Saturday 30 September 2017

Friday 29 September 2017

Tips of the Week: Rolling Epoxy Putty in Flour, Cooling Plastic-Drilling with Water, Clever Uses of Black Hot Glue

A week of top tips for drilling, tapping, pressing, and rolling out epoxy like it's bread dough.

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Welcome to the Maker Culture in Turkey

Istanbul's featured Maker Faire is sure to be a wonderful experience.

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Prank Your Friends with This Chirping, Blinking Throwie

This tiny circuit will annoy friends and family with its piezo buzzer that makes unwanted sounds, and an LED that will blink in the wee hours of the night.

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Casa Jasmina Explores the Meaning of the Maker Home of the Future

Upstairs from the Torino Fab Lab, Casa Jasmina is a home where objects and services are made by open source, maker-style methods.

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Thursday 28 September 2017

How to Age and Distress Wood

A few quick video primers on how to weather, age, and beat up wood for an antique look.

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Edible Innovations: Text This Machine and It Will Get You a Coffee

Matthew Oswald is an innovator who's responsible for creating Mugsy, the world’s first hackable, customizable, robotic coffee maker.

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Late @ the Library: Ultimate Maker Party

by Ann Miller, Makerspace Coordinator at Mead Public Library

Imagine a gorgeous Friday evening in July.  You’ve just finished your long work week, and you are ready to mingle with friends and relax.  Where do you go?

To our complete delight, the answer turned out to be Mead Public Library.  For months we planned our first adults-only, after hours program.  We set a steep attendance goal for ourselves of 50-100 participants, and we acknowledged that starting on a Friday night in summer was a huge gamble, but we were game for the challenge.

The program was Late @ the Library: Ultimate Maker Party, and it was the beginning of a new series for us.  We offered making activities that were tech and craft, and we invited some of our neighbors to help.  

The event began at 6:00 pm, and we had a line at the front doors waiting to get in.  The mood was set with upbeat popular hits from the 1980s, 1990s, and early aughts and the tantalizing aroma of tapas and sangria-like punch by Luz de Luna, a local Spanish restaurant.  

We set the activities along a designated path between our first and second floors.  As guests were greeted at the front, they were invited to make their own souvenir Late @ the Library button pin before entering the first room which contained the food, virtual reality play, and a wheel of activities that could be spun if they couldn’t decide what to do first.

The path next led to the Red Raider Robotics team, who had competed at the FIRST Robotics WORLD competition.  They demonstrated and allowed test driving of their team-built robot, as well as taught color coding with our Ozobots and managed our Sphero obstacle course.

Photo courtesy of Josh Lintereur.

Photo courtesy of Josh Lintereur.

Our 2nd floor offered tables for making artbots, paper flowers and bling magnets, catapult building and launching, Lego construction, and a giant mural for coloring.  The Imaginarium, our makerspace, featured rock painting with Becky Bickner of Sheboygan Rocks! and the creation of plant pets, sock creatures that sprout seeds, with Allissa Montgomery of Bookworm Gardens.

At the end of the path was our Circuit Playground which was managed by Tim Pasche and his volunteers from MAKER Break and the Étude Group.  In this room you could watch 3D printer demonstrations while experimenting with littleBits, Makey Makey, LilyPad, Arduino, Lego Mindstorms, and Raspberry Pi practice kits.  By the end of the evening a Lego Wall-e was zooming around greeting guests while they tried their hand at the Makey Makey banana piano.

When the day was done, we were elated to discover that our goal of 50-100 attendees was exceeded by the whopping turnout of 168 people.  Not only that, attendees stayed for the entire evening to try nearly everything and to simply laugh and converse while they were making.

We were packed with makers age 18 through retirement, but nothing felt rushed or crowded.  Everyone was there to have a good time.  A few even shared that it was their date night and that they hoped we would do this again.  We were especially excited that we had a lot of 30-somethings in attendance.  For us, that age group is a demographic that we struggle to attract to our programs.

