 All right. Good morning and welcome to this week's edition of Encompass Live. I am your host, Krista Porter, here at the Nebraska Library Commission. Well, from the Nebraska Library Commission. Encompass Live is the commission's weekly webinar series where we cover a variety of topics that may be of interest to libraries. We broadcast the show live every Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. central time. But if you're unable to join us on Wednesdays, that's fine. We do record the show as we are doing today. And we post them to our website in our archives for you to watch at your convenience. And I'll show you at the end of today's show. You can access all of our archived recordings. Both the live show and the recordings are free and open to anyone to watch. So please do share with your friends, family, neighbors, colleagues, anyone you think might be interested in any of the topics we have on Encompass Live. For those of you not from Nebraska, the Nebraska Library Commission is the state agency for libraries in Nebraska, similar to your state library. So we provide services to all types of libraries. Excuse me. I'm just going to hand over to Amanda to go ahead and start. So we are going to talk about all things gadget against me in makerspaces. So I do tech consultations and makerspace consultations for a bunch of different libraries across the state and sometimes out of state. And I've started getting some recurring questions about how do you choose to write equipment? What's available out there? What are the different categories that I can choose from? And how can I make sure that I'm not choosing the wrong thing? So we are going to go over how to actually start with a person in mind or a group in mind before starting to research different equipment so that you actually have a plan before just buying a bunch of stuff and then hoping for the best. And I've also put together a guide of recommended equipment and this is just based on the categories that I get questions about most frequently and what I've used personally and what I use in the tech kits that go through the mail across the state. Then I put together some different guides and resources and tips and tricks for being able to match the technology that's out there with the actual groups and needs of your community. Some different tips for training trainers and facilitators and working with different volunteers and partnerships. And then some tips for maintaining the equipment and kind of what to check for before you even purchase the equipment to make sure it's something that you can handle in your library. All right, so let's just dig right in here with and normally if you've attended one of my sessions before you know that I don't really do the text heavy slides, but this time I made an exception. And that's because this slide deck is also going to serve as a guide of sorts you've probably seen this format before that's what I'm doing. So you're kind of your first rule of thumb and this is based on kind of years of experimentation and just what other what's worked for people is to make a list of every single organization business group and just interested party you can think of within your community. And this is going to be a massive list you're not going to work with every single one of these organizations that just a brainstorming tool. So once you have that list together, start picking out just a handful of them and start jotting down the goals of the organization what do these people what are these people doing. If you are working with K through 12 schools that's kind of an easier thing just because your target audience is already narrowed down and focused. But if you're working with small businesses or if you're working with local entrepreneurs or if you're working with university groups or whoever you're working with. What are they trying to get into. And then within the organization start looking at the interests and kind of what people care about within that group. So an example of what this would look like would be, I'm interested in helping out small businesses in my area the small businesses that are interested right now are we have a coffee shop that's up the street, and then we have a that coffee shop is filled with a whole bunch of different students from the local university. There's also a business owner that's interested in improving marketing practices. We walked up to find this out, we went on their website and found out what they were working on then we walked down to the coffee shop and started talking to people. And once we knew that they were interested in marketing, we knew that they'd probably be interested in maybe a photography kit to be able to start improving their stuff, or they might be interested in a laser cutter to start building marketing promos that would have like little etched logos onto a coaster, or they might be able to bring in local artists to be able to spice up their walls and be able to start selling artwork that may bring more people into the store. So once you have that list of organizations start talking to people go on their websites and start researching what they're all about what they care about. And then you can use that as your litmus test as you're looking at the different tech that exists. Try to match the tech with a group. If you see a piece of tech and you can't actually picture someone's face. Maybe you don't buy it. And before you even buy the tech, start thinking about where are these people actually learning how to use this tech and is there another organization within the community where they can access this stuff. Because if there's another organization that has access to virtual reality headsets or has access to a laser cutter, and they already have training materials put together, and people already know about them, then you might be wasting your money buying a laser cutter in your library because there's another access point that may not be more popular. So the more you know about what exists already, the better decisions you can make. And then once you find out what people actually care about, you just want to know what the current approach about technology is. Are they afraid about it? Is this going to impact how you're going to be marketing and approaching people about your maker space? Or do you know that your community is already excited about tech? So given this, I also put together a list of kind of the common target audiences so you can start kind of bracketing people out. You can take a gander at this whenever you'd like to, but probably most of you are actually here for the specific gadgets and gizmos. So let's just jump right into that. So this is the guide that I put together here and I'll show you how to get the best use out of it. And as I go through some of this equipment, I'll also talk about some tips and tricks for maintaining and how to get some good use out of the specific items. So you can see on the left hand side here, I've bracketed it out into different categorical sections. We've got the robot circuit encoding 3D printers, laser cutters, vinyl cutters, virtual reality headsets. And I've also got some photography equipment that I can talk about and there's just a mess of stuff. There's only so much time in a day and only so much I could add to this before I started this session. So when you're actually choosing a lot of this equipment, this is the criteria that I based this upon. I'll make this bigger so that you can see it. So as a litmus test to get the most out of your equipment, you usually want to look for phrasing like high floor, low ceiling. And this means that when you buy a gadget or a piece of equipment, then people can start out as a beginner and then scale out to more advanced level skills. And there are some tech tools out there that are specifically designed to have the fewest buttons possible and to have the least functionality possible. These tools are awesome for people that are only comfortable with beginner level technology. These might be the