Developing Local Skills

Today we started with a Makerspace initiative teaching basic soldering to our Middle school rapscallions, the PHILS, with the super "newbie-friendly" Maker badge. Suzanne and I felt pretty confident based on our previous tinkering...

We were able to refresh our own soldering know-how while giving our antsy Middle Schoolers the training they needed while they had their after-school snacks.
Thank goodness for youtube video tutorials.
Here's the one we watched:
http://makezine.com/2007/01/05/soldering-tutorial-make-v/

Lo and behold, the guys dove right in without hesitation and, after a few false starts (be sure to buy a couple extra kits), they all got their badges to light up!

Then, in the evening, we shifted gears and hosted Kerrie Capraro and her awesome family of Suburban Homesteaders as they presented, Raising Chickens in the Suburbs! Wow. They really made their case for this exciting family project - so many wonderful experiences that enrich family life.

There was much experience and expertise shared generously. What I found fascinating was that many of the folks who turned up were either already embarked on this big life-shifting experiment, raising chickens as a family enterprise in a suburban location, OR are getting ready to take the plunge. We made sure everyone had the opportunity to join an email list and make suggestions as to what other programs might be interesting for the library to host.

For example:

Sharing Home Remedies
Foraging

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3D Printing Signs for the Library Collection

Last weekend, I went to the annual Tee-Off mini golf event at the Brookline Public Library. As a first time visitor, I was mini-golfing with my phone at the ready. Special thanks to the AMAZING librarian rockstar Robin Brenner for so many great ideas. It truly is worth a visit just to see her teen room. Here are a few 3D printing/marketing ideas to takeaway: Having a 3D printer filtration cart would be wonderful in our library. Look at the price if you dare. Right now I have to go downstairs to retrieve prints because we are concerned about the fumes and little hands touching anything while the printer is on. I have a video camera set up downstairs using an iPad 2 and the free app called Presence for monitoring but sometimes I do forget to keep checking the presence website while I'm on the desk especially since it makes this annoying beeping sound to say, "Are you still watching?!"..As the sign reveals on the cart, the propensity to want to lean or...

When Makerspace Projects Come to Fruition

I love stories of patrons or staff who use our equipment to make something truly creative and original. We had two of those instances this week: Our first comes from our talented staff member, Karen, who runs a monthly knitting night at the library. She draws a big crowd as individuals work on solo projects, share their skills and troubleshoot with each other. These knitting nights have brought out some spinners and loom enthusiasts that have shared their talent as well. Using these new skills, Karen made her own sweater. It doesn't stop there though. Over the past year we have increased our collection of unusual items for circulation to include a polymer clay kit which Karen used to make her own designer button for her creation. I told her she could have her own couture business! Read more about this and other projects on her knitting blog. The second project came from a pair of siblings who won 1st place in the Pembroke Science Fair with the 3D printing help...

Cozmo has a new brother, VECTOR!

If Amazon Alexa and Cozmo got together and had a kid it would be Vector , the latest from the Anki company. You can ask Vector "Alexa" questions like "what's the weather?" plus he he has all the charm of Cozmo. He can recognize your face, he has better motion sensors (so he doesn't fall off the table like Cozmo tends to do), and he knows when to go back to his space to recharge. He's more like your personal assistant than a robot child who always wants to play games with you and WIN. He has a timer, built in camera (you can ask him to take a picture), and can play Blackjack with you. He also syncs with Alexa so you can add items to a shopping list, set reminders, control household devices, and more. He will even come when called! I love their website. They joke around about the "robot evil overloads" because once you see it, you know we're all thinking it. Good thing he's still tiny.

LIBRARY AS MAKERSPACE

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