The only major issue that we had was due to playlist playing problems.  I was forced to improvise by playing the music off of my old and not fully charged iPod through our PA system.  This led to my device announcing, “Battery low”, when the music stopped at 9:00 pm.  The message was laughed at by all and turned out to be a perfect way to announce that the evening had come to its end.



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Wednesday 27 September 2017

Curious and Curiouser: Romance in the Glasshouse

by Rebecca Hopman

The Rakow Research Library’s current exhibition, Curious and Curiouser: Surprising Finds from the Rakow Library, explores themes of surprise, curiosity, and inspiration in the library. One of our main goals for the exhibition was to show the many ways the Rakow Library has been used as an incubator, and to inspire visitors to see it as a place they can be creative.

Many people who visit the Library expect to find scholarly and technical information, but few realize that we also have a fiction collection. Because our mission is to collect comprehensively on the subject of glass, we include fiction that deals with glass and glassmaking. You can find books like Glassigator by Dan and Allison Dailey, Shadows in the Glasshouse by Megan McDonald, and The Glass-Blowers by Daphne du Maurier among many others on our shelves.

We even have several romance novels, including The Glassmakers Saga. Written by Donna Baker (a penname for British romance novelist Lilian Harry), this trilogy follows the lives and loves of the Henzel family of glassmakers.

Baker first decided to write about glassmakers when she saw the “glowing red-hot furnaces” of the Stuart Crystal glasshouse in Stourbridge, England. “The sight was so dramatic that it immediately caught my imagination,” she recalls. She went back to that glasshouse several times to see the glassblowers at work, and spent much of her time going through primary sources like 19th-century trade journals to set the scene for her stories.

Crystal and Black Cameo, the first two books in the series, take place in Europe, but Chalice, the final book, brings the Henzels across the Atlantic to Corning, NY. Known as the Crystal City for its high production of American Brilliant Cut Glass, Corning became home to many early 20th-century immigrants talented in cutting and engraving glass.

Baker traveled to Corning to familiarize herself with the town and its rich history of glassmaking. She “walked the streets for miles, traced the route of the Monkey Run* and visualised the effects of the great flood of 1872.” She spent time in The Corning Museum of Glass and spoke with a local historian. And, of course, she spent time researching local glass industry history at the Rakow Library. Baker used many resources at the Library, including histories of Corning cut glass firms, biographies of local glassmakers, and historical sketches of the town and county.

You could say that Corning, its residents, and the Rakow Library served as one big incubator for Baker’s work. She would certainly agree – “All of this informed and inspired my own work and, I hope, resulted in a book which even the residents of Corning could enjoy!”

Laura and Erinn were super excited to discover the series when they visited the Museum in 2015

Curious? Learn more about the exhibition by reading the monthly posts published on the CMoG blog and the LAIP blog, and follow us on social media at @corningmuseum.

*Monkey Run is a conduit for rainwater that was built to prevent flooding of the town and glass factories.

 

This post is shared here with permission from the CMOG and the Rakow Research Library. 

 

profilepic_hopmanRebecca Hopman is the Outreach Librarian at The Rakow Research Library of The Corning Museum of Glass. She has worked in a number of libraries and archives since 2005 and received her MLS from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2012. When she’s not at the library, you might find her embroidering, writing snail mail, or cheering on the Chicago Cubs. Follow her on tumblrextabulis.tumblr.com.



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Tuesday 26 September 2017

Quick Modeling Tip: Sprue Makes Great Greeble!

Turn plastic sprue material into cool-looking details on your models.

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When Things Start to Gossip and Other Computational Matters

What are the implications of our devices exchanging information about our identities, abilities, and actions? They're all quite the gossip.

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Maker Pro News: Foodtech Founders, 3D Printing on the Factory Floor, and More

Maker pros in both the food and 3D printing fields worked hard last week in prep for World Maker Faire New York.

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Edible Innovations: This Designer Created a Chocolate Mold from a Wine Box and Vacuum

Sebastian is a food designer and entrepreneur. He's recently crafted a new type of chocolate that has been molded to look like mountains.

