Creating Community Around Hobbies and Creative Activities

Hello, and good morning. Welcome to this Craft & Hobby webinar. Creating Community Around Hobbies and Creative Activities. We have a wide variety of exciting things that we are going to discuss today. All focused on how libraries and communities can utilize the Craft & Hobby learning platform.

To engage their platform, their patrons, and inspire creativity. And build strong social connections within their community. As people are joining us today, I'd love to make some introductions. Hello, my name is Barrett Evans. I lead many sales and marketing efforts.

Here at Craft & Hobby, and I'm delighted to be joined here today. Um, by, in our Minneapolis studios, with Brenda K.B. Anderson. Who not only serves as an instructor for numerous classes on our platform, but often hosts many live events that are a member benefit here in Craft & Hobby. Hello, Brenda.

Hi. Hi, Barrett. Hi, everyone. I'm excited to be here with you today. We're excited to have you here as well.

Also joining us, Um, remotely is Michaela Falcon. She might be a familiar name, face, or voice for those of you who are subscribers to Craft & Hobby. Uh, she's joining us outside of Denver, Colorado. Hello, Michaela. Hi, Barrett.

Happy to be here. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, we decided to host this live webinar, Uh, as an opportunity to showcase the Craft & Hobby platform. To shine a light on some of the featured programming we have.

Uh, January is National Hobby Month, which is a perfect time. To showcase the many classes that we have available on our platform. Um, and it's also to discuss how the creative programming solutions we offer can serve as a benefit for libraries and their communities, and we're here to answer any questions that our subscribers might have. And so, let's start off by just providing a Quick overview of what Craft & Hobby is, and the many benefits it can serve you. Community.

So, Craft & Hobby is an online database. Uh, we are an instructional video platform. Designed specifically for libraries, with the largest catalog of on-demand learning. Craft and hobby space. We have over 4,000 hours of on-demand video.

Tutorials across a wide range of creative activities. We have downloadable PDFs and plenty of interactive, uh, activities. Media features that can provide patterns, supply lists, Step-by-step guides. We have expert-led, Professionally produced classes, no user-generated or AI content on our site. And we have dedicated support for libraries as well, including promotional materials.

Programming ideas. Let's watch a brief promotional video. Are you ready to tap into endless inspiration and valuable skill building? Craft & Hobby is your gateway to amazing creative possibilities. Allowing your patrons to learn new, creative skills from home or in your Craft & Hobby offers an extensive online database filled with instructional how-to Videos and classes covering over 20 diverse categories, all craft-focused.

And hobbies. If you're looking for fun, Hands-on projects and DIY tutorials to share with your library community. You'll find it all here. Discover everything Craft & Hobby offers. By requesting a demo and free trial for your library.

From painting and knitting to woodworking and photography, you'll find guidance. That will help you unlock your creative potential. Plus, with new videos added all the time, you'll never run out of things to learn. Why wait? Contact the team at Craft & Hobby today.

The link below. So, Brenda, I think you might have seen your face in that promotional video. I, I did! Why don't we take this opportunity to tell us a A little bit about yourself. Okay, what you're working on today.

And how you got involved in crafting in the first place? All right. Well, I, uh, had the privilege of growing up in A very crafty family. My mother, um, she still sews. Knits, crochets.

She does all the crafty things. Um, and my dad is also a builder, and he creates things as well. So, I came from a very DIY background. Wow. And I grew up thinking it was normal to just make things if you didn't have them.

Or, you know, you could dream up new things and then just make them. Sure. And then it wasn't until I got a little bit Older, and, uh, you know, some of my friends would be like, "Can you teach me how to do that?" And I would think, "You don't know? But yeah, so I kind of grew up that way, and I ended up studying clothing design. Was in college, and then I got a job, a very creative job.

Working in a costume shop for many years. Um, and then on the side, I started developing patterns for knitting and crocheting projects. And, um, I kind of got immersed in the world in that way. Um, so I was sewing at my day job, and yarning in the evening. Um, and then when COVID happened, I lost my day job because my day job was creating costumes.

For these very large arena-type shows. You know, They were all over the world, and everything closed down. So I suddenly didn't have a job anymore. Um, and then I had just sort of realized, Oh, I can, I can actually just teach these other things, and so I fell into this. And it was...

I was so glad I did because I learned that It's just, I get so much happiness out of teaching other people how to do these. Things because to me, they're really, they're part of who I am. But they also, like, help me stay calm. They help me get through things. It's, there's, Like, an emotional component to it as well, and I just really love spreading that.

You know, to other people and teaching other people how to do it. And I have learned, too, I, I actually, before I started teaching the videos, I, um, I have published some books, and I have been teaching people through written word, which is a great way to learn as well. Thank you. Libraries. Um, but I've also learned that learning some of These skills are really beneficial if you can see video of it.

Right. It just really helps a lot with the three-dimensional things. So yeah, I'm just excited to be part of this. World of, you know, yarn and fabric, and learning all these crafty things. That's wonderful.