technophobes within the community that don't want to touch technology if it looks too complicated. You might see these people even with the talking book and Braille readers who don't like the new machines because it has three extra buttons and the old machines. So avoid high floor, low ceiling if you know that you're dealing with a technophobe. But the equipment in this guide is great for beginner to through to intermediate up to advanced. I chose stuff that has professional development resources that are developed and curated by the organization or already has a learning community that put it together. This makes your life and your job easier when you're actually training staff and when you're trying to put together materials in your library to keep library staff up to date. All the resources have free lesson plans and activities so that you don't have to buy a bunch of stuff. Nine times out of 10 most of the tech kits will also have some subscription plans so that you can extend the activities that are available. Most of these subscription plans go to a software portal that will extend out what's possible. And there's also every single one of them is going to have another paid option that'll let you do more stuff. For the coding based gadgets, I recommend looking for things that have both block based and text based coding options because you won't always know what kind of learner you're dealing with. Block based would be more like that scratch programming system that lets you just drag a little block that's clearly labeled that says move forward two feet. And then you drag it into a little sequence and that's how you program your robot or program your technology. But text based is what most people think about when they think about coding, which is that long string of words and what most people are using in industry right now. So if you know that people want to get a soft introduction using block based and then shift over to text based as they get more skilled, then the gadgets that I chose in this guide will let you do that. And there's also support for major operating system and devices because this is a big thing that people run into when they are trying to choose the right stuff they buy it then find out it doesn't work for a Mac. Buy it find out it doesn't work for the tablet or device that they currently have. And now they have a robot that just kind of sits on a shelf. So I'm going to go over some of my top picks on here. So these were all curated just based on that criteria, and I'm going to jump into the Finch 2.0 because it just kind of a favorite of mine right now. The reason it is a favorite is because of the way that it will let you teach virtually. The robots will actually force you to be working in person with the group and have the robot in front of you. But the Finch 2.0 has added a feature where you can network robots together. And you can also display them. You can connect everyone over zoom, and people can control a central robot remotely. You can be sitting at home and while the libraries in the while the robot is in the library, and the robot will move even if someone coded it from their home computer, and they'll be able to see it move virtually through the camera over zoom. And that's just kind of an awesome way, especially since we don't always know what's going on with COVID. And we don't always know whether the library is going to be able to be closed open what kind of mandates are out there. The Finch is kind of an awesome one because it's more flexible that way. And I'm not going to go over all this stuff because I already said that it's going to have professional development resources. This one is particularly awesome just because they are both video and written, and people learn and process things in different ways. And it's also chunked out really well so people can go back and refer back to a specific skill, if they just need a refresher on that one little segment. And the Finch 2.0 is probably about maybe that big. And in each one of these they'll also be an actual picture of the robot so you can start matching it up with what it's going to look like. So this is the Finch. It uses the micro bit chip. This is actually removable from the tail end of this. The micro bit is actually another coding and circuitry tool that I'm going that is featured later on in this list. So you can also extend your activities based on the tutorials that are available through Microsoft for the micro bit. This Finch along with the micro bit of the introduction to computer science micro bit system, you can combine the two together and extend it even more. And I'm just going to jump down to that micro bit so you can see what that kit looks like. So they're up to micro bit version two. So that's, and the introduction to computer science kid is actually a curated collection of tutorials and resources that have been put together by Microsoft and other expert resources. And it covers a wide range of topics areas and is organized by subject matter. And so if you purchase this kit specifically, it's designed to have all the components you need to use the computer science kit that is through micro bit. And I will just open this here. So it micro bit actually uses a open source guide, and there are a series of projects and lessons that are categorized again by problem area and by skill level. It's clearly labeled it's Microsoft so they're awesome. And let me jump back in here, and I'll go up to my second pick for robotics, which is here. So, and I'll briefly mentioned VEX robotics because you might run into it quite a bit especially if you're working with schools. VEX robotics is kind of the Cadillac of robotics that are put together with by a whole bunch of industry experts. It is incredibly well designed they have, but it can get expensive. So, this is already in use by a lot of different high schools and schools just across the nation. So if you purchase one in your library, you might actually be running into competition and start getting into some little politics with your school district, because sometimes with community colleges and with K through 12 schools, there, it gets a tad bit territorial so they don't want other outside organizations to be offering the same tools and resources that they offer, because you'd be offering it for free and they actually have paid resources. Usually. So, that's one thing to keep in mind with VEX robotics, but if you are partnering with a school that already uses VEX robotics, you might be able to either use the ones they have already, or you might be able to work out a system where you can purchase another kit that addresses another gap and say you have younger users that want to be able to use it but the school and the offers it for high school or upper middle school. So, you might start thinking about how that partnership would work. And so with the dash and dot robot, this is actually the dash and dot robot that is probably already most popular within libraries already. This is a standard to line curriculum so it's awesome to work with schools, but it also has homeschooling resources in case you have people that are kind of trying to make it on their own or if they have learning pods set up for homeschoolers because they're not comfortable with students going into school yet due to COVID. So if you have homeschoolers that are looking for a robot this dash and dot one is kind of an awesome one to do. This activity pack actually comes with this really fun xylophone this xylophone gets connected over into the xylophone app. The xylophone app it has really well guided instructions that will help both the facilitator and the student learn how to code their own music and there's also pre paid like pre made sound systems that are put together in there. And there's a ton of different lesson plans and they have an entire curriculum that's put together just for this. So the education version of this it has all that together, and if you get the homeschool version of this it also has another set of parent resources