From the Editor (February 2015)

I come from a long line of tinkerers. My father was a machinist and mechanic who earned the nickname “Hot Rod” because he built race cars using parts he made or modified himself. My grandfather set up a generator and installed lights in their home well before electricity was available as a public utility. It’s my hope that my son will develop the desire and the skills to build things, to repair things, to take things apart to see how they work, and to successfully put them back together again. I know from my own experience that these activities will stimulate his intellectual and sensorimotor development, but will also give him a measure of confidence and optimism in the way he approaches life—a feeling that it is within his power to make things better and fix things that are broken.

It is in this spirit that we bring you the February 2015 CLCD Newsletter.  In this month’s feature article, Heather Kindschy gives an introduction to the “maker movement” and explains how every library can and should provide a “maker space” for patrons. We also honor Black History Month with a themed list of 12 Books about Black Inventors, innovators who overcame the odds of educational and economic discrimination to make huge advancements in their chosen fields.

We’re also doing our fair share of tinkering here at CLCD! Even though the product won Platinum recognition in the 2015 Modern Library Awards, this has not stopped us from striving to make it better. Our developers have been hard at work on the next major upgrade to the CLCD database (version 4.0), and they have opened up a public beta version so our member-subscribers can try out all the new improvements. Let us know what you think!