Technologies and Innovation Worth Watching in 2016

Editor's Notes

1. Splicing the unknown with the known and sharing experiences with others is my main goal in life – professionally and personally. My mission is to give people access to technologies, PEOPLE, organizations, and information so that they can take it to unknown territories and perhaps one day create something that makes lives better! I tell everyone I work with that if they have, what they think is a good idea, to GO WITH IT! Who knows were it will take them. Take things apart, turn stuff upside down so people can view it in new ways … be surprised and inspired.  The Innovation Lab: a place to Dream. Think. Create.
2. SO … if libraries are no longer storage spaces THEN SHARE YOUR SPACE. Let the people do things. Let them experience things. We are now sharing pretty much the ENTIRE Seminole Campus for the upcoming Pinellas Comic and Maker Con. It is October 17th and it will be awesome! I hope to see you there. I will personally give you a tour of our innovation lab! Bring your kids, bring family, bring friends.
3. The lab has a growing list of technologies and the grants are starting to write themselves. The iLab is in “perpetual beta” and will never be done. We keep re-inventing ourselves.
4. I wrote a paper in Graduate school that compared librarians to Prometheus -- the Titan who stole fire from the gods in order to give it to humanity. Fire was considered by ancients as being a tiny spark of the sun (i.e., a physical manifestation of a deity). By bringing fire to mankind, Prometheus has therefore enabled humans to partake in “all things divine” and even allowed them to aspire to become gods themselves. I like to think librarians can offer people intellectual sparks that may become a huge fire or passion down the road.
5. My professor wrote on my paper that he loved the analogy, but that librarians and educators could also be like Sisyphus, a king who was punished for chronic deceitfulness by rolling a large rock up a hill, only to watch it come back down, repeating this action forever and ever … UGH! I can see it sometimes. ;)
6. Splicing the unknown with the known and sharing experiences with others is my main goal in life – professionally and personally. My mission is to give people access to technologies, PEOPLE, organizations, and information so that they can take it to unknown territories and perhaps one day create something that makes lives better! I tell everyone I work with that if they have, what they think is a good idea, to GO WITH IT! Who knows were it will take them. Take things apart, turn stuff upside down so people can view it in new ways … be surprised and inspired.  The Innovation Lab: a place to Dream. Think. Create.
7. Brandon and Stephen, iLab volunteers, working together to revive an archaic PC.
8. It is my goal to stimulate creativity to enable people to explore their imaginations. I learn so much guiding people to these tools. I am not an expert with technology, but know enough to have a lot of fun.
9. This was from last year’s first Hour of Code event. Stephen, from the last picture, led the class and it was his first time teaching. He loved it and wants to do it again! Many of our lab volunteers teach classes and do excellent work. They inspire me!
10. I am very lucky to work with a variety of people in the iLab, which is housed in a joint-use facility: public and academic library. We get, for example, cosplay people who want to 3D print parts for their costumes and gamers who want to create new game pieces; however, we also get inventors who want to test out their ideas. I spoke with a dentist the other day who wants to test some 3D prints for his practice in the lab. It is pretty cool that we could have something to do with an invention or a tool that may change the world.
11. Watching kids play with these technologies is enlightening. They are not afraid to make mistakes. Adults can learn a lot from kids! I am thrilled to be able to offer technologies through the lab that people, in many cases, don’t have access to. We are a technology playground!
12. My daughter’s first reaction when using our homemade virtual reality headset. We built one of these to hold our interest until our Oculus Rift Developer Kit arrived. We built a hologram out of a CD case and cell phone. I am going to do an Instructable for the tablet version next week.
13. We now let our Raspberry Pi and Arduino kits leave the lab so people can work in the comfort of their own homes. They can check out technology similarly to the way they check out books and other traditional library items.
14. Splicing the unknown with the known and sharing experiences with others is my main goal in life – professionally and personally. My mission is to give people access to technologies, PEOPLE, organizations, and information so that they can take it to unknown territories and perhaps one day create something that makes lives better! I tell everyone I work with that if they have, what they think is a good idea, to GO WITH IT! Who knows were it will take them. Take things apart, turn stuff upside down so people can view it in new ways … be surprised and inspired.  The Innovation Lab: a place to Dream. Think. Create.
15. The maker movement isn’t all about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. IT IS ABOUT COMMUNITY! IT IS ABOUT SHARING IDEAS AND WORKING TOGETHER TO CREATE SOMETHING USEFUL. Reach out to other organizations and people who will strengthen your mission, which, for me, is FOSTERING AND ENRICHING LIFELONG LEARNING.
16. I wrote a Letter of Support for NASA’s Education/Public Outreach initiative. We will help co-develop activities based on the STEM educational framework. The E/PO is funded by NASA and is a "provider of educational materials for students, educators, scientists, and the public.“ We are a littleBits Global Chapter. I get to meet with a huge global community of makers thanks to MIT’s Media Lab unhangout system powered by Google Hangouts. Very awesome stuff!