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Kids create from cyberworld
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John Waller, assistant supervisor of reader services at the main branch of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County, works on a Minecraft Is Your Craft project with Heaven Harris, 7, and her mother, Tracie Gilmore, 39, both of Youngstown. The program is based on a popular video game called Minecraft.
By Bob Jackson
YOUNGSTOWN
To borrow from a well-known line from the classic film “Field of Dreams,” if you let them build it, they will come.
That’s the simple philosophy embraced and espoused by John Waller in his efforts to build interest among youths in using the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County. What he lets them build is blocks, turning them into things such as swords, torches and pick axes.
It’s part of the “Minecraft Is Your Craft” program Waller has at the library’s main branch downtown, and it’s based on a popular video game called Minecraft. In the game, players use three-dimensional blocks to construct houses, tools and other things to create a cyberworld, said Waller, assistant supervisor of readership services.
The program he conducts at the library gives kids a chance to make papercraft productions of tools that are essential to the real game. It’s aimed at bringing kids into the library where they can be introduced to other services that are available there.
“That’s pretty much the basis of all of our kids’ programming here,” he said.
There have been three such programs at the library so far, with the most recent being last week. They generally draw about a dozen kids, from fourth grade through high school.
Level of participation didn’t stop 7-year-old Heaven Harris of Youngstown from taking a seat at a table and trying her hand at the papercraft project, which consists of folding pre-printed templates and gluing them into place. Heaven, who was there with her mother, 39-year-old Tracie Gilmore, was wide-eyed as she and Waller worked on creating a sword.
“I’m going to play with it when I’m done,” the ponytailed girl said as she carefully lined glue along the edges of what would become the sword’s blade. Heaven’s eyes grew wider as she saw her creation transforming from a flat piece of paper into a sword.
Waller said the sword, torch and pickaxe are “essential tools” of the actual game, which is why he selected those items to use for the project. The papercraft versions he uses for his programs are moderately difficult to put together.
“These things turned out to be a little more complicated than I thought they were going to be, but they come out looking pretty cool,” he said.
“My boys would have loved this, but they didn’t want to come to the library tonight,” Gilmore said of her sons, age 15 and 12.
As she watched her daughter and Waller patiently putting together her sword, Gilmore said she appreciates the library and its family-friendly offerings.
“I come here so much, it’s like we live here,” she said. “It’s a good way of knowing where your kids are.”
She had come to the library that night because an older daughter was doing research for a project about singer Whitney Houston. She and Heaven happened to see the tables set up for the papercraft project and decided to join in.
“When I was little, my mom used to take us to after-school programs to learn things like this,” Gilmore said. “But those aren’t available anymore, so I have to get creative with my kids. That’s why I like this.”
Waller said he doesn’t have a date set yet for another Minecraft program, but there are plans in the works this summer for a Lego derby in which participants will build cars from Lego blocks and race them down a ramp in the library’s lower level.
He said there’s also been a demand for similar hands-on programs for adults, such as making tie-dyed T-shirts, beginning guitar lessons, and a book-to-movie club, in which participants will read a book, then meet to watch a movie based on the book and discuss them.