 Again, welcome to today's webinar with TechSoup for Libraries, Digital Media Labs and Makerspaces in small and rural libraries. We have a few fabulous guests today. First of all, I'm the facilitator of the webinar. My name is Crystal Schimpf. I work in the library arena and also in the nonprofit arena. You'll find me at Community Technology Network and Nonprofit here in San Francisco, and also working with special projects for the Public Library Association when you don't find me here working for TechSoup. We also have Mary Glenn Denning who is the director of the Middletown Free Library in Pennsylvania. Her library experience extends back to when she was a young adult and she has brought that into her own library to foster creativity with the MFL Create Space which she'll tell us about later. Tim Miller is the branch manager of the Simla Library which is of the Albert County Library District in Colorado. Tim has helped establish a new media lab in this small town with a population of about 1,000. Assisting with chat, we have Ginny Mees and tweeting again is Ariel Gilbert Knight. So you'll see their names popping up throughout their presentation. Also assisting with chat is Becky Wiegand. Now our agenda for today is to go over some various aspects of Makerspaces and Media Labs in small and rural libraries, but we'll start off with a little introduction to TechSoup. And at the end we'll have an opportunity for you to have your questions answered. So again, please put your questions in the chat throughout the webinar today. Also we do have a focus on small and rural libraries today, but I know we have people from all varieties of libraries and perhaps even some nonprofits in the room. I know we have some systems joining us, some large regional systems, and also some larger libraries as well. So hopefully you walk away with a few ideas that you can take with you to your library or to your region with regards to this topic. Now if you're new to TechSoup, you may want to know a little bit about our organization we're a 501c3 nonprofit with a clear focus on connecting nonprofits, charities, libraries, and foundations with tech products and services, including learning resources to help make more informed decisions about your technology. We've been around since 1987 and have helped over 200,000 charitable organizations in over 60 countries around the world. Today this is a United States focus webinar, but we also have the TechSoup global offices throughout the world. And I think there might even be a few people joining us from other countries today, so welcome. TechSoup offers many things including consulting services and product donations like Windows 8.1 and QuickBooks 2014. And of course those product donations are available on the website for you can register to receive them and see what your eligibility is. This is just an example of one of the product pages on the TechSoup website. So if you're interested in that, please go to TechSoup.org. So with that I think we're ready to get into our topic at hand. And let's just start off by taking a look at the overview of Makerspaces and Media Labs, just so we can be sure we're all on the same page talking about the same types of services. Now Makerspaces and Media Labs, these are terms that we maybe have some broad definitions and they also have a lot of overlapping. But generally when we're talking about Makerspaces we might be talking about the things you see here, 3D printing, coding, inventions, creativity, other tools that relate to the making and creation of things. In Media Labs we're talking perhaps about audio and video recording, digital cameras or digital video, and different types of production. But really that doesn't mean that a Makerspace can include the parts of a Media Lab or vice versa. Makerspaces and Media Labs are really community workshops where people in our library community can come together to create things. They can be customized to your library, your size, your location, and your community needs. And I think it's really important to emphasize that there's no right or wrong way to do a Makerspace or Media Lab. The right way is to do it so that it serves your community's needs. So let's just take a quick poll and you should see this appearing on your screen. Do you offer programming related to Makerspaces or Media Labs at your library? So yes, no, or perhaps you're unsure and that's okay. So I'll give you a few seconds to think about that. And I see lots of responses are coming in. And I think it's important to notice here that you may have programming related to Makerspaces or Media Labs, but may not have a regular physical space. And that's okay. That would still count towards that yes response. So I'm going to give you just a few more seconds to respond. Looks like we've had most people participate, so I'm going to give a little count down here. 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. And we will close the poll. And now we should be able to see should see those results in front of you. So about 60% of you aren't currently offering programming. So I hope that for those of you who are new to this avenue of Makerspaces and Media Labs, this webinar will give you some ideas and inspiration for how to approach it at your library, no matter how big or small it is. Also, I see that some of you have been offering programming. And I hope for those of you that you maybe walk away with a few new tips to augment what you're already providing. And if you're not sure, then hopefully by the end of this webinar you get a nice definition of what Makerspaces and Media Labs are, or could be, and bring that back to your library as well. Now another important thing to consider is the why. Why should we have a Makerspace or Media Lab in our library? You see some reasons here on the screen. Of course, the tech skills, that's a big conversation that's going on in libraries now whether it's for teens or for youth or for adults. We've got the STEM things happening in schools of science, technology, engineering, and math. And we also have things for adults needing more technology skills. But also there's small business development and creative thinking skills that come from this, youth engagement opportunities for collaboration. And some of you