Attack of the Killer Computer!: Is Your Library Ready
to Code?
--Brianna
Bleeker and Stacy Lienemann
Waseca Public Library
received a $25,000 grant from the American Library Association to
design and implement coding programs for young people.
They used Scratch for coding. The programs started with
a project and then had an open lab each month for youth to try their own
things.
Tips for coding programs:
●
Use HOMAGO principles.
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Create a welcoming environment for diverse
groups.
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Emphasize youth voice.
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Model career paths.
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Find community partners.
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Students can help teach each other-seat master
learners next to newbies- connect people with different skills.
●
Engage with families- they can learn together,
even with teens.
●
Have an end goal in mind to measure impact.
●
Don’t solve things for them, help them solve it
themselves by giving tips.
So, far the programs they have had involved game design and
robots. No adult coding yet.
Programming Outside the Lines
--Amy Muchmore
and Sarah Smith
Carnegie-Stout Public Library
was seeing a huge decline in attendance of conventional programs- book clubs,
local history, speakers. They wanted to get more 18-34 year-olds and men to
attend, but only had $4500/year for adult programming.
Tips for taking your adult programming from stale to sizzle:
●
Borrow ideas from youth services.
●
Plan earlier than you think you need to -
unexpected things will come up.
●
Even successful programs need to be refreshed
from time to time - modify or put on hiatus.
●
Ask other libraries for ideas.
●
Don’t be afraid of failure.
●
Talk about programs to as many people as you
can-word of mouth is 2nd most common way attendees hear about them after social
media.
Nerf tag is the library’s most successful program.
Patrons shoot each other with Nerf “darts” from “blasters” - they don’t use
words “guns” or “bullets” in marketing. One couple had a nerf-themed wedding at
the library to celebrate where they met. It is also a fun way to be active.
How they do Nerf tag:
●
20-30 players
●
Monthly
●
Participants sign a waiver
●
Few universal rules- no headshots, no hitting,
no running on stairs- modify rules on the fly if they don’t work. For the game
itself, let patrons make their own rules.
●
Supplies are $50-100/year- mostly water, candy,
darts and balls- patrons usually bring their own blasters, but they have a few
for those without.
●
Staff talked to the laser tag/paintball
communities for ideas.
There main issues were keeping up with dart and ball
replacement, finding them all after events, and finding a symmetrical space for
capture the flag.
Other programs:
●
Fandom trivia- Just need to pay for snacks and
prizes- coming up with the questions is the hard part.
●
Bad art night-- clean out your junk craft stuff
and give a prize for the worst art
●
Adult spelling bee-- at brew pub- challenge to
find words in increasing difficulty- 80 people in the audience.
●
Adult Quidditch - didn’t get enough people to
play.
●
Retro Gaming. -old arcade video games.
●
Anime after hours- patrons can bring their own
alcohol.
Budget:
●
$350 prizes, honorarium
●
$75 catering- hot chocolate for everyone
●
$200 promotion
They use stickers to count attendance.
Activities:
●
Game panel featuring game store owners and game
theory professors
●
Perler beads and superhero cape making in the
makerspace.
●
An Artist Alley.
●
Webcomic artist Blue Deliquanti (Twin Cities-based) as special
guest-only asked for hotel room- library got free room from hotel.
Ideas for future programs:
●
More take and make- Ghostbuster slime?
--Dorothea Salo
Salo with audio interface.
Dorothea Salo was teaching a class on curating digital
media when she realized that her library lacked the tools to preserve many
kinds of media, both analog and digital. If we don’t act now we will lose a lot
of local history. For example, one library had a whole box of oral histories on
8-track tape.
This led to her founding of RADD, Recover Analog and Digital Data.
The RADD web site offers help for librarians who want to
digitize their materials or help patrons with digitization:
●
“Build Your Own Rescue Kit” handout - equipment recommendations could
also be used for a digitizing station in a makerspace. Each kit costs $3000,
but the cases are most of the price.
●
Training at your site by Salo.
RADD tips:
●
A food dehydrator can fix old tapes.
●
Check your local record stores and AV transfer
services--may be able to find equipment or fix broken equipment for you.
●
Don’t be afraid of used equipment.
●
ILL boxes can be repurposed for kits.
●
Camcorders are tricky- You can find cheap adapters for mini-VHS, but mini-DVD connect
via Firewire/IEEE 1394, which isn’t used on new computers.
●
You may want to find an old computer that still
works and use it for things like Firewire and floppy drives.
●
If you don’t have a computer with one, external
drives for 5.25 floppies would have to be built, but materials aren’t costly.
●
There are two kinds of answering machine tapes.
Places to find old technology:
●
Goodwill
●
Stuff universities and colleges are getting rid
of.
●
Everything But the House-
service that gets rid of things for bereaved families
Project Management as Bridge: Building Connections
between Library Strategic Goals and Direction and Project Work --Kirsten
Clark and Kate McCready
Projects are work that is bound in time and scope.With 300
employees across the system, project management at University of Minnesota
libraries can be a challenge. They even have a manual.
Projects must:
●
Fit library mission and goals.
●
Have roles clearly assigned.
●
Break work into smaller chunks.
Some teams will need their own charter, which can be done in
an afternoon.
Meeting tips:
●
Action items are more important than notes.
●
Listen as an advocate, not a critic.
●
Nobody speaks more than once before hearing from
everybody.
●
Everyone adds to the agenda - chair makes sure
it is up-to-date.
●
Alternate meeting locations.
U of M libraries use Smartsheet
and Asana
as project management software. These help staff see where they are in the
project process.
Smartsheet offers Gantt charts,
spreadsheets that illustrate project schedules and show what percentage of each
part is completed. There are also free Gantt chart Excel templates available on the Internet.
--Andrea @GLCL
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