The success of libraries in the future will be determined by its ability to create stories rather than provide them. One way to accomplish this is by putting technology and people together so patrons become creators in makerspaces or other learning environments. Discover great new learning technologies and techniques for patrons, and how to build your new fablab or hackerspace. Arm yourself with facts for having interactive spaces to get buy-in from everyone from staff to public to the IT teams. Lastly, we will discuss ways to continually train and engage the staff so that your environment will constantly evolve

1. DESIGNING
INTERACTIVE
LEARNING SPACES
B R I A N P I C H M A N O F T H E E V O LV E P R O J E C T
@ B P I C H M A N

2. LASTING IMPACTS
• How do libraries, archives, schools,
museums expand services and spaces to
encompass innovation and build long-
lasting IMPACT?

3. TAKING RISKS

4. ITS OK TO FAIL

5. 5
PEW RESEARCH SURVEY

6. 6
• How do we capture that missing 38%
VALUE OF LIBRARIES

8. IMPACT BUILDERS
• Space Design
– Collaboration, Open/Private, Access
• Technology
– Foster Innovation/Skill Building
• Programs/Events
– Bring People Together

9. EXPANDING
VALUE
• Creating stories
• Being the community anchor
• Gateway to new opportunities
and experiences
• Moving from the “Grocery Store”
to the “Kitchen”

10. DESIGNING YOUR SPACES
Some great ideas for redesigning your space – at low costs

11. IF YOU BUILD IT THEY WILL COME

12. ABOUT ME

13. WHERE DID THE EVOLVE PROJECT
COME FROM?
• Renovate the entire Children’s library
with a budget of a 165,000
– To include all new technology,
furniture, space layout, and fresh
colors.
• Introduce new technology frequently
and host workshops sharing the
technology.
• Teach patrons new skills as it relates to
coding, electricity, engineering, or
creative art.
• Build hype about the evolving library.

14. SPACES AND TECHNOLOGY MUST:
•Encourage Creativity and Invention
•Allow Discovery
•Increase Collaboration
•Generate Interaction
•Foster Innovation

15. 15
• Your spaces and tools should allow patrons to foster creative ideas and build new inventions
CREATION AND INVENTIONS

16. 16
• The space and tools need to allow patrons to learn by play and to discover by experience.
DISCOVERY

17. 17
• Technology is inherently collaborative, bringing people together to work in unison to solve
problems.
COLLABORATION

18. 18
• Technology and spaces needs to be interactive and intuitive in order to thrive in a
makerspace.
INTERACTION

19. 19
• Innovation must be an original disruptive act.
INNOVATION

20. KEY DESIGN CONCEPTS FOR SPACES
• Adding Color
• Art
• Have Open and Modular Areas
• Moveable Furniture
• Technology!

21. ADDING COLOR
• White = Less Inviting
– Think about Parks, they are inviting and often full of color
• Painting walls is an inexpensive redesign
• Use Fun Colors
– Be Bold!
– Children Areas should use bright attractive and inviting colors.
• Color alone can make a space look bigger and brighter

24. ART
• Have patrons create the art
– Donate it to the library
– Mix it up as often as you like. There
is very little cost.
• Patrons (often younger ones) will
feel like their work has been
“published”
– Sense of ownership with the library
– They will become marketers for your
library

25. OPEN AREAS
• Open Space !
– Seating
– Tables
– Multi Functional Areas
• Remove or repurpose rooms that are used only for specific
events:
– Activity Rooms, Meeting Rooms, etc
– Make these rooms open all the time with constant activities or
events
• Larger, open areas allow you to rearrange space easier
• Let the community define the space

28. FURNITURE
• Fun Colors
• Use lightweight furniture (easier to move)
• Encourage your users to rearrange the space to fit their needs.
– Again let users define the space

29. FURNITURE FOR YOUR SPACES
• Maker Spaces
– People pay a membership to be
part of a “MakerSpace” where the
tools are provided for them to build
• Community Out Reach
– Ask your community for help
• Ask local businesses to make
monetary donations towards new
furniture/rooms and let them
advertise on it
– If Fifty People Donate Fifty Dollars =
2,500 = New Furniture

30. MODULARITY
• Allows you to always change your
environment
• Put things on wheels
– Desks
– …No Need For Shelves To Be On Wheels
• Don’t fasten furniture to floor…
– no one will be stealing a desk

31. RAISED FLOORING

33. SHELVING IDEAS
• Find books that covers are colorful, and
choose the books that coordinate with that
season
– Red and Green Books = Christmas
– Orange and Black = Halloween

34. MYSTERY BAGS

35. TYPES OF SPACES
illustrated by pets

36. LET’S TALK LEGOS
• Great for all ages; helps you tinker, design, story tell.
• De-Stress (David Beckham uses it to help calm him down)
• Host a Parent Night and use Legos as the social mixer.