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#IArtLibraries | Music History: The Chuck Brown /Go-Go Archive at DC Public Library

This post originally appeared on the Library as Incubator Project in August 2012.

by Erinn Batykefer

As any music buff knows, a light went out this past May when Chuck Brown, the “godfather of Go-go,” died at Johns Hopkins Hospital at the age of 75.  Go-go is something of a DC phenomenon; the genre developed in the 70s and has evolved into a hip-shaking blend of funk, R&B, and early hip-hop that relies on jam grooves and call-and-response vocals, with notable artists like The Young Senators, Black Heat, and of course,  Chuck Brown and The Soul Searchers.

This photo was taken on September 15, 2010 in Mount Vernon Square, Washington, DC, US, using an Apple iPhone. Via Flickr user, Burnt Pixel.

Go-go still thrives as a regional form in the DC Metro area.  It is inextricably linked to the history and culture of the city, and Chuck Brown is acknowledged as its driving creative force.  So it makes sense that the DC Public Library has big plans to memorialize Chuck Brown with a one-of-a-kind archival collection that will be part of their Washingtoniana Special Collection.

According to Washingtoniana Archivist Derek Gray, DCPL’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library is in the midst of a massive 40th birthday party this week, and festivities will include some outreach for the growing collection of Chuck Brown / Go-Go ephemera:

“The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library will be celebrating its 40th anniversary from Tuesday, August 21 to Saturday, August, 25.  The closing event for the celebration will be a 70s-style family block party.  I plan  to speak briefly about the Archive; Jimi Dougans, founding member of the Young Senators, will also speak about his group and Go-go’s cultural impact on the city.  We’ll have a table set up to accept donations of materials related to Chuck Brown and Go-go, and hopefully this latest outreach effort will be successful!”

Want to get involved?

Learn how you can contribute to the Chuck Brown/Go-Go Archive:

And stay tuned for updates on this #libraryasincubator collection in the future!



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Monday 25 September 2017

5 Super-Useful 3D Printable Tools

Actually useful, everyday tools that you can print from any 3D printer.

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Math Monday: Marbinary Counter

counting marbles, with math!

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Two New Trotbots Mean More Agility And Cheaper Builds

Adding toes makes a huge difference in how these multi-legged TrotBots can move. They are now much faster than they were before.

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Keep Your Cabinets Secure with a Touch-Sensitive Lock

Keep the contents of your cabinets secure from your children with this touch-sensitive lock that is hidden in plain site.

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Sunday 24 September 2017

Maker Faire Producers from Across the Globe Convene at Maker Faire New York 2017

Producers from across the global network of Maker Faires glean all kinds of inspiration and hard skills at Maker Faire New York 2017.

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This Week in Making: Visit World Maker Faire New York, Make a Smarter Home, and More

This week, we travelled to New York for World Maker Faire. Be sure to catch up on all the exhibits via our live blog and live stream.

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Saturday 23 September 2017

Arduino Widens Wireless Offerings With Two New Boards

Today at World Maker Faire New York, Massimo Banzi took stage to unveil two new Arduino boards, the long-range radio (LoRa)-equipped MKR WAN 1300 and the cellular-capable MKR GSM 1400. 

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Dremel Announces 40 Watt Laser Cutter

Dremel enters the laser cutter market with very nice looking machine.

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Josef Prusa Announces New Prusa i3 MK3 at Maker Faire New York

Prusa Research has launched their new 3D printer the MK3 at Maker Faire New York and we have a review of an early unit.

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Slinging Pies: The Winner of Our 2016 Maker Faire Pizza Oven Giveaway Checks In

For anyone who dares to try making it, pizza is more than food. It’s a time-honored quest that promises challenge and frustration and, most importantly, a sense of delight that transcends bodily nourishment. Building my own outdoor brick pizza oven was a fun and fitting way to start a journey […]

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Live Updates from Maker Faire New York

Not in New York for Maker Faire? Check back here often for live updates from the ground as we rove the fairegrounds in search of robots, sawdust, bubbles, fire, and magic. SATURDAY: It is early and bright and breezy here in Queens as Maker Faire kicks off. Gates open at 10am, […]

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Friday 22 September 2017

Tips of the Week: Epoxy Palettes, Magnets in the Shop, Making Your Own Solder Flux

A fine week of solder, glue, flux, and paint tips. And how to use magnets in the shop.

