LIBRARY AS MAKERSPACE

We are doing a series of Crafternoon programs this summer. In order to get some buzz going, we left this out on the children's desk and it has been a huge conversation starter. Randomly, one kid asked, "Do you think you can make a fidget spinner with Perler beads?" Answer, "YES"

Yesterday I attended the Massachusetts Library Association's Annual Conference in Hyannis, MA. It had an amazing selection of presenters. They talked about the many facets of librarianship from programming to reader's advisory with some STEM highlights: Mattapoisett, Rochester, and Marion public libraries came together for a MOBY (My Own Backyard) LSTA grant. Librarians from all three librarians as well as a science curriculum educator collaborated to provide backpacks with science related activities for patrons to check out as well as programming to highlight each bag. This goes back to that theory that if no one knows about it, the greatest stuff could just sit on the shelves.  A great tip I learned from another presentation is even if many people don't show up to a program, just highlighting the database or product that you want to promote as an event, say one on one with lynda.com tutorials, could increase use. Some people might not be able to make the event, life ...

We finally had our Grand Reveal for our Arduino Garden Wall last Thursday and it was fun seeing the reaction from youth and adults alike. Some found the Garden Wall perplexing, "What is this doing here?" Some found it delightful, "You had youth, an artist, and an engineer working together on this?" Bringing over our Ultimaker2 and having it running a loop of bracelet-making was also a big hit. Because the artwork is on a rolling partition, bringing it up to the Reference floor was not a huge problem. We had made sure there were no delicate wires dragging and no reason why we couldn't fold it up fairly close to get it into the elevator. Because it is so colorful and the visuals Sally Dean created are so delightful, it can hold up to being turned off most of the time and still be a visually pleasant addition to the surroundings. We will keep it in its current location for a few weeks and then move it back against a wall near to the Digital Media Lab where ...

Another round of weekly summer Mad Science Mondays comes to a close. These were drop in science & art based programs for grades K and up with an adult taking place in the children's room for a 2 hour drop in. We did this for the first time last summer . It was so successful we decided to do it again. Our schedule was as follows: (keeping in mind Superheroes as our summer reading theme) Superhero Gadgets-Use littleBits to make your own gadgets for your hero tool belt Superhero Lairs- Make your own secret hideout Superhero Traps-Make Rube Goldberg inspired designs to capture your enemies Superhero Minions- Build and program your own Lego robot to do your bidding We were fortunate enough to get a donation of refrigerator boxes from a local appliance store to help us with lairs (think about where you can store these before the program. In our case we had a delivery of boxes two months before and things got tight!).  If lairs would be too big to store, I suggest making superh...

After a fun month of building, painting, attaching, coding, 3D printing, our Arduino Interactive Wall has all the components in place! Still some painting and touch up to do. I plan to document all the circuitry and code so we can make sure it is safe to move to a new location. It was a BIG commitment of resources, time and treasure, but I felt it was worth it. One of the things I love about it is how we were able to collaborate with artist, Sally Dean, AND engineer, Kevin Osborn. They led us all in the concept and creation of it - adults and teens alike. It felt like we were taken on a creative journey together, following the lead of two seasoned experts. Is this tinkering? Not on the grander scale, but it was certainly problem-solving and skill-building. Some of the teens learned C++ coding, we all perfected our skills with Tinkercad 3D design work, and the movable parts were somewhat dictated by the teens' interests. All in all, about 12 library patrons participated in t...

We are starting to paint our garden, designed and facilitated by Duxbury artist, Sally Dean, on the plastic blue partition wall. The garden elements are being 3D printed by the kids and teens and today we will begin learning from Kevin Osborn, how to write Arduino code to make the servos that power the interactivity work! This is a big, on-going project, which is just the kind of thing we feel sparks creativity and BIG thinking in a Makerspace. Tools and equipment: Portable Partition from Minnesota company Acrylic paints , brushes, drop clothes, etc. Gridding out the garden design with a wax pencil Arduino kits from Sparkfun Lots of extra sensors and stuff from Adafruit Riley thought to glue gun details on that she had 3Doodled.

Things can't get much better than having another organization (Cape Cod Makers) promote your library, highlighting in their own words your values, your activities and your outreach. A goal I am setting for FY 2016: Be a more visible presence in the life of our community. Don't just wait for people to come into the library, bring the library to the people! If you are in the Southeastern Massachusetts area on Saturday, May 30, swing by the gymnasium of the Cape Cod Community College (Exit 6 off the Mid Cape Highway, Route 6, turn north towards Barnstable, the entrance is immediately on your right.). We'll be there from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. along with many, many other cool organizations and individual inventors and creators! There's a kayak made exclusively of duct tape! http://capecodmakerfaire.com/ Meet the Makers: Duxbury Free Library "One of the great things about a Maker Faire is the opportunity for people of all ages to learn new things. The  Duxbury ...

Special call out to a super tech librarian over at the Ames Free Library in Easton. Jed Phillips was published for his work on using Raspberry Pi's as OPACs (our library catalog computers). Libraries usually take some of their older computers and recycle them into "library searching" only computers. Libraries have a tough time allocating computers to this quick and necessary need to help patrons locate books or other resources without having to wait in line for a reference computer. These computers require updates and sometimes too much lock down. If a library is buying new computers for them to be OPACs only, the raspberry pi, a much cheaper alternative, is under a $100. Read more on Public Libraries Online .  He even included instructions on how to set up your own. Talk about a time saver! I will be working with Raspberry Pi's as a take home circulate-able makerspace kit for our library. Coming Soon!

  We're trying to get kids excited about learning about science and if Goldieblox has a major point it's that sometimes it's all about the marketing and packaging of the idea. Since I was going to do snow and ice during my next preschool STEM session, why not call it "Frozen" Preschool STEM and use those beloved character faces (maybe Photoshop some lab coats on them). Will more girls come? The possibilities are endless for this so here's my 2 session plan: Session 1: Making Snow What happened to the weather in Frozen after Anna leaves?  Talk about meteorologists and tools What makes a Blizzard? Making our own blizzards in a jar Materials: Glitter Paint Baby Oil Alkaseltzer Jars Water Tools: Thermometer Weathervane   Session 2: Melting Snow What did they do when Anna was Frozen? (You could also base it around what would happen to Olaf during the "in summer" song?) Talk about archeologists and tools Stages of Water Ice...

It was hard at first to wrap my brain around doing a science based session of story times as a stay alone program for 10 4-5 yr olds for 30 minutes. In my 9 years of experience, I've never hosted a stay alone story time (crazy right?). How do I even begin? How messy should I get? What happens since I'm by myself trying to conduct experiments without parental help? What about food allergies? What kinds of questions do I ask? I decided that the whole session would be us pretending to be scientists, using their tools, and experimenting/observing a new theme each week. One of my main concerns was organizing the flow. I like stations but it's hard to do that without more supervision so we tried to do as much as possible as a group first and then had a few choices to play with afterwards. This was a great jumping off point for me from the Boston Children's Museum STEM Family Activity Guide & the Boston Children's Museum Sprouts. Then I went to Pinterest for t...