together. So this one is actually geared toward a younger audience. So this one is going to be for ages six and up. So the dash and dot make wonder, they kind of made a system so that dash and dot will let you grow into using Q. So Q looks almost exactly like dash and dot but it has more advanced features, and it also is the robot with personality. So you can program it to have at least four different type like four different personality styles. I personally think that at least two of those personalities are ridiculously annoying, but it seemed to love it. And so both of these have a block based option and a the wonder apps that go with it. One of the wonder apps is that silo app that I was talking about before. And so those are just, it's really well designed. And this is what Q looks like. So Q is the next one up. And the reason it's the next one up is because it also supports JavaScript JavaScript is the text based coding system. So it'll let you go side by side so that you can code in a block based and then click open a tab that will show what that block based system looks like in JavaScript. And looking at that side by side will help people start recognizing those patterns and start making that transition from block based over to JavaScript. And let me jump down to what the picture of Q looks like. And you'll see that he does look pretty much exactly like dash and dot. So there, this one comes in this black version and there's also like a whitish ivory version. So you can kind of pick your color and go from there. And they also have different attachments. So there are bundles available. So this is the sketch kit. And this little fixture gets attached to the top of his head. And then you can put a pen, one of these pens into the holder, and it'll be able to run around and draw stuff. But what's really fun about Q is that there is also a blaster attachment. So the Q blasters actually the one that I just got for the library here. And it basically just uses Nerf gun like dots. This gets attached to the top of the head. And you have Q blast. You can have a little robot battle. Okay. Yeah, kids are going to love that adults are going to love that. What am I saying? Oh, I love that thing. I'm going to have to learn how to dodge a little bit when I come into the office next time. I should just station him like facing the door. What do you need? So let me hop back in here. And so this is an example of the curriculum guide that will come with the education edition. Whether you are a homeschooler, a parent or an educator, this guide is pretty awesome. And these will run you through design thinking. It'll show you how to incorporate creative writing and storyline. And it just kind of awesome. And so let me skip down into the circuits and coding. So another big question that I get is what is the difference really between all these robots and circuits and coding. And the answer to that is both a lot and absolutely nothing. So as you saw up here. This pinch 2.0 robot, it actually uses that micro bit chip. So a lot of the coat the components in circuits and coding are used to create robots. Robots are used to teach coding. But a circuit does not necessarily have to be a robot. So you need circuits to make robots, but not all circuits are a robot. Circuits can also lead to the internet of things. It can lead over to the basis and virtual reality. It can lead over into electronics machinery. So the concepts across both of them. There's not a huge difference. You can get either you can get a kit from either category, it'll teach your coding and stem skills. It'll teach engineering, it'll teach all of your stem and steam concepts. But the only major difference is that not all circuits and code have to turn into a robot. But all robotics kits are going to be a robot. And so if you're looking for something that'll teach mid to advanced level circuitry skills. And if you've tried raspberry pi and Arduino and your eyes crossed because there's just too much. Try because learning. So because learning is another circuitry and sensor kit that's going to help you learn about how. So a basic circuit, the hello world version of it is going to show you how to light up a light bulb. It's going to show you how to make a light bulb blink and it's going to show you how to start then it'll branch out into using sensor systems. So a sensor system is going to be like building a weather station that's going to help you measure the humidity in the soil. Or it's going to be able to help you measure the air temperature and you'll start learning how those systems work together. I like because learning because it has all of the kits all together in one little neat package. And you don't actually have to think too hard about what you're buying and why so if you're completely unfamiliar with circuitry sensors these little boards are a mystery. This is a good place to start. And I also chose it because learning. If you go into this lesson, they have a set of lessons that are already curated and put together for you and they've already been classroom tested and they are if they are classroom tested, they're going to be library tested. So no matter where you are using there is a step by step instruction for how to first get started, get oriented with how the entire system works. Start playing with lights, start playing with engineering, start figuring out how these sensors actually work out in the real world. And then you can start thinking about, let me just open one of these. So these are just delightful. It'll run you through and it'll give you a background of how everything works and why. And it's already been vetted out resources are vetted out. And it has really clearly labeled instructions. And so these, if you want to be able to type and save all of your answers you actually need to get a subscription to their software. But a lot of these system, the entry level lesson plans are available for free that you just won't be able to save your answer. It's not the end of the world. I like free stuff. But if you want to be able to get fresh resources and be able to have a tracking system, unfortunately it is subscription based. But there is plenty that you can do without. And they also have an extension into a really awesome space and space and weather program that will actually let you collect data and analyze it from space, which is not going to lie. It's kind of awesome. But it gets costly. So the space. Yeah. It's totally cool, but then until you said the costly. Yeah. But if you already, this is just an awesome entry level into circuitry. So the other entry levels are the Arduino starter kit and the Raspberry Pi. These components are super cheap. But there's also kind of a rule in coding and circuitry that the cheaper the components, the higher the curve of the learning curve to actually be able to use the stuff. If you go on to, if you go on Amazon or if you go on sparkfun.com and start buying just random circuits that say, I want to learn how to use a temperature humidity sensor. So sometimes those instructions that you get in with the kit in the mail, they may not be in English. They may be written and translated into English from China. And it's not always clearly described because it's something might be lost in translation, or if you might have a non English speaker that's doesn't always know the key term that you would use. So you might get confused. So the because learning will avoid that, but the Arduino and the Raspberry Pi are great for once you've already gotten acquainted with all those key terms. You learned how to do the troubleshooting and you know how to, you kind of have had a better direction of where you want to go. And then Arduino and Raspberry Pi are good to go. But there have been libraries that have actually purchased the Raspberry Pi, and they've kind of either sat on a shelf or only gotten used by the people that are already in industry and know exactly what they're doing. So it's something to graduate up to. And if you already are looking at Raspberry