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More Computer Science isn’t the Answer

Whenever we encounter some exciting new technology, the first question we ask ourselves is how do we use this to make the world a better place?

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Makers Lend a Hand in the Wake of Hurricane Harvey and Prep for Maker Faire Houston

Houston's first fully featured Faire takes place next month on October 22 and 23, with a special emphasis on humanitarian aid for hurricane victims.

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Can’t Make it to Maker Faire New York? Don’t Miss Our Live Stream!

If you're not in New York, you can still get the Maker Faire experience by tuning in to our live stream on YouTube!

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The Man Who Makes Lightning on Demand

Electrical engineer Greg Leyh is no stranger to high voltage. He invites it, measures it, and controls it.

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Designing an Adorable Robot and Killing It on Stage to Teach Empathy

How do you teach someone empathy with a life-less robot? It's easy, you just build something cute and then kill it.

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Thursday 21 September 2017

Understanding Gas Pump Credit Card Skimmers

SparkFun teams with law enforcement to better understand gas station skimmers and to take evasive action.

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These Robotic Friends Teach Kids How to Code

Wonder Workshops' robots Dot and Cue are both valuable tools for teaching aspiring programmers how to code.

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Three Women Making Waves on the Colorado Maker Scene

These three women have all had a large impact on their respective maker communities. Meet them all at Maker Faire Denver.

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Edible Innovations: 6 More Food Makers Coming to Maker Faire New York

Here are six more food makers and maker pros that you have to meet if you are going to World Maker Faire New York.

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Strictly Analog | Developing a Gaming Program at your Library

by Kristy Bowen

Gaming and libraries are often a perfect match.  As community gathering spots, libraries offer ample opportunities for members to come together, both for social interaction and intellectual stimulation.  Resources and collections fill a great supporting role for games like trivia nights and scavenger hunts.   In addition, collections of circulating games, be they analog or digital, can be quite popular, and offer users access to materials they might not have at home.  Analog gaming, which requires little in the way of expensive equipment and gaming modules, is a great way to get a lot of programming mileage out of very little money.

Building a Collection of Games

If your library is able to purchase games as a part of your collection development, you are at a distinct advantage.  There are, however, other ways to build a collection of games that don’t require a lot of financial investment.

Consider a donation drive.  Many people have rarely played and barely used game sets sitting around at home.  Ideally they will be completely intact with all parts and pieces included.  If you are, in fact, missing any valuable components, it’s an excellent chance to make creative new ones, either by hand or with a 3-D printer.  Cards and play money can always be reprinted and laminated if needed.

Thrift stores, estate sales, and garage sales are also an excellent place to pick up board games at a steal and usually have a wide selection of newer and classic games to fill out a collection (sometimes still wrapped in the plastic they came in.)

If you’re wondering where to start, you can begin with some of the classics (checkers, chess, Monopoly, Uno, Yahtzee) and then pick up newer and trendy/ popular games as user interest warrants.

Inexpensive & Creative Programming Ideas

Board, Card, & Tabletop Game Nights

Each semester, The CCC Library kicks off the semester with an Old School Board Game Night that gives students, new and old, a chance to mingle and play games they are most likely somewhat familiar with.  You can also organize events around a single game or subject matter, ie. an event featuring different types of Monopoly games with various pop culture themes, or a tournament devoted to word games (Scrabble, Boggle, Scattergories).  The community gathering aspect also works well for card and role playing games like Magic:  The Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons, particularly since these types of games often have avid and passionate fans that the library can help bring together.

Trivia Nights

Across the country, trivia nights in bars, cafes, and other venues are booming. On any given night in any city, you can find a venue perfect for fine tuning and displaying your wealth of knowledge general (pop culture, science, history) and incredibly specific (The Simpsons, The Walking Dead) Libraries, as centers of information and resources, are the perfect place for the creation and implementation of trivia programming.    Columbia College Library’s Gaming Society regularly hosts trivia nights in a variety of focus areas, (horror films, 80’s teen movies) as well as more general specialty areas (Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer). 

