This blog post is courtesy of the Chicago Public Library’s Emily Faulkner, Librarian II, Cultural and Civic Engagement and Sasha Neri, Librarian II, General Information Services.
The Chicago Public Library’s (CPL) Maker Lab has a unique position within the Chicagoland community–we are an ‘on-ramp’ to making. When our makerspace opened there were two community makerspaces, a robust arts community, and several specialized tech incubators in Chicago. The library created a space with similar tools on the premise that it could serve as an entry point into these other spaces. This approach has been largely successful, and our strong ties to the other spaces in the area* have worked to create a conduit between the newcomers to the Maker Lab and the established spaces throughout the area. Chicago has an unusually collaborative maker community, and as a result we are able to share information, presenters, capacity, training and support between otherwise unrelated organizations.
CPL’s Maker Lab is open six days a week, and offers a mix of machine and craft workshops as well as Open Shop time. Private classes, tours, and demos can be scheduled by groups. We have laser cutters, 3D printers, electronic cutters, knitting machines, and dedicated computers for design using free design software. Local artists, businesses, and makers are recruited to teach programs in which they have expertise, while staff teach machine and software classes.
Staffing
Finding interested staff to join the Maker Lab for one day a week isn’t problematic. The challenge is finding staff who can be spared from their home location to work in the lab. So far, we’ve had 24 CPL staff (librarians, library associates, and library clerks) from 12 different library locations learn the technology and workflow in order to lead tours and teach workshops. In addition, five part-time grant-funded staff complete our coverage, providing crucial teaching support. Our part-time staff is comprised of CyberNavigators (whose primary job is assisting patrons with computer use), and interns drawn both from YouMedia participants who graduated out of the teen space and from the pool of regular patrons to the Maker Lab.
Learning
Because we teach a (growing) list of recurring workshops, it’s important that staff learn how to manage and troubleshoot the machines, interpret workshop instructions in order to teach workshops, and troubleshoot any design or computer issues a patron might have. Nearly all of this learning happens on the job as new lab staff is placed with more experienced staff.
We dedicate approximately 8 hours a month for staff to work and learn together. Individuals have taken the lead to develop intermediate to advanced skills in: Scratch, Inkscape, 123D Design, and using knitting machines, to name a few. The advanced learners share their new skills with the group and brainstorm and develop a new workshop based on their experience. We use a Google Group to facilitate communication within the lab and to share on-site or online learning opportunities, and we use a public Google wiki to centralize our workshops, sources, slides, and screenshots.
Moving Forward
All of our staff members enter the Maker Lab as beginners. As we add new people and acquire new equipment our training needs continue to evolve. Emphasizing that everyone has something to contribute, and building on those contributions, creates a collaborative atmosphere among our staff. Not only does each person feel confident in suggesting a new class or additional staff training, but once they take the first step, their colleagues are supportive and ready to participate however they can. Our challenge is to continue fostering this atmosphere as people inevitably come and go, but part of the ethos of the Maker movement is that we’re always learning. We hope to present to our patrons that we are only ‘experts’ because of the time and attention we put in, not due to some innate genius or training that they can never hope to access.
*Notably, the Wanger Family Fab Lab, Pumping Station: One, the Southside Hackerspace, and the City Colleges of Chicago, among others.
