Libraries: innovative spaces to dream, think, and create | Chad Mairn | TEDxTampaRiverwalk

so first off I want to thank you for inviting me to come here today it's an honor I love to brag about what I do at the library I'm from Saint Petersburg College Library in Saint Petersburg Florida and so I just want to share some of the things we're doing I'm honored again because there's so many other libraries out there doing some amazing things so I'm just glad I get to share mine so every age thinks it's the modern age but this one really is you know it's it's amazing to me that we have access to so many things for example I can draw with a circuit you know a pen that creates a circuit I can design something in 3d and then melt plastic that creates something in 3d I can create an object and make it a hologram out of an old CD case in a phone it's just amazing what we can do today so really the world can change with technology we have so many things we can do and we just got to do it so getting into this why I became a librarian during my childhood I think like most of you I used to visit the library all the time just went there browse the books I mean at that time was it was a storage house for books so I would go there find books discover new things was like this whole intelligence vortex kind of a thing you know and I just felt just honored to be there you know I'm just learning so many things you know during college I was a nerd and I spent a lot of time in my library there as well so surrounded by information it was like again that whole vortex of intelligence another cool thing when I was at USF I actually got to browse the records they had vinyl there so for me being a musician that was that was incredible one person you know I started hanging out the Public Library as well too during my college crew and I hung out there all the time and the people that worked there were in my view brilliant brilliant people and one person I missed dearly is John I'll if I don't know if any of you I think some of you probably did but he was extremely generous and he would go above and beyond the call of duty for anyone it could be a little kid working on homework or a business person in a tuxedo or you know doing business II type of research so he would go above and beyond for anybody but he was also a technical genius back in the day he was one of the first I think maybe the first librarians to bring the the catalog online so he was this very generous librarian helping anybody but he was also writing Perl scripts on homemade Linux boxes creating these online packs these these catalogs but at the same time you know working with anybody and going above and beyond so I miss him I did get a chance finally you know I was hanging out in libraries I started working in library so I went met with John and said can I can I work here and so I started shelving books and watching him the whole time do some amazing things as a college student I'm very fortunate that I had the support of the people at the library my parents my family where I had an opportunity to go to the Library of Congress and so I was able to work in this huge library right we'll talk about size of libraries and things later but so we've got this huge library I'm working in the Leonard Bernstein collection so I'm archiving all this stuff I'm getting letters from presidents I'm getting my favorite letter was from Frank Zappa asking for money for 200 motels just for love it right but I also have to tour the Library of Congress so I got to go behind-the-scenes I was able to hold a Beethoven manuscript that actually had the ink spilled so I got to work with the archivists so my whole time in DC was about discovery right and so I'm learning this in my 20s at this point and so I'm just like this is amazing this is what libraries are all about so my other opportunity was I got to work for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and this was great this is where I started getting my tech cred I guess back then we had these really huge computers based off Windows NT I don't but so so I had to start bringing those in to rural libraries that couldn't afford these computers and well first they flew me out to Seattle and I got to hang out there and learn all this stuff I did not meet Bill Gates I always get that question so what was nice is we were bringing these computers to rural cities communities that couldn't afford these computers and so we were providing them which was great so that's where I got the the technology cred I think so fast-forward a little bit I was in graduate school now and so I wrote this paper and I was comparing librarians to Prometheus I thought I was pretty clever you know they steal the fire from the gods and they give it to people I'm like God librarians are like that you know we're grabbing these intellectual sparks and we're you know are these things that were giving people to have this own little spark of insight and and that's what I thought was what we were doing so I wrote a paper on that and like my professor loved it he's like I love this analogy but he's like you know what sometimes people that were in libraries or educators they're also like Sisyphus that guy who the King had to keep pushing the rock up the hill and it kept coming down over and over again right sometimes you kind of feel like that right but I still like the Prometheus analogy better so again we've got this huge gorgeous library right furniture is amazing the books are amazing but it's empty right this is empty so I've worked in a variety of libraries right after graduate school I've been doing it since 2000 well after graduate school since 2001 so I've been doing it for a very long time libraries have moved from places of consumption where we're you know here's a book read it move on to places of production and that's been a trend in libraries for a little while now but it's starting to really catch on and that's exciting so I found this on Twitter a while back if libraries are no longer storage spaces I think they become knowledge performance spaces that's I totally get that so for me it's all about sharing your space so if it's not about store Rane books necessarily it's about using space to bring things like this in Lane con Pinellas comic-con we're doing that in the Pinellas County area it's going to be the whole campus at Seminole Community College for st. P College and that's gonna be amazing if you come to that you're gonna have fun it's free also I'll give you I'll give you a tour right go to your public libraries go to your local community libraries and see what we're actually doing we're doing some amazing things if you go to your library and they're not doing these this thing these types of things say why not if they say well money this and that you can do it with very little okay and we're proof of that so on a selfish note i i started writing grants we have an innovation grant through the college for years i've been wanting to learn how to do 3d design 3d printing i've been wanting to work with Raspberry Pi and with Arduino and all these robotic things have been wanting to play with and so I figure I'm gonna write a grant create an Innovation Lab and get to play with this stuff invite other people in to play with this stuff and so that's what we did so part of my job now is to play with all this technology and it's amazing so we got the we got the grant and now the grants are starting to write themselves so we're on the map right we really are actually on the Google indoor map so there it is Innovation Lab so there's my wish list right all these things I started ordering and I'm there in my office and I'm playing with all this stuff our opening was almost exactly a year ago and the opening was huge we had several we did two openings and about a hundred people showed up to each one in a very small space and it's all about people it's all about community the shiny gadgets are great but