2012 World Maker Faire NY. Andrew Kelly, Reuters.

This weekend, thousands of educators, parents, and kids of all ages will join the crowd of DIY enthusiasts flocking to New York City’s 4th annual World Maker Faire New York to see more than 650 makers present original projects celebrating such areas as technology, education, science, arts, crafts, engineering, and sustainability. The family-friendly festival of invention and creativity—what its organizers at Maker Media call “the greatest show (and tell) on earth”—will also be offering a one-day  immersive “How to Make a Maker Space” workshop ahead of the main event.

“There’s a lot of magic and discovery and exploration to be found just walking around each corner, finding what’s there, and engaging in it,” Sherry Huss, vice present of Maker Media, tells School Library Journal ahead of the event. “We encourage people to come with an open mind and see as much as they can see.”

A production of Maker Media’s Make magazine, the NYC faire—September 21 and 22 at the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) in Flushing Meadows, Queens—is modeled after the group’s original faire, now in its 15th year, the last eight of which were located in the Bay Area.

2012 World Maker Faire NY. Andrew Kelly, Reuters.

NYC attendees this year will have their pick of three zones of activity offering seven different “stages” or presentation areas, both inside the Hall of Science and out, tailored for how-to demonstrations, discussions, hands-on learning workshops, interviews, and play from individual makers—adults, teens, and children—chosen by Maker Media for their creativity, invention, and resourcefulness.

2012 World Maker Faire NY. Andrew Kelly, Reuters.

Activities range from tried and true “making” projects (soldering, model vehicle building, arts and crafts, and science play) for younger children to the exploration of emerging technologies and advanced projects in design, robotics, or sustainability for teens and adults. Attendees can learn the latest in electronics, 3-D printing, and science/engineering activities and their practical applications for sharing with kids and teens, or explore more creative angles with kinetic sculptures, LEDs, and projection art.

2012 World Maker Faire NY. Andrew Kelly, Reuters.

For the first time ever this year, a stage devoted to 3-D printing will debut, featuring 34 sessions on the present and future of digital fabrication, materials, and making, while the stage devoted to electronics will showcase experts and innovators behind all leading micro-controller and robotics platforms. Another stage, devoted to innovation, will offer deeper research and high-level perspectives from best-selling authors, educators, designers, historians, and maker entrepreneurs.

2012 World Maker Faire NY. Andrew Kelly, Reuters.

About 30 percent of exhibits are specifically designed for children, Maker Media’s marketing director, Bridgette Vanderlaan, estimates, including the Young Makers Pavilion, sponsored by information technology provider Cognizant. During the weekend, young makers who participate in Cognizant’s Making the Future after-school and summer programs will conduct workshops, with their instructors, for other children in the pavilion as part of the company’s continuing initiative to provide hands-on learning opportunities that inspire kids in science, technology, engineering, math (STEM), and the arts.

In addition to the two large NYC and Bay Area World Maker Faire events, there are 80 other smaller events—“mini Maker Faires”—being planned and organized for 2013–2013 around the world, Vanderlaan says.

Vanderlaan confirms that in May, about 120,000 people attended the World Maker Faire in the Bay Area (with more than 900 makers present and more than 60,000 projects either offered or completed by attendees), while at least 70,000 attendees are expected this weekend in NYC. Vanderlaan also notes that more than half of Maker Faire’s attendees typically participate in demos and hands-on projects.

2012 World Maker Faire NY. Andrew Kelly, Reuters.

Specifically for educators and other community leaders, Maker Media is offering the “How to Make a Makerspace Workshop” all day Friday, September 20. At press time, Vanderlaan says, there are still a few seats available for this unique, immersive event, which is being co-sponsored by Artisan’s Asylum. The takeaways include creating a business model, the permitting/insurance process, building community, and the challenges of incorporating education into one’s mission.

Tickets for World Maker Faire New York, which range in price from about $10 to $35, can be purchased at the event or online in advance. If you can’t attend in person, you can view the live stream, or follow the event and NYSCI on Twitter. You can tweet about the event via #MakerFaire.

Your path to the profession was not at all direct; most recently you worked as a teacher, but you have also been a newspaper reporter, radio newsman, bartender, restaurant manager, copywriter, and public relations rep. How did you become a librarian?
I am a two-time high school dropout and a college dropout, all before I was 17. I eventually got my B.S. degree from SUNY/Empire State College (where I am now an adjunct) at age 42. I had a double major of psychology and education studies. I received my Masters of Science in Teaching from Fordham University, and my MLS this year from Queens College.

I became librarian [at Castle Hill Middle School 127 in Bronx, NY] very suddenly two years ago, replacing the woman who had been our librarian since the school opened in 1956. She had not been able to do the job for a number of years but still came to work every day. The library was in total disarray; books were piled everywhere, and there were more than 25 unopened boxes containing new books.

On the Friday before Christmas break, my principal [Harry Sherman] came to my classroom. We sat down and he said, “Have you ever thought of being a school librarian?”

I knew nothing about being a librarian other than that I would need to get an MLS degree to keep the job. I went onto Twitter and got advice, recommendations of priorities, names of suppliers, and lots more useful information within an hour. Two days later I attended my first library professional development session; two weeks later I started classes in the MLS program at Queens College.

My principal paid to automate the library and arranged my schedule so I’d have large blocks of time in which I could leave the building to do the degree’s required field work and internship hours. I jumped into the new situation with two feet. Within a few days I had a plan of how to reinvigorate the library and presented it to my principal. He gave me a budget that would pay the fees to start automating the library and to buy a few basic supplies. I worked from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. or later every day weeding, putting on bar codes, and doing all the other things necessary to make the library work.

I received my certification from the state on February 1 this year. It has been one hell of a ride.