Consider your audience and what may be a popular topic. In an academic library like Columbia, you can also work with interest groups on campus and specific classes to develop and participate in trivia areas of expertise.   For example, a French Revolution class could host a trivia bowl in the library to test their knowledge against the general campus community to prepare for an exam.  You could also pit faculty and students against each other in a variety of subject areas. 

You can either garner questions from existing trivia games you may have access to or find questions online (or even better, develop your own questions in areas you or your staff are familiar with). Once you have your subject matter, decide whether your game will be individuals or teams?  How many rounds and categories?  What will determine the winner?

Scavenger Hunts

Scavenger Hunts are a perfect way to get users exploring the library and what it has to offer.  Clues and paths can be wrought among the libraries physical and electronic resources and are an excellent way to get patrons exploring what you have to offer.   Scavenger hunts are often a great idea for new library users to get used to using the online catalog, databases, and build familiarity with whatever classification system you use.  The hunts themselves can be as simple or as complicated as needed, employing simple trivia (where the clues are straight forward) or advanced puzzles and games that allow patrons to work together or alone to solve the hunt.  Such hunts are also great team building and socialization opportunities perfect for orientations and the beginning of the term.  The Columbia Library’s ARTCACHE (co-sponsored with the Aesthetics of Research initiative) is an art exhibit and scavenger hunt rolled into one, where participants use a set of clues and trivia questions to find the hidden interactive exhibit.   In the Fall of 2016, the library hosted a Search for the Sorcerer’s Stone, a Harry Potter hunt that featured games and puzzles that had to be solved to find the coveted stone.  

Murder Mysteries

Murder mystery events are a fun and creative way to highlight library spaces and resources, as well as create interesting and memorable experiences for users.  There are many approaches to hosting a mystery, some as simple as purchasing a pre-made “Mystery in a Box” set, some as complex as creating your own custom mystery from scratch.  Instructions for creating your own custom event can also be found online with a little googling.

There are also a multitude of ways to play.  In some, patrons move through the game based on strategically placed clues to solve the mystery.  Others are even more interactive, with participants taking on the part of characters and acting out roles.  You can set up the mystery in any way you prefer—singles or teams, as well as determine how tricky your mystery is to solve—red herrings, false leads, etc.

Such mysteries are an excellent chance to get library users comfortable and familiar with your spaces, as well as your databases and other resources.  The CCC Library has hosted mysteries that involved clue locations that had to be determined by using the catalog or finding specific pieces of information (or specific locales in the library) to proceed.

Themes can also be great fun.  Last spring, we incorporated a baking themed mystery game (The Bundt Cake Bump-Off) into our annual Edible Books event (whose theme itself was “Mysteries”).  This year, we hosted an 80’s Horror Themed Prom Mystery and featured costumes, 80’s Music, and a murdered prom queen.  

Promotion and Prizes

The CCC Library Gaming Society has done a number of promotions that have had great impact.  The Society, initially called “The Gaming Committee” when it was started in 2013, eventually became the “Gaming Society”, a name which invites “members” (ie. all interested persons) to help coordinate and facilitate the events they are interested in seeing happen.

We have also had dynamic partnerships with other entities on campus, most notably the college’s Harry Potter Club, The Muggles, who have collaborated with us on several events related to Harry Potter and other fandoms. In the Fall of 2016, The Gaming Society, co-sponsored GAME ON:  A Miscellany of Tabletop, Board and Card Game Art, and exhibit which featured game related visual art on the Library’s 1st & 2nd floor. 

This fall, we are implementing a ticket incentive, where both attendance and winning at gaming events will furnish players with arcade style tickets that can be redeemed for prizes of varying sizes throughout the semester. We are also hosting our first every GOOGLE BOWL, a sort of trivia game in reverse, that will land in various spots on campus throughout the semester and offer more chances to win tickets.

