I have accepted the Senior Public Services Librarian for Experiential Learning in Program Services at the Operations Center. I am excited for the extra availability to bolster STEM programming at all the branches, especially our smaller branches with only 1 librarian/manager.
I am sad to leave my family at Vancouver, but I have a lot of programming planned in their building, so it's not the last time I will see them (or they will see me)...
I worked really hard to get all the maker equipment organized and labeled on the Staff Floor before I left. Really proud of how well I got everything consolidated:
My last purchase for Vancouver was 2 additional sewing machines so that they all match :)
In my new digs in Program Services, I have 2 monitors (so luxurious), I've commandeered my first rolling cart, and have already dismantled some old tech :)
I am also super sad to not be on the library's social media team anymore. However, I did bring along our last photoshoot set-up to make my new space a little cozier:
Programming
SLA led the monthly Make a Better World program. MaBW is taking a break starting in January 2019 while we re-organize our efforts toward the Little Free Libraries project.
SLA led the monthly 3D Design workshop and SLA led the 3D Printing Open Lab. The public 3D printer continues to be used regularly and building community between certified users.
SLAs led the monthly Sewing workshop. We also attempted our first independent use of the sewing machine on floor 4. The patron didn’t have any issue getting up and going with the machine. We look forward to a more permanent location for a machine. We’d also like to cycle out one of our older donated machines for another Singer machine to match the newer machines. Patrons seem to have an easier time with the newer machine and one of the donated machines is malfunctioning.
SLA facilitated our Bob Ross Paint-Along with certified instructor True Leah Sheppard. This program was received favorably by the public and we look forward to having True back in the future.
SLA led the weekly Craft Connections craft group for adults. Beginning January 2019, this program will drop to once per month. The first monthly project date is Sunday 1/27/19.
I worked with our D&D volunteer to host a Painting session for 3D printed miniature game figures.
I hosted our monthly Learn2Code program. In December, we worked with the Arduino microcontroller. We had 9 attendees, with a mix of adults and children. One child and his dad drove down from Battle Ground to attend the program and were very enthusiastic about the next project. Learn2Code returns February 2019.
Innovation
I designed and coordinated district-wide training on 3D printers, including uses, library programs, maintenance, common issues, and next steps for 12 staff from OC, BG, LC, CP, and TC. I will lead another session in January 2019.
I submitted two conference proposals to the April 2019 OLA-WLA Conference. Both were accepted. I will be presenting a ½ day pre-conference on teaching coding in library settings and the various tools, ready-made programs, and other resources available to libraries. I will also present on makerspaces in libraries with Hillsboro and Multnomah County.
I will attend district training on Virtual Reality on 12/27/18 in preparation for the 2019 Revolutionary Reads programs.
Community Partnerships
I led a tour of our building and explained how maker activities are conducted at VA for the current Emporia State cohort of MLIS students. The library science students were very interested to hear how we hosted a variety of maker programming without a dedicated space. Our library’s tour was part of a wider tour of makerspaces in the area that included Hillsboro and Multnomah County.
In Fall 2017, our IT department approached me about expanding the district's 3D printing offerings to other branches. Throughout Spring 2018, I worked with IT, Program Services, and another branch to troubleshoot setup and maintenance of the machines at branches.
This past Fall, the printers were suddenly at the branches! The branches contacted me for training and best practices, so I scraped together a 4-hour hands-on training for 1-2 staff members per branch so they could get up and going with the technology.
I thought 4-hours might be overkill, but it seemed just about perfect to give the staff enough information to get going,without getting bogged down in the minutiae of what can go wrong with this technology (especially when working with the public).
Our branches all have Lulzbot Mini v. 1. This greatly simplified training. Now that the v.1 has been retired, we may run into a snag if we continue to expand our 3D printing services and throw a Mini v. 2 into the mix.
Training Overview:
1st hour: 3D Printing: an Ode. Your new printer! Your first prints!
2nd hour: Continue printing stuff! District Policy and You!
3rd hour: 3D Designs by You and Other Library Programs!
4th hour: Machine Maintenance and You! Also, next steps!
Here is my 99 slide presentation (for funsies):
I plan to follow up with our branches in 3-6 months to see how they're getting along (make sure they're printing things and trying new things) with the goal of having all the printers out for certified users by summer 2019.
