PEABODY — George Grace and Diego Tejada are Higgins Middle School sixth graders for most of their weekdays — until late afternoon when they turn into budding inventors.
The friends count the creativity lab in the bowels of the Peabody Institute Library as one of their hangouts for reasons they assume are obvious to anyone. After all, the lab is equipped with a 3-dimensional printer, sound studio, vinyl cutter, large scale printer and embroidery machine for creating fun stuff like the stickers Tejada makes for his friends.
Tejada and Grace used the 3-D printer Monday afternoon to create a “pop socket” for Tejada’s phone and a miniature carrying case for Grace’s earbuds.
“I tried to make my own charger for my phone,” Grace said.
Trying, succeeding and sometimes failing at creating something is the process library creativity/programming librarian Mike Ahearn wants inventors of all ages to engage in when they come to the lab.
“The common perception is libraries are just about books. We see ourselves as a community space for sharing knowledge,” Ahearn said.
Educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ahearn was on the community panel that worked to make former teen librarian (now library director) Melissa Robinson’s idea of creating the lab a reality. He passed on a career in the video gaming industry to take a job at the library in 2014.
The lab is open Monday for teenagers and on Saturdays for all ages with Tuesday and Thursday evening reserved as adult-only nights.
“On a slow day we get two or three people and a busy day sees 12 to 15,” Ahearn said.
A self-described “creative,” Higgins eighth-grader Ajijola Shadare is brimming with ideas when she steps into the lab. She is creating Black History Month-themed stickers and she is trying to make hair scrunchies. The lab has been part of her after-school regimen for two years.
“It’s quiet and they have snacks,” she said.
Teen Librarian Joanna Corea tries to help students who use the lab channel their ideas into interests that will outlast their school careers.
“I get really excited about the kids. I love to see them come in and do different things,” Corea said.
