About shannonbarniskis

I have worked in libraries since 1994, was a Youth Services Librarian for 13 of those years, and am now the director of a small public library in Wisconsin. I dig making stuff, tech, and people.

on Making It @ Your Library

Posted on May 4, 2013 by shannonbarniskis

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:

Audacity—free audio recording/editing
For-fee Digital Audio Worskshop programs: Frootyloops, Ableton
Inkscape: http://inkscape.org/ free drawing software
Blender http://www.blender.org/ free drawing and 3d rendering software
GIMP http://www.gimp.org/ free image editing
Autodesk Sketchbook Pro: For-fee drawing software
Handbrake: http://handbrake.fr/ video transcoder for reformatting video
Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/ post music online
Jing—free screencasts http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html
Esnips—hosts all sorts of media, including audio http://www.esnips.com/
VuScan: for-fee scanning software http://www.hamrick.com/
Lulu.com and Calibre http://calibre-ebook.com/ —ebook publishers
Liquidspace— https://liquidspace.com/ co-working booking site
Glogster: http://www.glogster.com/ a multimedia poster site
Audiomap: http://audiomap.tuneglue.net/ a music visualization site
Newsmap: http://newsmap.jp/\ visualize the news
Timelines: http://www.dipity.com/
ManyEyes data vis tools: http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes
Get more ideas on data visualization at: http://flowingdata.com/
Scratch: http://scratch.mit.edu/ a simple tool for building games
Necessary, but a lot of money: Adobe Suites such as CS5 Production. You may be able to get these very inexpensively through techsoup.com

Lists of what to do and buy for a makerspace:

The fantastic Makerspace Playbook!
Another Make Magazine list

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):

http://www.libraryasincubatorproject.org/
http://oedb.org/blogs/ilibrarian/2013/a-librarians-guide-to-makerspaces/
http://makerspace.com/repost/librarians-look-at-makerspaces
http://www.raincoast.com/blog/details/guest-post-cory-doctorow-for-freedom-to-read-week/
http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/2012/06/28/makerspaces-participatory-learning-and-libraries/
http://makerspace.com/repost/librarians-look-at-makerspaces
http://infospace.ischool.syr.edu/2011/12/01/a-makerspace-takes-over-a-local-library/
http://makerspace.com/2012/04/10/schools-making-makerspaces-verrado-middle-school-before-after/
Evans, W. (2009). Building Library 3.0: issues in creating a culture of participation. Oxford, England: Chandos Publishing.
Jacobsen, M., & Anthony, C. (2011). Build Your Own Digital Media Lab. Library Journal, 136(18), 36.
Jaeger, P. (2011). TRANSLITERACY — NEW LIBRARY LINGO AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR INSTRUCTION. Library Media Connection, 30, 44-47.
Kong, R. (2012). Media Lab Launcher. Library Journal, 137(5), 61.
McCue, T. (2011, November 15, 2011). First Public Library to Create a Maker Space. Forbes.
Nelson, J. (2009). Celebrating Scratch in libraries. School Library Journal, 55(5), 20-21.
Torrone, P. Is It Time to Retool Public LIbraries as TechShops? MAKE, 28.
Trimm, N. (2011). Not Just Literate, but Transliterate: Encouraging Transliteracy Adoption in Library Services. Colorado Libraries 36(1), 1-3.

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

Posted on March 1, 2013 by shannonbarniskis

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!

Posted on September 26, 2012 by shannonbarniskis

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”

Posted on August 26, 2012 by shannonbarniskis

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.

Sing it sister

Posted on August 2, 2012 by shannonbarniskis

I can’t hope to say this as well as Sarah Houghton. So read her blog: http://librarianinblack.net/librarianinblack/2012/08/ebookssuckitude.html

medialab update

Posted on July 6, 2012 by shannonbarniskis

Six people came to my “convert VHS to DVD” class yesterday, four of whom I’d never seen before. A few teens are using the medialab stuff. Slowly, slowly people become aware of the stuff being offered in the library. It’s not quite “build it and they will come” unfortunately. Somehow I need to make people aware that this stuff is here, and that it’s fun/useful to use it.

I’m working on a grant right now to get more makerspacey stuff: 3d printer, sewing machine, screen printing machine and painting supplies. I hope I can get this moving.

As for the older teens in my town: WTF? Are you telling me there’s SO MUCH to do in this tiny town, that you never even consider using the library? Hellooooooo, anyone out there? Why can I not get anyone over the age of 15 in the library? Do you flee the town as soon as you get your licenses?

(Can’t say I blame you, I was a teen in a small rural town–but mine didn’t have an awesome library filled with cool tech toys and rad programs.)

Didn’t-Even-Graduate-High-School-I-Was-So-Desperate-To-Leave, Illinois

Makerspace, the BD edition

Posted on May 28, 2012 by shannonbarniskis

I’m about to go to Rhode Island to talk about content creation in libraries at a conference, so I’ve been whipping up a powerpoint. A couple of days ago I simply googled “makerspace” so I could loot images from unsuspecting websites* and right there, halfway through the second page of hits was this:

This is exactly why I’ve been harping on this subject to anyone I could corner for years now: If libraries don’t get off their collective asses, some enterprising person will create a for-profit version of what we SHOULD be.

This makerspace will be cool for those with the money to join, but probably once again widen the have/have-not divide in tech & information. I mean, it will be wonderful for middle-class white geeks like my family, who can throw down some cash for a few hours at the Arduino workbench (yeah, I don’t actually know what that is, either.)

See, I’m thrilled about this potential makerspace right in my hometown of 16,000. But HOW STUPID are we (librarians) not to already be all over this bandwagon? So I guess I’m more thrillgusted than entirely thrilled, or entirely disgusted with my own colleagues (who seem to worry more about how many “shades of grey” they should or should not buy).

