Gabbi Pace's SLIS 761 Blog

I should begin this post with an all-important disclaimer: I'm a huge Pokemon nerd. I have about 9,000 cards in my collection (and counting!) and I've played every game. The anime was a huge part of my life as a kid, and it's always been a dream to have these awesome, mystical creatures come to life. So imagine my excitement when Pokemon Go burst onto the scene. I was actually one of the players selected for the beta testing stage, so I got in on the action very early on, when bugs were plentiful (and I'm not talking about caterpie here). Pokemon Go is a fun, interactive mobile app that utilizes GPS and AR technology to bring Pokemon into the real world. The premise is simple: the player is a Pokemon trainer that must go around catching various types of Pokemon. Different types of Pokemon appear in different areas (oftentimes, water type Pokemon appear by bodies of water, and some Pokemon like Mr. Mime are region-locked). The more the player explores their community, ...

I love makerspaces. In my undergrad, my final paper revolved around the creation and implementation of makerspaces, and as my library system expands, I've loved seeing our new makerspaces be developed from the ground up. Access to creative pursuit and development makes me geek out, and I love to work with patrons of all ages to create and/or learn something new. STEM tools and programming is especially interesting to me, particularly with younger patrons. Developing an interest in STEM at an early age is important, and can set kids moving towards skills and abilities they continue to develop as they learn and grow. When selecting a makerspace tool for review, I was particularly interested in finding something that could be made into a "kit" in my own library. CCPL, like many libraries, does not have a makerspace in every branch, but that doesn't mean that the makerspace can't come to the library anyway. Our library ( and the state library too, for all interested...