may have ideas of what value a Makerspace or Media Lab might bring to your community. So here we'll have a nice open-ended poll where you can actually type in some responses. So if you have an idea of how this might bring value to your community, please type this in. And I will see those responses and I might share some of them back with the group as we're talking. I know each community is a little bit different. So I'm sure some of you may be typing right now. You can also, I'll just remind you at the same time if you do have any questions to go ahead and put those into the chat. So I see keeping libraries relevant is something that's popping up here because of course as technology changes and people's needs change, libraries maybe should change along with that to maintain relevancy in our community. Also lots of things about access to new and evolving technology, especially if you're in a rural area, people may not have access. They can't walk into the local Apple Store or Best Buy in order to try new technology. Sharing resources and community collections of knowledge and creation and information, these are all very wonderful ideas. I see somebody posted, creating video family histories and of course genealogy and family research is a very big thing as well. And so many responses are coming in. I'm afraid I can't read them all, but just to say I can tell that you all have a very good idea of how you might be able to apply this in your library or what the need might be. And that demand, that need, that benefit to your community is something that's very important to remember when you're seeking funding or support for a media lab. And so with that, I'm going to close the poll in just a few minutes and we're going to move on to talking about, or in just a few seconds I should say and capture all of the responses that you've had. It's a very wonderful collection that you've shared with us, so thank you. So I'm going to close that and we're going to move on actually to the next slide which talks about how do we create a media lab? Because of course there is technology involved and technology is not always free, although sometimes it could be. So remember that you might be able to apply for grants. That might be like an LSTA or grant or another local grant that might help advance your technology. Also there might be donations whether it's in the form of money or in the form of technology that somebody in your community is getting rid of an old digital camera. Do they know that you might be able to benefit from that? There might be community partnerships where someone in your community provides space or equipment for you to offer programming. It's also good to remember that you don't have to do everything at once. You could start small with one device or one piece of software and that there might also be free resources available. We'll share some free resources throughout this webinar that can help you with media lab and makerspace programming. I'll just remind you that you'll receive an email with all of those resources with the links to those resources at the end of this webinar in the next day or so. So with that I think we're ready to hand things over to Mary who is going to tell us about the create space at the Middletown Free Library. Mary? Hi everyone. I hope you're having a good day. So on this first screen you see two logos. We had a library logo but for our create space project I kind of want to develop a sort of different identity. So I went to this website called 48 Hours Logo. And in 48 Hours you have all these people being on your logo and design it. So they did a really great job and we're really happy with how that came out and we thought it kind of drew in everything we were going for with the space which I will start talking about now. Let me just tell you a little bit about our library. We're located in the Philadelphia suburbs. The population of our township is 15,000 people. And we're pretty busy. Our CERC is good but it's been kind of going down a little bit but we are really heavy on programming. So I think while CERC is kind of leveled out programs continue to grow and be something that people really, really are looking for in our community. We have three full-time staff and seven part-time people. And our library is actually too small for us and we're hoping sometime in the future to get a new space. But right now we have 6,000 square feet and we only have one program room. So this is kind of what I was working with to start out. You can see these pictures. The top picture is the storage space I have to store all our equipment in for the grant. And then the bottom is just two views of the program room. So in this program room all of our library programs take place from story hours to book groups to historical lectures and things like that. So it was a bit of a challenge when we kind of decided to take on this project. Where are we going to store everything? And how is it going to work just having the one room available? And in this picture up at the top where you see the stuff that's stored in there right now, it's a little bit of a mess because I'm still getting things kind of organized and waiting for some furniture and stuff to come. But that room was filled with furniture and things from the Family Place program. So we had to figure out what we were going to do with all of that stuff we had in there too because we needed to clear out at least half of the room to store the materials. So how did we decide to do this project? Like everybody else I guess you are looking at Facebook and see things come up from the various libraries and things that you follow. And I kept seeing things about makerspaces. But a lot of what I saw was libraries that had obviously must have had big budgets because they had like a trailer or a space just dedicated to their project. So our problem was we have to have a non-permanent setup and how are we going to deal with that. And the project idea kind of grew out of a Facebook post I made where I shared some story I saw and I said, wow this would be really fun to do at our library. And one of our youth services coordinator saw it and she's like, well you know, LSTA is offering these grants for creation programs. Why don't you apply for it? So I talked to my