Today we had the official, grand opening of the new Collaborative Zone and 'The Hive', our makerspace at Tanglin Trust School, Singapore. The event began with a speech by our Chief Executive Officer, Peter Derby-Crook, before the ribbon was cut by our Guest-of-Honour, Kristine Cho - a Sixth-Form student who has been a really keen library-user during her time at Tanglin. The Collaborative Zone Team had organised lots of hands on activities including Strawbees construction kits, Little Bits electronics, Iphone holograms, Google cardboard virtual reality, 3 D printing and much more. So once the area was officially open there was fun for all!
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The last time I posted about our library extension was in September, when building work was still in full swing and my blog stated that "Our extension is progressing...". The 'Collaborative Zone' has now been open for a few months and is hugely popular with our students; it's always buzzing with activity!
Jacqui Makselon, our Director of Libraries, has designed the library so that we are able to offer our students a choice of three spaces:
Interactive Zone - where students, staff and parents can find the fiction collection and they can read books and magazines together. There are multi-media pods for watching DVDs in small groups and a big screen TV showing the news or information about current or topical events. There is also a presentation area for classes, guest speakers, film shows etc.
Study Zone - a very quiet (usually silent) area for students to study individually, with access to over 50 PCs. The non-fiction collection is housed in the Study Zone and librarians are on hand to help with any queries or reference enquiries.
The Hive will give students the freedom to be creative, have fun and learn. There will be opportunities for students to participate in activities that link to the curriculum as well as opportunities to let their imagination run wild and make whatever comes to mind! It's all about creativity and having fun, learning through experimentation.
Libraries are often at the forefront of technological developments and they provide people with access to technology that they may not otherwise be able to use. Where else but a library can people go to have free use of a computer, the internet, eBooks, eJournals, eMagazines...? By creating makerspaces, libraries are again providing patrons with this service. Many libraries around the world are beginning to offer makerspaces where people can try 3D printing and use other equipment that they would not be able to use anywhere else. We're very proud of Tanglin's new makerspace and there's a buzz of excitement as The Hive moves towards it's official launch later this term. The Collaborative Team are working hard to get ready for the launch and to provide a great new service to our community. Find out lots more in the Collaborative Team blogs, including this introductory video created by Azizah: A few weeks ago I put out an appeal on Facebook for any makerspaces in Singapore that would be happy to share information with us and I was delighted with the response! Jacqui and I were invited to the Makers Meetup, we've been to Singapore Polytechic's Makerspace and last Friday we took up another offer of a visit. This time we had the opportunity to visit the new 'Home Fix Experience Centre', also known as Home Fix XPC. Home Fix has a chain of twenty-three DIY shops here in Singapore, with a further eleven in Malaysia and one in Indonesia. The company recently opened the 'Home Fix XPC'; a large makerspace at its headquarters on Tai Seng Avenue, Singapore. This space is being developed to enable people to come together to 'make' in the centre's workshops, which are well equipped with Home Fix tools and products. One of the reasons for setting up the centre was to provide people living in HDBs (public housing provided by the Housing Development Board) with somewhere to work on DIY projects, with more space and less noise constraints than a HDB. The centre is still being developed but it already seems to have an enthusiastic community of makers, as well as a number of companies who are renting space within the centre. Jacqui and I were welcomed to the Home Fix XPC by Ju Hu Soh who gave us a very informative tour of the centre. He also introduced us to Steward Lee of Leave a Nest who we hope to collaborate with for some practical workshops in our new makerspace. Ju Hu and Steward are going to come and visit our library in August, when our new school year begins, to see our Makerspace (which will hopefully have been built by then, but will not be furnished!) and discuss possible future collaborations. Our visit to the Home Fix XPC was very interesting and useful, we are very grateful to Ju Hu for giving so much of his time and so generously sharing his knowledge. Some photos from our visit: This morning, Jacqui and I had the opportunity to visit Singapore Polytechnic's (SP) Makerspace. We were made very