Pi and you want to know what to buy. Raspberry Pi 4 is the newest board that's out there. It is again, awesome. But it has a greater Wi-Fi capability. It has a faster processor. It has a, there is a scratch block based option now. And there's also a Python option. And this is kind of what they use in robotics and coding. It's how it's the, this is the language that your computer is actually written in your software. And so this will actually let you dig deeper into how this all, all this stuff works. I recommended this kit here, the Raspberry Pi kit from Vilrose, because it actually includes a little touch screen with it so that you don't have to have a separate monitor and keyboard already available. It comes with it in there. Sounds like they realized they needed to, they were missing out on some of those real beginners. Yeah. To do that because it's become so much more popular. I think it's good that you mentioned, as I know what you just described, some people, some libraries or schools or whatever have bought these and in the past, and they just sit because they're like, okay, now what? Yeah. Somebody here wanted it and knows how they're the only one using it. Yay. But I think it's important that, and all of these things so far that you've mentioned, there is all these lessons plans already out there. So you just need to realize, you know, you're not going into this blind and having to come up with, oh gosh, I bought this cute little robot now what? Right. There's already something planned out a curriculum ready for you to just jump it and use. You don't have to come up with anything. You can get some of these programs going, get some interaction going with your users. So there's a lot of, I think a lot of people don't realize that second step. You know, they got cool things and then tried to figure out what to do with it and couldn't not realizing there's stuff out there. Exactly. Yeah. And that's why it's a mess trying to find the tech kits that actually have the right support and the right professional development resources. And that's why it took about a quarter past forever to put this together. And that's why I'm glad we have you, Amanda, that you did all the hard work for us. My fingers got tired. And so let and one side note here. I was hesitant to put little bit steam plus on here. It is, it has incredible instruction. It's awesome. It's well put together. And finally down like the major downside is, it's kind of expensive compared to what you actually get. So you get maybe about like a handful of pieces you can configure them in different ways. But once you're done with the curriculum that's in there, you are basically encouraged to get an expansion pack that's another maybe $150 to be able to expand what you've got. So that's how you're distributing materials separating between those two kits and distributing them and checking them out can get a little tricky. So little bits awesome instruction and really well designed platform, really good training, but just gets a little pricey. There are other options on here that are lower cost and also have a ton of different resources like the snap circuits. The snap circuits has about, they claim that they have about 750 plus different projects but when you start digging into those projects you find out that most of them are just a tiny little variation of the one before. So it's kind of like it's labeled differently, but the concept is almost exactly the same. And people have said that it can get kind of repetitive as I've gone through some of the projects, it can get kind of repetitive. So if it says 750 projects, it probably means about maybe 300. So keep that in mind, but it's still a really awesome kit to do. And the kit here actually comes in its own case. So it is already organized and bucketed out for you. And it's easy to distribute pack away store pull out when you need it and it comes with pre printed different project books that have the fully illustrated instructions in it. So now for the big stuff. So the bigger stuff is basically your 3d printers your laser cutters vinyl cutters and this is what I call your fabrication pack. So your fabrication pack is what the people in industry are using to prototype and test different ideas. They use this equipment because it uses lower cost material and they can make you could they can test out an idea quicker than they would if they were they actually had to build it using a full material. An example that I'll give is that I took a metalworking class probably about a couple years ago. My metalworking instructor had never actually heard about 3d printing. So when we talked about it, she said, Oh cool, can I use that to start prototyping out my my like rings and jewelry so I don't waste any metal before I test so I can test out the design. And I said, Well, yeah, you can you can go through Tinkercad and you can start using the scribble feature or you can upload a 3d image and you can make sure that your design is actually going to work properly, instead of wasting $100 on the metal. So she actually started using Tinkercad and the 3d printer in Omaha to be able to start testing out our designs and she said she's probably saved hundreds of dollars actually doing that. Wow, right. That's a lot. Yeah. Now, and it's right now. And so they use this in manufacturing. Apparently they use that in jewelry. They use it in pretty much every industry under the sun. There's just mess of stuff. And so in terms of actually choosing out the 3d printer itself. This one actually got a little bit more difficult to be able to find one that has the right support that isn't freakishly expensive and that has the right training materials. So the MakerBot replicator is actually designed for education. This is actually the one that we used in the library innovation studios project. So this one is probably the one that I'm most familiar with. I might be a tiny bit biased and putting it first maybe the other two are better I just don't know about it. But the Ultimaker is the one that they use in innovation studios on campus right now they use it in a whole bunch of different schools that like local schools. And the Dremel has a specific education addition that also has the professional development resources that are available. And so let me skip down to the laser cutter. The laser cutter that we used at innovation studios was the universal laser cutter. But that one didn't actually have as much tech support and as much professional development and training resources as some other models. So I actually recommend so innovation studios right now is recommending the epilogue fusion system. So the epilogue fusion series they are one weird thing that you'll actually run into a lot when purchasing a lot of this tech stuff for the larger machines is that you might not be able to buy it directly online you might not be able to go into Amazon add to cart and just buy it. A lot of times they'll ask you to request more information or contact them directly to be able to purchase the material. But that also has an upside because you can actually work through the specific criteria and make sure that you're choosing all the right equipment that you need. So when you are using a laser cutter you actually need a air dust like a H rack system that will be able to suck out the dirt and gases that are coming in through the laser cutter. Because that laser is actually burning using a high powered laser to get it is a like cut a design into a piece of wood or whatever material you're using. And so that H back will suck out that air make it safe for people to use. And there you'll also need kind of a stand for it to sit on that is relatively well ventilated and it can support the weight of the laser cutter. The desktop laser cutter will sit. It's on top of a desk, but they also have laser level log also has lasers that has the stand built into it and there's sometimes an H back system that's built into that stand. So that's kind of that all in one system is more of what you want