board president at the time and he was all about it. He runs a small business where they use Arduinos and microcontrollers. We had a mutual friend that he had sent to MakerFair in New York and had gotten a 3D printer and stuff. So he's like, yes, we definitely have to do this project. This will be great. And I had only been at the library for like a month in my position now. So I kind of really came into this and hit the ground running I guess you could say. So in the planning process and dealing with this idea that we only have this one program room and we have to share the space, I started to do some more research on the web to see what other libraries were doing and what kind of ideas I could come up with to see what other libraries have in their spaces and what other places were doing. And I came across the U Media Project out of Chicago where they were doing a lot of work with digital media and teenagers. And I started seeing other libraries had digital media labs. And I thought this was a great way to be able to have a non-permanent kind of space in our library. So we kind of moved away from looking at just the makerspace because I can't really have woodworking machines and stuff on our carpet and then have story hour come in afterwards. So I started moving away from just being a makerspace which seemed like maybe a limited audience and kind of thought about bringing in the digital media aspect. And my husband actually is an audio engineer and is a signed recording artist. So I knew I had this expert at my disposal who could help me with at least the audio end of things. So the project kind of grew and came together as I was working on the LSTA grant for funding. And in my research too I came across Tony Wagner. I don't know if you all are familiar with him but he wrote a book called Calling All Innovators. And it talks about the kinds of skills that our kids need to develop to be successful in the future. The kinds of skills that companies like Google or Microsoft or Apple are looking for in their employees. And it's not just necessarily those tech skills but it's the kind of skills being able to think outside the box to not be afraid of trial and error and collaboration. And also the idea that children will develop their passions and the things that they're interested in through the opportunity, through exposure and working on those things. And I thought that's a great fit for the library because a lot of kids don't get that in school anymore. They're so focused on testing. And that kind of thing that the library really has this opportunity to be a place where kids can come in. We're not grading them. They don't have to worry about finishing their project per se. The idea is just to work together, to come up with something and do it. And does it fail? Okay, let's just go back to the drawing board and start over or see how we can improve it and really build those kinds of skills. I think libraries have spent a lot of time working with preschool age kids and getting them ready for school. Well, why does it stop once they enter school? We still have a role to play. And I think nowadays with the testing and Common Core and that kind of thing, we become even more important than be able to offer that kind of environment. So in the meantime, I applied for this grant and because it's federal money, there was lots of delays in the notification process. So I just kind of kept researching stuff to see where else could I get money if this doesn't come through and that kind of thing. And I found out about Maker Camp and I had signed up to be an affiliate site. At some point on their website, I don't even remember, but in June of last year I got this email from them that we were selected as a site and did we want to do it? And this is a real launch of our project, but it was kind of made me hesitate a moment because I got this email mid-June and Maker Camp starts the first week in July. And I was like, oh my gosh, do we have time to get this together? How are we going to do it? So we went ahead and did that. And around the same time we actually found out we received the LSTA grant. So it was really like a great coming together of getting the programming off the ground and moving forward and finding out we had money to actually launch an even bigger project than we had thought. So part of what we did after we ran the summer Maker Camp and we had decent attendance and we had some kids that really like you'll probably see them in my slides because there weren't a lot of the slides, but we had a real core audience for that. And then once the summer ended while we were putting the grant advisory board together and deciding what we were going to purchase, we kept doing programming to keep and generate the interest in the kind of programming we were going to be able to launch. So we did some Instructables build nights where you can sign up through the Instructables website and they'll send you materials. So in September we did a Loomie Inko Die where the kids got to go on the computer and find pictures and turn them into negatives and print them out. And then you do this, it's like, I don't know if you remember like back in the day they had where you put stuff on this blue paper and you put it out on the sun it developed. Well the die develops like that on a t-shirt. And we did other kinds of programming like that. I did a survey of the community to find out what kind of programming and materials they were interested in which gave me some insight into some things that I hadn't even thought about. And then who is going to teach the programs? Who is going to lead the programs or teach workshops? What's going to be in our space? And then the other things we had to think about and are still thinking about are sustainability and how do we keep programming going, fun programming once the grant runs out? And in this little picture here you can see some little bits, kids. And those are circuits that work with magnets. And you can use them to make projects. It's a good way to teach how circuits work and things to kids without having to use soldering irons. And there's also, you see that one in the middle says, Unleash your inner rock star. They just came out with a collaboration with Korg. So you can build a synthesizer and