Lots of Brenda's tutorials and classes. Um, are available on Craft & Hobby, and I thought we'd go ahead and dive into one of those right now. I believe this is one of the first ones you might have produced for us. Mm-hmm, yep. It's the Crocheted Mittens and Fingerless Gloves.

Uh, let's watch a quick preview video. Keep your hands stylishly warm and step up your crochet skills. Join Brenda K.B. Anderson in Crochet Mittens and Fingerless Gloves, and make fun accessories for the whole family. Begin with simple shaping, creating a fingerless glove with post stitches that form a Chevron pattern.

Crochet mittens from the bottom up, and learn to add colorwork details that won't drift, as Brenda shares her secrets to managing yarn strands. Work a gorgeous braided cable on top-down mittens, and get ideas for personalizing and embellishing. Make mittens everyone wants to get their hands in. Sign up for Crochet Mittens and Fingerless Gloves today. So, Brenda, why don't you tell us a little bit about this class?

How it came to be and why you chose this particular project to teach? Okay. I was approached by a friend of mine, and she was excited to bring more content to Craftsy at the time. And they were really looking for somebody who could design mittens and fingerless gloves. Mm.

And I think that is how she found me. Because I really, really love designing small accessories, particularly fingerless gloves and mittens at the time. Um, and so she had asked me if I'd be interested in doing this. When she first asked me, I thought, "Oh my gosh, I don't know. I'm kind of nervous speaking in front of people." But then eventually, just the crafting won out.

And I agreed to come and do it, and I'm really, really glad that I did. Um, and in this class... So, one of the things that I really love is Teaching people new skills, but teaching those skills within projects. That is kind of like my style of teaching, because that's how I like to learn. I think that it's really helpful if you have, um, some sort of end goal, or you have something to show when you're finished.

Mm-hmm. And I like to use that as a vehicle to learn. All the skills along the way. So, I specifically came up with these three. Different projects, as you saw in that short video there.

Uh, with different styles and different techniques to learn while making mittens. So there's, like, working the mitten sideways, working from bottom to top. Working from top to bottom, also learning about color work. Learning about cables and post stitches, and different, um, Specific techniques, um, in crochet. So, it was Um, basically, my goal was to come up with a class that was exciting for people.

You know, not only just to learn mittens, but to learn some extra techniques. That are related. So, I think that's a really core principle of most. Of the classes that you can find on Craft and Hobby. It is about the technique, in addition to being able to successfully execute.

Itself. I do want to take this opportunity to kind of delve into the Craft and Hobby platform and how our classes are structured. And how you can utilize them, even for in-library programming. And our platform makes it very easy for you to do that. So, if you are on a particular class page, one of the things that you're gonna Notice first is that the classes are broken up into various sessions.

Uh, you can see them along the right side here. These are, These are chapters, if you will, or sessions, maybe 15 to 30 minutes long. Class. Uh, this class has a total runtime of three hours long. Um, but having...

By dividing them into sessions, you're able to Compartmentalize your project a little bit more if you're going to utilize Programming, you can make it a weekly series, and watch one session each week. And so that the patrons or attendees can then go home. Work on their project, come back next week, learn the next step of their skill. And then showcase what they've been able to learn. Not only are subtitles available on all of our videos on our site, but we also have transcriptions, and this is important.

An accessibility tool that makes it available for people who want to print. Out all the spoken text in the videos, and have it available for reference. If you are looking for specific keywords, if you, If you know you watched a video, and you wanna be like, I know she talked about this one specific stitch. I, uh, I'm trying to figure out where that was or what that was about. You can easily find and search any of the text that's available in the transcript.

And it's also important that you can copy and paste it into another document. Um, external reference, or you can even print it out as well to have a, available. Most of our classes also include this key feature under our bonus materials, and this is especially important. Uh, for a class like this, that's a crochet class, and these PDFs provide a. A number of valuable information.

Um, and for, For this particular class, you are given all the materials that you need. Um, that you would need to successfully execute this project. What types of tools, also the finished size? But this is also really important. Especially for beginners.

It includes an abbreviation, or a glossary, or some definitions of the terms that are being referenced. Uh, throughout the course. So in this one, it talks about the special stitches and explains a little bit further detail. What those are. But then, going a little bit further, You get into some of the most important pieces, which is the pattern.

This is the bulk of what it's all about, right? Mm-hmm. Uh, the pattern and how to follow it. And how to understand, how to read the pattern charts. So, Brenda, when you created this, this is your unique pattern?

Am I right? Mm-hmm. Yep. This is the one. Yep.

I designed this... You came up with. Mm-hmm. I love that. And then, tell us a little bit about how to read these, how to decipher them, and the process a little bit of go...

That goes into making these patterns. Okay. Um, so if you're coming at it from the crafter, learning how to, um, how to create your own fingerless mittens or mittens This class, you will just be reading through, and it'll give you directions. And like Barrett said, there's a glossary that explains the definitions for The, um, for the abbreviated things, you know, that are in the pattern. But as well as, so you can kind of follow along.

