Who, What, and Why?

Hello and Welcome Everyone! 

    I thought I'd start off by telling you a bit about me and the purpose of this blog.  My name is Kelly and I'm a lifelong lover of books and libraries.  Now that my children are grown, I've decided to shift gears and change my career.  In September of 2023, I entered the graduate program for library and information science at Southern Connecticut State University.  

Photo of a headshot of the blog writer, Kelly,

a smiling woman with short green hair and brown eyes, wearing cat eye glasses.  

She is wearing a black and white striped thermal shirt.

Tattoos of collar bones and an open book can be seen on her upper chest.

    In addition to my passion for reading, I also love to create.  As far back as I can remember, my imagination has been guided by stories, crafts and art.  In fact, over the past year I've been working on a project that ties these interests together through ceramic art.  So, when it was time to choose courses for my first semester of the program, I was excited to see one titled "Libraries and the Maker Movement."  Taking this course is a way to further connect my favorite pastimes.

Photo of a series of ceramic objects including a book with the title "Faery Lore"

 surrounded by ceramic mushrooms, a small misshapen ceramic bottle with cork, 

a jar in the shape of a faery house with a pointed roof and a miniature stack of ceramic books.

    Full transparency, this blog is a class assignment.  Given the choice of a podcast, video series, or blog, I've opted for this format. I've chosen this so that I am able to share visuals as well as text.  I'm hoping to create a resource for folks looking for more information on the makerspaces available in Connecticut libraries and the tools they have available as well as tutorials somewhere down the line.  While the class assignment only requires a handful of posts, I'd like to keep this blog up as I familiarize myself with makerspace tools and continue my journey to becoming a librarian.  

    Connecticut Library Makerspaces - More Than Books is a door to connect with other Connecticut residents and share the wonder that libraries have to offer.  While books are what drew me to libraries, I understand that not everyone has had that experience.  We all have different interests and ideas and they don't all come out of a book.  Libraries are an amazing source of information and not everyone is aware of the wide array of offerings they can find in them. I'd like this blog to help connect people to the library resources that interest them.

    All of that being said, I've never created a blog before.  I'd like to say that all my content will be excellent going forward. However, I know that mistakes are part of the process of creation.  It may be messy.   For example, I can't seem to figure out where to change the background color of the text for title of this post from black to green.  I don't know the best way to caption photos for accessibility, so right now one caption in this post is double spaced and the other is not, because I haven't figured out how to fix it.  I also suspect that as I have new ideas, this blog may become more, or less, focused.  The format may change as time goes on.  I may forget a step in a process or leave out an important photo.  I accept the trial and error of creating and will send this post out into the world anyway.  Let this be the first lesson I share with you on the journey into makerspaces: It doesn't have to be perfect the first time around. Get messy, make mistakes, and have fun!