Kids in the stacks: Summer camp at an academic library

Abstract

It’s summer, and there are middle school students running around the university library. Why? St. Ambrose University (SAU) Library held summer camps for 6th- through 8th-grade students in 2018 and 2019. The first was Digital Film Camp, and the second was National History Day Boot Camp. If you work in higher education, chances are good that you’ve heard about the campus demographic cliff and been charged with doing your part to address this enrollment challenge. In alignment with a campus-wide initiative to bolster pre-college summer camps for potential students, the library hosted summer camps for middle school students as part of this community outreach and engagement strategy. The goal of these camps was to offer enriching experiences that create positive impressions of the campus and library.