do experiments with sound. So those are just some of the things that we have in our space. Okay, so like I said our space is kind of two different angles. We have this digital media aspect and the maker space aspect, but they really can work together because making is really all about creativity and there's many different ways to express that creativity. So we have two Mac minis. One is a digital audio workstation for audio projects and then the other is dedicated to video and digital drawing projects. I'm a Windows gal so I had to have a Windows machine so I didn't feel completely lost and I wanted to have, I didn't want to just be all Macs or all Windows because I know people feel comfortable working in different environments. So we got a Lenovo ThinkStation C30 which is a really high end Windows machine. You can put tons of RAM in it. There's lots of expansion space so I figured at least I have this one machine too that can really grow with the space and we can do add things to it if we want to expand the computer and do things like that. A photo scanner which we hadn't had before and then we got a large format photo printer which you can use to print up poster size projects and things like that. We got digital drawing tablets. We already had an HD video camera so I decided to go with action cameras and after some research I decided on the Ghost. We had a Ghost HD and a Ghost HD S which is their newest model. And they're similar to the GoPro that they've built in LED screen and they're a little bit easier to use especially with kids. We're working on an angle to let people check stuff out of the space so these were a good way to go with that because you can drop it on the ground and it's not going to break and that kind of thing so you don't have the same concerns as you would with a regular video camera. We got a green screen kit and these little tabletop movie making kits that have lights and you build it all together and you can do stop motion with the iPad. And then on the maker space side everybody is all about 3D printing so that was a big part of our project. And our board, I think the board was most excited about that because that's something they've heard about in the news. So we got a replicator too from MakerBot and then the 2X which is the one that can print out in two colors. It's a more experimental machine but we decided since we're only going to have this much money once we got that one. So as people that use our space as their skills grow they have something to grow into. We got two silhouette craft cutters which you can use for all kinds of different projects. Everything you can make magnets and temporary tattoos and do t-shirts and vinyl, cut out vinyl things. It has so many uses. It's a really cool machine. Since most of our purchasing was happening in December we got to take advantage of some really great holiday deals that places were running. So that really worked to our benefit. One of the things that came out of our survey was people were interested in sewing and having access to sewing machines. So that was something we added to the space that we hadn't thought about before, the little bits kits. Then Raspberry Pi which is a small like $37 computer. It runs Linux. You can use it for projects. We're teaching coding. We're going to use it with our Minecraft Club to do some things with Minecraft. Then we are going to be doing an Arduino Day this month or in March. So we're going to be purchasing Arduinos which are microcontrollers which you can use to control LEDs and do robotics and things like that. Then we got these kits. It's really tiny in this next little box but we got these Minecraft Circuits in real life kits that we're going to use with our Minecraft Club. The kids will learn how to do some basic soldering and based off a redstone in the Minecraft game. It kind of brings that out of the game into real life so they can learn about how circuits really work. So the next part of our project is we have all this stuff. Now what do we do with it? So we are still planning programs, workshops, and different clubs. Most of our clubs have already launched. Minecraft and Real Life Club has been by far our most popular club and I have a waiting list of people to get into that club. We're really exploring all different things with that from more maker type projects to digital media projects. Last meeting they worked on storytelling. They worked in groups and were coming up with a story of what they would build in Minecraft and what's the story around their build that they're going to do. And then the next meeting they're going to build it. They're going to work together to build it using Minecraft EDU and then they're going to film each other talking about their stories and do some storytelling with that and maybe also move into some stop-motion animation with their stories. We're going to use the Circuit Kids. I've used it to do 3D printing with the kids and I have a whole list of I think at least a year's worth of programs revolving around Minecraft and the various things that we have in our space. We're also going to have some audio programs and workshops for kids and adults. We've just started a series using a little bit since kids with kids. It was like kids aging from age 6 to about 8 years old learning about how synthesis works, how does the synthesizer work with an envelope and kinds of stuff that they don't normally get to explore. And then we're going to come back and they're going to build more complex synthesizers and that kind of thing. We're going to do a teen tech week workshop with audio on both and that will be kind of directed by the teens and what they want to learn about and work on some projects whether it's podcasting, learning how to use audio programs like Ableton or even GarageBand and using the little bits kits. We have some video workshops coming up using our first one is going to be on iPads and iMovie. We're going to be doing some things with the digital drawing tools as well. We have a comic book artist who's going to come in and teach about doing digital drawing. 