to look for because it'll make your life easier. In terms of looking at attachments and accessories that are included in with the laser cutter. Most of the time there is just the generic tray that's included so that you can set wood and material like flat wood pieces and material on top of it. But there's also a rotary attachment so that you can use it to edge glass and you can use it on circular objects like that. And there's also the and that air assist pump is just that H back system was talking about before. And they also have a software extension that's available so that you can laser cut different photos. So kind of the caveat to laser cutting your own photos is that it can take a little bit to touch up and make that photo. So it's capable of being laser cut otherwise you're going to get just a blurry blob on wood. So it doesn't work with every single photo, but and it takes a little bit of tweaking and adjusting to get it to work but it looks really cool when it does. And epilogue also has a training modules that they put together to help people get started. The only caveat to that is that there are cases where you can only get one login to be able to use that but you can also reuse it and start rewatching a lot of those materials. I would actually double check that because they may have adjusted their system over time. It's been a while since I looked at it, but it's something to check out before you purchase anything. And let me jump down into. So and one thing that I didn't mention about 3D printers is that the biggest cost after the upfront cost of the printer itself is the filament materials can actually start to add up a little bit when you're actually making the purchase. So the filament through MakerBot is I can actually look it up for you. So when you are searching for filament on here, you actually want to start looking for PLA filament. So PLA stands for polylactic acid. And it just the it's one of the more cost effective and popular materials that are out there for commercial laser for commercial 3D printers. Again, it can add up. So this 10 pack is about $450. There are some libraries that have started charging for filament so that they can offset the cost. But the thing is that sometimes as people are trying to print larger objects that can also get expensive for them so they hesitate to start printing it. So it's kind of trying to find that balance between libraries. We want everything to be free and libraries we need to be able to actually afford to do this stuff. So it's kind of just figuring out what your policy is and how you're going to work that out and whether you're going to be able to provide these materials via grant or how you're going to source that out over the long term. Maybe something you end up changing your policies over time too. I mean, you're unless you, you know, no necessarily rough the bat. How it's going to be used how much are is it going to be people, you know, does your community like to make the big things or is it just a lot of little ones. So, you know, feel it out. Yeah, yeah. And another thing to keep in mind is that depending on who is going to be using the 3d printer and how sometimes it's more important for people to be able to learn the process of how the machine works. But sometimes people only need the output of it. Sometimes people only care that they don't care about watching the 3d machine run that's just kind of they're not even going to be there they don't care. So, if you just have people that are sending in a design. There are also companies that will let you outsource that so you can send in a design to like 1 central community location say, can you print this mail it here when it's done. Please and thank you. Nice. And yeah. So, when you are doing your. Planning of this and starting to vet out the like the organizations that would actually use this. Start considering which bucket they fall into. Do they care about looking at it or are they just going to end and there are a lot of libraries that are out there right now that just say. Email me an STL or an OBJ file and the size that you want it will print it and let you know when it's done. So, if you're doing something like that, consider whether the cost of buying and maintaining a 3d printer outweighs just working with an outsource like partnering with someone who outsources 3d printing and do it that way. So, there's more than 1 way to do it. And it is the same thing with laser cutters. So there are some. There are a lot of libraries that were out there that used to use these laser cutters and vinyl cutters to start printing out stickers for like recycling bins and stickers for like decals and things like that. But if you consider the usage for that vinyl cutter, this vinyl cutter is maybe about. Oh, let's actually see. So the cricket is probably the lowest cost 1 and it is about $299 for the maker. This cricket series, you probably have already heard about it, but you can also get the. Explore air, I think it's called Ben at once, maybe only about $199 sometimes less if it's on sale. But the difference between it as that the cricket maker has different blade attachments that will cut through thicker materials. So it will cut through thin balsa wood and harder materials using the blade attachment, whereas the explorer will not. So if you're going to be purchasing a cricket, I would actually recommend the maker, the maker three is the newest version that has like all the bells and whistles. And it's just exactly like you would be looking at for the maker for any of the 3d printers or vinyl cutters, which is how are you going to be sourcing the vinyl itself and the materials that are going to be cut on the machine. And how are you going to ensure that any materials that are brought in by patrons are actually approved by the manufacturer. This is especially true with laser cutters because some materials when burned actually give off toxic toxic fumes. So you don't want to be even so if you purchase something on Amazon and it says that it is a solid piece of a certain type of PVC or a certain type of material. If it's coming from kind of a sketchy manufacturer, what is advertised is not always what you get. So you might think that you're working with a solid peer and piece of material, but you put it into the machine, and then you accidentally poison yourself. So how are you going to work with a liability form and how are you going to make sure that the materials are actually safe to use. And in terms in the case of like bolso wood or like pieces of wood material that people bring in that's usually not a problem, unless it's treated with something and they didn't know it. So if it has like a thin line or like even like a film of oil that they didn't know was on there, it can be dangerous. So start thinking about how are you going to protect the library, how are you going to protect users, and how are you going to make sure that your library done burned down. So it's kind of just something to keep in mind. And so let me skip down to these different options here. So when you start buying the larger machines that makes a bigger difference where you buy it from. So you can buy it sometimes directly from the manufacturer. And sometimes you can go through kind of a third party reseller. So for the vinyl cutter specifically I do recommend going through us cutter us cutter, they do make their own line which is a pretty good line to get but they also sell graph tech and like a whole bunch of brands. The benefit of going through us cutter is that they do offer lifetime phone support. So if something goes wrong you can actually call them directly and say I ran into a thing, can you help me. And it's like a caveat of buying from them that you actually get that baked in the free lifetime phone support. I also have buying guides that are available so that you can tell the difference between different models and make the best purchasing decision that you possibly can if you are getting a vinyl cutter. And so the last thing I'll go over