E-Textiles in Libraries: A Practical Guide for Librarians

From light-up scarves to solar-powered backpacks to health monitoring fabric, innovative combinations of electronics and textiles are becoming more prevalent and impressive all the time, making appearances everywhere from the runway to medical settings. In the near future, these wearable technologies will be a standard part of daily life. E-textiles, including soft circuits, conductive fabrics, and sewable electronics, may not be familiar to all library patrons now, but the way that e-textile projects combine STEM topics with fun, familiar crafts make them popular for library programs, interesting to diverse groups, and a great tool for teaching new skills and techniques. Best of all, e-textile projects can be designed to fit into budgets of all sizes and to appeal to patrons of any age and level of technical proficiency. In this book, you’ll learn everything you need to know about the tools, supplies, techniques, and science behind e-textiles and find out how your library can design successful collections and programs around this hot new topic. The book features key information about the materials and techniques you’ll need to know, examples of libraries that have found success with e-textiles, step-by-step advice on program creation, and projects that can be used for fun and engaging library programs. By the time you finish reading, you will have everything you need to develop a program that will generate excitement within your community and introduce your patrons to new and useful skills. Keep your library on the cutting edge of technology with exciting and engaging e-textiles programming!