Programming
SLA led the monthly Make a Better World program. We are looking into focusing on a larger project for spring 2019 around Little Free Libraries and the empty phone booths around downtown Vancouver.
SLA led the monthly 3D Design workshop and SLA led the 3D Printing Open Lab. This workshop continues to fill to classroom capacity. We certified 10 more users to work on 3D printing independently. Our public 3D printer is in use at least 3 days a week by certified users. We are beginning to run into users waiting for another user to finish.
SLAs led the monthly Sewing workshop. They reached workshop capacity and had to turn two patrons away. There continues to be strong interest in making a sewing machine available to the public for independent use.
Our volunteer facilitator fell ill in late October, so I facilitated the last four sessions of the Fall 2018 Girls Who Code club. This semester, the girls learned Python and how to create self-scoring quizzes within a chatbot framework. The girls will present their chatbots to their families on 11/28. Friends of Vancouver Community Library is providing food! The girls had an awesome time making buttons from the GWC logos.
We will be modifying our girls coding club for January
2019 to include more project variety. The new club is tentatively named
G.Code. I am creating a custom curriculum.
Our all-ages inclusive Learn2Code series has developed a core set of return attendees. We currently have a group of 6 women, early 20s-30s, who have attended 2 or more classes and express interest in continuing to learn more. Our November L2C project involved the Raspberry Pi computer/controller. The workshop went well, but we learned we need a few more peripherals to continue working with the RPi. I hope to purchase these items in the 2019 budget cycle.
We hosted the 2nd Annual Hebocon: Crappy Robotics Tournament. We had participants of all ages work together to build crappy robots and then sumo-wrestle them. This is an open-ended program where participants are given very little instructions on how to build their robots. The creativity and ingenuity is inspiring!
We are hosting a Tech Summit on 11/27 with our SLAs who teach tech workshops to make a plan on tech programming for 2019.
Community Connections
Fort Vancouver Libraries participated in Evergreen School District CTE Department’s Girls in STEM event on Saturday, 11/10. We hosted two workshops teaching girls in grades 5-8 how to solder. We also hosted an interactive table where the girls and their families made clothespin switch circuits. We interacted with over 150 girls at this event. VA, Program Services, and CP staff assisted with this outreach event. Girls in STEM full report.
Lacey Faught, Digital Marketing Educator for Vancouver-based Marketing Company Spry requested a meeting after seeing some of Vancouver Community Library’s Instagram photos. She was impressed by the caliber of the content the VA Social Media Team is creating. She was interested in partnering with us on a campaign, so I forwarded her along to our Communications and Marketing Department. She most enjoyed our SLA's take on women laughing while eating salad with librarians laughing while reading books about salad:
Boys and Girls Club invited us out to their new Teen Space at 409 NE Anderson St to demonstrate our 3D printer. I met them during the Water Resource Outreach event this summer. BGC is very interested in partnering with us on more programming. Their new teen space boasts 2 classrooms as well as a computer lab.
Professional Development
I attended a full day workshop on creating filament led by local filament manufacturer, Proto Pasta. Proto-Pasta full report.
This week we hosted our 2nd annual Hebocon: Crappy Robotics Tournament! Hebocon is my favorite program and I love how people interact and work together in true maker spirit to make the crappiest robots possible.
Overall, the program format didn't vary too much from 2017 Hebocon. A few changes I made for a smoother process and to cater to our family-friendly attendees:
1). Everyone built with the same chassis. By far, the flip-over battery-powered cars from Dollar Tree made the best robot. I started stockpiling them earlier in the year. I can never find these cars listed on the website, but this is what they look like:
I am not looking forward to the day these cars are no longer carried by Dollar Tree. I can only hope that my insane buying sprees throw off their inventory and they continue to restock them, if nowhere else, then at least in their North Portland/ Southwest Washington stores.