Our prizes for gaming events have won the gamut from simple ready-made items like prize baskets of treats to items made in the library using our Maker Lab equipment and other supplies–a creepy doll head trophy plaque for Horror Movie Trivia Night, a customized letter opener (the murder weapon) for the Horror Prom, 3-D Printed Game of Thrones Objects, a themed coloring book for Buffy the Vampire Slayer trivia night. There are also plenty of other ideas that can happen with a little bit more funding—new game giveaways, gift certificates to game stores (brick & mortar or online), Amazon gift cards, etc.

But whatever resources you are working with, with a bit of ingenuity, you can create a thriving and popular gaming series at your library.

A writer and visual artist, Kristy Bowen is an Access Services Assistant at Columbia College Chicago Library and Co-Curator of The Aesthetics of Research,  an ongoing project dedicated to exploring the role that libraries and their collections play in artistic process, creative community building, and resource-sharing in the arts.



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Wednesday 20 September 2017

Maker Spotlight: Elizabeth Kruger

Inspired by what she witnessed at Anime Milwaukee in 2013, Elizabeth Kruger has taken up cosplay to express her creative side.

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Join Adafruit’s Discord Channel Now To Organize Your Trip To Maker Faire New York

Adafruit's Discord channel can help you collaborate during maker faire weekend

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Fill Your New York Maker Faire Weekend With More Wonderful Events

There's a non-stop flow of events to check out after Maker Faire!

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Maker Faire Milwaukee Attempts to Set World Record for Largest Gathering of Daleks

never before have so many Daleks come to one place to EXTERMINTE!

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Culinary Arts Programming at the Johnson County (KS) Library

By Bryan Voell

Curious about the intersection between the culinary arts and the library? Look no further than Johnson County (KS) Library’s An Edible Discussion program series. Launched in 2014 by Information Specialist Caitlin Perkins at JCL’s Corinth Library branch, this unique monthly series has only grown in popularity over the last three years, bringing local chefs, business owners, culinary experts and dietitians (not to mention lots of food) to the library to the delight of many patrons. Caitlin Perkins was kind enough to provide some background and insights into these delicious programs. Enjoy!

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Give us your elevator speech about An Edible Discussion. What is it and what are the mission, vision and goal(s)?

An Edible Discussion is a monthly food program that focuses on a different food or genre every month, such as Paleo, breakfast foods, Mexican, chocolate, etc. The program is a community potluck where everyone attending brings a dish that is in line with that month’s theme. Patrons are provided with a variety of cookbooks in the month leading up to the event and encouraged to experiment with recipes in their own kitchen. The other component of the program is an educational element where we feature a guest speaker who is an expert in that month’s theme. These speakers can be local restaurant or business owners, chefs, certified experts, dietitians, and so on.

The goals of this event are to bring together people in the community who have similar interests, to promote local businesses, and to educate about a variety of every changing topics within the realm of food. Food is a great equalizer and a wonderful way to pull people of variant backgrounds together as one.

Tell us how An Edible Discussion originated. What were the challenges to bringing such a program to the Corinth Library?

The idea sparked from a program run in Lawrence. I can’t remember the specifics of that program any more (I read about it in some article at that time), or even if it was a one-off or a monthly, but it involved food, cookbooks, and a speaker and I thought it was genius. I half-jokingly pitched my half-formed idea of a monthly program with different speakers and themes to (Adult Services Manager and former Corinth Manager) Kinsley Riggs and she (a fellow foodie) supported it! While I was surprised, I quickly began forming a real design plan. Joseph Keehn (JCL Events Producer) was instrumental in getting the ball rolling and fielded the idea to a non-library focus group who helped form the official title.

The biggest challenge in the beginning was getting the word out to patrons. I drove around Prairie Village asking any business I thought might agree if they’d let me post a flier of the program. I was well received, but like any program, my attendance was low at first. Then I got a big break: Mary Pepitone, a writer for the Kansas City Star and Corinth patron, heard about the program and asked if she could feature me and the program in the Star. Of course I agreed and BAM! Literally overnight, the program grew. I had tons of patrons coming in asking about it and my attendance more than tripled. Now I have the opposite issue where the Corinth Meeting Room isn’t large enough some months, depending on the presenter/theme (both chocolate and tea brought in 50+ people).

