NY Public Library Experts Teach Coding
By Brandy Mcneil & Steven Deolus
There’s been a huge interest in coding around the world as of late. The evolving requirements of technological literacy are making programming a more useful tool in personal and professional settings. High quality online providers like Codecademy have made courses more accessible. However, for those who want to explore this skill and get some exposure, it can come at a high cost and for many, there is a great deal of learning frustration. The New York Public Library’s commitment to diversity and inclusiveness makes it an ideal forum to help coding courses reach neighborhoods currently underrepresented in the coding community; this is where the NYPL TechConnect Project_<code> program steps in.
In 2012 NYPL began a pilot to improve and expand its technology training courses under the banner NYPL TechConnect. The program offers more than 80 courses in over 80 locations to the public in the New York area at no cost to them. In two years, patron attendance has doubled and it’s new series based program called “Project _<code>” has New Yorkers buzzing.
NYPL just concluded its first session of Project_<code>, coding classes offered at four library locations (Tremont Library and the Bronx Library Center in the Bronx, Countee Cullen Library in Harlem and the Mid-Manhattan Library in Midtown Manhattan). With little to no advertisement, we found ourselves with 450 patrons that showed up for our orientation and only 70 seats were available at the time. Five classes of students spent eight weeks learning HTML, CSS and Intro to Javascript using a blended learning curriculum based on Codecademy’s platform. In addition, they worked on personal projects where they developed websites based on their own interests, and a group project where they built websites for entrepreneurs participating in NYPL’s StartUp Business Plan Competition.
The program was a great success with over 90 percent of students completing the eight-week course and participating in the graduation ceremony. Some patrons even travelled from long distances such as Staten Island to attend the program in the Bronx. Project_<code> reached a broad audience, cutting across age groups, education levels, income brackets and ethnicities. The diversity of the participants demonstrated the program’s wide appeal. The program has since generated a lot of interest resulting in over 1000 people signing up to take part in upcoming semesters of the program and we are now building a teen coding program as well.
The seeds planted by Project_<code> can be seen in many forms. One of which is the Project_<code> Meetup group that was created by some of the graduates of the Phase 1 Spring 2014 session. Providing them with an incubator space, NYPL TechConnect worked with the graduates to help design what the Meetups should entail, including creating a website as a central hub with information and resources for newbies learning how to code. As a group they have continued to proactively learn additional coding languages together such as PHP, JQuery and Javascript. Three of the participants in the Meetup group entered a Hackathon at AppNexus and won a $100 prize for integration of an AT&T API into a nonprofit website.
NYPL has found a way to provide its patrons a practical entry into coding while allowing them to build websites for family businesses and in support of hobbies and interests, whilst injecting themselves into the coding community.
Brandy McNeil is the Head & Steven Deolus is the Department Coordinator of Technology Training at the New York Public Library.
