Creative Innovation at Broward County Library’s “Creation Station”
From 3-D designs and virtual reality (VR) headsets to printing stickers and learning to sew, Broward County’s Creation Station is a community center to imagine and innovate.
Recently, a customer at Broward County’s Main Library needed help with a project. “Was it a book report or research for an upcoming vacation?” you ask. Not these days. She needed a part for her refrigerator door that she was unable to get from the manufacturer and she turned to the experts at the Creation Station for help. She was able to get the 3D file of the part and shared it with one of the associates at the library, who made the part using one of the County’s 3-D printers. “It is a plastic hinge that goes in the refrigerator door. The part broke and she got the 3D file for it, and we were able to accommodate and print it out for her,” said Christopher Rubio, Creation Station Manager and Senior Library Specialist. “We do have occasions when we get some customers who are inventors, and they have prototype ideas for whatever they’re inventing and they create them on a 3D file, send them to us, and we can 3D print it for them. That way, they can try it out before they send it to a manufacturer to get it mass-produced. Has anyone become a millionaire yet by using our prototypes? I can’t say for certain.”
The Creation Station’s offer many state-of-the-art services including, virtual reality PCs, electronics and robotics kits, arts and crafts stations with sewing machines and Cricut (a die cutting machine that takes images or designs and cuts them out of various materials). Customers also have access to co-working hubs and meeting areas, complete with Apple computers and PCs with design software, such as Adobe Photoshop and Premiere. There are also green screens, high-end video cameras, and lights for shooting photos and video production.
“Every library has something, depending on the location.” Says Robert Anstett, or “Bob from the Future” as he’s known to his fellow techies. Bob, Broward County Library’s Coordinator of Digital Initiatives, has worked for the Library for 29 years. He loves to talk libraries and technology. Just tune in to “Tech Talk Weekly,” on the YouTube channel @BCLCreationStation, and listen for yourself.
Anstett launched the podcast, now up to 160 plus episodes, which he produces, and hosts. The twenty-minute episodes touch on three or four current events topics, and always have a guest. The podcast comes out every Thursday, with topics as varied and diverse as the rise of Artificial Intelligence, flying and radioactive dogs, and 40,000-year-old worms. Anstett is also responsible for the Library’s first robot, “Temi” which he calls “an addition to the staff that can be used for virtual reference, library events, or just to follow you around. You just walk up to it and ask it anything you want, like where are the travel books, and it will take you there” says Anstett. “It’s simple and straightforward.” So far, Temi has visited and “worked” at 14 different libraries in Broward County.
