first big problem for library makerspaces…

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..at least the first that I’ve encountered:

Stuff breaks.

And unlike your copier, computer, network, etc. there are no repair people to call. Or rather, YOU are the repair person. So when our brand-new printrbot jr. stopped moving up and down on the z-axis, I have to figure out how to fix it.

Yeah, I don’t know how to fix it. I know nothing of electronics, motors, or even the terminology to search for information on how to fix it. The forum is total chaos, with no useful subject headings or organization (as I noted on the forum, this is one reason librarians still exist).

Here is jittery, poorly filmed video of the printer carriage moving by hand, the motor spinning, the “all-drive” bolt wobbling a bit as it spins, as I tell the printer program, Repetier, to move the carriage on the z-axis:

Everything seems aligned the way it’s supposed to be. The motor is working. The x- and y-axes are fine.

Library school does not (yet) prepare one for this problem.

DSC02044

EDIT: the above photo shows the problem–the bolt is supposed to be trapped up inside that triangular housing. The LOVELY people on the chaotic Printrbot forum helped me! Thanks guys!

And here is the benefit of the library makerspace: when you figure out how to fix a problem you feel (or I do anyway) elated, powerful and like you have a new relationship with your stuff.

Makerspace? Or just a library?

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In my presentations and work I have consisted library maker spaces a natural extension of existing library services. A lot of “traditionalists” in the library world seem disturbed by the idea of makersoaces until I fill in the gap–library makerspacesneed not be super-techie as we think of this word. Books are a technology, after all.  When I say that the knitting group or photography club they’ve hosted for years is makerspacey, many librarians are surprised, but start to grok the concept more comfortably.

A great post on the various flavors of makerspaces is at Make’s blog. My answer to all this has always been to call all these different spaces libraries, but for those who like tidy terminology, check out the difference between makerspaces, hackerspaces, fablabs, etc. I think a fixer space for bikes etc. is an AWESOME idea for libraries, btw.

I talked about this recently to a charming interviewer when I was enjoying a Library of Congress event focusing on ideas for the state affiliates of the Center for the Book. (As an aside, I am now pleased as can be to be on the board of the Wisconsin Center for the Book!)

on Making It @ Your Library

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No, I don’t mean making “it.” Jeez, get your mind out of the gutter.

Here is some of the information from my latest presentation on makerspaces in libraries. For more you have to, you know, hire me. I’ll give a lot a way for free, but I have to eat somehow!

Software:

Lists of what to do and buy for a makerspace:

Makerspaces in your area?

http://themakermap.com/

The thing my library is getting with our next grant: www.inventables.com/technologies/desktop-laser-cutter

The thing that you should get now: http://printrbot.com/shop/printrbot-jr/

And run it on the $35 computer: http://printrbot.com/shop/printrbot-jr/

Recommended reading for practitioners (more are added all the time, so this is by no means exhaustive):

And for scholars (so far):

  • Beals, L. M. (2010). Content creation in virtual worlds to support adolescent identity development. New Directions for Youth Development, 2010(128), 45-53. doi: 10.1002/yd.374
  • Bell, B. L. (2005). Children, youth, and civic (dis)engagement: digital technology and citizenship. CRACIN Working Paper No. 5.
  • Bell, L., Brown, A., Bull, G., Conly, K., Johnson, L., McAnear, A., . . . Schmidt, D. (2010). Educational implications of the digital fabrication revolution. TechTrends, 54(5), 3.
  • Bose, S. (2010). Learning Collaboratively with Web 2.0 Technologies: Putting into Action Social Constructivism.
  • Bull, G., & Groves, J. (2009). The Democratization of Production. Learning & Leading with Technology, 37(3), 36-37.
  • Chen, W., Seow, P., So, H.-J., Toh, Y., & Looi, C.-K. (2010). Extending students’ learning spaces: technology-supported seamless learning. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 9th International Conference of the Learning Sciences – Volume 1, Chicago, Illinois.
  • Diez, T. (2012). Personal Fabrication: Fab Labs as Platforms for Citizen-Based Innovation, from Microcontrollers to Cities. Nexus Network Journal, 14(3), 457-468.
  • Diez, T., & Posada, A. (2013). The fab and the smart city: the use of machines and technology for the city production by its citizens. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction.
  • Fontichiaro, K. (2011). Creating eReader content. School Library Monthly, 28, 26.
  • Griffiths, S. (2012). The Amateur at Play: Fab Labs and Sociable Expertise. Paper presented at the Crafting the future: 10th European Academy of Design Conference, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. http://meetagain.se/papers/four/ead_2013_s_griffiths.pdf
  • Harris, R. (2010). Design On The Go: How African American youth use mobile technologies for digital content creation. Design and Technology Education, 15(12), 9-17. 
  • Ipri, T. (2010). Introducing Transliteracy. College & Research Libraries News, 71(10), 532-567.
  • Ito, M., Baumer, S., Brittanti, M., boyd, d., Cody, R., Herr-Stephenson, B., . . . Tripp, L. (2010). Hanging out, messing around, and geeking out: Kids living and learning with new media Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
  • Krannich, D., Robben, B., & Wilske, S. (2012). Digital fabrication for educational contexts. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children.
  • Levine, P. (2008). A public voice for youth: The audience problem in digital media and civic education. In W. L. Bennett (Ed.), Civic life online: Learning how digital media can engage youth (pp. 119–138). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
  • Lor, P. J., & Britz, J. J. (2011). New Trends in Content Creation: Changing Responsibilities for Librarians. Libri, 61(1), 12-22. 