I always recommend that people have their pattern out when they're following along The video. Mm-hmm. Because it makes your pattern, Your written pattern makes more sense when you can see it. Actually see what I am doing. Um, but also, you know, There's a chart in there with a visual representation.

You can see all these little X's and lines. That, you know, I always try to put charts in my patterns because for people like me, who are... Where it really helps to get a visual, Just to kind of picture where you're headed and how the stitches relate. Other, I really like to include the charts as well as the written words. So you can kind of use them in conjunction to create the pattern.

And for those of you who might be thinking of incorporating this into, Uh, your programming, the beautiful part about these, uh, PDF materials are downloadable. You can save them locally on your computer. You can print them out. You can share them with others. If you are hosting an event in your library, You can print all these out and have them available for the patrons or users who are coming in.

This is especially important for a project like This, to be able to have access to this PDF materials. Even when the user is offline. Um, so that if... So, they don't have to be logged into the site to reference these materials. They can have them on a second screen, or have them printed out to follow along.

And this is synonymous with almost all the classes on the Craft & Hobby platform. Whether it's a cooking or baking class, where you have recipes, You don't necessarily want to be tethered to your computer in order to You're in the kitchen, working on these projects. So, this is a really valuable resource that we find, um. That both libraries and patrons find to be incredibly valuable. Um, and is part of what we offer at Craft and Hobby and all of our classes.

Us a little bit unique. Before we move on, I just want to let people know that they can pose any questions in the chat roll, uh, for those who are viewing. Um, I don't know if we have any yet, But we can come back to that once we get a few, uh, there. I do want to send it along now to Mikayla. Mikayla, If you can kind of talk through how libraries and communities might utilize Craft and Hobby platform, maybe some testimonials or examples as well.

Yeah. Thanks, Barrett. So, I want to share a few really fun ways libraries have been using Craft and Hobby. Their programming. These examples are really fun to me because They show just how creative our libraries are.

One of my favorites is how some have used Craft and Hobby to support their gardening clubs and community. They've taken our gardening classes, including our woodworking class on and made multiple raised beds for their community gardens. From there, our libraries have used the classes for vegetable gardening. Um, and we even received an email from one of our library partners saying how Extended Harvest Class was because the garden, um, has turned into a year-round project for them. Another fun example is around seasonal programming.

Um, several libraries have used our flower Arrangement-making class to host Valentine's or Mother's Day craft events. Um, these are always a hit. They're really simple to run. Um, typically, libraries will go to the grocery, like Trader Joe's. Grab some flowers and put on the class.

Patrons walk away with something really beautiful that they make themselves, and it's a great way to add a creative touch to holiday programming. And then there's Port Adelaide Library, Who I want to highlight. They did something especially clever. They took our brush lettering class and used it as a foundation to create their own. Tutorial: How to do brush lettering in Procreate.

So, they blended our content with their digital art expertise and made something unique. Tailored to their community. It's such a great example of how libraries can Remix Craft & Hobby content to fit their local needs. Um, and we have that video here. Let's take a quick look.

Using resources from the Craft & Hobby database and the Procreate app on iPad, Let's create modern calligraphy. Open Procreate. Choose a screen-size canvas. We'll adjust brush settings for calligraphy. Press the Brush Library, choose Tinderbox.

Under Inking. Tap the brush again. Select Stabilization. Select Streamlined and set to Max. Set stabilization to about 28%.

And in Taper, set Size to one percent. Set the tip all the way to blunt. So now you've made your brush script brush. Let's go into Safari and go to the PAE Libraries website. For some fantastic tutorials and templates, click on "Learn." Craft & Hobby, and log on using your library card and PIN.

And select Craftsy. Search keywords, "brush lettering," and select the Brush Lettering course by Krislyn Chan. Here, you'll find an overview and information about the instructor. Some bonus materials, and even a transcript. Select the bonus materials and download.

Templates. And now we're going to choose our custom brush that we created earlier. And choose a contrasting color to the templates, so we can see our tracing. So, let's trace over our templates. And be sure to keep the upstrokes thin, with less pressure.

And the downstrokes thick, with more pressure. This is key to calligraphy. Whether it's traditional or modern. And don't feel afraid to lift the pen in between strokes as needed. Well.

This template shows the difference between a traditional and bouncy style. Both are fun, but the bouncier style might take more practice. I personally find it a little bit harder. You can find the Craft and Hobby course we used in this video at palibraries.com.au. That's one exciting way that our libraries are using Craft and Hobby within.

Their library for programming, digital programming. Um, and we also have a great little YouTube Short. With Bridgeman Library, that is a great marketing tool our libraries have really clung onto, um, with Captain Literacy, which we just love. We'll go ahead and show that quick video. Oh, gee, I just can't figure out how to knit.

