WTF?-RA RART Readers' Retreat, April 20, 2013, Roseville Library

I helped organize this wonderful Readers' Retreat as part of my work on MLA's RART Steering Committee.  We started the day with an icebreaker:  What is your favorite RA blog and why do you love it?  Mine was Detectives Beyond Borders "because murder is more fun away from home."  The others are listed in LeAnn and Anna's google site below.

Next up were LeAnn Suchy and Anna Haase Krueger, who talked about Social Media and Readers' Advisory.  They put together a google site, Readers' Advisory & Social Media, that lists all the sources they collected and consulted for their presentation.  It was heartening to see the way libraries are using social media to further the love of reading!  Some of the tools libraries are using are Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.  (LeAnn and Anna urged libraries that use Pinterest to link to their library catalogs rather than to amazon or another book selling site.)

Before lunch, Carol Jackson of Ramsey County Public Library and I talked briefly about our experiences with Facebook Readers' Advisory.  Carol pointed out that the last time her team had a FB RA session, there was a reply function on each comment, which they used to--yes, that's right--reply.  This made their session much easier to manage.

After lunch, Jody Wurl talked about her experience as one of the 11 or 12 librarians who chose ALA's The Reading List, which highlights outstanding genre fiction based on these criteria:  •It is a pleasure to read.  •It embodies the standards of the genre, or conversely, it offers a new or unexpected take on those standards. •It is well conceived in terms of story line, character, setting, language, dialogue, tone, pace, detail, description, learning/experiencing, and narrative structure.  She showed us photos of the stacks of books in her house during the process, and the sight of those stacks made being a Minnesota Book Awards judge seem like a walk in the park!

Our final presenters were Peter Geye and Hans Weyandt, who talked about what makes an American classic.  Peter mentioned The Western Canon by Harold Bloom as the place to find the "classics."  Hans pointed out that if you look at the novels that have won the Pulitzer for the last 50 years, some have lost their luster. Peter and Hans each brought five books they consider "the people's classics" to the retreat, and here's that list:  Benediction by Kent Haruf, Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward, Empire Falls by Richard Russo, True Grit by Charles Portis, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, The Surrendered by Chang-rae Lee, The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin, Dear Life: Stories by Alice Munro (this may not have been the collection Hans had in his hand, but it's her newest), The Turtle Catcher by Nicole Helget.All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren.  I have only read In Cold Blood and lots of Alice Munro stories, so I've got my work cut out for me.

--Barb @Highland Park

TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES

Webjunction has posted a list of free, online training opportunities for the month of April. These online events and classes include such topics as No Name Calling: Addressing Bullying through Books,   Changing Libraries - New Ways of Working, and People are talking about you…but do you know what they’re saying? For more information or to register for these training opportunities, visit Webjunction.org.

Additional webinars and training opportunities for the month of April can also be found at Library Webinars. This site was created by NEFLIN (the Northeast Florida Library Information Network) to provide Florida library staff with one location for information about webinars. Many of these webinars are free of charge and on topics of interest to library staff. While some of the webinars listed on Library Webinars are duplicates of webinars listed on the Webjunction site, others are offered by technology-oriented organizations such as NISO, Infopeople, O'Reilly and Lyrasis. An RSS feed is available.

Remember, if you participate in any of these webinars or training opportunities, please write a post for In the Loop and share what you learned with your coworkers!

 --Karen H. @RC

Make 2 Learn Symposium

Make 2 Learn Symposium

Chicago, March 2013

Badging Maker Learning

Kevin Miklasz, Iridescent

Leah Gilliam, Mozilla and Hive NYC Learning Network

Juan Rubio, GlobalKids

Each organization first presented on their organization’s badging projects:

Global Kids @ http://olpglobalkids.org/race-white-house & http://tinyurl.com/racewhitehouse

• Used badges for a Race to the White House program
• Geocaching – virtual scavenger hunt throughout Parks in NYC; focused on upcoming presidential election
• Lesson plans geared towards badges; useful to learners and educators
• Topics included Net Neutrality/Medical Marijuana/Gun Control
•  Included an online forum
• Badges focused on: Hard Skills (geotagging, public speaking); Soft Skills (collaboration, critical thinking); Participation; Knowledge (issue expert)

Iridescent @ http://iridescentlearning.org/

Open-ended design challenges

The Curiosity Machine – bare online instructions & questions; participants could answer with pictures/video/text – entries were worth points, awarded by mentors who evaluated
each submission; mentor responses were limited to either “Try again – here are some suggestions” or “Great idea.”  As participants gained points, they achieved higher rank/status/access – ‘leveled up’. Building (beginner) --> Engineering (advanced, more badges unlocked) -->Inventing

Mozilla/HIVE NYC

• Citywide learning labs involving 30 organizations – focus on connected learning, informal space
• Framework for the entire network
• Trying to expose experience as part of network; identifying this for participants

