At the Library 5/18/23

At the Library                                                                                    
by Cary Ann Siegfried

 

What’s in a name?  We all know different people, organizations, businesses and geographical locations by their names and those names often cause us to expect or anticipate certain things when we initially hear the name. Those impressions could be good or bad or sometimes just puzzling, right?

So it’s not surprising that parents struggle with coming up with the right name for their child, business owners debate on what to name their business and organizations try to find the right match to fit their image. Right now at the library we’re trying to come up with a name for our new lower level makerspace and hope that our community may be helpful to us in coming up with the right “fit” for the name of this new area of service. 

In our survey last Fall potential users made suggestions and since that time we’ve continued to try to revise and narrow the choices. At our most recent makerspace “open house” we proposed a number of possibilities to receive more feedback. And now we’re extending that opportunity to everyone who would like to respond to an online survey about potential names. 

In thinking about names, we’ve thought about what we’d like to convey.  First, people should hear the name and have some sort of understanding of what is going on in that area, or they should at least be significantly intrigued about what “might” be going on to want to come and take a look.  In addition, we want to suggest that users of this space will discover and grow new creative talents and skills.  We also hope that the space will help create community and build connections here in Washington, that experienced users will mentor and help new users.  Some things we’ve nixed:  names that build on the “basement” theme, names that seem to point more to technology than to creativity and discovery.  It’s been suggested that this should be a name where you could easily hear yourself saying:  “I’m going to the [makerspace name]” or “I learned that at the [makerspace name]”

If you’d like to help us with this, please visit our website (washington.lib.ia.us) and take our survey—you can choose between our list of suggestions or propose your own.  The survey will be available until the end of the day on Sunday, May 21. 

A quick update on the progress of this project:  we’re nearing the end of the design phase and our architects will soon start the process of compiling construction documents that will go out to bid to potential contractors.  Hopefully a bid will be awarded and construction will begin in early Fall with completion of construction occurring in early 2024 and equipment installation during the first quarter of 2024.  We appreciate all the support and excitement that we’ve heard about this project and look forward to seeing it take shape!