welcome by Wee Kiang Yeo, who is SP's Maker Coach; he runs the space and organises regular making events. The space, which used to house the library's Reference Collection, has only been open as a Makerspace for six months. Next year the whole area will be refurbished and a purpose-built Makerspace will be created. The Makerspace consists of a very large open space with a smaller enclosed glass room where events are held - known as the 'Events Box'. Wee Kiang said that the use of the glass room for courses and events has been very successful and that space will be maintained when the Makerspace is refurbished. Wee Kiang emphasised the importance of branding and, as you can see in the photograph below, the SP Makerspace has a strong, colourful logo. He also recommended using movable, folding furniture in order to create a flexible space. Larger, sturdy furniture has been created by using different elements from IKEA - kitchen work tops combined with 'A-shaped' stands. These are used for the 3D-printing and other making activities. Other recommendations included connecting with other makers through maker meetups etc. and creating a blog to share your Makerspace activities with a wider audience. A successful Makerspace needs a good ambiance, connections with co-curricula activities (CCAs), teachers and infrastructure as well as, of course, money! The objectives of the SP Makerspace are
You can find out much more about Makerspace @ SP on their blog. Jacqui and I learnt a lot about makerspaces that will be very useful in helping us to set up our new makerspace at Tanglin. Many thanks to Wee Kiang Yeo for a very informative and interesting visit!
We then heard about 'Freespace' in San Francisco. This is a project that started just with a very tired, derelict building. People could go to the building and join together, collaborate and share in order to create a unique community space. These videos give an idea of what Freespace is all about:
There are now Freespace projects all around the world and they are bringing people together to colloborate and develop wonderful creative spaces. You can find some of the buildings here..
Dr Andrew Gung spoke about the Tech Plan Grand Prix, a techology/business plan competition which aims to include global participants, including Singapore.
![]() In a previous post, I mentioned that I had written a piece of work for my University course that included a discussion on makerspaces. I really enjoyed researching this topic (and managed to achieve my first Higher Distinction! :) ) so I thought I'd share a brief introduction to makerspaces here. A makerspace is an area in which individuals can use technology tools to create digital or physical items. Making in libraries is not a new idea; in 1873 The Gowanda Ladies Social Society met in New York to "quilt, knit, sew, socialise and talk about books" ("A history of making", 2013). Now, as libraries seek to adapt to a rapidly changing world where their physical space is needed less for the storage of books, there is a rise in the number of libraries offering facilities for people to create audio, visual or physical items.
One of the key advantages of providing a makerspace in a school library is the opportunities for creative learning. Some now believe that creativity can be considered as important as literacy in education (Robinson, 2006).
By creatively applying their scientific and mathematical knowledge in a makerspace students are able to solve problems and build things (Kemp, 2013). Through the development of their creativity, students are building skills for success in the new global economy (Partnership for 21st century skills, 2011). This is obviously a very brief introduction to makerspaces, if you are interested to know more I'm happy to share my report with you, just let me know :) REEFERENCES A history of making. (2013, January-February). American Libraries, 44(1/2), 46–47. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA315371795&v=2.1&u=csu_au&it=r&p=EAIM&sw=w&asid=0726982cf7625e9d0b730d2ae87360bf Kemp, A. (2013). The makerspace workbench: tools, technologies, and techniques for making. Retrieved from Overdrive Partnership for 21st century skills. (2011). Framework for 21st century learning. Retrieved from http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/1.__p21_framework_2-pager.pdf Robinson, K. (2006). Ken Robinson: How schools kill creativity. You Tube. Retrieved January 11, 2014, from http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html |
Suzanne Parfitt
I recently worked as Assistant Librarian at a British International School in Singapore. I've now relocated back to the UK and I am hoping to find a job that I enjoy as much as the one I've just left! Searching the ShelvesThis is my blog for interesting things to do with my work, my Continuing Professional Development (CPD), my studies or just anything that catches my eye relating to libraries, technology or books. Archives
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