The program also seemed really expensive at first when I had to order all the plates, bowls, cups, napkins, utensils, etc. Since I now only order when something is running low, there isn’t quite the sticker shock of ordering everything at once, and buying in bulk (now that we know the program will continue) also cuts down the cost.

Photos: An Edible Discussion at Johnson County (KS) Library’s Corinth Library

What are the ongoing challenges to running An Edible Discussion program?

The biggest continual issue is getting a monthly speaker and theme that will be both engaging and intriguing to the public. Sometimes I send out a bunch of invites and don’t hear anything back for months. I don’t want to extend too many feelers in case everyone eventually shows interest, but I also can’t wait forever in the hopes that they’re just slow to respond to emails. Sometimes I have someone who actually seeks me out (which is awesome), but it’s on a theme we’ve already done (sometimes we’ve already done it twice even!). In that case, it becomes a game of finding a related topic that’s different but that the speaker still feels comfortable speaking on and will properly highlight their restaurant/business/specialty. It takes a lot of time and thought to continually solicit new speakers who will come for free.  

What new partnerships were created with An Edible Discussion, either with organizations or individual community members?

Well, I think we’ve had around 40 speakers come now, so that’s 40 organizations that we’ve been able to promote and who’ve had a positive experience with the library. I love when a presenter tells me at the end of the evening that they’ve had a great time and would love to do this again, either with the same topic or a different topic. To me, that’s the ultimate win.

I’ve also seen friendships bloom among habitual attendees. I know of two gals who are now great friends (and who come to other programs together now too) who first met at An Edible Discussion. There is a brother-sister duo who have been coming for years and shortly after that started attending, they told me this has rekindled their relationship. They plan ahead of time what they’ll make and they do a test run beforehand. This gives them an activity together and a date night, plus then coming to the program together as an additional event together. These wonderful feel-good stories from the program are numerous. We have a mother-in-law/daughter-in-law duo who also use this as a bonding activity, countless husband and wife duos who cook together, and we’ve even had a few kids come with a parent, proud of whatever dish they’ve made. I’m always touched and amazed by the heart that people put into their food and the joy they get from sharing it with strangers.

What advice do you have for other libraries thinking about doing a similar program?

Gauge your community and the level of food interest. Restaurants or businesses that aren’t chains make for more interesting speakers, so a wide range of speaker options is important. Spreading the word about the program may take time, but word of mouth has been crucial to An Edible Discussion’s success at Corinth. Talk, talk, talk about the event with as many patrons as you can. If you see that someone is checking out a cookbook, mention to them the fun monthly program we feature, and the theme for this month. And don’t be afraid to go out into the community when seeking out new speakers. It’s often easier to talk to someone in person and on their own turf about the program than it is to describe all the details in email. I’ve noticed that meeting face to face also makes the program more personal and I’m often more successful recruiting a speaker this way. Oh, and lastly, personability with those attending is key. Make them feel welcome, try to remember the regulars by name, and always reiterate that bringing a dish is not required and that all are encouraged to eat, with or without a food contribution. ALL are welcome!

Bryan Voell is currently the Local Arts Librarian for the Johnson County (KS) Library. He received his MLIS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2007 and has worked for public, academic, and research libraries in various capacities since 1997. He is also a collage artist and you can see more of his art here.



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Learn the Basics of JavaScript with MakeCode

Without a doubt, one of the most valuable skills in our modern day world is being able to program. One of the best teachers is MakeCode.

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Tuesday 19 September 2017

Making Your Own Solar Cells from Powdered Donuts?

Make a photovoltaic solar cell using common household items... and donuts!

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Get a Raspberry Pi and a Trip to Vegas With Our Z-Wave Smart Home Maker Challenge

Make: and Sigma Designs want to see what the maker community can do with Sigma's open source Z-Wave technology.

