Crafting the Successful Maker Program @ Computers in Libraries

Gwinnett County Public Library (Georgia) has a dynamic duo (their Training Manager AND their IT Division Director) working on maker programming - not maker spaces. BIG difference. 

Their slides are available in PDF: 
http://conferences.infotoday.com/documents/219/D202_Baker.pdf

Of course, I got excited hearing about how they implemented a staff training plan but before I get into that, let me share some other take-aways first:

First, they did trials which they called Maker Camps. They had two of them; one in the summer of 2014 and one in the winter of 2014. They partnered with a local school both times but in the summer, the program ran for 4-days, 3-hours each day. In the winter they changed it up a bit to 3-days, 4-hours each day. Both camps were scheduled around school holidays/breaks. At the camps, the kids worked with Makerbot Replicator, TinkerCAD, Google Drive, and Makerbot Mini. 

The next step was to get the local school library media specialists involved in order to have a special event in conjunction with Teen Tech Week. So, they had a program which featured the history and future of 3D Printing and each participant got to print one item from the Thingverse online catalog. 

It was interesting that they held these events in the open spaces of the library rather than in a meeting/programming room. Having the events out in the open generated more interest as library customers came in, saw what was happening, and asked questions. It wasn't disruptive but rather eye opening and a great way to market/communicate! 

For staff, they held their own staff maker camp and they ran it very similarly to how the kid maker camps were designed EXCEPT they added a session on troubleshooting. They also incorporated Lynda.com resources, lots of hands-on experience, and they dedicated a lot of time to WHEN THINGS GO WRONG. 

I would love to do this or something like this for staff in western Maryland if there is interest. The tricky part is staff being able to attend three consecutive days - even if they were only 4-hours - due to staffing constraints. I think having the consecutive training is important to make the learning stick but I feel like we'd have to switch it to maybe 2 sessions a week for 2 consecutive weeks. That might be more feasible. If you're reading this and you're one of my colleagues in Allegany, Garrett, or Washington counties, please email me and let me know what your thoughts are.