I can show you a great new crafting resource that will help. Gee, thanks, Captain Literacy! Just go to our website, bridgemanimages.com. To find the Craft and Hobby link, You can either scroll down on the homepage or click "Borrow" in the menu and scroll. Down.

On the login page, use your library card number and click "Submit." Find the knitting section and click on any tutorial you want. Push play, and you're good to go. There are lots of tutorials for most crafts. Even photography and woodworking. Now I've got it.

Thanks, Captain Literacy. The power to craft is yours! We love receiving videos like this with our library partners. Who utilize the Craft and Hobby resource and come up with their own clever ways. They can encourage their patrons to use and engage with the platform.

Um, thank you for all of that information, Mikayla. I now want to turn our focus to National Hobby Month. As previously mentioned, January is Hobby Month. It's a great time to encourage patrons to work on hobbies. Build healthy habits and start the year feeling energized.

Um, the courses that we have available are great for libraries. With ready-to-use workshops, self-guided learning, uh, Lots of cross-generational appeal. We have tons of content for all ages. All aptitudes of craftiness, and it's really valuable for community connection. Let's watch a quick preview video of all we have on National Hobby Month.

Celebrate National Hobby Month, your perfect chance to learn. Create and share the hobbies you love. With Craft & Hobby, You can access thousands of expert-led classes and tutorials right from your library's digital. Resources. Learn new skills or dive deeper into yours.

Favorites, from cooking and baking to fiber arts, and journaling. Photography, and personal wellness. Kick-start healthy habits with our 28-day beginner workout series, complete with an interactive wellness calendar and dozens of fitness and self-care programs. Make a resolution of learning, growth, and self-expression. Learn it, make it, Love it, only with Craft and Hobby.

So, yes, that is correct. You did hear it correctly. We have a wealth of fitness and wellness content available on Craft & Hobby. This is a really unique differentiator for us, compared to some of the other. Uh, resources that are available to libraries.

Um, Chris Freytag, who used to be an editor for Shape Magazine, is one of our lead instructors. And she's put together what we call our Beginner Workout: 28-Day Challenge. Uh, this is a self-guided wellness plan that she's put together. This is available in our Resources section on Craft and Hobby. And what this is designed for, people of any age and any.

A level of wellness interest to go ahead and get started. And the beautiful part is, as the video displayed, this is a This is a workout calendar. It's a PDF. Interactive PDF, takes all the guesswork out of, like, "Well, What should I do today? What's right for myself?

What kind of program should I build? Uh, this has been expertly put together. Including some days off, which is great. Um, but it... All of these workouts are very accessible.

There's plenty of modification instructions if You need it. Um, let's go ahead and just give a quick Preview of one of the walking fitness classes. Well, hello, everybody at home! My name is Chris Freytag. And this is your fat-burning power walking workout.

See, you're rounding that spine. Scoop out that belly. Round, open. Beautiful. We just picked up the pace a little bit.

Maybe you noticed it, maybe you didn't. It's all good. Little waistline stuff going on right here. Pull your belly to your spine. Tap it out.

You gotta keep fitness fun. Awesome. It just feels good to move. Totally. Yes?

Feels great. Absolutely. Here we go. It's single, single, double up. Yeah, yeah.

Now, let's add some arms. Up. Woo-hoo! Double punch, right there. Could you add a little style to this?

Hip, hip, hooray! Hey, hey, hey. So, at Craft & Hobby, we firmly believe that it's, uh, Hobby Month is all about whole-self wellness. So, not only your hobbies, But also your movement and mindfulness, all kind of culminate together to help with full, full self-wellness. One of the other classes that we're Featuring for Hobby Month is probably one of our most viewed, popular classes.

That we have on the platform, and that's the Startup Library: Crochet. Um, this is designed to be kind of a 101-level course for someone who's never picked up a hook or made an attempt before to learn how to crochet. This gives you a very detailed and immersive step-by-step guide on how to feel successful. With your crochet projects. So, let's watch a preview video of This.

Crochet is a beautiful process, from the Inspiring yarns to the endless patterns and designs you can create. Hi, I'm Selina Baca. Welcome to Startup Library Crochet. I've been crocheting since grade school, and it truly is my passion. I'm here to take you through all the basic skills you'll need to get started.

Soon, you'll be able to work up fantastic projects with confidence. This class is your beginner's guide into the world of crochet. You can go through the class chronologically or skip around. Whatever you're comfortable with. We'll start by covering the basic tools Need to get started?

Everything from hooks to yarn. Next, we'll explore the five foundation stitches. These are versatile techniques you can use for a variety of projects. You'll learn to read crochet patterns and charts, and even work in the round. Then, it's time to put these fundamentals to work, and we'll complete four beautiful projects together.

By the end of this class, You'll have the skills and knowledge to work any crochet project you can. Imagine. Another area that we'd love to focus on and a, A class that we're featuring is our Mindful Meal Planning. Um, you can have all the best intentions to eat right, and and work out, but meal planning becomes a very essential component. Uh, to successfully be able to execute, not only, um, making, uh, good financial decisions, but making good food decisions for you family.

