LIBRARY AS MAKERSPACE

 Hearing Bill Derry from the Westport, CT. public library talk about transforming libraries is heady stuff, but it wasn't until I starting talking to young people myself that I realized the urgency of the mission. Bill Derry talks about moving libraries from thinking "collection development" to "connection development." What does that mean? I think it means actively seeking out the people in your community who have skills to share and people who need to learn those skills. Then providing the community with a place and resources to facilitate making things. He juxtaposes these old vs. new library polarities: Library Centric vs. Learning Centric Language Literacy vs. Multiple Literacies Answers vs. Questions Library as Grocery Store vs. Library as Kitchen Little time for Science vs. Emphasis on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) Here is how South Carolina public librarian, Melanie Florencio, explains it in a TEDX Creative Coast 7...

Do your teens play Minecraft on your public computers every afternoon? Ours do. We've been trying to figure out a way to host a Minecraft game for some time at the library and played around with setting up a LAN at a couple of Game Nights, but thought it would be more fun and good outreach to host a world on a more on-going basis. After all, do people have to be in the library to participate in a library program? Last week we heard Bill Derry from Westport, CT Public Library say, "You don't have to do it all yourselves, tap into a cadre of enthusiasts." Enter my former Bookmarks, Colby and Callum, both in college now and experienced gamers. With their help, we chose a Minecraft hosting company, set up an account, trouble-shot our initial obstacles,signed up a Beta testing group of eager 8th graders and we're off to the races. Truth: I would never have been able to do this so quickly without my wing men.  Lord only knows how our Minecraft world will evolve. The...

We had the privilege of attending a Makerspace in Public Libraries session recently sponsored by the ITS sub-committee of NELA in the beautiful Portsmouth, New Hampshire Public Library. The highlight of it was hearing Bill Derry, the Assistant Director of Innovation and User Experience, talk about how Westport, CT Public Library "does" Makerspace. Here is Bill's  resource page . Download his PPT from this page for use in your library. It's really comprehensive. Major take-aways were: The library is THE place in the community to get people started making.  You don't have to do everything: be the conduit into the Maker World by connecting folks with other Makers and grassroots Makerspaces in your area. Make your programs as intergenerational as possible. Don't assume that just because the schools are getting new equipment (e.g. 3D printers) that the public will have any access to them. Schools have to be very cautious and buttoned down. Libraries are ...

Every year as children's librarians we ask ourselves, "What am I going to do when I visit the schools to promote summer reading?" We love schools visits. They have a direct impact on our summer reading statistics. Where else can you talk to a captive audience of 100 + kids who begin coming in THAT DAY to sign up? I cannot tell you how many years I have seen the summer reading report at the end of the year change based on which elementary school I had/had not visited in previous jobs. But once you get your foot in the door, how do you excite an auditorium full of kids who are eagerly counting down the days till the school is over? Some librarians act out plays, sing songs, dress in costumes, bring props or just rely on some personality and a loud voice.  This year, with science as the theme, it was an easy sell for me to incorporate littleBits into our poster props. Although ideally I had wanted to master Arduino by now, we have been too busy planning for summer events to...