Makerspaces: Aotearoa New Zealand: The Labs for adults: is the change all in our heads?

Tuesday, 11 August 2015

The Labs for adults: is the change all in our heads?

We’ve been documenting the evolution of The Labs at Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh since 2012, when the project had just secured a pilot grant. It’s all grown up now, and has evolved into a thoughtful and responsive makerspace model that adds real value to to the conversation. Check out the whole series on The Labs @ CLP. Enjoy! ~Erinn

by Dan Hensley

Perhaps we’ve been a makerspace all along and just haven’t quite realized it.

The Labs has, from its very early days, been closely monitored by many of us at Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (CLP) who work outside of Teen Services. The Labs team members have been terrific models of what it means to be a learning organization for the CLP staff, and as they have moved through the many iterations of The Labs, have adapted their practices to meet the needs of both the organization and, most importantly, the needs and preferences of the community. The rest of us have a lot to learn from The Labs.

To this end, Corey and the rest of The Labs team have been very generous in sharing their practices and the philosophies that underpin them. As Corey outlined in an earlier piece about the Learning with The Labs professional development (PD) initiative, many of our staff have responded very enthusiastically to opportunities to develop their maker skills. And as libraries across the country continue to open fabrication labs and makerspaces (and as we see adults in our own libraries looking longingly at The Labs’ sites), there are clear indications that the maker movement is here to stay.

The question, then, that I face as Adult Programming Coordinator at CLP is how to build on this work to create a Labs environment for adults? Having had the benefit of watching The Labs develop over the past few years, I have a clear idea of some of the characteristics that I want to emulate in adult services.

For one, The Labs has a distributed service model that emphasizes staff knowledge and a willingness to infuse all of their programming with the principles of making. To me, this will be the key to our success for a number of reasons. As a system of 19 library locations serving 90 neighborhoods, our customers are best served by having access to high quality tools and mentorship in as many locations as possible. For now, a central fabrication lab is not an option, and even if it were, it might not be desirable.

As a system of 19 library locations serving 90 neighborhoods, our customers are best served by having access to high quality tools and mentorship in as many locations as possible.

We have made some strides in offering maker programs largely through the efforts of Wes Roberts, Library Services Manager for Workforce and Economic Development, and his staff in the Library’s Job and Career Education Center (JCEC) who leveraged a 2013 LSTA grant to purchase 3D printers, iMacs, and other technology, and to reconfigure their space in CLP – Main to accommodate a collaborative approach to technology learning. While Wes and his team continue to work to develop maker programs in the commonly accepted sense of the term, a broader and more subtle change is beginning to take root in our library, one that I believe will have a major impact on our ability to foster creativity and curiosity in all of our community members, regardless of age. While a lot of what gets initially noticed about The Labs is the gadgets (guitars! vinyl! cutters! iMacs!) and capital improvements to create amazing spaces, to me the heart and soul of its success as an initiative has been the ability of Corey and his team to situate every single thing that happens in The Labs within the concrete and evidence-based framework of Connected Learning.

While a lot of what gets initially noticed about The Labs is the gadgets (guitars! vinyl! cutters! iMacs!)… the heart and soul of The Labs’ success is the evidence-based framework of Connected Learning.

This is huge! Connected Learning provides a context and creates a pathway so that what may start as casual fun (hanging out) might turn into a real affinity and a chance to explore something creative (messing around) which could ultimately turn into a valuable skill or experience (geeking out). Viewed through this lens, much programming that has been perceived in the past as frivolous or just a passive activity to pass the time could, with some careful thought and intentionality in the planning process, be tied together into a greater ecosystem of learning, socializing, and building community through creative activity.

Looking at our adult programming calendar, it is possible to see making everywhere– gardening, knitting, writing, crafting. Perhaps we’ve been a makerspace all along and just haven’t quite realized it, but making those connections in our own thinking and practice will enable us to begin to make those connections for our library users.

Want More?

Check out all the posts in our ongoing series on The Labs, starting in 2012, when the initiative was still in early planning!
Connect with The Labs @ CLP crew online, on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram.

Dan Hensley is the Adult Programming Coordinator at Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Before coming to CLP, Dan was a reference and instruction librarian in some terrific academic and public libraries in San Francisco and Pittsburgh. This photo was taken during a Learning with The Labs workshop.