And this class, I think, could be a Really valuable tool for those looking for a little extra help to maximize. Their dollar, as well as, uh, maximize their effectiveness at the grocery store. Let's watch this video. It comes down to saving time, money, and understanding that cooking doesn't have to be hard. I always had time to be that spontaneous cook, But free time was just getting smaller and smaller in my life.

I just got a lot busier, and I just found myself dreading the grocery store. Cooking. Meal planning gave me a lot of my freedom back, Gave me control back, and gave me my kitchen back. Walking in a store with a list and staying on a budget and feeling like, I'm gonna go home, and everything I need to feed my family this week is here now. It's just this overwhelming sense of relief.

You just need to decide what's important. And you'll be able to get in and out. This doesn't have to take your spontaneity. As a cook. It doesn't have to be expensive, and it doesn't have to take all night.

With just a little bit of education, You can control your budget a lot better. You can make wiser decisions on ingredients. And how you want to eat. There is just so much joy to be had in it. And a class like this not only comes with recipes, um, But it also gives you guides and checklists and grocery lists.

And find a way for you to maximize your dollar at the grocery store. Going a little bit further, again, this is another entry into our Startup Library. Series, "Learn to Draw." Um, we're gonna play this one. Every one of us has had the experience of drawing as a child. And I want to help you reconnect with that early love of drawing by giving you step-by-step Instruction to reignite your passion.

Welcome to Startup Library: Learn to Draw. I'm Patricia Watwood. In this class, I'm going to take you Four still-life projects from beginning to end: a leaf, A skull, an onion, leeks, a pitcher, and a Mason jar. For each project, I'll go over the tools and materials you'll need. And we'll draw the subject together, from beginning to end.

You'll learn a systematic approach to drawing that includes steps like the block-in. The envelope and the contour. You'll also learn techniques like hatching Shading to build shadow and render dimensional forms. Each project is designed to utilize different skills, which I'll demonstrate. Develop.

I've been an artist for 20 years, and I believe That developing your drawing skills is the best foundation you can have for any other Art you wanna do. Everything starts with a drawing. By the end of this class, you'll have mastered many new skills and concepts. And you'll have created four great finished projects to show off what you've learned. ...

For those of you who like our startup Library series. The good news is that we have, I think, Probably 10 different classes in the Startup Library, covering everything Baking to quilting and sewing, and knitting, and then we already saw crochet. So, it's a really great series of programs. Libraries can definitely utilize those for programming. Uh, most of them are, like, maybe somewhere between 10 and 13 sessions, so really good to kind of spread out into a weekly series.

If that's something that you're interested in. And, um, With so much content available on our site, it's a great way to jump in and, and discover a good learning course for For beginners of all ages. I would love to focus now on just the Craft & Hobby homepage and showcase some of the other content that we have available. Not only for Hobby Month, but also just regularly available. So when a user comes into the Craft & Hobby site...

We have a number of authentication options, which Michaela will describe. In further detail. But this is what a patron would see once they've logged in. And they can log in both within the library, as well as at-home access to the Craft & Hobby resource. And this is where, upon entry, you can kind of pick whatever.

Uh, genre or craft area of interest, um, might appeal to you most. Uh, we have sewing, knitting, fitness, and cake decorating. These are some of our most popular categories, in addition to crochet. Painting and drawing. Um, and then Craftsy, and all of our Content is located here, and then our Spanish-language content is available.

Through here. And going further into more genres, We have quilting, uh, photography, woodworking, and uh, We recently launched a whole bunch of kids' content, which I'll focus on. More in just a second. But, navigating a little bit further, You will find all of our curated carousels of content. Uh, the top one being our new releases.

Uh, we release about 10 to 15 new classes per month on our platform. Some of them include the live classes. Um, and this one right here is actually the project that, Uh, Brenda is working on, and we'll go into that a little bit further. Um, going down further, you will see the 28-day beginner workout series. These are the videos that you saw earlier, and they are the ones that match with the calendar platform.

So, if you don't have that PDF pulled up still want to dive right into the workouts and find ones that fit for you. You can just go right to the Craft & Hobby homepage and select any of them here. Beginner workout, uh, carousel. Furthermore, we have our sewing content on feature. Uh, paper crafting, again, you saw that, that other library who's utilizing the, the digital lettering as part of their curriculum and part of their classes.

Uh, you can find some of those here in the paper craft. As well as other content, like screen printing and card making as well. And then we have more knitting courses here. We have other crochet classes as well. Some are more project-driven, like this.

Sunflower and cactus garden, and then you have the Startup Library crochet. Which we previously showcased. And then, can't forget our cooking classes. Um, cooking and baking is a really big category for us on. Uh, Craft & Hobby.

