• Create a short video and upload it to WebJunction’s 10th Anniversary playlist on YouTube.
• Post a reflection to WJ’s LinkedIn Group.
• Share a photo or your thoughts on WebJunction’s Facebook page.
• Tweet about how WJ inspires you with #WJ10th.

Our members inspire us everyday, so a big Thank You
to all of you for making the past 10 years so special! 

“National Library Week 2010″ cake image courtesy of vanhookc, via Flickr.

Secretary of State and State Librarian Jesse White is saluting Illinois librarians and other members of the library community celebrating National Library Week, April 14-20.

Our libraries are so important to our communities, and during National Library Week, I hope the citizens who use and enjoy libraries will thank their local librarians and library staff for their outstanding service, White said. I have had the pleasure of visiting libraries throughout Illinois, and our librarians and library staff are truly committed to providing the best possible service to library users.

Illinois has a network of more than 5,000 academic, public, school and special libraries and library systems that are the finest in the nation. Initiatives include hosting organ and tissue donor drives to commemorate Donate Life Month, a new campaign to promote the importance of digital literacy and an ongoing book digitization program.

Gene Jordan, from Arch Reactor Makerspace, did an excellent job discussing the history behind hackerspaces and makerspaces. He explained that a hackerspace is just a physical space set aside for people that want to work on projects. These like-minded individuals come together for community, collaboration, and inspiration but also to learn, teach and share. Jordan emphasized that “It’s not so much what we do; it’s that we do it together.”

 Kind of sound like librarians, right? 

Jordan’s makerspace, which is based in St. Louis, Missouri, has worked on various projects from building 3-D printers to creating punching robots out of scooters. They definitely enjoy getting out into the community and hold events like open houses, board game nights, fundraisers and science olympiads. Who doesn’t want to chase around a remote control car that has sensors in place to reverse and go the opposite direction when they’re about to collide or be scooped up by a physical object? The Arch Reactor Makerspace visited the Saint Louis County Library on February 28th, 2013 for their Maker Open House. They displayed several of their projects including microprocessors, soldering, 3-D printing and beyond.

Has your library engaged in any makerspace community outreach events? Tell us about it in the comments! 

Now, I’ll turn it over to Lesley to tell you about Sharon Locke’s presentation on the STEM Learning Center located in the East St. Louis Charter School.

Thanks Jeanna!  Sharon’s presentation was really informative and the process used to create the William Frederick Graebe, Sr. STEM Learning Center offers guidance for libraries that may be thinking of creating their own makerspace. The STEM Learning Center was created to be a flexible and innovative environment for students to learn through creativity and collaboration. It grew out of a partnership between the SIUE Center for STEM Research and the East St. Louis Charter School.  It’s a beautiful space filled with flexible work stations, colorful furniture and access to a myriad of new technologies.

Here are my official “Takeaways for Libraries” from Sharon’s presentation:

Dream Big, Scale it Down
To create such a wonderful space, you have to start somewhere and the team involved with this project started by looking at MIT’s Fab Lab program for ideas. They then scaled down the idea of a Fab Lab to create a space that was simpler and would better meet the needs of their audience: high school students. Space constraints, funding, and technology needs were all taken into consideration to create the space.  My first thought during this part of the presentation was: “Hmm, those sound like issues that libraries deal with on a daily basis…”   Even though creating a makerspace at your library might seem intimidating, remember that you already have the skills needed to scale down the ideal and meet your patrons’ needs.

Core Principles
Sharon shared the core principles that the SIUE Center for Stem Research used during their design process. The Center was built to:

• Foster creativity & innovation
• Meet the needs of students & teachers
• Feel appealing and comfortable
• Provide innovative technologies

These are great core principles to start with when examining your library spaces!

Feedback!
Feedback throughout the entire process helped The Center to focus ideas into attainable goals. Multiple focus groups were held with students and teachers to discover what the “must haves” and “don’t needs” were. During early focus groups, students stressed that areas for writing were important. The finished Center includes glass panels and walls the students can write on that were painted with marker board paint. Now that the STEM Learning Center has been open for a year, feedback from the teachers and students is still allowing for improvements to make the space even better.

Sharon’s presentation provided a lot of insight into the process of creating a makerspace.  The STEM Learning Center is a great example of an innovative and creative workspace. Check it out by viewing selected slides from Sharon’s presentation, below:

MakerSpace Symposium April 2013_selectedslides

Want to take a look at this unique space? The Stem Learning Center is having an open house on Monday, April 15 from 9:30 – 10:30 am. For more information, contact Sharon Locke, Director and Associate Professor of the Center for STEM Research, Education and Outreach at: slocke@siue.edu

If you haven’t had a chance to give us your thoughts, please take a few moments to fill out this brief survey by Monday, March 18th. We recognize that your feedback is one of the most important tools we have in measuring our success and identifying areas we might improve.

To access the survey, simply click the link below or
cut and paste the entire url into your web browser.
http://goo.gl/HsYza

Since the launch of our new site in March 2012, WJIL has undergone a significant redesign for the purpose of enhancing your experience and improving site navigability. We recognize that your feedback is one of the most important tools we have in measuring our success and identifying areas where we might improve. Please help us serve you better by filling out a brief survey. This survey will be available until March 18, 2013.

To access the survey, simply click on the link below,
or cut and paste the entire url into your browser.
http://goo.gl/HsYza

Thanks to feedback from members like you, WebJunction Illinois continues to provide access to learning opportunities and training that will assist you in providing the best services possible!

Reaching Forward South
September 20-21, 2012
Springfield, Illinois at the Northfield Inn

Illinois Library Association Annual Conference
October 9-11, 2012
Peoria, Illinois

Illinois School Library Media Association Conference
October 18-20, 2012
St. Charles, Illinois

Hope to see you at one (or all) of these great events!

WebJunction Illinois surveyed approximately 5,211 WJIL members via email from June 11, 2012-June 18, 2012. The survey asked members to answer questions regarding eBook & eReader needs and uses in Illinois libraries.  We received 235 responses.

Updates to our eBooks & eReader page are already underway and member responses have provided us with great feedback to improve these pages.  A summary of the survey results is available at WebJunction Illinois.

You can also submit video tutorials, documents, or contribute to the discussion forums to share even more resources with the WJIL community!

We believe this is a great step forward and will really make WebJunction Illinois a one-stop shop for all of your library information needs!

Check out the new look by viewing this Growing Greener Libraries post.