• HIVE Badges
• User stories/Personas of HIVE participants; interests, tools they use, HIVE events attended
• Goals – incentivizing moving around the network; outreach (e.g. Maker Faire)
• Ruth Schmidt from Chicago HIVE was a big influence
• Credly – same people as Badgestack; quick way to create badges for quick events; accessible to everyone else in the HIVE network; also awarded badges to event workers/educators

General Discussion

ArtLab (in DC) tried using ‘badges’ with youth, but the term ‘certification’ was more  

popular   

• Allows youth to use certain equipment alone
• Shows who they can collaborate with
• Sometimes award ‘stealth badges’; “Hey, you by doing this, you just earned this (informally)”

Questions to consider about badges:

• Where do we/facilitators want it to fit into our culture?
• Where do youth want it to fit into our culture?

Badges allow the creation of a Living Learning Portfolio

• Mozilla’s Badge Backpack
• Collect/Decide/Curate – deciding what’s important in different contexts

Awarding badges to mentors

• Shows contributions, hours (Iridescent)

Badges should always lead to more learning, rather than do this get that; leveling helps lead learner along a path

Don’t overbadge to the point where there is little value; make a challenging task rather than making a badge ‘scarce’

Resources

https://etherpad.mozilla.org/make2learnbadges - created by Leah Gilliam at the event

https://p2pu.org/en - “At P2PU, people work together to learn a particular topic by completing tasks, assessing individual and group work, and providing constructive feedback.”

http://dmlcompetition.net/ - DML Badges for Lifelong Learning Competition

http://www.openbadges.org – by Mozilla, earn/issue/display your badges

   

Family Learning in Museum MakerSpaces

Lisa Brahms, Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh

Adam Nye, Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh

David Kanter, New York Hall of Science

Janella Watson, New York Hall of Science

Making has traditionally been adult-oriented

MAKESHOP (Pittsburgh) – 1800 sq ft; partnership between a game design Master’s program and the Children’s Museum 

• Sink and doors are the only permanent fixtures – the space is very flexible, tough, durable
• Children need to explore, play with various tools, gain experience
•  Facilitation – 5 full-time teaching artists; work one to one with children, answer questions by engaging children in a decision-making process towards making  goal
•  Adults and children as co-facilitators – shared learning experience
• Scaffolding – multiple entry points for a project, engaging for different age groups
•  Sewing: first station with the tools (needles, thread), second with peg board to practice the  motions,    another with a sewing machine

        Visit their blog @ http://makeshoppgh.com/ - many pictures and videos

Playtesting – companies can try out products in the MAKESHOP

Little Makers program – 18 months to 13 year old siblings; thematic (e.g., Weaving Works, Ice Cream Making)

• Scaffold material literacy – space for the youngest participants to touch, play with materials
•  Example of Ice Cream Making – smelling station, ice bucket with dye and salt, create a recipe station with favorite ingredients, 12 minutes of shaking ingredients in bag  (passing between family members, shared experience), tasting/sharing product
•  Introduction to tools and tool-making
•  Inspire collaboration/equal participants across ages
•  Empowering parents – exploring science, elaborating what they do already with their kids, bringing skills back home

Core objectives

•  Collaboration and experimentation, tool skills, iteration
•   Problem solving, materials exposure & literacy
•   Encouraging wonder and addressing something functional
•   Science process skills, divergent solutions, products (creativity)

Narratives

Max, a 4 year old, was first intimidated by the space/staff; his first visit staff welcomed him in and suggested a project; he eventually brought an idea for a project (I want to build a lawnmower) and a couple visits later a sketch for a project; the staff kept adding complexity to the projects – when he wanted to build a ‘weed whacker’, staff helped him design one that actually spun with battery power; Max took his skills home and worked with Grandpa.

Making as mindset, process and product; playing, failing and trying again
For mentors – the museum looked for makers not educators; developed teaching skills
Authenticity – they use real tools and materials
Different entries/parallel activities in same room with same tools
Process (hammer a nail into wood) vs. end goal (finished wood piece) – younger children can focus on process

    

Handouts are available here.

--Leslie @Sun Ray/Admin

Designing Interactive Library Spaces

Brian Pichman is one of the creators of the Evolve Project, which aims to get libraries ready for the 21st century and beyond.

Competitors to libraries:

• Amazon --their website says no waiting for ebooks
• Google
• About.com
• Wikipedia
• Internet access at home

How do you get people to come in if they can get everything at home? Offer an experience. Create new ways to learn and explore. Be engaging! Learn from museums and schools and steal their best ideas.

Pichman discussed a project to redesign the children’s room in the Mokena Public Library in Illinois to make it more fun and interactive for kids. The budget was $165,000  for everything -they did all the manual labor themselves.