2). All chassis were stripped of their car shells and batteries installed before the program (thanks to wonderful Library Intern Katie!). I think the deconstruction piece is an important aspect of any maker project, but I abandoned this step to make it a little less stressful for participants and staff members! Last year, we had a few chassis models for people to choose from. The tricky thing is the variety of tiny screwdrivers needed to dismantle the chassis and the inevitable shortage of the correct screwdriver. Even the cars we went with were a challenge as the battery compartment cover is secured with a tiny screw and the car shell is attached to the chassis with deep inset tiny screws. Once the car is dismantled, you have to snip the headlight wires free from the circuit without nicking the motor wires. I really wanted the LEDs as part of the circuit, but they're tiny and really glued into the headlamp, so not worth the struggle...this time.
Box o' chassis at registration:
When participants arrived, they were given a numbered registration form, so they know the build specifications, and a chassis.
They turned their completed registration form back in with the robot during the judging phase to make sure all the robots met build specification (and so everyone had the chance to see the robots all together before the tournament).
3). All supplies were provided by the library. No home builds this year. The staple items for this program:
scissors hot glue
masking tape
duct tape
cardboard
paper
Everything else was left up to whatever I had squirreled away throughout the year. 2018 included:
CDs
5.25" floppy discs
Squares of foam
Styrofoam (bad idea)
pipe cleaners
off-brand building bricks
coffee stirrers
plastic cups
Wires
Keyboard keys
Computer Keyboard circuits
4). Build time was limited to 1 hour. Last year we started build at 4 pm and competition at 6 pm. Early attendees became restless and most of our attendees arrived around 5 pm, so we shortened the build window this year. I also built all the Hebocon trophies in an hour, so I felt that amount of time sufficient.
5). Audience Choice and registration were more organized this year. We checked in all the completed robots promptly at 6 pm by adding them to a master list, weighed the robots, made sure they were smaller than 20"x20" and then set them all up with their numbered registration form for everyone to vote for the most creative robot. Everyone wrote the number of their choice on a slip of paper. A Hebocon Official gathered all the votes and tallied them while we battled the bots. While attendees voted, another Hebocon Official took the master registration list, cut it into strips and arranged the strips into a randomized bracket (no need to enter them into a paper bracket). I felt this was my most clever hack to make the tournament progress at a quicker and more organized pace!
6). A Hebocon Official recorded all the battles so we could refer to instant replay if needed. There were a few instances where it wasn't clear which robot actually went out of the ring first after they collided, so the video was helpful. We did also have to use the robot that traveled the furthest distance rule as well as audience vote for the winner of a tricky battle. A bonus to recording all the battles is access to some exciting footage!
Hebocon is a great design-thinking project and encourages open-ended making. Other than size and weight and don't destroy other robots, there are no build instructions. This program encourages creative play and exploration and appeals to a wide range of participants. Our youngest competitor was just a toddler, and our oldest was a retiree. Families, friends, and siblings worked together to build very different robots and appreciated the other robots because they knew how much work went into the building process. Hebocon continues to be a community-building project that brings people from different backgrounds together to have fun!
Evergreen Public School’s College, Career & Technical Education Department hosted a Girls in STEM event. This event, geared toward girls in 5th - 8th grade, provides an opportunity for girls and their families to get hands-on with interactive STEM workshops and displays. I received an invitation via Justin to attend this program on behalf of Outreach Services.
We originally offered to host a 3D printing workshop, but the coordinators asked us to provide a different workshop topic, as Evergreen Public Schools was already offering a 3D printing workshop. Evergreen Public Schools also offered workshops in: Intro to Architecture, Chemistry, Computer Programming, Aerial Exploration, Sphero Programming, Anatomical Hand Prosthetic Design, Game Design, and STEAM Academy. Other workshops offered by community partners included: Drone Technology (Mackay Sposito), Coding Software (TEALS), Manufacturing with Paper Cranes (SEHAmerica), Invent, Design, and Innovate (Curiate), Creative Pharmacy (Kaiser), Architecture (LSW Architects).
Community Partners who provided interactive tables included: West Vancouver Dental, WA Dept Fish & Wildlife, HOSA, WSDOT, Underwriters Laboratories, WaferTech, Frontier MS Spheros, WSUV CMDC Program, Donate Life NW, EPS Robotics Clubs, EPS Video Game Design, Clark College STEM Nerd Girls and Geek program.
