website and sent to our local AISLE school library group (MILE).

I hope this example helps you consider ways you can coordinate with libraries of different types in your area!