The IMC is open to ASU education majors, ASU Cooperating Teachers, and public school teachers in the eight ASU school partnership counties of Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba, Watauga, and Wilkes, and Elkin City Schools.
Teachers in the partnership must sign up for a free Teacher Borrower's Card in order to access the Idea Factory and borrow library materials. To sign up for the card, bring your official Teacher ID to the library circulation desk. A card, valid until the end of the current school year, will be issued to you at no cost. There is a limit of 15 IMC items that may be on a teacher borrower account at any time.
The IMC has a collection of currently adopted NC textbooks as well as selected volumes from the previous adoption. Current textbooks must be used in-house due to high demand while textbooks included in the past adoption circulate on a 3-week checkout. Click here to see a subject guide and call number information for currently adopted textbooks.
The most prominent collection of the Idea Factory is the Ellison Die Cut Center, which currently includes more than 700 die-cuts. Among the many popular sub-collections of the die-cuts are alphabet and American sign language letters, geometric and nature shapes, animals, and musical instruments and notes.