3D printing workshops, right now I'm trying to get all my staff trained on the 3D printer so we can have it available outside of the lab since it can't be set up all the time. I need to be able to make sure. I don't want it just sitting in a room and only being dragged out like a few times a year when we're going to do a program around it. We did Hour of Code in December and I signed us up to be a coder dojo and that's probably something we'll launch more in the summertime when I have more time and to give me some more time to find some volunteers to help with that. Since our space is portable or easy to pack up, we've designed a lot of it to be portable so we can take it out into the community as well. We'll be taking our 3D printer, the Healthy Kids Day at the Y. Our friends group has a really big book sale at our local mall and we brought it there to generate interest in the space and our projects. We'll be working with the local schools and home school groups are really big and they're really interested in the projects that we're doing at the library. And then we'll have some open lab times where people will have the lab open and they'll let me know what they want to use. And I'm also working on ways to make some of the tools available at times when it's not open lab since everything's on wheels and I can wheel it out to a place in the library if they want to use the video editing tools. We can wheel the computer where they want to work and with headphones and stuff it shouldn't be an issue with noise. We're starting a Young Makers Club which is for kids between ages 8 and 18 years old. That's going to be a lot of fun. We're starting that next month. It'll be our first meeting. That's really where the kids kind of get the chance to design their own projects and come up with what they want to work on and what they want to learn about. The goal at the end will be that they will display their project, what they have done. Even if it's not complete, they will display what they are working on in a mini-maker fair which we'll probably have at the library. We signed up with Curiosity Hacked to be an official site. They used to be called the Hacker Scouts and they just recently changed their name and we're doing their open lab program which is a family program. So the family works together on the project. It's a close ended project that just takes place at the meeting. So you don't have to worry about people coming back each month and that kind of thing. And we can open it up to younger kids since their parents take part in the program with them. We did First Leg Elite and Junior First Leg Elite this summer. We started that. That's kind of a growing program. We're working out the kinks because it didn't go as smooth as we would have hoped. But I think it's a really great program and the kids get to work with robotics. The younger kids work with simple machines and you can add a robotics element. So that might be something we add for them in the future. And I mentioned Maker Camp before and that's a really great program. It's run by Make Magazine on Google Plus. You can basically run it however you want. We met twice a week at 2 o'clock when they do the live hangouts and then we would watch some of the Hangouts. And then the kids would work on a project whether it was a project that was supplied, stuff that was in the supplies that makes sense to me, or stuff that I found that we could do easily because I didn't have all the skills or things to be able to do everything that was in the box. And any library I know Make is looking to sign up more libraries this year. And if you go to MakerCamp.com you can sign up to be an affiliate site. It's a lot of fun and it's a really, really easy way to get started with this kind of programming. Can I have some pictures? Yes? Yes, this is Crystal and I just wanted to jump in. In the interest of time, I know you have some wonderful pictures to share. I definitely want to share those but we're also getting some great questions so I want to make sure to have time at the end for the questions and answers. So if you could wrap your pictures up with a nice story and then that way we'll have time for some of these great questions that are coming in. And as I say that I want everyone to know that with all of these questions, if we don't get to all of them today we will follow up later to get you the answers to those questions. So keep sending us those questions in. So Mary, please tell us about these beautiful pictures. Oh sure. So the picture in the bottom left corner, those kids outside with the solar oven, those are kind of my core Maker Camp kids over the summer. And they just had a really wonderful time and have come to other programs we've had since then as well. Actually my son is that guy on the right with his hands up and he's in a few of these pictures. And some of the things we did up in the top right corner is a Makey Makey Kit where you can hook up bananas and stuff and the kids had fun with that, the Loomy Inko Die. And the bottom right corner is actually not in our space it was at Maker Faire in New York. But he's using a program there called Project Spark that Microsoft is working on that I hope to use in our space as well. And then this next slide is a couple of pictures on the bottom left are from Maker Camp over the summer when we were doing Scratch Programming and Makey Makey. And then these other pictures are from the Little Bit Synth Kit program we did recently. So the guy in the black and gray sweater he was the instructor, that's my husband Isaac actually. And like I said he's an audio engineer. So he was teaching the kids about sound and how that works and that kind of thing. And they had a blast. And the end is some more Maker Camp. They made Light Up Putties. The one on the right hand corner, that's our 3D printer and that's from our Minecraft Club when we did 3D printing. And then on the bottom on the table there's a little cardboard creation that was from one of our projects and they're learning some DJing tools down there as well. And thank you so much for having me. Great. Thank you for sharing. You have so much information and so much experience from what you've done. And I can tell from the amount of questions we're getting that people are very curious to learn more. And so what we'll do is since I don't think we'll get to all the questions, we'll collect these questions and we'll gather those answers and share them back out with all of