The year 2022 has been an adventure! The entire team at PLIX would like to say thank you for your contributions to our forum, and your participation in our newly launched Self-Guided Mini Course and Make’n’Meet workshops. Without the engagement of our community, PLIX just wouldn’t be the same! 💃💕
In January, we started the year with a big community call. There we shared the results of an ongoing project at PLIX, a co-design focused on the needs of rural public libraries and tribal libraries, supported by a generous grant from J-WEL. We presented updates and reflections to the community with the help of Creative Learning Ambassadors Lisa, Cora, and Sammie. Thank you, Lisa, Cora, and Sammie!
In February and March, we had our monthly Make’n’Meet workshops with librarians like you, trying our Spatial Poetry and Space Food activities! We particularly love this example from Francesca, Teen Librarian at Greenfield Public Library.
In April, we held the Build a World of Play Workshop with the LEGO Foundation. In our collaboration, we promoted their Build a World of Play campaign to the public library community. Learn more about their campaign here! 🌏
In May, supported by an IMLS grant, we collaborated with the Middle Georgia Regional Library System to bring a hybrid workshop on facilitating creative learning to 10 different libraries, playfully connecting 60+ library professionals across Georgia, New York, Illinois, and Massachusetts.
The fun didn’t stop there! In June PLIX launched a Self-Guided Mini Course! Supporting library professionals to become better creative learning facilitators, this self-guided email course helps you get ready to run PLIX workshops in your library. While it is self-guided, you can always join your fellow librarians on the PLIX forum, to share, inspire, and reflect together!
Things took a crunchier turn in the later months of 2022. August saw the early discussions of a new, food themed PLIX activity, Sonic Seasoning! Here we teamed up with Creative Technologist, Northeastern University Professor and Media Lab affiliate researcher Rebecca Kleinberger, and two Cambridge librarians Clara Hendricks and Saffana Anwar of Cambridge Public Library.
After a successful beta-testing we tried out the activity at the 2022 Cambridge Science Festival where over 200 families joined us in munching away to change our auditory experience of food. In December we sent 10 libraries the activity kit to give it a try!
Also this past December, we shipped a mini course kit to 70 librarians to help support them taking the self-guided mini course! These kits included the materials and supplies for them to try two PLIX activities - Beautiful Symmetry and Paper Circuits. The feedback from these kits has been amazing as many librarians shared their creations on the forum.
2022 was jam packed with excitement, creativity and growth. Share and celebrate your 2022 creative learning explorations with us on the forum!
- What were some of your favorite PLIX experiences this year?
- What are some areas within facilitation you hope to improve on next year?
- How can PLIX better support your goal of being a facilitator?
Here’s to an amazing 2022, and an even better 2023! 🎆