Flipping Yet Another Library

So it's been a few years since I last posted.   I have since taken over as a Library Media Specialist at East Lyme High School.  The school is much larger and the library is unique in the sense that not only is it a school library, it also is part of the LION Consortium which is comprised mostly of Public Libraries.  So my duties go beyond the realm of the high school and  include interlibrary loans and cataloging.  I am loving the diversity of this new position and feel lucky to have adequate staff to support me and a Technology Director and Principal that entertain my ideas.

This year we made great strides.  We emptied the card catalog and donated the cabinet to our wood technology department, who was very happy to have lots of little drawers to store their tools and screws.

I was very fortunate to receive a Makerbot Replicator 2 3D Printer through a funded project from Donorchoose.org.   This has inspired us to remodel a current reference area into a Makerspace.   Plans are still being laid out and our hope is to have it up and running by September, 2014.  The Makerspace with be a fluid classroom where furniture can be easily rearranged for different projects.  We will have a Mac Bar where students can use our Mini Macs and room dividers for privacy when classes are using the the space.  We have  iPad and laptop carts available and we plan on stocking our shelves with various technology devices like Arduinos and Raspberry Pis.  When the space is up and running, we hope to have community nights where citizens of East Lyme will be invited to come and use the 3D Printer for a low fee.   We also hope to bring in other schools from the district to visit.  I have subscribed to a wonderful magazine called MAKE and set up an Instructables.com account which between the two, provides a wealth of project ideas.   I hope to attend a Maker Faire in NYC in September as well, to really stimulate our plans and ideas.

I recently established a Student Advisory Board for the library.   It will be broken down into three different committees to manage the following tasks:  book selection, planning library events and a Maker Club where students will plan Maker projects once a month to offer to students after school or during study halls.  Projects will span from building robots, programming with Scratch or Minecraft to making steampunk jewelry.  We will also be sponsoring an Hour of Code next year.

I have also set up a Twitter account for the library: @elhslib, where I will be tweeting about school events,  progress on what's new in the library and following YA authors.

My greatest challenge is raising funds to purchase the furniture for our Makerspace.  I am currently looking at grants and possibly local businesses that would support STEM programs.

I will post more about the Makerspace and progress with any funding at we move forward. Overall it's been a great year!