here is. And actually the last thing I had time to add into this guide is the virtual reality headsets because these are another really popular question that I've been getting is during the time of coven how can we do this safely. What is the best version to get and what am I going to run into in terms of privacy and security when I'm purchasing this equipment. Those are the biggest questions I get about it. So in order to be able to choose the right headset you kind of need to know just a tiny bit of background information about how virtual reality headsets work. So I put in this buying guide that will give you everything that you need to know to make informed decisions. So watching that is worth a try. Kind of with the caveat that if the first introduction that you've had to virtual reality was Google cardboard. It has come a long way and there's not actually any comparison. So if you have looked through virtual reality through that tiny little cardboard headset and then you try a quest to heads that it is not the same thing. You can actually you can depending on how you introduce people to virtual reality you can throw people off or you can bring people in. And so that is why I recommend using this quest to headset. The quest to is actually the most recent standalone version of Oculus quest, and there are tethered and untethered versions of virtual reality headsets. And the tethered version means that the headset has to be connected via a cord to basically a gaming computer. So I think like these computers have to have higher and like higher end image and video modules and graphics like graphics cards to be able to support the headset. So your computer is going to be more expensive and your headsets going to be more expensive. Needing to connect not just a computer but then to the internet. Yeah, yeah, have anything work because I see it also mentioned the Facebook account. And so with the standalone, you don't need a gaming headset, you don't need a gaming computer. It just runs like the computer is actually built into the headset itself. So and you don't need to it's not tethered to anything you're not tripping over cords. So that is why Oculus quest and quest to are recommended just because of that standalone component. Safety issue. Right. Yeah. And but there is actually an optional cord that's called the link that you can use to connect to a computer to use the Oculus Rift games. So that's why you can scale up using the the quest to but that cord isn't an option with the quest one. The caveat with the quest to is as you just mentioned, you need that Facebook account. So even if you make like a one time only or a lot or connected over through a library account. It needs to be connected through Facebook. And but the other thing for that is, if you are using this as a shared headset across different users which nearly every library is going to be doing that. If people try to start connecting their own personal Facebook into that shared account, then everyone is going to be able to see their personal information. And everyone's going to be able to access that until it is forced like actively removed from that account. But you can run into a lot of issues with if it's even available temporarily. So the way the headsets are routed up through the tickets through the mail is that every single headset is registered through a shared library commission account. And that means that those headsets might be sent out to four different libraries. And if each one of those libraries, one person connects their their the headset to their personal account. You have four different communities that have access to that those that personal information. So that's why there's that I had to write a policy that'll say you are not able to connect this over to any social media or private account. And so it's kind of how are you going to set up that policy so that you keep people safe and keep privacy security safe. And there's also a liability waiver that is recommended for patron use for headsets. The liability waiver is because and I'll go down here. So in terms of how virtual reality works, you put on a headset and you're immersed into a virtual world. So some people get disoriented when they put on that headset. And you also have to adjust the distance between the two different lenses so that it aligns with your own personal vision. And if that setting isn't adjusted properly, you can get eye strain or disorientation. So some people have had problems with that and had to take it off shortly before they even put it on. But sometimes people don't have a problem like I have never actually had that problem when I put it on. The only disorientation problem I ever had in a virtual reality headset is when I went on an amusement park roller coaster. And that may have happened in real life too. And so it affects people in different ways. But that liability warning them that this may or may not work for you. Right. And that liability waiver is just like a little sign that will keep the library safe and keep patrons safe. So that they are aware of what they are getting into and that they are aware that they cannot sue the library if they get dizzy. Right. And there are also some different safety measures that you can put in place in the library just on your own. Which is kind of putting together a making sure that you have an adequate amount of space cleared out so that people don't run into things. Making sure that you choose a headset that will let you draw out a bar like a boundary marker that boundary marker will basically you put on that headset. There are little cameras in front of it that will let you physically see your environment in grayscale. And it'll ask you to use the remote control to draw a circle where stuff isn't. So it'll mark out where it's safe for you to move. And if you when you're in that virtual world you move outside that environment and bright red line shows up and the game kind of like pauses until you move back into a safe space. So that's kind of the safety feature that's available in the quest and quest to it was not available in the Oculus go but Facebook is no longer making the Oculus go so that won't be a thing. And so make sure that any model you choose has that feature and make sure that you have a chair available for people to sit down so that they if they do get disoriented or if they are using a seated game. They have the option to be able to well sit. And so another thing is the sanitation thing. So during the time of coven and even before that people will worried about sanitation and keeping this little faceplate clean. So they now make silicone covers. So silicone covers just get popped right over this little play this little rubberized face guard, and you can sanitize that silicone cover and then put it back onto the headset between uses. And you can also just use like a little you can use a Lysol wipe on the outer case here but you cannot use a Lysol wipe on the lenses on the inside, because it'll damage it it can scrape it and what have you. It's nice that that silicone extras pieces, but you can really as well. They used to use a paper little sheet that would go between but the paper sheet, it would rip it would tear it would slide it would slip and it would get soaked and sweat because your face is pressed against a rubber pad. And so the silicone just works way better. And it's cheaper. You can reuse instead of tossing it out. So it is 1101 I know we started to touch late here so let me just go over the final little few the little things that you might want to keep in mind. And while we're still here with people on everyone's still here just let you know nobody's typed any questions yet or comments but if you do have anything you want to ask about. But type it in your question section will go as long as it takes to answer anybody's questions, or if you have any ideas or anything you've done if you've used any of this equipment we'd love to hear about it. Yeah, definitely. And the link to these slides will be available when