  • Nicholas, D., Dobrowolski, T., Withey, R., Huntingdon, P., & Williams, P. (2003). Digital information consumers, players and purchasers: Information seeking behavior in the new digital environment. Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives, 5(1/2), 23-31.

  • Pasko, A., & Adzhiev, V. (2009). Constructive function-based modeling in multilevel education. Communications of the ACM, 52(9), 118-122.

  • Posch, I., Ogawa, H., Lindinger, C., Haring, R., & Hörtner, H. (2010). Introducing the FabLab as interactive exhibition space. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children.

  • Rheingold, H. (2008). Using participatory media and public voice to encourage civic engagement. In W. L. Bennett (Ed.), Civic life online: Learning how digital media can engage youth (pp. 97-118). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

  • Rushkoff, D. (1996). Playing the future: What we can learn from digital kids. New York: Riverhead Books.

  • Seravalli, A. (2012). Infrastructuring for opening production, from participatory design to participatory making? Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 12th Participatory Design Conference: Exploratory Papers, Workshop Descriptions, Industry Cases-Volume 2.

  • Shaffer, D. W., & Gee, J. P. (2007). Epistemic games as education for innovation. BJEP Monograph Series II, Number 5 – Learning through Digital Technologies, 1(1), 71-82.

  • Watson, G. (2011). The Champaign-Urbana Community Fab Lab. interactions, 18(5), 86-87.

  • Wong, L. H., & Looi, C. K. (2010). Vocabulary learning by mobile-assisted authentic content creation and social meaning-making: two case studies. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 26(5), 421-433. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2729.2010.00357.x
  • Zoran, A., & Buechley, L. (2013). Hybrid Reassemblage: An Exploration of Craft, Digital Fabrication and Artifact Uniqueness. Leonardo, 46(1), 4-10.

You’re welcome.

always time for bragging

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I actually remember thinking, when looking at the never-updated blogs of a couple of phd student friends, that it couldn’t be THAT hard to update one’s blog every month or two.

I was wrong.

Despite having no time to supply this blog with cogent information about libraries, information policy, even makerspaces (though these issues consume my life every single second) I do somehow find time to brag:

I won a writing award! Thanks so much to YALSA for this honor. It’s funny, I feel like I struggle to capture just what I mean in writing academically, and write too freaking much (I think my profs would agree with at least the “too much” assessment). So I was thrilled to be chosen.

And thanks to Becca Barniskis, who helped me with the editing for the second article. She is magic. She somehow invisibly edits so that my words were never changed or augmented. In fact, I couldn’t tell what she changed, but the piece was shorter!  I have no idea how she does this.

So quickly (because I really do have no time) here’s what I’ve been up to:

  • I will be presenting at WAPL on makerspaces in libraries in May, looking at the makerfair I’m developing at my library
  • I am in the midst of 5 different research projects on library mission statements, makerspaces, and social impacts of public libraries. 
  • I will be presenting at CAIS on the participatory research technique that includes teens in the research team, which I first developed in the article that won this award, and which will be expounded upon in an article in Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, coming soon.
  • I also have an article coming up in Teaching Artist Journal on teaching artist in public libraries.
  • I’m just starting to develop a survey to ask teen librarians to respond to the grounded theory on teens/art/public libraries/civic engagement, and will then try to do a large-scale survey of teens. That’s the next project when the other 5 are done.
  • And I’m doing strategic planning, community-building and, you know, my job at LQCL.

published. squee!

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I am so pumped from having my articles appear in print today–or my one so-very-long-article-it-had-to-be-split-in-two. Here they are:

Graffiti, Poetry, Dance: How Public Library Art Programs Affect Teens Part 1: Introduction & Literature Review

Graffiti, Poetry, Dance: How Public Library Art Programs Affect Teens Part 2: The Research Study and Its Practical Implications

Ecstatic.

Thank you, fabulous new Journal of Research for Libraries and Young Adults, wonderful editor Sandra-Hughes Hassell, and unbelievably BOSS research participants (you know who you are).