the participants here, those of you joining us and those who registered but weren't able to join us. But one question before we move on to Tim's section is could you tell us just very briefly what is a green screen kit? Someone had asked what that means. A green screen kit is basically just like a green cloth and our kit came with lighting so we can do lighting. But you film in front of the green screen and then you can put in backgrounds like we're going to use it for, we do a story, like a video story hour on Vimeo. So Jason is going to read stories and we can have him reading Madeleine from Paris because you can put him sitting in the street in Paris or something. So it's like if you ever see movies where there are special effects and they show them filming it and they're just filming the background green, that's basically what a green screen kit is and it lets you be able to film something and then put in your own kind of backgrounds and stuff so it looks like you're somewhere you're not. Great. And I think that's exactly the answer that we were looking for to help explain some of this technology. And we are collecting all the links for the different resources that Mary and Tim are both mentioning and we'll be sending that out in the archive. So you'll have all of those links those of you that are asking for specific things. We're making note if it was something we didn't already have a link of and we'll be sharing that out later. And so now I'd like to turn things over to Tim who's going to tell us about his experience at the Simla Branch Library in developing a digital media lab there. Tim? Thanks, Crystal. Hello? Hello? Yep. We can hear you. Go right ahead. Sorry about that. First of all, I want to say I'm very jealous of Mary and everything she has going on at her library. For some of you who might be listening who have a smaller library, I just wanted to say that it's very possible for you to get a media lab or Creation Station going for your library. I kind of use the term synonymously so I'm going to jump back and forth between them. This is my library. Obviously it wasn't designed by a professional architect but we're very thankful for what we have here. It's 2,000 square feet. And it's a one room library. So our users are forced to kind of coexist in one space. These two pictures on this slide are from one corner to the other. And our media lab space therefore must be mobile. We have to be able to move it to different spaces moving forward. That's the town we serve. Our population is 650 service population of about 1,000 to 2,000. Technology access is limited. I noticed one of you had asked a question about wireless and broadband and what that was looking at for us. Well we have one internet service provider for the area. The way it's set up, no other providers may move in and technology can be patchy for people in town but also in the area we serve which is pretty much hundreds of square miles around us. The closest library is the Lyman Library 26 miles away. So we are a vital resource for Wi-Fi and broadband in just accessing the greater world through those. This is what I consider to be the beginning of our media lab. We were part of the BTOP Grand in Colorado which is Beyond Technology Opportunity. Anyway, I'm sure Crystal can tell you what that is. But we got some laptops. We got some iPads for that. And the reason I consider it to be part or the beginning of our media lab is because we set them out for use after they had been locked away. When we got them we were very scared of setting them out for people to use. When I showed up which was roughly a couple of years ago, I found the iPads locked in a cabinet. My staff and I brought them out and my director came by and said, hey, why not do that with the laptops as well? We brought those out for general use. I think the intended use was different but we wanted to make them accessible for people to simply play. And that component is really important in a media lab. You could have a ton of formalized programs and everything else. But if you can set things out for people to just play and have fun, I think you'll be amazed at the kind of things that come up and the kind of learning that occurs in your library. Moving forward, this we achieved through a grant, the Creation Station, which was actually the end of the big top grant cycle with leftover funds. I think the libraries who got these funds got about $2,000 apiece. The equipment you're looking at here was around $2,000 if any of you are wondering how much it cost. We got a MacBook. If you're wondering what the funky world-looking tripod thing is over in the corner, that's an iPad. But you can snap on a boom mic as well as a high-definition lens for that. Some other things we got were recording equipment, microphone in particular. And in the middle, the little rectangular device was an M-audio device which allows your guitar or your microphone to directly plug in to say the MacBook there. And then you can record on GarageBand or any of your other computers. What we found when we first started using the Creation Station was that it wasn't getting a lot of individual use, meaning that people were kind of intimidated by using the equipment. They didn't know what it was for. I did market it by going and showing or doing several presentations at the school to show the equipment. So we decided to pursue a different strategy for trying to get that equipment used and make our community comfortable with it. What we did was we infiltrated community organizations. For instance, we have a nonprofit organization of which I became a president. And it became apparent that through that we could make training videos. In other words, I went into the organization, figured out a use, and sold the Media Lab too to the community organizations. And it turns out groups started using it. We had people do weather videos, well weather workshop videos with our equipment. And here are some pictures of other community uses that occurred as a result to that. There are stories behind every single picture you see here. One of the most endearing stories is in the upper left picture. The kid's name is Johnny. He's one of our common patrons. He loves the iPad. He's always coming in asking me to download apps. He brings his