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Imagine>invent>program>share: a library-hosted computer club promotes 21st-century literacy skills: bridging the literacy gap will require that we re-evaluate our perspectives and reinvent our practices to better prepare our youth for fully participatory lives in the years ahead.

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During at least one afternoon each month, Wilmette (Ill.) Public Library (WPL)--where I serve as web manager and teen librarian--hosts a local group of computer programmers, designers, and artists, who meet to discuss digital projects and resources, technical challenges, and successful design or programming strategies. Countless slices of pizza are washed down by soda or high-octane energy drinks as members of the group excitedly share news about recent accomplishments and challenges. On some occasions, these meetings are informal and loosely structured, with members standing clustered in groups or seated awash in the glow of somebody's laptop computer screen. On other occasions, members come equipped to deliver formal presentations with PowerPoint slides and handouts. Their presentations cover a wide range of subjects, such as how to model 3D environments or how to map character motions to game controller buttons. Occasional guest speakers from the digital entertainment industry visit the group to talk about level design, motion capture, and even how to generate ideas for new projects.

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Individual members' interests are as varied as the members themselves, with some focusing on digital storytelling, some on computer game design, and some on developing applications such as digital media players, calculators, or encryption devices. Equally varied are the backgrounds, skills, and creative impulses they bring to their projects. The group sponsors occasional events at the library, such as competitive gaming tournaments and an annual game design contest, and some of its members even manage a website. Attendance at each meeting ranges from five to as many as 30 when a special guest speaker has been invited to visit. Participation tends to be greatest during the summer months when school is out because the typical member of this spirited and creative cadre of designer-programmers falls between the ages of 12 and 18.

From Media Consumers to Media Creators

WPL's Game Design Club, now in its third year, owes its existence to a combination of elements: our library's commitment to supporting 21st-century literacy skills, a motivated population of teens for whom no comparable peer community exists, and the recent development of a variety of free and open source programming environments and content editing tools designed specifically to facilitate learning in a media development context. We were inspired by the constructionist theories of figures such as Seymour Papert and Alan Kay, who have argued (with respect to educational technologies) that we must teach our kids to program computers rather than use computers to program our kids. And we were guided by such examples as the People's Computer Co., a seminal community technology center established in the San Francisco Bay area in the early '70s to teach young people how to use and even program computers long before the first PCs hit the consumer market.

Like many public libraries seeking to enhance our services to teens, the Wilmette Public Library began offering open video game play and competition events in 2005. These programs were successful from...

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