37. PHOTOGRAPHY / VIDEOGRAPHY
• Take and Edit Photos and Video
• Host an Photo Gallery / Movie Night
• Host Workshops, Seminars
• Go out in the community and take
photos/videos
• Add videos to the collection, and art to
the walls.

38. GARDENING
• Plant A Garden
• Great Year Round Activity
• Donate to Local Pantry

39. SEWING / KNITTING
• Brings People Together
• Sewable Circuits are a thing!

40. GAMING (DIGITAL OR BOARDS)
• Games – Digital or Board; brings
people together
• Story Telling, Collaboration, Problem
Solving
• Great Family Night

41. MUSIC
• Battle of the Bands event
• Let People share music, add it to the
collection.

42. SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS
• From launching rockets to solving
physic problems to Rube Goldberg
activities:

43. BAKING
• Host Baking Classes
• Cook and donate food

44. BUSINESS WORKSHOPS
• From Business Planning to Investment
Strategy; all of which can be done in
groups and bring people together.
• From a start-up culture standpoint;
interacting with like minded
individuals can accelerate growth;
which in turn leads to growth in the
community, jobs, etc.

45. ELECTRICITY
• Who doesn’t like to make things light
up!
• Use kits like littleBits or LightUp to
learn the basics; then move on to
learning with with actual bulbs and
switches

46. LEARN TO CODE
• From Cubetto (non screen based
programming) to programming video
games through Hopscotch to building
websites and applications.
• Coding has been incredibly important

48. PROGRAMMING
• There is an increased demand for programmers
• Code.Org
• Tools:
– Scratch for entry programming
• Lots of technology now is “open” so you can program your
own ideas to it

49. ROBOTICS
• Robotic Competitions
– Lego WeDo, Mindstorms, Erector Sets,
VEX Robotics
• Simply Build:
– Modular Robotics
– BirdBrain Technologies
• Control and Program

50. SCHOOL PLANNING
• Study Groups
• College Prep
– How to fill out scholarships
– How to look for colleges
• Master Programs
– Host Networking Events

51. NEXT LEVEL TECHNOLOGY DAYS
• Build and fly a drone! There are lots of
affordable activities that can bring
hobbyist together.

52. FAB LABS AND
MAKER SPACES

53. EVOLVE: A LIBRARY PLAYGROUND
• Fab Lab / “Hackerspace”
–A location where people with common interests
(usually in computers, technology, science, or
digital or electronic art) meet, socialize and/or
collaborate.
–Can be viewed as open community labs
incorporating elements of workshops and/or
studios where people can come together to share
resources and knowledge to build and make
things and ideas.
–Combining the positive & fun aspects of schools,

54. T Y P E S O F
L E A R N I N G S P A C E S
Collaborative Areas (Either Network Based
or In A Room)
Provide Tools (Hardware and/or Software)
Learning Labs or Training Centers

57. M U S I C / G R A P H I C
D E S I G N / V I D E O
E D I T I N G /
P R O G R A M M I N G

58. FOOD FOR THOUGHT
• You do not need a dedicated space to be a “maker”
– Share resources across other classes, schools, libraries, etc
• You do not need to buy all the latest and greatest technology
– You can start off small and grow
• You do not have to have “experts”
– Remove yourself as the expert – allow folks to fail and work things
out
• Granted – you can always provided coaching (i.e. have you tried XYZ)

59. A SPACE CAN HAVE THESE ITEMS:

60. A SPACE CAN HAVE THESE ITEMS:
NEEDS PEOPLE

61. THINGS COMMUNITY CAN TEACH IN YOUR
SPACE
• Fishing
• Cooking
• Boat Building
• Building Computers
• Circuits
• Robotics
• 3D Design / Animation
• The Sciences (Physics,
Biology, Chemistry…ie
experiments)
• Coding
– Websites
– Applications
• Couponing!

62. INTERACTIVE
TECHNOLOGY
F I L L T H E S P A C E W I T H F U N I N T E R A C T I V E
T E C H N O L O G Y
A L L O W P E O P L E T O C H E C K T H I N G S O U T

63. 63
• Safe To Fail
Environment
• Gateways To
New Ideas
• Provide New Tools
and Resources
• The Next Big
Entrepreneurial
Startup
• In scored
assessments
your users are
not given
opportunities
to learn by
failure or
experimentatio
n
• You can spark
interest into
fields such as
engineering,
programming,
business
development…
and more
• Schools and
Libraries are
about providing
access. These
tools are not
always easily
accessible for
our patrons.
• What if your
School or
Library helped
launch the next
big super star in
the competitive
tech
community?
MAKE THE CASE:

64. SPHERO BALL
MSRP: $130
Guide Through Library (Follow The Ball)
People Approach The Ball – Curiosity
Easily Programmable
Also Play Tag

65. VEX ROBOTICS
Build your own robots – and print out
missing pieces. Comes with a controller or
program it to interact.