I’m thrilled and happy (but admit the slightest smidgen of sadness that the fact that JRLYA is an e-journal means no shiny journal for me to put on a bookshelf. Oh well–it’s the price you pay for open-access and freedom of information.) I know I’m supposed to be all cool and blase and academic and stuff, but I frankly don’t have the blase gene.

[edit] For the purposes of making articles more open-access and findable (according to research by Xia, Myers & Wilhoite, 2011), I’ve also archived the entire article here: http://shannonbarniskis.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/graffiti-poetry-dance-parts-1-and-2.pdf

doctoral stress, or, “goodbye to my wonderful friends and family”

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So I’m starting my graduate program now, and my goal at this point is to not die of stress. The degree is at this point incidental. I read a couple of books on having a sane and smooth PhD program, and found the most disturbing, and patently impossible, statistic:

On a standard stress rating scale, where the death of a spouse is 100, the average first-year doctoral student rates their stress at 313. (Valdez, Ramiro. “First-Year Doctoral Students and Stress.” College Student Journal, 1982, 16: 30-37.)

At first I joked about this obviously ridiculous statistic. Then, because I am a geek, I looked up the study. Yeah, ok it’s pretty small-scale and it was from 30 years ago. Still…

I am already feeling worried.

  • I worry that I won’t be able to juggle work and school, much less my family.
  • I worry that I’ll be stupid compared to the other students (damned impostor syndrome).
  • I worry that I’ll be poor(er).
  • And fat(ter).
  • And my eyes will actually explode from all the reading (even though I read journal articles for fun.)
  • I worry that I’ll be a terrible PA.
  • Or that I’ll be one of the students spoken about in hushed tones by faculty as “not doing a good program,” whatever that means.
  • I worry that I won’t have suitably doctoral clothes and look too casual, to dressy, or (even worse) like the other students’ mom.
  • I worry that two months before I finish my dissertation someone else will publish the exact same thing, or that the topic (so obscure now) will become commonplace and mundane and I’ll look like a trailing-after-the-bandwagon loser.
  • I worry that I won’t actually understand advanced research methods and people will notice.
  • I worry that I won’t find cheap parking.
  • I worry that I will have opportunities that I can’t afford to take.
  • I worry that I will bring shame to my adviser, that my adviser won’t be helpful, that I won’t have an adviser, that my adviser won’t hold off the sharks in the rest of my committee, that my adviser will be the shark in my committee.
  • I worry that my laptop will die.
  • I worry that my capacity for “faking it til making it” will desert me.
  • I worry that my lack of worry about asking stupid questions in seminars will make the others feel I’m not taking things seriously, or that I am actually stupid, or that I should be returned to high school (because I never did graduate from high school. Oops.) and this reveals that the non-worry is actually worry AND me lying to myself.
  • I worry that I will be a lousy librarian and lousy student because I can’t give 100% of my energy to either task.
  • I worry that my husband will forget what I look like and my children will speak of me as if I am dead.

I’m not saying all this so anyone reassures me (please don’t). And I certainly don’t want anyone to feel sorry for me (like you would–I chose this idiotic path after all). I just want anyone who ever joins such a program and somehow stumbles upon this blog to know–YOU are not alone. Because evidently everyone feels most of this most of the time (N=the 3 people I’ve talked to). These worries are all ego garbage, but I think you must be egomaniacal to want to get a PhD in Information. Or any PhD. So I have revealed my shallow non-depths. I’m sure you’re not surprised.

(BTW, if you feel pity or something and you’re aching to help me out, here are a few gift ideas. I especially love the coffee bucks and journal subscription ideas. I would like Libraries Quarterly, please. AND.)

On the plus side, I found that my first research article has been accepted. It’s actually a two-part article and the first part was accepted as written (which is bizarre, I can’t imagine there was nothing improvable in it) and the second part with revisions, which I turned around in under 24 hours (even though it involved 5 hours of painstaking table creation). Yet seeing the email from the editor in my inbox caused stress. That sort of “oh dear deity-of-your-choice I am terrified to open this email, I shall proceed to do other things for five minutes until I can’t stand it anymore” stress. And my stomach had actual butterflies (anise swallowtails, I believe). Even good things now cause unforeseen quantities of stress.

So, to sum up, right now I am worried about my “first day” which is technically on Wed., but I have meetings and orientations on Monday (i.e. tomorrow) and Tuesday but I still feel like this:

By this time next year I expect to look like this:

(cartoons thanks to a funny blog at http://public.randomnotes.org/richard/PhDtalk.html)

Most of all of this talk of worry is to make apparent to the people who tolerate me, that I’m sorry in advance. I love you, I am stressed about missing you already, I am concerned I will be a terrible mother/relative/friend. I feel I can do nothing about this. And I hope you understand.

See you in a few years.