you get the archive recording. The recordings ready so you'll have access to everything that my man has been showing you here today. And so let me jump into and I'll actually share this link out. And I'll update this so you can actually access it and put it into the chat there. And so a lot of this you can actually read through just kind of on your own time that's why I wrote it out, just completely on here. But the one thing that I will cover before I let you guys go is recommendations for training. So the one thing that I so I put together the there is the professional development resources that are available by the creators of the equipment themselves. A lot of the equipment is actually designed for schools and other like educational related areas, not all of that professional development translates directly and perfectly over to public libraries or your own particular library type. So it is recommended that you include any specific instructions with your like in a train the trainer guide. So these are the train the trainer guides that I put together for a lot of my equipment. And so this is for an audio kit. And some of the sections that you might want to include are the goals about what you actually want people to be able to accomplish when you are done with the training. How what do you actually want facilitators and library staff to be able to do to be able to know that they're comfortable using this equipment. And once you have those goals set out, you can actually make a good training plan that will meet those goals and paired along with those goals. I recommend putting together a skills checklist. So this skills checklist has two purposes. One, it's going to be able to let library staff coordinators know that their trainers are actually completely and fully capable of doing all these different things. And it's also going to let the trainee know that it's basically like a comfort zone thing. It's like a I checked off these different skills. I actually know how to do this stuff. I'm comfortable with it. And now this is going to get rid of the jitters that's going to let me actually conduct a activity using this new equipment. Because not every library staff member is going to be immediately comfortable learning all this stuff and then turning around and teaching it. This checklist helps. And so just chunk it out and you can match it up with your different training resources that are above so that you have a tutorial that people can go back to and say, I know that I remembered learning how to add a track but I don't actually remember how to do it. So where's my tutorial that'll show me. And that is where your instruction goes into to show these different modules that will basically run people through the activities that will show how to do it. And I will share this link just in case you want this format. And so this is just the format that I've that people have found most helpful for beginner to intermediate when they're trying to learn all this stuff. And for the, for the rest of it, I'll actually just let you read through it because it's probably better that you just kind of sit through it on your own instead of hearing me read through this whole mess. So, I'll wait and see if there are any questions from anybody but then that's about all I've got for you. Awesome. No actual questions came in just lots of thank you for the information will be helpful. Always awesome. Thank you. So yeah, it is a lot of information but I think this is great like I said this is lots of the libraries are getting into makerspace they've been this isn't something brand new in general, but it is new to some libraries. As you mentioned our library innovation studios grant program we're doing we're wrapping up finally this year we've been doing it for four years now. Yeah, so this type of equipment to the libraries to have for a limited amount of time to test it out and now these libraries are saying okay we want to get some of this ourselves, what do we do and this is some great resources with best choices. There's so much out there. Having the curriculum and training and everything. We do actually a question just came in awesome. What are your recommendations for promoting a makerspace. I've heard from patients that they think our makerspace is cool, but they don't know where they begin using the equipment and feel too intimidated to ask about it. I think you've done stuff like this before about. So that is where your brainstorming is going to come in handy. So it's easier to market and target library programming to specific groups. So if you're kind of having trouble with people trying to figure out how to use this stuff, start building out different marketing flyers that get sent out to individual groups and organizations. And you can start, you can even go over and start a conversation with those organizations say what are the problems that you're facing right now. What are the specific things that you are trying to accomplish or you're working on marketing outreach like what matters to you right now, and then directly target your marketing and set up an activity that will help with those different things. And that's what's going to bring people into your makerspace. And so kind of an example that goes on is if you have a laser cutter people say shiny a laser cutter I want to try that. But then they make their little gardening stick and they've labeled their oregano plant. And they're like, I got nothing. Right. So that's why you go through and say, we're going to work with the coffee shop and you're going to hand the coffee shop a flyer that says, here's we're going to do a session on making custom made coasters. We're going to do a session on making custom wall plaque, you can go over to a crafting group and you can make a flyer that says, if you want to make Christmas gifts we can start making custom wood burn like custom wood burn frames, and you can print out a frame you can print out your own picture on our sublimation printer. And then you can make your entire gift right in this same project. Yeah, that's the thing you need to do I think from your side as the library to promote is. And you've mentioned some previous shows to me to look for those real world applications. Yeah, I think go backwards from that not here's this cool shiny new piece of equipment but what would somebody really want to do and do we have something that would make that. Yeah, so connecting it to them personally as like you like this kind of stuff. We have a thing that can make that. Right. And if you have like a specific group that you're trying to market to you can send me out an email and I can give you some recommendations for different projects and machines or equipment to do. But it is way easier for me to give recommendations if I have a specific group or a goal in mind. And bring in yeah. Absolutely. Now you did a Amanda's on the show I didn't get to have this beginning of show sorry I had a male spit was trying to kill me. Yeah, reset, but Amanda does these sessions are pretty sweet tech related sessions on encompass live the last Wednesday of every month. So she's got lots of previous shows about also tech related things. And I was just looking back so you've mentioned it and you did she did do a four part series on teaching technology in the library and the last part of that is on marketing and follow up. Now that's what this is and those concepts could be used for any marketing of techie related things like your makerspace. And they're actually marketing tools that are available in that too. So I'll actually pull open the website for the teaching technology course you can jump to the marketing section and grab those tips and tools. Yeah. Yeah, so this is a course that's offered anyone to look like one is an asynchronous. Yep. Anybody can take it not restricted to Nebraska libraries just out there for you to go through. And this will run through activities you can use to brainstorm target markets and it'll run through finding partners marketing preparing staff