Tell your story with the Studio Makerspace

Bethlehem Public Library continues to take the lead in putting new technology within everyone’s reach with our Studio Makerspace and One Button recording system. The studio, which celebrated its grand opening in March, has recently been enhanced with sound-dampening drop ceilings and LED lighting to provide an even better user experience.

The Studio Makerspace makes it easy to share stories and ideas with a greater audience through self-produced videos, TV shows, podcasting and more. It’s also a great way to record and preserve personal histories or create presentations for distance-learning. The only limit is one’s imagination.

This self-service model and its user-friendly A/V equipment is right in line with the library’s mission of providing the tools and training to help people reach their goals – instead of doing the work for them. It also means studio availability is not limited by staffing and is accessible seven days a week. Anyone with an active Upper Hudson library card can book studio time in 3-hour increments through the library’s online calendar. Public access to these cutting edge tools helps bridge the digital divide in our community and creates opportunities that were once limited to those with professional experience.

The hallmark of the Studio Makerspace is the One Button system, which records and saves an mp4 file directly to a USB flash drive in one step. Laptops with Adobe Premiere Elements are available to use in the library for video editing, and the library also loans out handheld digital video cameras, so anyone is free to take their show on the road.

Content created in the studio can be made for personal use, distributed online or, if the producer is a non-profit organization, for broadcast on BCN-TV, the library’s public access channel.

For more information about the Studio Makerspace, call (518) 439-9314 or visit www.bethlehempubliclibrary.org.

Located in Delmar, Bethlehem Public Library serves a community of more than 26,000 in the Bethlehem Central School District. It provides access to the collections of all of the libraries in the Upper Hudson Library System, as well as meeting room space, Internet access, technology and a variety of programs and services for all ages.

###