66. OZOBOT
MSRP: $50
Learn how to program by drawing

67. CUBELETS
MSRP: $299
Cubelets are incredibly fun and easy.
Build your own robot in seconds,
without any programming.

68. LITTLEBITS… MSRP:
$100-200
littleBits is an open source library of
electronic modules that snap together with
tiny magnets for prototyping, learning, and
fun.
15% off for libraries

69. TIGGLY
MSRP: $30.00
Uses soft and strong rubber shapes to
teach younger children about shapes in a
fun and interactive way, using an iPad or
Android Tablet

70. B E E B OT S
Learn how to code without a
computer. Either using tactile
squares or pressing the buttons
on the bot, program your
robot to move.

71. TEACH KIDS TO PROGRAM
• Hopscotch
Programming made easy No typing. No
syntax errors. Just drag and drop blocks.
Hopscotch is an intuitive, friendly
programming interface designed for
everyone.

72. 3 DOODLER
MSRP: $100
Draw in 3D!

73. 3D PRINTERS
ROBO 3D C2…$799.99 MSRP MAKERBOT…$2,899 MSRP

74. GESTURE BASED
• Communicate with Technology Hands Free
• Uses multiple cameras to detect depth/movement
– Microsoft Kinect
• Sites to Explore:
– Microsoft Kinect
– Leap Motion PrimeSense
– Evoluce

79. VIRTUAL REALITY

81. WAYS TO ENGAGE
YOUR SPACE
A G R E A T M A K E R S P A C E W I L L F A I L I F N O O N E
E N G A G E S T H E P A T R O N S

82. BUILDING A BUSINESS
• Use the space to incubate businesses and ideas

83. CREATING CHALLENGES
• Use your own developmental projects (as in Software or Web
Solutions) and have the makerspace help (coding)
• Use the makerspace to market your programs and events
(graphics / video / 3D Design)
• Identify a problem in the community and have the space
spearhead a solution (collaboration)

84. START UP
WEEKEND
• http://startupweekend.org/
• “No Talk, All Action.
Launch a startup in
54 hours”

85. MAKERFAIRE
• You school/library/class should
be on the pulse of any local
MakerFaire, and be
participating.

86. WEBSITES TO HELP
• Instructables
• Make it @ Your library:
–http://makeitatyourlibrary.org/
–Many school educators use this site to also run classroom
activities

87. THINGS NOT TO DO WITH YOUR
SPACE
• Do not have things locked up
and stored away
– How will anyone know of the
AWESOME things you have?
• Instead, set up demo areas and
have your space’s content out
and accessible

88. OTHER IDEAS
• Break and Make
– Take apart something and put it back together
• UFO – Unfinished Objects
– Complete and unfished work – from music, to art, to technology
hardware
• Music / Art Show Case
– Challenge your users to share their creative works.

89. PROMOTION

90. S O C I A L M E D I A

91. FUNDING

92. SELL YOUR IDEA

93. THE ART OF ASKING
• Amanda Palmer
• http://www.ted.com/talks/amanda_palmer_the_art_of_asking
“Don't make people pay for music, says Amanda Palmer: Let them. In a passionate talk that
begins in her days as a street performer (drop a dollar in the hat for the Eight-Foot Bride!), she
examines the new relationship between artist and fan.” – TED Talks

96. PLACES TO SAVE MONEY
• Buy Refurbished
– Refurbishment is the distribution of products (usually electronics) that
have been previously returned to a manufacturer or vendor for various
reasons. Refurbished products are normally tested for functionality and
defects before they are sold, and thus are the approximate equivalent
of certified pre-owned cars. - Wikipedia
– Refurbish are OK!!!
• Discount Sites:
– 1Sale.Com
– Woot.Com
– Monoprice.Com
– E-Bay
• TechSoup

97. SO WHAT IS NEXT

98. THE NEXT ….
• What if you made your library a:
–Startup Hub?
–An Idea Center
–A Place to Beta Test
• Use the tools in your makerspace
• But first…get those people into your space
and part of your space

99. SOLUTION SPACES
• Solution and Solver Spaces!
• Bring People Together
• Plan for a better future

101. CONTACT ME!
• Brian Pichman
• Twitter: @bpichman
• Email: bpichman@evolveproject.org