friends in quite often. And one day he came in during our Teon Tuesdays crafting group which as you may be aware is a really low tech maker activity that some of your rural libraries are probably already doing. Well, Johnny came in and as usually asked for an iPad. Well, he happened to take interest in this other maker, this low tech maker activity. And through it a remarkable photo op ensued. And we snapped a bunch of pictures and everything else. So the reason I point that out as a particular story is because I think Mary alluded to it too. These low tech maker activities as well as just library use can be enhanced through a very simple digital media lab whether that involves just iPads, just a couple laptops with software. The potential is endless. If any of you have any questions about the pictures on the previous slide I'm happy to elaborate too. One of the primary uses for our creation station has been through the historical society. And this had also been mentioned I believe is a question before oral histories. We use the equipment to record a lot of oral histories. When I first came to town here I discovered that no one was recording and digitizing these materials. And our town in particular and I'm sure most towns have such a rich history we did not want that to be lost. And I say we because it's the historical society and I. The photos are here because we use scanners as part of our media lab to scan those in and to enhance them through an open source software called GIMP. But the oral histories are great. I'd be happy to share those with some of you as well. Moving forward, other things people have used the media lab to do are design menus for local restaurants. Now I talked about the technology access before one of our local restaurants the Hen House has typically come in and not only designed menus but designed other media. I mentioned the weather people making training videos. A lot of younger kids have really taken to the iPads. And yes they play a lot of games but the secret is they're learning at the same time. Learning with games like the Sandbox, Minecraft, Roblox and I can elaborate a little bit on how those help people learn. We've also skyped in authors with our book clubs and most importantly people have snapped a lot of goofy pictures sometimes of themselves, sometimes of their friends. Part of maker activities is just learning the technology by playing with it. If the application doesn't seem applicable at first I think we'd all be surprised at how that leads into better use of the technology later. What's in the works for us? Activity cards with rewards. That's something we're kind of stealing from Denver Public Library. In other words we'll have activity cards where people can do a certain digital maker activity and they'll receive a reward for completing that. Helping partners more, I mentioned that we infiltrated community organizations and we want to do that more. We want to figure out how we can be a part of the community and help people where they're at. Infiltrating more school events. My particular town's culture which is pretty common of small town culture is that sports are really popular and 4-H is really popular. We want to figure out how we can help people whether it's through video or audio recordings, whatever. Just help people record those events and programming tutorials for kids. What we'll be doing for the summer reading program and the STEM activities in particular are teaching some low level programming skills for very young kids with programs like Scratch, Hopscotch, and Daisy the Dinosaur. Along the way we've learned some things as we've implemented everything we've done with our creation station slash media lab. The first one is freedom. Technology needs to be free. You need to open it up to people in other words. Having organized activities is great and I highly recommend that but there needs to be room and encouragement for people to play with it and for people to check out the materials. However, it should be known that technology intimidates. In particular one of the obstacles we've dealt with is the fact that a lot of people are very timid about touching these materials and bringing them out of the library especially with our equipment waivers and all that. That's a piece we're still working on. We're trying to work individuals into using the equipment more. The fourth thing is to adapt to culture. Our small town culture is unique. I came from a suburban library where if you build it they will come. You put these materials out and people will start playing with them as long as you have adequate marketing. We had to go back to the drawing board and figure out how we could meet our communities needs through groups and infiltrate the communities. The fourth thing is probably something maybe you've all learned about library services in general. Staff sells the service. So if you have an opportunity in your conversations with patrons to tell them about different materials that you have then coaching staff and learning to do it yourself, it's really a skill you need to be able to push those services. That's pretty much all I have. Great Tim. That's such a wonderful story also from a very different type of library and a very different situation. I want to thank you also for sharing that. Maybe we'll just start off our Q&A with a question that was I think directed mostly at you. You had talked about the genealogy or oral histories and the types of uses for your media lab and your makerspace in that regard. Could you tell us a little bit about the equipment you used in making the oral histories? Sure. There are some options here. We did use our MacBook as well as a microphone with the M audio device which I described. To make it simpler you can buy what they call a snowball that connects directly via USB. And the reason to do that would just be to get better quality. From there you can use GarageBand which comes standard with Mac products. I prefer that one. The audio quality is much better. But I have used Audacity before which is a free open source program. That one is recommended for podcasts. So that one is certainly viable. So three pieces of equipment, the microphone, the computer, and then just your chosen software is what we used. Great. And then I