2023-01-13 SPLAT Curiosity Report: Volume 13, Issue 4

Featured Story

The Thing from the Future

For our staff day (year 2022), my contribution was to share a fun Futures Thinking game with my staff. Usually I do some instructional presentations or work with other staff members to assist with training. Since I had just completed presenting at ILA in Lewiston, I decided to stick with something fun and engaging for staff. I chose The Thing from the Future. If you attended ILA, you may have played the game while you were in one of the sessions. According to The Thing from the Future website, “The Thing from the Future is an award winning imagination game that challenges players to collaboratively and competitively describe objects from a range of alternative futures.” This game is really fun and easy to play with a group of people, especially if you can get groups of 3 or 4 together. 
 
First, I divided the staff into teams. Then we picked different prompts from separate bags that I created around each of them – Arc, Terrain, Object, and Mood. I made the original postcards that are included in the download into larger versions so that everyone could collaborate easier. Some staff members got an arc of only a few years, others had long arcs spanning up to a millenium. We took some time working in our groups on our futures and once it was time, we shared what we created. Some were hilarious, others more serious, depending on the mood and the arc. For example, if your arc contains collapse, odds are that the future timeline may reflect a darker future. But, if your arc is transformative, then there is a chance that you will build a more hopeful future, one that adapts to a change of a more natural course. Of course, you never know what a group will come up with, sometimes they can come up with some really creative solutions despite the overall mood of an event.
 
If you are interested in running a fun game for your staff and having fun exploring each team’s future results, definitely give The Thing from the Future a try! It can also be a fun activity for a teen or adult program, or maybe something fun to play with your family and friends. In fact, the more you play it, the easier it is to slip into future’s thinking on any occasion, which is indeed the point of playing the game. Future’s thinking can be really handy for all sorts of creative thinking and problem solving. Check out the playbook here! 
 
The SPLAT team also ran a similar type of futures thinking activity at ILA. If you attended, were you able to come by and check it out? We had so many interesting contributions to the timeline! Thanks for participating if you made it to the SPLAT room!
 
By Monique Gaddy

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.

Vibrant Colors and Food Coloring

We recently made Edible slime with our teens. They got to mix it and choose their color. The teens wanted vibrant colors so adding a few more drops of food coloring was best. We didn’t expect that the food coloring would come off on our hands and also the table. Sometimes vibrant colors mean a mess, but also taught the teens a valuable lesson about cleaning up.
 
By Eric Hovey

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!

Seattle University Billodue Makerspace

In my research on sewing in makerspaces I stumbled upon Seattle University’s Billodue makerspace. This makerspace is huge! They have a couple of rooms, the main room with many different tables and workstations, the other room contains the louder and more industrial equipment.

Their variety of equipment is amazing. Three types of 3D printers, laser printer, glass working tools, vinyl cutting machines, sewing machines, embroidery machines and tools to work on bikes.

This space is open to current students and faculty. They require you to go through training to use equipment. This amazing space is rocking it as a makerspace.

By Jessica Fleener

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-246156-OLS-20). The views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.