and all that jazz helpful for makerspaces. Thanks so much awesome. Anybody have any other questions you want to ask Amanda while she's here. I'm going to type them into your question section of your go to webinar interface. I can't see if you're typing so to wait and see if something pops up so I would shoot a few minutes here. While I'm waiting I am going to I'm going to present your control back to over to my screen now from you Amanda. And something I know I that people maybe thinking about because you were talking about purchasing all these things and some of them being potentially expensive so not too expensive $200 depending by some of the larger things or the ongoing materials or whatever. And you kind of briefly mentioned grants. So I just wanted to mention grants. So this is the session that we did on then come as live about the look look for look in your state for grants might be available for anything that's coming up here in Nebraska. Most recently we're offering grants to the American Rescue Plan Act, the ARPA grants. This is funding. You've all heard about it huge stimulus bill passed by Congress this year. For Nebraska libraries, we right now have three different grant opportunities available to you that you could use any of these to apply for getting a lot of this equipment. Pretty much anything that Amanda mentioned. So I highly recommend for our Nebraska libraries look at our ARPA grant webpage here. We have our formula based grants library improvement grants and specifically for anything you're doing for children or teens use grants for excellence. All of them are available right now and you depending on what your project is you use any of these to purchase and this equipment. We, the formula based grants are a non competitive grant every library and every public library in Nebraska. Public library tribal library and institutional libraries and Nebraska or for this there's just a set amount has been a lot of every single library in the state you just have to ask for it we give it to you. And then you report back to us what you purchased with it. No competition just amount was available so look for your libraries. And here you can see we're keeping track of forms received libraries have been paid out. You can request any of this anytime between now December 31. We also have our two competitive grants library improvement grants and youth grants for excellence both using ARPA funding as well library improvement grants for anything your library wants to do. We have a list here of examples of and you'll see here there is stuff about digital workforce development, anything computer it all the things Amanda mentioned today. Something key about both the library improvement grants and our youth grants this year only, because we're using ARPA funding for the American Rescue Planned Act, no local matches required previously you did need to have a 25% match so you just ask for how much you want. And if we have the money and we approve it you get it all you don't have to come up with anything on your side, and all legally established libraries are eligible both accredited and unaccredited as well as tribal and state run institutions. Normally, our grants are only available to our accredited public libraries, but this year, we're opening up to anybody. So we highly recommend that you jump on these grants this year. This is a one time offer, because we have this special funding. And then the youth grants are basically the same thing. This focus specifically on youth and teen programs, and you can apply for all three of these everybody gets a formula grant and then you can decide if you want to apply for library improvement and youth. You can see the deadlines for those two are both next week, October 7. So if you're looking for funding for any of these. Look at your, if you're not in Nebraska, look in your to your state library or any other funding organizations that you might have there's so many grants available out there for libraries that you could apply for to get some of this equipment. I do have a page here of this is grant opportunities for Nebraska libraries with some Nebraska specific specific ones but then some of these other ones here are more general for any library or you may have similar organizations in your state so you know look for all sorts look outside the box basically. Alright doesn't look we have any other questions. So I think we'll wrap up today. Last words Amanda throw a lot at you. Check it out look at her slides when we get the recording out and start deciding experimenting with what you might want to have at your library. As you mentioned we do have the tech kids available so you can practice with some things by borrowing from the library commission if you aren't a basketball library so look to do that as well. Before you decide what you might want to purchase for your own. So that will wrap it up today show our record we as I said we're recording and our recording available on our archive page here, most recent ones the top of the page of a link the recording of the show on YouTube and a link to Amanda slides I already have the link over here ready for me to use. So you'll have all of that everyone who attended today and registered for a show going to email from me letting you know when the when it's ready should be by the end of the day tomorrow. As I mentioned while we're here, you can search our archives for any previous shows. You can see all our pretty sweet texts whenever Amanda's been here are on here. Search for Amanda's name and see everything she's done, or any top what you want to. I will give a warning you can search the full archives or the most recent 12 months we just want something current. And that is beat we have this one filter because this is the full show archives for encompass live and I'm not going to scroll all the way down. It's too far to go. But going back to the beginning when we premiere the show in January 2009. So that's like 1112 years worth of shows that's a lot. So do pay attention when you're watching recording for the original to the original broadcast date all have a date there so you'll know when it first was done. Some of the information will stand says test of time and be still useful but some things will become outdated old information. We have broken services and products may have changed drastically since we first did the show. So just be aware of that if you are watching any of our recordings. We also have, there is a Facebook page for encompass live if you like to use Facebook give us a like over there. We post reminders his reminder to log in today show promotions about our presenters when our recordings are available. If you'd like to use Facebook you can like us over there and we also use the hashtag and come live on Twitter and Instagram. So you can also just look for that there for any notifications about what we are doing. All right, so that will wrap it up for today show here's our upcoming shows on our main page. I hope you join us next week when our topic is the queer Omaha archives the first five years. Amy Schindler who's the director of archives and special collections at UNO University of Nebraska Omaha will be with us to give us an update on the queer Omaha archive she was with us actually in 2016 when they first opened up these archives and we've decided to do a little update to see how these been going since then. We've been very excited to see how things are going down have Amy back on the show so definitely sign up for that and there are other shows we have here coming up over the next month or so. Note October 13 we're not here once a week once one week of the year we take off in compass live and it's a week of our state library conference here in Nebraska so if you are in Nebraska, sign up and attend the NLA there's both virtual and in person options but we will not be holding the show that one week. So that wraps up today. Thank you everybody for you being here this morning with us and hope to see you on a future episode of income aside. Bye.