Um, well over 250 cooking and baking courses that are on there. It's a great reference and a resource, Even if you're just looking for some fresh recipe ideas. Um, you might not immediately think to come to Craft & Hobby, But we have a wonderful array of cooking and baking classes available. For people to access. And then, furthermore, Looking into drawing.

Drawing is wonderful, very accessible, and requires a Minimal materials needed to execute. Again, really good for library programming. Ideas to get people to come together and take a drawing, sketching, or painting course. And again, with Startup Libraries, um, Courses within this genre can give you a good, uh, entry-level point to learning some skills. And then we still have some of our handmade Projects for every celebration.

This was featured during, Uh, the holidays, uh, but we know, uh, how it can be. Where you're still working on them, even on a post-holiday, uh, So, we left these available for people to find. And then our kids' crafts, we'll go into that a little bit later. But, uh, we did an exclusive deal with Cricket Media and their Sensical Library Kids' crafts for ages three to 13, specifically. So, preschoolers, school-age, and middle school, there's lots of good craft content on our platform.

All right, I would like to send it back to Michaela now to talk about. Like, if anybody is interested in the Craft & Hobby platform, What steps should they take? What does that look like? How do the demos work? Why don't you give us a quick overview?

That process looks like for anybody who's interested in subscribing to our platform? Of course. So if you're interested in seeing how Craft & Hobby can work for your library. Feel free to reach out to us directly. I'm happy to set up a personalized demo, so you can explore the platform in a way tailored to your needs.

Our emails, mine and Barrett's, are, uh, on the screen now, so, uh, feel free to jot that down. Um, and if you would like a quote, um, we do base our, Uh, pricing on total circulation of physical and digital items for your last fiscal year. Um, so feel free to include that in your email, or we can always get it later. But, um, that's what we need for a quote, and we do offer two-week trials. So you and your staff can test out the platform, take some classes.

Really get hands-on with it. And then Barrett mentioned that we have Four authentication options. The first, and by far most popular, Is barcode. Um, so with the barcode, we take your first five to seven digits of your SKU. We load that, and your patrons only have to enter that barcode to enter.

Um, another option that we see a lot is a static link. If you have an authentication system you want to put Craft & Hobby behind, We can do that. We can create a static link for you. And you can place that behind your authentication. We also have IP-based authentication.

We see this a lot with schools. And we can also do an add-on if you want to have it where. Your patrons can just access the site without logging in or entering anything. At your library location. And then we do have a partnership with OpenAthens.

If you are partnered with them, It's really easy to get plugged in there, too. And it's important to note, We do not store any patron data. So all of these options are really safe for your patrons, and very accessible, since they don't have to remember an extra password. Because we're all remembering too many passwords these days. Um, so you can just let me know what works best for you.

We can get you started. But yeah, if you're interested in a demo, Feel free to reach out for a trial or a quote, anything. Reach out, and I'll be happy to help. Thank you. Mikala.

We try to make this a very easy process. Uh, for libraries to join. Um, and once we have all your info, And once we've signed an agreement, it's about a one-week onboarding. And then you can be up and running, and providing, uh, all of these creative resources to your patrons. Um, Brenda, Why don't you tell us a little bit about what you're working on?

And at the same time, okay... We can talk about some live events. Yeah. ... That we have on our site.

So, I really love doing live events for the website, and Two days ago, we streamed live the process of me making this hat. This is called the Great Divide Beanie, and it is a cabled knit hat. I do live tutorials for knitting, crocheting, and also sewing sometimes. Um, and yeah, so we did this just a couple of days ago. And the thing that I really love about this is that, um, I'm able to...

I design something specifically for you guys. Um, and then I teach how to make it step by step, all the way through. And while I'm doing that, I... You know, It's a live event, so people can ask me questions. Mm.

If they have questions, or they didn't quite understand something, And that way, I can interact directly with people who are. You know, trying to learn how to make these things. So, it's very fun. It's fun on my end because I get to interact with people directly. And also, you know, it's just a great learning tool to be able to to reach out right then and ask the person who designed it, like, "Hey, what about this?" or, "Could I do this?" or, What if I had this yarn?

Could I use that? You know, just ask questions. So yeah, so I'm working on, Um... When I do live events, I have to prep. Samples in various states of completion, because it's all happening and unfolding.

Live event. So, a lot of times after live events, I will go back in and finish up my projects that almost got finished. During the live event. So that's what I'm actually doing now. I'm making a second one of these beanies here, so.

That's great. Yeah. Let's check out the live event section. Website real quick, just to give you an overview of what's all available. As Brenda said, this Great Divide Cabled Beanie was just aired on.

Uh, Tuesday, and we do send out advance notification to all of our Craft & Hobby subscribers that the event is happening. Again, if you want to create programming or schedule programming around an event like this, we give you plenty of notice. It's happening, and then if there's a pattern or anything that needs to be referenced during it. We try to make that available to you in advance as well. Um, but the also great part, in addition to what Brenda said about watching live, interact, ask questions as you go.