It sounds like your principal really understood your capabilities and had a vision for the school library. Can you tell us more about your relationship?
I am a school librarian because it was my principal’s idea—his way of saving my career, or so it seemed at the time. He explained why he chose the position for me: I was failing as a classroom teacher at least half the time, but he thought I had a lot to offer the school and didn’t want to lose me.

He mentioned one of the most fundamental ways we disagree as a strength for me as a librarian: I don’t believe in distinct subject areas. To me, knowledge is a holistic, completely interconnected, ever growing thing; he believes there is a fundamental difference between math and ELA, for example. He said that as a librarian my holistic view could be a valuable asset, and it has proven to be so. He and I see the world in very different ways and we disagree with each other about many topics in education. One of the things I have always appreciated about him is his willingness to listen to and consider other views. Even though we disagree on things we’ve always been able to talk to and listen to each other.

[He] was very eager to have a functioning library and did everything possible to make my transition work for the school and for me. He has given me time off to attend conferences (particularly Educon in late January every year), encouraged me to participate in the union catalog pilot with the NYPL, gave me freedom to make decisions about the library without almost any oversight. In short, he trusted me to understand and support his goals for the school as a librarian just as I had as a teacher.

I trust him, too. I know I can go to him with any ideas I have and will usually get the opportunity to try them. He has let me know he is aware of how much I’ve accomplished—he’s signed off on all the grant applications I’ve submitted, among other things—and I’ve let him know how much I appreciate his faith in me to do this job and his willingness to work on saving my career. We still disagree on some basic things, but we’ve learned how to work with each other.

What was the thought process behind your recent blog post? Do you think other schools are underutilizing their librarians or underestimating their skills?
I wanted to try to generate some discussion on how else I might be able to approach my principal with ideas. As it turns out, some major changes are starting to happen in my school [and] my principal has asked me to take a major role in leading aspects of the change.

I think that in many schools the administration does not really understand what the librarian is capable of doing. We are off in our libraries, sometimes removed from the stream of consciousness of the other teachers and administration. Other librarians are in a very different situation where they are fully integrated into the school. I think in my situation, because the school got so used to not having a functioning library and librarian, I have to take bold steps to enter the consciousness of everyone.

What kind of feedback have you gotten from the post, both inside and outside of your school? Have you been collaborating with teachers more at your school?
The feedback I’ve gotten has been very positive. One librarian called me brave and another called me foolish for posting what I did.  A few librarians have said they wish they had the courage to do what I did but they were afraid they’d get fired. It was one of the more popular posts ever on my blog.

My principal’s response was generally positive. He encouraged me to continue sending resources to the staff, suggested I reach out to the APs in change of social studies and science to discuss the ideas I put forth in my post, and told me he was open to me trying anything as long as I followed whatever Department of Education policies that might apply (such as for putting student work online publicly).

I try to collaborate with colleagues, but they’re still getting used to the idea of having a librarian. Unfortunately, they feel so pressured to move the curriculum along that they do not feel they have time to involve me in their plans. I keep pushing resources out to them and a few are starting to notice. It is a process. When I started as a librarian I had to steal the school’s copying machine and move it into the library so that I’d get to see and talk to the other teachers. Now they see the changes in the library daily and are starting to realize that things are different now.

How is being a librarian different from your experience as a classroom teacher?
[It] is very different. For one thing, students like me a lot more as I don’t give assignments, homework, or grades. I’m the big, friendly guy who will listen to them blow off steam about their teachers knowing that I will keep their confidences. I get to know more kids than the classroom teachers, though I don’t always get to know them as well. Even so, I have my regulars and we get to know each other pretty well. I am very open to their questions about my life and, as a result, they’re open to my questions about theirs. Of course the best thing is that I don’t assign reading, I’m the one who tries to keep the joy of it alive or establish that joy where there is none.

What advice would you offer school librarians who are seeking ways to build better relationships with their principals and administration?
First of all, try to understand your administrator’s goals. Show that you are part of the team. Give more than you ask for. Document everything. Ask questions, anticipate needs. Solve problems, don’t be a problem or cause them.

I have it easy in a way, I’m still being compared to the woman I replaced and everything I do looks like progress. I’m not that much younger than her—I’ll be 60 in October, I started teaching at age 50—[but] my view is looking forward and hers was trying to maintain the library she knew in the 1950s. At some point my principal is going to start comparing me to other modern librarians; I just need to make sure he never hears about Shannon Miller or anyone even half as productive as she is.

Things are also likely to change in the library. We have a new elementary school sharing our building and next year I am going to be the librarian for that school as well as my own. That means working for two principals, having two different library programs, one for middle school students and the other for kindergarten and first grade students. Just when I’m starting to feel comfortable and ready to take the library onto the next level—an online presence, for example—I feel like I’m going to have to start over.

What has been the most valuable professional development you’ve received so far?
The single most valuable professional development as a librarian all happened in the first two weeks of starting back to school after that Christmas break. I got informal PD via Twitter from Shannon Miller, Joyce Valenza, Buffy Hamilton, Diane Cordell, Melissa Techman and some other people I’d met online.

They helped me set priorities, told me about supplies I’d need and where to get them, all kinds of immediately useful information. Then, a couple of days after school started again, I attended the first session of four full-day Saturday PDs run by the NYCDOE School Library Service for new librarians. That was very useful because not only did I learn a lot, I started to establish relationships with the Library Service people, particularly Melissa Jacobs Israel, and some librarian colleagues. I have become very active in our small community of librarians and have made some very solid relationships.

Do you think you’ve found your calling with this new job?
This job suits me and I suit the job. I like having responsibility for a “department” and I like having the flexibility to allocate my own time. I like being around books and students. I like that I had to learn so much to be able to do this job—learning is really what I like to do most of all.