moving to the dark side...

Join me over at my new blog location: reading360.
In 2014 I'll be writing about the A in STEAM in maker culture, creative bibliotherapy, and geocaching. 

Happy new year!

Alison

Making it in libraries today - part 1

Zinesters hard at work via Brokelyn

Should a movement built on creativity have a definitive construct and place? Is a makerspace bound by four walls and a 3D printer or is it present in the hearts and minds of a community?

I took a while to understand the point of adding makerspaces to libraries because I wasn't connecting with the concept in any way. I think a lot of library staff would feel the same if a 3D printer suddenly materialised and people went mad for making monochrome plastic phone cases. 

So I've been exploring papers and posts and discovered that makerspaces didn't originate in libraries ;) Is it a hackerspace, makerspace, TechShop or FabLab?

'Dale and MAKE Magazine registered makerspace.com and started using the term to refer to publicly-accessible places to design and create (often times in the context of creating spaces for children).'

I think the term 'makerspace' works well for its origins, but libraries are made for 'maker culture'. Katie Behrens  article hit the money for me: Library as Incubator Project wants you to look at programming as collection development.  
'What if the information most needed by a patron is not recorded information, but rather information contained in someone else’s head?'

Our library service's mission is to connect people with information, learning and lifestyle. Other library services may have a mission to connect people with books (or so it seems) which is perhaps why so many try to shout their relevance with 'we're more than just books!' For me, books and the physical library building are just two parts of the library service. We know that people learn in different ways, and learning by doing also constitutes an information exchange. 

When libraries use the term 'makerspace' the focus for me is on the wrong part of this borrowed phrase. As public libraries move to providing 'the tools to help patrons produce their own works of art or information and sometimes also collecting the results to share with other members of the community'  (A librarians' guide to makerspaces: 16 resources by Elyssa Kroski) the emphasis is on people and making. When Slatter and Howard ask in their study 'What are the issues and challenges of creating makerspaces within Australian public libraries?', 'within.. public libraries' suggests to me activities in a space in a physical building.  My emphasis is more; 'What are the issues and challenges of creating a maker culture in Australian public library services?' 

It's early early days, but something that can help is embedding maker culture in the Standards and Guidelines as we embed it in our library services. And we must make those connections for staff as well as for our community. 

Two great quotes that highlight the importance of instilling that culture of making: 'Maker culture' refers to the whole ethos and process of fiddling, tinkering, experimenting, failing, reworking, recycling, upcycling, hacking, and creating. Maker culture does not depend on a perfect setting or dedicated space. It’s a way of looking at the world, creatively testing the boundaries and playing with what you have. In the Library With a Lead Pipe

The future library will be about 'delight, surprise, engagement, serendipity, curiosity, and to fulfil that vision we need to keep these things in mind: delighting, surprising and engaging with our community; providing       serendipitous discovery of knowledge and culture; and encouraging curiosity... Libraries will be measured more by what they create and help others to create, not so much what they collect.' Mal Booth at UTS on Creative Futures

Do you picture a makerspace contained in a room, or do you see a shared culture in the hearts and minds of your people?

Local library makerspaces you should know about - Mill Park, Auckland, Moonee Ponds, Mackay, The Edge, Victoria Park ...

Katie Behren's post made the connection for me between library services and maker culture and Tania Barry alerted me to STEAM instead of STEM that all the 3D printer fans were raving about. In the next post I'll explore the 'A' and why I'm posting about maker culture in a reading blog. 

best reads of 2013

some of my best reads of 2013

I've read some great books this year; some recommended to me, others were random picks off the shelf. I've nearly reached my projected target of 50 books for the year, and am grateful for the tracking widget on Goodreads. 

There's a mix of short stories, memoirs, and fiction. Two of those pictured are from our reading maps programs. I met one of the authors (Fiona McIntosh) and I saw Anh Do's show at the theatre. One of the authors grew up in a place I used to live.

Last Drinks was the fourth book I read about the Fitzgerald Inquiry years in Queensland; two fiction and two nonfiction from different perspectives (journalist, honest cop, protester, crooked cop). I read them just after I'd stayed in a hotel in inner-Brisbane in an area represented in the books. Fabulous insight into recent history!

We're launching our library's Goodreads site with Great Summer Reads - featuring staff picks of 2013.
I would like to grow the program into a biannual showcase of staff recommendations for our community, perhaps in the future complementing the online presentation with a booktalk.

The best story came to us at the QPLA conference recently. A great librarian told us that she had implemented a program she'd read about on our project blog about staff recommendation displays, and that she had 100% staff involvement. The librarian who had guest blogged her program was also at the conference so we got the two together.
We're very keen on program sharing state-wide and nationally, and to see this in action was amazing. The two librarians work in libraries nearly 2000kms apart. You can re-read Chris' post  here  .
Chris has great statistics - Using this method we have loaned over 11,000 ‘staff picks’ in the last 12 months.

Mission accomplished

source: The Art of Brick

On Monday afternoon, Jo and I will present our paper at the QPLA conference, and then we will celebrate!
Thanks for working with me, Jo! Thank you very much :)

If you would like to discuss any of the issues we raise about readers' advisory, add your comment here or contact us.

What's the coolest way you know to get into reading?

22: Nothing Holds Back the Night by Delphine De Vigan

Nothing Holds Back the Night by Delphine De Vigan

Bloomsbury, London, August 2013.
Review published in The Townsville Eye, 9 November 2013.

‘What’s she done, what’s she done?’ Delphine De Vigan’s thoughtful exploration of her mother’s extraordinary life and death begins with this question on a Wednesday morning when she finds Lucile dead in her apartment. Lucile was a feted child model in 1950s Paris, third of nine children in a family that was at one time the subject of a television documentary showcasing the ‘perfect family’. Common sense tells us there is no such thing, and De Vigan does not don rose-coloured glasses for her mother’s story. She interviewed Lucile’s surviving brothers and sisters and listened to her grandfather’s taped history to make sense of the family, to discover how they shaped her mother’s life. De Vigan draws out stories of an overbearing patriarch, accidental deaths, acrimonious divorce, painful accusations, terminal cancer, and suicide. Lucile’s adult life was punctuated with delirium, despair and hospitalisation which had its inevitable impacts on Delphine and her sister Manon’s lives. Lucile was a singular woman; elusive, glamorous, a daughter, a sister, a mother. Nothing Holds Back the Night stands as
De Vigan’s tribute to Lucile.

Verdict: Tragic