have now a question actually for Mary. Earlier on people were asking how do you share the space? And Tim you might also have something to chime in but let's have Mary answer it first. There's one space that you use for all of the equipment. How do you allow people to use it? Do they sign up for time slots when it's out there? How do people have access to it? And how do they know when it will be available to them? Well we have a master programming calendar where we keep track of all of our programs. So I know if there's another program scheduled in the room or not. We've been having some open lab times where I just kind of set up the computers and pull out some of the other equipment so people can come in. Right now a lot of the interest has just been a 3D printer. People want to see how that works and stuff like that. But I'm also working on, like I have somebody who called me up to ask about the 3D printer and I scheduled a time to work with her because it's on a cart that's on wheels. I can just bring it upstairs and work with her someplace not in the room so that we don't always have to have access to the room. And that's been the nice part about how it was planned. Everything is really just portable. Planning on making other equipment available like the craft cutters are small so there's no reason why we can't have time available when people can drop in to use that. When I've had the comic artist here to plan his program I'm just able to wheel the computer up into my office and he just sat in my office and worked so that he could prepare his program. So some things are still a work in progress but we do have a master plan for the room so that we don't schedule. And I kind of have pencil times in because I'm not sure about some future programs but I don't want the room to get booked up because our room sometimes has three different programs happening in the course of a day. So we run a lot of programs so that is having one central calendar is really essential. Great. And it sounds like there's a bit of a juggling act there. Now since you mentioned the 3D printers again we did have one person ask and of course this is still fairly new technology. Can you just briefly tell us what is a 3D printer? Sure. There was a picture in one of my slides of it. It doesn't look like your inkjet printer or anything like that. It's kind of like a box and it has a platform inside of it. On the back is a spool of plastic and it heats up and then just builds your object and layers and it builds an actual object instead of printing on a piece of paper. These kids up in the upper right-hand corner, the printer is in front of them. If I can slide through. The tall picture in the corner on the right, that's our MakerBot. Great. I think that maybe satisfies people's curiosity as far as that goes. I want to show one more slide which is that somebody had asked if we displayed the slide about why, and this might be a good note to leave things on, why have a maker space? So let me just pull that slide up now so you can see it again. There are of course many more reasons than what you see on this slide but these are just a few of them. And of course there are many questions that you are asking as you evaluate how could you apply these ideas to the work in your library. And so for those of you who have been sending in questions that we have not had time to answer, we will follow up. Mary and Tim have both agreed to help us answer some of those questions. So we will follow up with those questions and get them out to you. But at this point in order to keep us all on schedule we are going to move towards the end of the webinar. I want to mention that we do have additional resources that we will be sending out. Now you see a few of them here but don't worry, this slide is not going to stay up long. We will send this out to you and you will have access to all of these resources plus more that we couldn't even fit on this slide. So you will get that before the end of the week. And I guess is there any last word Mary or Tim that you want to add as far as advice to libraries that are considering trying something in the makerspace and media lab realm? Just get out there and try it. Start small and like Maker Camp, I was sitting in my office every week building things out of cardboard and adding LED lights to it. And it's really just kind of have to be a kid again and just dive in there and not be afraid that you are going to break something or something is not going to work. The thing I love about these kind of programs is I don't have to go in with like a lesson plan because really the point is to let's see where it goes and let the kids kind of or let the people in the program kind of guide where your program goes. And you really can't go wrong. Great. Tim, anything to add briefly? I definitely wanted to echo Mary's thoughts in terms of playing. You have to be willing to get your hands dirty, get in there and play with the equipment yourself, and to also encourage staff to do that, to be familiar with the technology so that they can show people whether it's in a formalized program or not. And kind of jumping off that, you have to shoot from the hip I think. You have to go for it. Have a plan, yes. But maker activities are becoming more and more important to patrons. And I guarantee it's going to help your small community. Great. Thank you. And so with that some great words to leave us at the end of this webinar on digital media labs and maker spaces. We want to say thank you to our sponsor, ReadyTalk for providing us the software for this. Also thank you to the presenters for sharing their expertise. And thank you for attending and taking an hour out of your day. Please stay on the line for just a minute. As we close the webinar, you'll actually receive a soft survey that will pop up. And we ask you to fill that out and tell us what you thought of the webinar. And like I said, you'll also receive an email with the archive resources as well. Stay tuned also on your email for a TechSoup survey about technology purchasing in your library that you'll be receiving a link to at some point soon. Again, thank you very much. Thank you to all of you who shared. We'll get back to you with those questions. And please do have a wonderful day. Bye-bye.