Awards created in the Fab Lab used for state conference
BONNERS FERRY — When the time came for the ILA Annual Conference 2019, put on by the Idaho Library Association, they needed customized plaques to hand out for awards. For the first time, Boundary County Library was asked to create those awards in their Fab Lab, and they stepped up to the plate in a big way.
“The folks from the Idaho Library Association contacted me via email and asked if we could help supply the actual awards for their annual conference that they are having in Nampa, Idaho,” said Boundary County Library Director Craig Anderson, before the conference. “Derrick created the design and ran with it, with help from his wife, Dawn.”
Derrick and Dawn Grow worked together to come up with a unique design that could be made using the equipment in the Fab Lab.
“I always go to my wife because you can throw an idea at her and she just takes over. It was her idea to cut the Idaho out,” said Derrick Grow. “We did a sample one and it turned out really good.”
The wood and acrylic awards featured a cutout of Idaho and a circle which featured the winners. They used a dark base to accentuate the white lettering beneath the acrylic. Each award was customized by category and winner. They had categories such as Librarian of the Year and Board Member of the Year, as well as Books of the Year.
One of the awards, Book of the Year, went to former Boundary County resident, Delia Owens for her book, “Where the Crawdads Sing.”
Amy Maggi attended the conference that took place at the Nampa Civic Center, from Oct. 2 to Oct. 4, hand delivering the awards.
“It was awesome. There were 300 people there and I got to talk to a bunch of people and network,” said Maggi. “I got to go to a lot of different classes.”
Maggi took advantage of the conference to learn as much as she could to bring back to the Boundary County Library, attending classes to better her knowledge about adult services, new employees and how to make them feel welcome, how to better utilize social media, and more.
“Some people from the legislature came and talked to us, and they told us that Idaho is number one in children’s program attendance in the country — Idaho rocks,” said Maggi. “We are number two in overall program attendance.”
The awards — made by a library for a library conference — were a success when Maggi delivered them.
“The awards were awesome and they mentioned Boundary County and they said thank you for the awards — basically that we are awesome,” said Maggi.
For more information about the Fab Lab, visit the Boundary County Library or go to www.boundarycountylibrary.com.