Library Makers Tool Talk: Cricut and Other Extreme Sports
Cricut is a substantial name in the game of creative technologies.
The Cricut design space hosts a medley of secrets library professionals can learn to efficiently manifest designs and customer projects--using only tools found within the software itself. This Tool Talk will be presented by Cela Janiec, Studio Host from Anythink Libraries in Colorado.
Tool Talks are online events that focus on a particular tool, application or piece of maker equipment to share tips, techniques, and advice for how to use and maintain them in your library. Participants are encouraged to bring questions and their own great ideas to these interactive sessions.
NOTE: once you click the Zoom Link you need to register to attend.
Library Makers Happy Hour
Join with fellow library people for an informal, friendly, no-agenda get together on Zoom. Make a connection and talk with others who do work like with making in libraries (or want to)! Bring a question, share your best ideas or get some new ones! We do this every month on the second Wednesday of the month.
Hope you can come to our small and friendly gathering! We hold it once a month. You can register once for the series. 5PM PT/6PM MT/7PM CT/8PM ET.
STEAM Seekers: Prototyping
Do you want to offer Maker & STEAM programming at your library/school but you don't know where to start? Join Library Makers Anne and Seji from Providence Public Library to learn about Prototyping. They will cover the principles behind rapid prototyping and how to create your own prototyping cart, including supplies, activities and design prompts to go along with it. Prototyping is an open-ended, simple, no-tech design method that can be used in a variety of ways with patrons of all ages
Event will take place on Zoom
Library Makers Happy Hour - Every Month!
Join with fellow library people for an informal, friendly, no-agenda get together on Zoom. Make a connection and talk with others who do work like with making in libraries (or want to)! Bring a question, share your best ideas or get some new ones! We do this every month on the second Wednesday of the month.
Hope you can come to our small and friendly gathering! We hold it once a month. You can register once for the series. 5PM PT/6PM MT/7PM CT/8PM ET.
Library Makers Online Book Club: Redefining Geek with author Cassidy Puckett
Join us on Zoom for our online book club featuring Redefining Geek.
Redefining Geek challenges our preconceived notions of what it means to be 'good at technology'. Based on extensive research, Puckett defines five habits that anyone can practice to hone their own technology abilities.
Get the book and join the discussion to discover how you and the people you serve can adopt these habits and break these geek stereotypes to open up opportunities in technology to more diverse people.
Book Club Hosted on Zoom
Wednesday, March 29, 1 PM PT, 2 PM MT, 3 PM CT, 4 PM ET
Pre-registration required
Online Event: Map your Maker Ecosystem!
Offered in partnership with our PLIX - the Public Library Innovation Exchange at MIT.
While your community may not be economically rich, it’s undoubtedly filled with a wealth of people with unique know-how and wisdom, either from cultural traditions, specific skills and trades, family or work experience, or social connections.
This workshop introduces participants to strategies for leveraging these local assets to inform, support and grow maker programs in the library. Join the authors of the Makers in the Library Toolkit and library staff members of the Library Makers community as they share tools, strategies and practical examples that are working in their local libraries.
STEAM Seekers: Beginning Engineering with Catapults
Join Library Makers Seiji Abe and Anne Kilkenny from Providence (RI) Public Library as we engineer a simple catapult from low-cost/no-cost materials. Then challenge yourself to see how far you can toss a ping-pong ball or pom pom! This entry-level project is great for mixed-age programming, participants new to making or as an introduction to a progressive engineering workshop. Wherever you are in your making journey, this project is adaptable and fun!
Registration is required and project notes will be provided.
Workshop Level 1: Getting Started with STEAM
LIbrary Makers Happy Hour
Our monthly informal gathering so you can meet and share with others who work in library makerspaces….no set agenda, just real people making connection! It’s fun, join us!
STEAM Seekers - Paper Circuits
With our new series called STEAM Seekers, we explore some great ways to get started with introducing STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics) programming into your library. These free, online one hour sessions are led by people who work in libraries, and designed for those who want to gain more confidence in offering science content, or simply want some handy tips for how to set up and facilitate a maker program.
This month's topic will be paper circuits. We will talk about basic supplies, ways to adapt to the needs of your group, and more.
NOMCON 2022 Day 5 - The Nation of Makers Annual Conference (Virtual)
Day 5: Protecting the Future: Nurturing and Sustaining our Changemakers
"Five Years of Changemaking: Envisioning the Next Five Years of Maker-Driven Change in the U.S. and Beyond", will build off previous conference themes, taking a forward look at what role our community sees for change-makers and the maker movement in the future. Beyond just visioning, this unique conference will engage our entire community in thoughtful dialogue, and concrete, actionable next steps to push forward the work of the first five years of Nation of Makers, and the more than a decade of work and impact of the American Maker Movement.