We (the city) have a perfectly good library building ideally situated for makerspace activities in downtown BD, with a fairly empty basement (I think) but I can’t see this library forming a makerspace partnership anytime soon. They’re pretty anti-crazyfunstuff at the BD library.

So. Free shared resource potential, probably down the tubes. I hope I’m wrong! I hope I’m all cranky for no good reason, and a brilliant and amazing makerspace partnership happens with the BD library. Note to all my librarian friends: If a (I’m sorry, I even live here) fairly lame-o, conservative, small town like BD is looking at building a makerspace, than this production revolution is REAL, not a fad or another chance for librarians to do our ostrich thing, then pout when we’re left out of the loop, a la ebooks.

By the way, I just ordered a Canopus VHS converter and a Canon slide/photo scanner, so my library’s digital media lab will hopefully be luring the older members of my library community to the Lomira >EnterCorporateSponsorNameHere< Community Library. Hopefully. And at least I’m trying to LOCATE the bandwagon, right?

And by the “by the way” (or post-post-script) was finding the BeaverDamMakerspace website this evidence of creepy Google knowing from whence I was searching? I don’t think so–I have all sorts of ‘track-me-not’ stuff running on my browser, and there were results from all over the country before this one. I just honestly think Beaver Dam, WI is THAT happening and cool (or, OK, some of the inhabitants are, like Mr. Jason Gullikson, who is the ringleader on this excellent project).

*I do add photo credits and aim for cc licensed works, but this ppt is for educational use and I am totally claiming fair use.

medialab

Posted on May 13, 2012 by shannonbarniskis

My new library is fabulous. Not only is it a gorgeous, people-centered space (as opposed to the book/stuff-centered look of most libraries), but the people who work there and on the board are fabulous. We’re starting work on our medialab, much like the fabulous Skokie Library’s.

So far we have a bamboo tablet, a dozen flip video cameras, a blue yeti microphone and some super cool software, like Autosketch Pro, on our medialab laptop. A couple of tripods. A camera. My goal is to eventually have a medialab space set up–possibly the larger of our two study rooms, and bring on the 3d printers etc. that would take it from a medialab to a makerspace.

Problem is, I can’t seem to sell this to some of my stakeholders. The Friends don’t get the point of this at all. Some patrons think it’s cool, but still don’t see why a library should offer this stuff. The local businesspeople I am trying to sell this stuff to–as a way to create a logo, record a video or podcast, design a webpage, and so on–seem perfectly fine with their non-digital status quo. Luckily the teens are all over this stuff.

Still, I am struggling. I can’t get all the stuff I need to make a full-fledged medialab without some money, and I can’t get the money without the buy-in of the Friends at least, and I can’t get the buy-in without having all the stuff to get people excited and making stuff. Holy Vicious Cycle, Batman. Once one adult business owner makes something cool with our equipment I’m sure the word will get out about its utility. But it’s hard to wait.

As soon as I get one or two more things I’ll host an open house and see if that gets people motivated. For now–anyone want to come play on some cool medialab equipment?

Guatemalan libraries (and schools)

Posted on April 3, 2012 by shannonbarniskis

Since this blog is ostensibly about libraries and not my travels, I thought I’d bring this series of posts on home with some commentary on Guatemalan libraries.

First of all, there are none. At least, not the way we think about public libraries in the States. In Xela, a city of 225,000 people, there is one public library, the Biblioteca Alberto Velásquez. And you cannot check out books or other materials here. The stacks are closed. The librarians, while friendly, sit behind a barred window. Essentially, this library is an archive, with a study area. One thing is familiar, at least to those with the old-school perception of libraries: the sign requesting silence.

While there are libraries in the universities, you can rarely check out those materials either. My teacher, who is a university student, explained that most of the items there were old and not terribly useful. It’s a tragedy, beautifully explained by Margaret Mering‘s in-depth examination of Quetzaltenango libraries.

There are many educational opportunities for middle-class and wealthy people in Guatemala, but education is often expensive and with many associated costs. The family I stayed with had several colegia students boarding with them–kids 14-18 years old, living in a room in the city, away from their parents, just so they can go do a decent high school. The public schools are notoriously overcrowded and underfunded (hmm…sounds familiar) and impact family finances by taking kids away from jobs. Child labor is a Guatemalan reality.

A University I walked past many days, the Rafael Landivar University. Xela has several universities and tech schools, but very few libraries.

There is a fantastic-sounding tech school in Xela, the INTECAP training school, which offers fairly low-cost training in everything from cooking to auto repair. It would be a great opportunity for poor students, but there are those associated costs again–not working, needing a place to live, travel, etc. And books in Guatemala cost a LOT.

So public libraries, with books that circulate, could be a major benefit in the educational lives of poorer Guatemalans, not to mention the social, cultural and other benefits that libraries offer. (However, as thirdspace, even the most lovely library would face stiff competition in Xela. After all, if you could hang out in the many parques, why bother being inside?)

Poverty is such a pervasive reality that I cannot imagine how a library would be able to serve the poorest populations without quickly becoming very run-down landing spots for the homeless. It’s a strong possibility that any library would lose books to those who are not used to the “borrowing” model of libraries. The high cost of books in Spanish would seriously hinder collection development.

Nevertheless, I would love to start an American-style public library in Xela. Anyone have a million dollars lying around? After all, I could build and staff the library pretty cheaply!

Librarians Without Borders and other library activism is evident in Guatemala. The next language school I am going to will probably be Probigua, which operates a bibliobus in rural areas near Antigua.