Fort Vancouver Libraries hosted a table with clothespin switch circuits as well as two workshops on soldering.We worked with over 150 girls and their parents to introduce them to basic circuitry and electronics. The girls, many of whom had never heard of soldering before, were initially intimidated by the soldering irons. Once they got the hang of the skill, they were unstoppable and assisted one another in troubleshooting and completing badges. We successfully soldered 32 robot badges, with only one faulty badge! In addition to myself, the Youth Services Librarian, a Senior Assistant from my branch and a Senior Assistant from Cascade Park assisted with this outreach event. The Library’s workshop and booth appeared to be one a few hands-on spaces with a take-away project at the event, making us very popular!
It's important to note that I had a difficult time finding the Make Magazine Learn2Solder Robot badges. This batch came from eBay. They didn't come with batteries, but that wasn't too big a deal. The +/- were not labeled for the LEDs and the LEDs provided were solid red, not color-changing blinking lights, but they still went over pretty well. I am now on the hunt for a comparable replacement. There are a lot of Learn2Solder badges, but the ones I have found are a little more than I want to get into at a beginner level and with big groups.
(Photo by Brighid Lane)
I ran into a couple of the Girls in our Fall 2018 Girls Who Code Club. They told me they attended the coding sessions and were bored because their coding skills are already well above what was covered in the class. I am one proud librarian!
Proto-Pasta is a Vancouver-based filament making company. Their team of 12 employees design and produce high grade filament for 3D printing enthusiasts in a 10,000 square foot warehouse in East Vancouver. I attended their all-day training on how they create their High Temperature Polylactic Acid filament (HTPLA). HTPLA prints at higher temperatures but provides improved mechanical results than the lower-melting traditional PLA. HTPLA is still fume-free and biodegradable.
I attended this session with 11 other participants. Most were hobbyists or engineers, with one couple that designs high-powered foam bullet toys. Participants came from Vancouver, Camas, Hillsboro, Seattle, and Atlanta to attend this event. Proto-Pasta is one of the few independent 3D filament shops around that allow consumers onto their shop floor to see how the process works. Much of their equipment is cobbled together out of repurposed machinery. I appreciated their conversation about how their work flow is an iterative process and they are constantly learning and improving their design to achieve the best quality filament possible.
Proto-Pasta’s production line consists of 4 stations, each with the ability to produce 1.75 and 2.85 filament sizes. Chris and Jarek did all the hard work of cranking out our filament while we eagerly watched them work. All of the Proto-Pasta computer software is developed in-house and continues to be a work in progress as they refine their practices and grow to meet demand.
Proto-Pasta grinds and produces all of their bases in-house, using a completely dry process, which gives them better quality control and more consistent printing. They create their materials in bulk and splice them out into “recipes” for creating different effects.The materials look like plastic pellets. The pellets are measured and weighed to the recipe specifications, then combined. The dry pellets are then dropped into a hopper, which feeds them through a hot end and extruder into a trough, which cools the liquid plastic to create the long rope to be spooled.
Having re-spooled filament by hand, I am very jealous of their filament spooler setup!
At this workshop, we worked with Alex, a 3D printer innovator. Using his expertise, we experimented with creating unique color and base combinations. All attendees were able to make 2 1-kg spools of filament and each spool was unique. Alex even ran a few spools for participants looking to achieve a very custom color. Proto-Pasta then saves the recipes so if any of the attendees would like to re-order their spool color, they have it on-hand. I already knew from my own experience that how a filament reacts during the 3D printing process can vary widely within not just types of filament, but also within the same type, color, brand, environment and printer. I learned at this workshop that the base used within the filament (even by the same brand and with the same color) can also impact printing outcomes. Just within the HTPLA line at Proto-Pasta, they use 4 separate bases to achieve the desired print effect. All of the components affect printing outcomes.
I cannot wait for our 2nd printer to return to us from repairs at Lulzbot to use our glittery filament! After speaking with Alex and learning more about the filament-creation process, I am now working with Proto-Pasta to design some metal filament printing workshops. Due to the public demand on our main 3D printer, we’ll need to wait to expand our printing opportunities until the 2nd printer returns to the branch. Through the library’s 3D printing certification for the public, I have connected with a community member and volunteer for a high school robotics team. The team is interested in printing custom parts with carbon fiber filament, and I was able to connect her with Proto-Pasta for a community partnership.
