Farmington Library Will Benefit from Grant

The Farmington Village Green and Library Association will be getting a $57,000 grant-in-aid approved by the State Bond Commission on March 17.

The grant is a matching grant to finance construction of a new media lab and “Makerspace in the Farmington Public library. The Farmington Libraries Board of Trustees secured the other half of the matching grant for a total of $114,000.

“I am very pleased to see Gov. Malloy and the State Bond Commission support the Farmington Library with this important funding,” said State Rep. Mike Demicco said. “The Farmington Library has done a great job in planning the new space and I’d like to thank them and Farmington’s State Senators Bye and Gerratana and Rep. Becker for their support.”

The grant will create a new physical learning environment for young people and adults.

“The library board staff and I have been developing this plan for about five years,” said Jay Johnston, executive director of Farmington Libraries. “The new spaces will continue to change the library’s landscape into a more contemporary learning environment and continue our efforts to provide additional 21st century programs for our citizen-customers.”

More from Demicco’s office:

The Media Lab will have new hardware and software tools for making things, digital design, and fabrication methods are constantly emerging. Library staff will provide people with the instruction on how to use the equipment, but also how to complete the task and produce a product. For example, a 45 or 78 RPM vinyl record can be transferred digitally, using sound mixing software to remove the pops and hiss inherent in an old record to produce a near studio quality soundtrack. Video editing and transferring media from 35mm film and VHS tape to digital is another way to use the new media center computers, software and learn a new skill. In addition, Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) programs can be used to create actual models on a 3-D printer.

The Farmington Libraries Makerspace will serve as a gathering point for tools, projects, mentors and expertise. The new Makerspace is designed to be a hands-on experiential learning center where classes are held to teach a range of skills from live cooking classes to bicycle repair – using a bike mechanics rack and a real bicycle.

Library staff will be working together with teachers and community leaders to place tools into the hands of a wider audience, building the infrastructure for more young people and adults to connect to a future in which they can personally change, modify or create new things that were nearly impossible to do on their own just a few years ago. Making is hands-on, using these new technologies and basic tools, to do real and personally meaningful work.

The Media Lab and Makerspace are expected to be completed and open to the public by 2016.