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Maker Pro News: Maker Health at Maker Faire, Pebble Founder’s Comeback, and More

Prior to World Maker Faire New York, you will want to take a look at these maker pros and what they've been up to. Some will be at the Faire.

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Edible Innovations: 7 Food Makers Coming to Maker Faire New York

You'll want to check out these seven food makers at 2017's World Maker Faire New York. Each will be bringing their projects to the Faire.

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Monday 18 September 2017

Quick Tip: Make a Guitar Practice Amp for Under $35

Turn a guitar headphone amp and a vibration speaker into a decent practice amp.

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Register Today for the Make: Education Forum

Join us on Friday, September 22, for the third annual Make: Education Forum in New York.

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Math Monday: Marble Machines

Math inspiration can come from anywhere

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See a Light Show at Grand Central Station Celebrating Women in STEM

“Unseen Stars,” a light show celebrating women in STEM, will be projected onto the ceiling of Grand Central Station from September 19-21.

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Draw Abstract Art with a Random Number Generator

This number generator squiggles the numbers it produces as a flurry of random lines in an artistic interpretation of abstract art.

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Sunday 17 September 2017

This Week in Making: Combat Arthropod, DIY Standing Desk, and Maker Share

This week, check out these combat ready robots, build your own standing desk, and create your Maker Share account (if you haven't already).

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#IArtLibraries | Book Dominoes at New Lynn War Memorial Library

This post originally appeared on the Library as Incubator Project in October 2013.

Today we feature a super-cool, super-fun young adult program sent to us by Rachel Widerstrom, a librarian at the Auckland (NZ) Libraries’ New Lynn War Memorial Library branch. The Book Domino program was inspired by a challenge put to New Zealand librarians by education/programming consultant Matt Finch (you remember him, from the fantastic Zombies in the Library program!). Everyone at the New Lynn War Memorial Library took the idea and ran with it, from the library administrator to the young adults who made it all happen. Read on for details and lots of fun photos and video of the event. ~ Laura

by Rachel Widerstrom

New Lynn War Memorial Library in Auckland, New Zealand.

New Lynn War Memorial Library in Auckland, New Zealand.

I’m Children’s and Youth Librarian at New Lynn, with a background in the performing arts. When our teens started asking what they’d be doing for the school holidays, I thought the book domino challenge would be perfect. Our Learning Centre Coordinator Nathan Grange is a talented amateur filmmaker, so he took charge of recording the activity, while over about 6 sessions and 8 hours a dozen teens and staff members created an epic book domino running through our beautiful library.

This was a great opportunity to showcase the skills of both staff and library users, as well as developing relationships, trust, and respect with local teens.

The teenagers really enjoyed being a bit ‘special’ in the library – they were allowed in the workroom, lunchroom etc and in the library after hours, and I would give them my swipe card to allow them to move around and complete the set-up as needed. They learned library routines and would get the stored books from the lunchroom, and put them back after.

There was fun, laughter, silliness, and lots of great moments of books falling when they shouldn’t and having to be reset. We did one session without Nathan and the kids took even more control over the shot/how the books would be set-up.

My manager Mary was hugely supportive and said that she was keen to build relationships with our teen customers, draw out the hidden skills of our staff, and ‘put New Lynn Library on the map’. Our local high schools are not that geographically convenient to the library, so while we have good relationships with them we would love to see more students coming into the library. This adventure made a name for our branch with the schools and Auckland Libraries, got the teens sharing the video on social media, and generally helped people to notice that New Lynn Library exists and is awesome! It was a real breakthrough that the teens actually felt they were doing something in the library that was cool and fun, and valued by both the manager and the staff.

At the end of the session Matt Finch rewarded our efforts with a cake. We invited the hard-working teens into our staff room to share the prize with us.

bookdominoes5

This is only the beginning for us – we’re looking forward to taking these relationships further and really developing the teens’ own filmmaking skills next time, too.

Matt Finch, whose Book Domino challenge inspired this program, has more ideas and resources that librarians and other educators can use at his website, Books Adventures



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