it's really all about the people that come in and that you learn from so in our lab we foster collaboration here's Brandon and Stephen some of our I lab volunteers working together to revive this very archaic PC we also cultivate imagination it's really my goal to stimulate creativity to give people the tools to do whatever they want with it because a lot of a lot of people don't have access to an oculus rift or whatever it is we give them access to that and so they can play and have a good time so cultivate imagination the lab is also completely about sharing experiences this is from last year's first hour of code event and which was led by one of the volunteers he's never taught a class before this was his first opportunity to teach a class he loves it he wants to ease a computer scientist he wants to do that but he also wants to teach and if you can do both then you're doing something good if you can explain computer science to people you're doing you're doing something special so all these volunteers that are sharing their experiences inspire me so this is just one thing we actually get to do we've we've done a drilling workshop recently where we got to fly a drone over the library and do all kinds of things my friend Donny who shot this video and did the workshop recently just moved to Hawaii and shot a video of a clip of a dog falling off a Hawaiian cliff he caught it on video the dog lived but it went completely viral like I had one of the news stations from Hawaii and somewhere L Inside Edition that's what was calling me to try to track him down so anyway this this is the kind of stuff we get to do we invite people in to share what they are experts in so that drone video is really cool he actually almost hits a tree here we also add in the lab we support inventions inventors come in all the time in a small space and they share their inventions with us we have a nice big whiteboard they write it down for us and so I get to learn from these people as well they want to work on prototypes and and patents we get that too we're not just printing toys we're not just printing game pieces right we are printing actual inventions and they bring them out and they test them before they go through that very rigorous and difficult patent process we also get every once in a while I'll get a retired plastics engineer or a retired plumber right believe or not you plumbers that come in that have these secret inventions and this is one of them that came in I'm thinking wow what is this thing you know so I still don't know what it is but I was able to print it for him and he went home I haven't heard from him since so who knows maybe he's a billionaire now I have no idea we are also about creating partnerships ok this maker movement is not all about science technology engineering and mathematics stamina right it's not just about that it's about community it's about people right it's about sharing ideas that's really what it's about so we reach out to all these other organizations we I wrote a letter of support that went out to NASA and so I it's always fun for me to say that we are partnering with NASA their education public outreach initiative so we're gonna Co develop activities based on stem which is exciting a lot of my volunteers are blown away that they actually get to do this right they put it on the resume it looks great we are also a little bit's global chapter and I do have some little bits up here if you want to play with them later a little electronic module you can piece together very easily and do stuff without soldering so we're we are a global chapter with them and I get to meet with makers globally once a month through mi t--'s media program and it's amazing I'm so lucky we also partner with SPC's orthotics and prosthetics department which I want to mention something with enable later and you'll meet Laird later too and FLA stem SPC's college for kids Bright House Networks bright ideas and also Gulf Coast Maker con the lab is also about playtime this is my little four on piece five now playing with little bits watching kids play the technology is great they're not afraid to fail adults are kind of like oh I better not plug that in on the freight it's gonna do something we can learn a lot from kids right so again I'm thrilled that I'm able to give kids and adults these technologies to play with that they might not have a chance to do at home so we're a technology playground mistakes are proof that you were trying so we're we encourage mistakes we don't give grades right I'm not grading their work I expect them to come in and have fun discover new things that kind of thing that's what I want them to do so think about it penicillin was a mistake right changed medicine forever coloring outside the lines encouraged the lab also wants to facilitate discovery this is my daughter's first reaction when we gave her the cardboard version of a virtual reality headset blown away we got this we built this because we're waiting for the oculus rift to come which we have now and it's great I already told you about the holiday and Polygram that we built out of a CD case so for me the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes marcel proust this makes me feel wonderful inside je she is one of our SPC students we had a character design contest when we had echo bridge pitchers come in for a workshop and a lecture she won the character design contest she's now working for this company doing animation what she wants to do she loves it she keeps thanking me thank you so much I'm like I'm not the talent I'm the one that's providing that connection I'm gonna try to bring that prometheus analogy back I don't know is it that the intellectual spark probably not it's a connection but she's thrilled here's just one of the things that we were doing we have our 3d printer it's just it's kind of the focal point of the lab but I try to say hey you know what 3d printing is great I have a love-hate relationship with it but we're doing some really cool things with it too but we have a ton of other things that we can offer it's not just about 3d printing but this is one of the volunteers creating this mask that has all these LED lights in it that he went to some music festival and got to freak people out with it so it was pretty neat how he did that I also get to work with college students and I was talking with Laird earlier today this is a group of honors students who are working on an action research project and they wanted to do 3d printing and I said well why don't you why don't you like help people why don't you do something a little bit more meaningful and so I'm hoping that we can get them to partner with enable and SPC's prosthetics and orthotics Department I do something very special they're also researching I can't remember the disease now but a disease that actually impacts limbs the lab also circulates we just recently allowed our Raspberry Pi and Arduino kits to circulate we've done our maker boot camps all throughout the summer right video game design building synthesizer all these things very successful for 10 to 14 year olds so just know that big things can happen in small spaces and with small budgets there's no excuse libraries are these innovative spaces to dream think and create please come to your library come to mind come to anybody else's go to your local library and see this stuff they're doing some amazing things my presentation is online feel free to go up there and check it out and then there's ways for you to connect with us thanks again I appreciate it

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 12,772

Rating: 4.9349594 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, United States, Education, 3D Technology, Coding, Community, Curiosity, Future, Learning, Media, Movement, Social Change, Technology, Video Games

Id: VhKAAVWrmRA

Length: 16min 54sec (1014 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 30 2015