My Local Buy Story - Children's Discovery
Published on 17 November 2025
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Feature article Adam Selinger, CEO - Children's Discovery
Opening doors to discovery: How Children’s Discovery brings STEM learning to Queensland libraries
At Children’s Discovery, we believe curiosity is the spark to a lifelong love of learning—and our mission is to build and sustain that spark across Queensland in partnership with public libraries.
For over a decade we’ve supplied public libraries, community groups and councils with high quality, hands-on STEM resources and experiences designed to engage people of all ages and backgrounds in the joy of exploration and discovery.
Our toolkit includes Spark! Discovery Boxes - a series of loanable and ‘shelf-ready’ science-in-a-box interactive experiments, the much-loved, facilitator-driven Little Bang Discovery Club, and a host of Big Bang hands-on science workshops provided event-ready for librarians to run themselves.
Each resource is crafted to be engaging, accessible and align with library goals, community needs and participant interests, providing that ‘third space’ experience of informal education and curiosity-led learning.
By working with library teams and community groups, we help transform libraries and community spaces into lively hubs of STEM inquiry, where learning isn’t about facts but about doing, experimenting and sharing.
Whether it’s a school holiday science session, an after-hours library program or a community fair, Children’s Discovery provides ready-to-go, educator-designed solutions and accessible training. Together these empower library staff to confidently deliver unique programs and activities time and time again.
Streamlining access through Local Buy
In April 2023, Children’s Discovery became a pre-qualified supplier on Local Buy Arrangement LB338 – “Shelf Ready / STEM Technologies”.
This partnership has been a game-changer in how we engage with Queensland councils and libraries.
Rather than navigating lengthy tender processes, our inclusion on LB338 means library and council buyers can access our services more directly—and more rapidly—while still meeting their procurement obligations.
“Because Children’s Discovery is listed on Local Buy it was a smooth interaction to have our requisition for their resources approved.” Scenic Rim Regional Council
Being part of Local Buy has widened our reach and allowed us to support more regional and metropolitan library services across Queensland. It’s enabled us to align with procurement timelines, workflows and budgets - ensuring that when a library says, “we want engaging STEM resources this term”, we can deliver!
Spotlight on collaboration: Public libraries
Our collaboration with public libraries across Queensland offers a clear example of how this works in practice.
Over the past few years, we have been engaged by councils across the state to deliver our popular STEM activities for holiday programs, science fairs and community events, as well as suppling a collection of Spark! Discovery Boxes for loan from library branches.
The process has typically flowed like this:
- The council issues an RFQ (via VendorPanel or direct engagement),
- We respond with a tailored STEM program and equipment bundle,
- The agreement is confirmed, and
- We then deliver and send or operate the resources.
For science fair programs we deliver within approximately four to six weeks from award to launch. For the library loan collection, we work with the council’s library services team to stage delivery across multiple branches over a two-month rollout.
The outcomes speak for themselves: increased participation in library STEM programs across the state, high user satisfaction with the Spark! boxes, and stronger visibility of the library as an accessible community learning hub. council staff reported smoother logistics, fewer procurement bottlenecks and a resource-rich library environment ready to engage families and learners.
Learn more Children's Discovery and how it can be a game-changer at your library W https://www.childrensdiscovery.org.au