We also make sure that, Uh, the course is available for post-live viewing as well. So it will stay on our site, available to reference. And available to watch or rewatch to catch up. And we do probably five, on average, about five live events. Um, on Craft & Hobby per month.

Um, and we're looking to expand that, And of course, if there are particular genres or particular things that, Um, our subscribers are looking for, or the patrons are looking for. By all means, you can send those suggestions to us, and when we know available, and our resources to create live events and create projects that Uh, meet the needs and interests of our subscribers. So, thank you, Brenda. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Um, uh, now I'd like to transition. Uh, to another overview of our site. Um, another one of Craft & Hobby's Emily Stephan helped us create this overview video. Just so you can see some other examples of content that we have available. Craft & Hobby and, uh, go through some of the other subscriber and, Um, perks of having a Craft & Hobby subscription.

Hello, and welcome to this informative demo for the Craft & Hobby service. My name is Emily Stephan, and let me tell you, I am so excited to share the Craft & Hobby site with you. This demonstration will take about 15 minutes. Any questions can be directed to the Craft & Hobby team via the email on screen. Our aim at Craft & Hobby is to help patrons connect with their passions by offering the largest on-demand catalog of classes, videos, and articles in the crafting and hobby space.

There are millions of makers in the world, whether that be artists, Knitters, woodworkers, photographers, quilters—the list goes on and on. Librarians seeking resources to serve diverse makers in their communities can utilize Craft & Hobby to give patrons unlimited access to over 4,000 hours of content any device across more than 20 different creative disciplines. All of our content is family-safe, and accessible for all ages. Classes are for anyone, from beginner to advanced. So whether patrons are just diving into a new hobby or have been crafting for years.

And want to level up, Craft & Hobby has an expert-led, step-by-step instructional video to fit the needs of your crafty patrons. Craft & Hobby employs a single sign-on, And patrons will just need a library card number to access the site. The database navigation is organized by categories, and patrons can quickly Find what they're looking for with a user-friendly, web-based interface. In addition to our breadth of categories, we also include premier brands. Like Craftsy and Craftsy en Español, at no additional cost.

There is no limit on the number of videos that patrons can access. This is truly an unlimited access experience. Since the Craft & Hobby user interface is Web-based, patrons can access the service from any internet device. And all classes are on demand. Here, we can see some detail of our category, and we have over 800 programs in just woodworking alone.

And we have this great content topic filter on the side to narrow selections. Our subject matter experts are passionate about their crafts. And this shines through in their instruction. Here is "Cookie Decorating Season by Season" with Ann Yorks. Ann has more than 10 years of cookie experience and finds joy in creating cookies, tools, and great recipes.

Tutorials. The sweet thing about decorated cookies is they're always in season. Welcome to Cookie Decorating Season by Season. I'm Ann Yorks. You'll be inspired and empowered to decorate, no matter the time of year.

You'll find useful templates and recipes in the downloadable materials. So now, let's kick off our cookie decorating year. Say your patrons want to surround themselves with beautiful flowers. We have this lovely class called Flower Kitchen by Carly Cylinder. Where patrons can style breathtaking bouquets.

Patrons will have access to these exciting brands, representing an accumulation of content produced over the last 20 years. And highlighted by our flagship Craftsy, with renowned subject matter experts like Robin Miller, Rick Bayless, Joshua John Russell, and many more. A key differentiator for Craft & Hobby is that we offer health and wellness programs. Activities, too. For instance, Koya, our expert yoga Takes patrons through a class that's great for beginners, intermediate, and advanced yogis.

Hi, I'm Koya Webb, and welcome back to class. Today, we're going to do Yoga Sculpt. In Yoga Sculpt, We're gonna start with a beginner mod, then we're gonna do intermediate. And we're going to do advanced, so that you can grow along with us. Wherever you start today is not where you're gonna be next week.

And next year, you'll be amazed by how much you've grown. So, make sure you show up every single day for yourself. Let's get started. We've heard from librarians that knitting and Crochet has been an excellent craft to program for bringing patrons to libraries. If folks are interested in getting started, this Chart Reading Basics class by Michele Bernstein is a good primer.

Let me show you how to read a chart. Charts always have a key to tell you what the symbols mean. Here, we have increases and decreases that create a floral stockinette stitch. Background. There are two purl columns with a twisted stitch pattern in between.

The chart shows what each round looks It's complete. Patrons can level up a crafter skill. Want to enhance, whether that be a 30-minute skill-based class or a two- to five-hour in-depth class in the category of their choice. Master modeling chocolate with this class from Rachel Tufel, an expert pastry artist and cake designer. I know modeling chocolate can be a little scary at the start.

But with some guidance, you'll be melting, seizing, and kneading. And coloring your way to a whole new world of delicious design possibilities. I'm Rachel Teufel, a Craftsy expert and owner of Intricate Icings Cake Design. Craftsy presents "Mastering in Minutes," a new series of video tutorials designed to help you Up your game in less than 30 minutes. It may seem intimidating, But in some ways, modeling chocolate is really simple.

