The Makerspace in Garfield Public Libraries’ Carbondale branch provides children use of iPads, laptops and a 3D printer.
About 30 children — mostly middle school aged — are engrossed in their laptops and have headphones on. One young boy has crawled into a dark corner underneath a piano — you can just make out the outline of his face from the glowing blue of the iPad he holds. In the center of the room is Jeannine Stickle, youth services manager for the Garfield County Library District.
She tells the crowd that today, for Teen Tech Week, there is a special stop-motion animation station set up. There are iPads on tripods, set up with an app that can blend a series of photographs into an animated movie. There is also playdough, a zoos’-worth of small rubber animals and a green screen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El5EDUKXzt8&feature=youtu.be
One goal of Teen Tech Week is to “prepare young people for 21st century careers” — those that will inevitably use digital technology like laptops and apps. But, Stickle says, interpersonal and collaboration skills will always be important too. She tries to make sure those skills are still present, even through playing video games.
“It's really the way that they are socializing with each other after school,” said Stickle.
Even surrounded by screens and video games, the majority of the attendees are talking with each other, using their imagination and discussing group projects.
There are no books in the Makerspace, but to Stickle the library is still serving the same purpose libraries have always served.
“Libraries are about information so that's at the core of libraries. Whether it looks like books, database articles or e books,” she said.
