2020-07-24 SPLAT Curiosity Report: Volume 6, Issue 2
Featured Story
Destination Everywhere!
A beautiful waterfall roars from high above, the sound is nearly deafening. A gentle breeze tickles at the trees surrounding the water, their branches full of lush green leaves. Mist forms within the canopy of the trees creating a magical barrier between this place and reality. The sights and sounds of the waterfall is a gentle luring to tranquility.
Sorry I know it’s difficult to travel to such beautiful places right now with the whole COVID thing and all. Buuuuut you can actually visit places like Angel Falls right from your very own home. At least if you have a smartphone, you can.
Go download Google Expeditions! Google expeditions is a virtual / augmented reality that is readily available that can take users anywhere. Mount Rushmore, Angel Falls, the Pyramids, the Great Wall of China. Virtually anywhere! (I’m feeling a little punny today. *wink wink*) This is an excellent way to view the world while being stuck at home and unable to travel, but it also brings places to those who have limited means to travel.
Google Expeditions is also an amazing and simple way to enhance education by making learning a more interactive, visual experience. Ultimately, this creates more interest in various subject matters and helps students to retain information better. With VR/AR in the classroom, field trips become easier, less expensive, and more feasible. Imagine taking a field trip every week to a new and exciting destination on the syllabus.
For those who are already familiar with Virtual and Augmented reality, who think they would enjoy creating something for this technology, there is Google’s simple Tour Creator. Using a camera, anyone can make a tour to share. A simple tour of a library, a walk through famous parks, an in depth look at the ocean and its inhabitants. The possibilities are endless!
While we’re all dreaming again of times when we can take our summer vacations to exciting places without worrying about spreading or catching a nasty virus, we can actually do it virtually. Use this as an opportunity to preview vacation destinations for the future! XD
– Vanessa Thiele, East Bonner County Library District
Fail Forward
We’ve all been there. You pour your heart into a program, and no one shows up. You try something new, and you fall on your face. Sound familiar? Fail Forward is the place to share your failures, and give you the opportunity to share what you learned from them. Did you promote your program in a different way after no one showed up? Maybe you took a new approach to the new thing you were excited about? Awesome! Share your story via our online form so others can learn, and realize that failure is often part of the process.
Taking a negative and making it positive the essence of a Fail Forward
The other day a regular patron came in for a curbside pick up. I was delivering materials to the holding bins and I got to visit with her. She said the COVID stay at home order was a great thing for her family. She is surprised how many people were looking negatively at the situation. She said you probably heard people saying things like: We can’t go to a sporting event. We can’t go to the movies. We can’t go to our favorite restaurant. We can’t go on a family trip this summer.
This patron told me it was a great moment in time to make new memories with her family. She took a step back and reflected on the stay at home order and tried to make it positive because we have to do it. She said my two daughters and I pretend to go on vacation in Italy (at home). They are being citizen scientists and making observations on their daily bike trips.
They were taking an opportunity to make something positive out of the Pandemic. Fail Forward is all about how we think, learn, create, change and stay positive when we fail. I hope society takes this time to change and develop more of this mind set.
– Eric Hovey, Ada Community Library
Crush Corner
Is there a library you follow on social media who is always doing new and exciting things? How about a blog you follow that inspires you? What about a new idea, book, or resource that you want to share? Library Crush Corner is a place for those working in Idaho libraries to share what inspires them, and who or what they’re crushing on… in a professional sense. Share your story via our online form so we can publish it in a future issue!
Mascots for the WIN!
Remember when you were 8 and your 3rd grade classroom had a guinea pig as a class pet? Oh those were the days. It taught us responsibility, family, science, cleanliness, and love as we all took care of the little critter. Libraries have adopted the same principles as it promotes mascots for its systems.
Why? To Give your library a brand. To promote itself. These are my top three picks for awesome mascots. (Click on the Animal to reveal the library it promotes.)
– Rasheil Stanger, Valley of the Tetons Library
Workforce Skills from Santa Barbara Public Library!
I have a crush on Santa Barbara Public Library! I’ve been trying to brainstorm innovative ways to help our patrons in this new normal–particularly with their workforce skills. Their SBL Works! initiative is brilliant! I find their various program offerings to be diverse, creative, and incredibly timely in this new normal. I especially love the idea of providing interview practice via Zoom! How cool is that?! Hoping we can create something like this at my library soon!
– Molly Nota, Ada Community Library
SPLAT explores the ever-evolving library world and supports library folks as they adapt to meet the needs of their communities. Library folk throughout the state of Idaho volunteer to serve on the Special Projects Library Action Team (SPLAT). Learn more about SPLAT at splat.lili.org
SPLAT is brought to you by the Idaho Commission for Libraries and was made possible, in part, by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (LS-00-19-0013-19). The views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.