Get more information and event tickets at NOMCON.org
NOMCON 2022 Day 4 - The Nation of Makers Annual Conference (Virtual)
Day 4: Making a Change in Health and Science
"Five Years of Changemaking: Envisioning the Next Five Years of Maker-Driven Change in the U.S. and Beyond", will build off previous conference themes, taking a forward look at what role our community sees for change-makers and the maker movement in the future. Beyond just visioning, this unique conference will engage our entire community in thoughtful dialogue, and concrete, actionable next steps to push forward the work of the first five years of Nation of Makers, and the more than a decade of work and impact of the American Maker Movement.
Get more information and event tickets at NOMCON.org
NOMCON 2022 Day 3 - The Nation of Makers Annual Conference (Virtual)
Day 3: Making a Change in Racial and Social Justice
"Five Years of Changemaking: Envisioning the Next Five Years of Maker-Driven Change in the U.S. and Beyond", will build off previous conference themes, taking a forward look at what role our community sees for change-makers and the maker movement in the future. Beyond just visioning, this unique conference will engage our entire community in thoughtful dialogue, and concrete, actionable next steps to push forward the work of the first five years of Nation of Makers, and the more than a decade of work and impact of the American Maker Movement.
Get more information and event tickets at NOMCON.org
NOMCON 2022 Day 2 - The Nation of Makers Annual Conference (Virtual)
Day 2: Making a Change in Economy and Workforce Opportunity
"Five Years of Changemaking: Envisioning the Next Five Years of Maker-Driven Change in the U.S. and Beyond", will build off previous conference themes, taking a forward look at what role our community sees for change-makers and the maker movement in the future. Beyond just visioning, this unique conference will engage our entire community in thoughtful dialogue, and concrete, actionable next steps to push forward the work of the first five years of Nation of Makers, and the more than a decade of work and impact of the American Maker Movement.
Get more information and event tickets at NOMCON.org
NOMCON 2022 Day 1 - The Nation of Makers Annual Conference (Virtual)
Day 1: Making a Change in Education
"Five Years of Changemaking: Envisioning the Next Five Years of Maker-Driven Change in the U.S. and Beyond", will build off previous conference themes, taking a forward look at what role our community sees for change-makers and the maker movement in the future. Beyond just visioning, this unique conference will engage our entire community in thoughtful dialogue, and concrete, actionable next steps to push forward the work of the first five years of Nation of Makers, and the more than a decade of work and impact of the American Maker Movement.
Get more information and event tickets at NOMCON.org
Webinar #5: Amplify & Grow: Marketing, Fundraising and Professional Growth
With your makerspace programming launched and in effect, the focus shifts to sustainability. Each and every one of you has a part to play in the sustainability of your makerspace—which inherently includes asking for donations (whether through fundraising or grant writing), building strong partnerships, and most importantly, marketing your makerspace through telling the stories of the impact your programming has had on the community.
Webinar 4: Reflect & Refine: Using Evaluation to Strengthen Programs
Our process empowers your maker program to be nimble, responsive, and striving for continuous improvement and growth. This involves developing systems and habits for documenting and reflecting on how the program is going, as well as refining the program to make it stronger. Reflection can be a daily practice for individuals, but program staff should also periodically reflect as a team too, perhaps monthly or even weekly until the program has become more established.
Webinar 3: Implementation: The Nitty Gritty of Planning and Preparing Creative Maker Experiences
To help you think through all of the steps needed to make your makerspace happen, we’ve made this week longer-90 minutes-and divided this section into 2 parts: Prepare and Launch. Prepare starts with setting concrete goals and making a plan to achieve them, while keeping in mind your budget, the activities you want to offer, and the environment you want to create. Then, in Launch, we move into how to staff your space, along with the training and operational systems you need to have in place
Webinar 2: Brainstorm & Prototype: Out of the Box Thinking and Testing Ideas
This part of the process should stretch your imaginations and generate a wealth of ideas for different ways to build a program in response to earning from the community. Then give a few of the ideas a practical test to see how it goes in real life.
Webinar 1: Listen and Discover: Connecting with Community
We begin our journey focused on the people in your library and community, spending time understanding their talents, interests, and resources. Relationships take time to develop, so it’s best to start here to lay the foundation. This asset-based approach allows the process to grow naturally, rooted in community needs and library capacity.
Library Makers Virtual Happy Hour
Meetup with library staff who run makerspaces for a fun, fast and lively happy hour. Make new connections!
Library Makers Meetup at PLA Conference Portland
Library Makers Meetup at the PLA Conference Portland