You can dive right in using stuff you already own. That means minimal planning, more learning, and tons more making. That's Mastering in Minutes. Whether someone is just starting out with a craft or needs a refresher, librarians are telling us that Craft & Hobby is a for engaging patrons and getting people back in the library. If you would like to explore Craft & Hobby further, please send an email to the address on screen.

Thank you for your time, and we look Hearing from you. All right. So, Barrett, I just want to let you know, Some questions coming in. Oh, excellent. Okay?

Um, the first question is actually a question. For me, um, from OpenAthens. Hi there. A question from Brenda. Community engagement is important in the library-to-patron relationship.

Any tips for facilitators using your classes in the library in an in-person group setting?" Um, so as a crochet/knitting instructor, I feel like... I mean, I completely agree with you. A community is so important, not just for the library. But also for the makerspace. You know, we learn so much from each other.

Um, and I think that it would be really amazing to have. You know, to be able to get together in a group and watch the video, you know. A class, or go through a video, or even just a little section every week. And have people bring their materials. You know, You could let people know ahead of time, you know, that you are going through.

You know, one class. Pick a class that would appeal to you. ... You know, a wide variety of people, and then Just say, "You know, these are the materials that we're going to be needing for this class." You know? And then...

When people show up, you can, um, you know, play parts of the class and have People talk to each other about what they know. Also, um, and have plenty of space in between. I mean, The great thing about watching videos this way is that you can always pause it. Discuss or go back and watch something, and be, you know, and discuss it as a group and kind of lean on each other a little bit. Also, for ideas and inspiration, and things like that.

It's just, I feel like when you get crafters together, they wanna talk. They're working on, and it's such an awesome way to get people to feel included. Community. And, I mean, you'd be surprised when you bring people together, even if they're really shy, like I typically am. When you put their craft in front of them, they want to start talking about it.

Or even if they're a beginner and they're excited to learn. They know they share things with the other people who are there. So, it's just a really great way, a great way to share it. A great way to teach, a great way to learn from each other. So, our next question is from Mark.

Mark says, "Do you provide marketing materials for subscribers?" Oh. And then there's a follow-up question after that. But I'll let you answer that first. Yeah, absolutely. Um, so yes, we absolutely provide marketing materials.

Uh, so we have a newsletter that goes out every month, uh, for all of our subscribers, and includes what classes we're highlighting the month, as well as links to a Dropbox location, where we have a number of Social assets that they can utilize for their own social media. Um, they can, uh... We'll have video clips. Many of the ones that you watched today, we have available. So they can share and post, as well as a number of Uh, static materials, um, images, and whatnot, that we try to make available.

And as always, if you're not finding what you think you need, Uh, to promote the Craft and Hobby platform or specific classes, You can always reach out to any of us at the Craft and Hobby team. And we'll happily try to supply you with the assets that you need. Great, awesome. And Mark's second question is, And reporting, how does that work? Oh, that's excellent.

Yes, a super important element that we know a lot of our library partners are interested in. So every month, we do send a usage report, Um, out to all of our subscribers. This talks about how many, How many users have accessed the site? It also gives details about what videos They're watching, how long they're watching them, and how frequently they're watching. Now, we do not, as Michaela has said earlier, we don't collect any patron.

Information. So we don't have any of... Capability of identifying those people or necessarily sending them any direct info. Instead, everything we send goes directly to our library partners for them to. Uh, to see, disseminate, and from the marketing side of things.

Then share with their patrons by whichever means they mean to communicate. We are working on some welcome kits, which will include some bookmarks. Uh, some table tents for in-library promotion for all of our subscribers. So, if you are a current subscriber, be on the lookout. That should be arriving at your library in the next couple of weeks.

Um, and for anybody who's new and prospective, we'll make sure you get those. Kits, as you join the Craft and Hobby platform as well. Great questions. Alright, that is all the questions. That we have right now.

So, okay. Well, that sounds good. As Michaela said, you can reach out to us at any time. Um, we, in addition to being available to schedule demos or, or provide a walkthrough or a free trial of the Craft and Hobby service. Anybody who's interested, we also make appearances at a number of of library conferences and shows.

So I know, Uh, we have the PLA, Public Library Association, conference, um. Coming up in Minneapolis, uh, in our hometown in April. Um, which we will be at. Uh, we will also be at ALA in Chicago in July. And then we have a number of state and regional shows that we also attend.

Reach out at any point in time. Contact us. We'll happily provide you with a demo, a walkthrough, and trials that can be explored so people can start utilizing the Craft and Hobby platform. Brenda, thank you so much for joining us today. Yeah, I'm so happy to be here.

Uh, Michaela, thank you as well. We really appreciate it. Again, for everybody who's viewing, we really appreciate you. And please reach out if you have any further questions. Mm.

And thank you from all of us here at Craft and Hobby for joining today. Bye. Thank you. You.