They decorated the library in bright colors and moved shelves around to make it seem bigger. Outfacing shelves make browsing more appealing--we all judge books by their covers! A white wall with special dry-erase paint  lets kids write a review of their favorite books or create collaborative artworks. Kiosks with Xbox & Wii have no enforced time limits, but staff encourages kids to try something new if they have been playing for a long time. A Microsoft Kinect and a television allow Gesture Based Computing -- kids can play videos, paint, dance,  all without touching. When not in use, it can promote library events.

The goal is to encourage innovation--original, disruptive acts. Kids who have never met before interact and discover things on their own. Collaboration makes libraries more like Fab labs or makerspaces.


Interactive Programs:

• Laser Tag in the library! It takes place after hours. Ammo packs are hidden in the library and kids have to follow clues to their location -- they learn the layout of the library while having fun.
• The Menager-E: e-readers and tablets are made available to patrons. It promotes Overdrive e-books while letting patrons try out devices without any sales pressure. They didn't lock the devices down because they didn't want to discourage people.
• Showing one movie in a loop all day. If you have an activity room that is only used part of the day -- why not have it open all day long? include related books with a  "map" to find them. Have a craft activity and let patrons “check out” what the kids made.

Recommended Technology:

Spero - a sturdy, waterproof ball that can be moved with a smart device for games and even giving a tour of the library.

Sifteo Cubes - “smart tiles” that can be used for games or creating a maze.

Lego We-Do - robotic Legos that teach programming.

Smart Tables - interactive smart touch screens --up to eight people can play games at a time.

Sound Egg -a music station that keeps sound from bleeding out without closing users off.



Ideas for the future:

• Replace traditional end panel signs on shelves (e.g. A-F)  with a tablet. Record patron reviews and letting patrons scan the end panels to hear the review.
• The Game of Books: participants get different "points" for reading types of books.
• Checking out pots and pans for cooking
• Growing a garden together.

The webinar is archived here: http://vimeo.com/georgialibraryassociatio/review/59919733/dfe356e9b5


--Andrea @Central

Webinar: Makerspace @Carnegie Public Library, Pittsburgh

Carnegie Public Library in Pittsburgh received a Digital Learning Initiative grant which caused usage to soar, but when they learned about YouMedia in Chicago they were inspired to do more. They interviewed recent library school graduates and asked for proposals. The proposal they chose was digital storytelling. Teens used Tumblr, Youtube and photos to tell stories about their neighborhoods. They then received an IMLS grant and are currently entirely grant-fun
ded. The launch party was at local Google office, which generated publicity and got people excited.

Tips for creating a Makerspace:

• Don't let the intimidation factor keep you from doing things -- Youmedia approach is scalable. Stealing ideas is OK, but adapt them to your community.
• Justify work with research, especially when seeking funds. Studies show correlation with teens having an adult mentor who is not a parent and their success in adult life.  
• Ask teens what they want.
• Programs don’t have to be expensive -- get free ideas from the Instructables website
• Staffing needs to be included in a proposal.
• Need to consider location of lab--can residents get there without a car? Is there enough space?
• Partnerships help sustainability, but there are good and bad partners. Discuss any payment issues early on. Mentors with digital media experience are needed.

Carnegie Public Library has four makerspaces in four branches. Each space has the same tech: two iMacs, two Macbook Airs, iPads, a drawing table, a controller, tripods, iPad cases that attach to tripods (for stop motion animation), Arduinos, and Adobe Creative Suite software. They searched digital learning blogs and asked their Teen Advisory Council to recommend equipment. Staff took classes in Arduinos and soldering at Hack Pittsburgh.


Tips for doing teen programs:

• Having equipment out is good -- gets kids curious.
• The more rules, the less accessible the space. (Here are their rules: http://www.clpgh.org/teens/events/programs/thelabs/#rules)
• A different subject each month works well.
• Use badges to make learning fun (http://www.ala.org/yalsa/badges-learnin).Teens get a badge if they attend all the programs in a month.
• Going out to schools works for outreach as well as a chance to test programs.
• Two people at every program is good to encourage shy teens and answer questions
• Don’t forget related displays of library material!

Carnegie Public Library’s next goal is to create programming “starter kits” that can be ordered and sent to any branch. They consider the labs a way to teach teens about professional opportunities in addition to being a place of creation.

Recommended software and web sites:

Appitic --recommended  iOS apps for learning: http://www.appitic.com/

Comic Life-- an app for creating comics with photos: http://www.comiclife.com/

Smoovie -an app for stop motion animation: http://www.openplanetsoftware.com/smoovie/

Skokie Public Library’s list of digital lab equipment and software:: http://www.skokielibrary.info/s_about/how/Tech_Resources/DML.asp

The Library as Incubator project :http://www.libraryasincubatorproject.org/

Oswego State University’s list of free apps for media creation: http://libraryguides.oswego.edu/toolbox

Popbooth-- create a photo booth with an iPad: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/popbooth-photo-booth/id432092216?mt=8



A recording of the webinar is available here.



--Andrea @Central