The New Wagnalls Studio: FREE Audio / Video Recording in Fairfield County, Ohio!

In this episode, Avari chats with Cristy Stebelton, the Wagnalls Memorial tech trainer about the launch of the new Wagnalls Studio. This innovative facility offers a dedicated space for audio and video recording, made possible by the Fairfield County Foundation and catering to the Fairfield County community’s creative needs.

For more information on the Studio, Cristy can be reached at 614-837-4765 ext 112.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Wagnalls Studio
• 0:17 Interview with Christy Stiepleton
• 1:19 Funding the Studio Project
• 3:00 Studio Access and Reservations
• 5:09 Community Impact and Opportunities
• 6:29 Closing Thoughts and Future Aspirations

Transcript

[0:00] On today's episode, we're talking about the new Wagnalls Studio. Welcome to the Junior Librarian Podcast. This podcast is written for kids, by kids, to help them learn more about the Wagnalls Memorial Library.

[0:11] Music.

[0:18] Hi, this is Avari, and today I'm talking to Cristy Stebelton about the new Wagnalls Studio. Welcome, Cristy. Thanks for having me, Avari. So, what is the Wagnalls Studio? Well, the studio is going to be a state-of-the-art podcast studio for audio recording. We will also have the ability to record video for whether it's YouTube or projects of your own. And we can also accommodate video conferencing. It's going to be a set-apart studio for the entire library and the community of Fairfield County. So what made the library decide to have a studio? Well, as you know, we've been recording for a few months for the Junior Librarians podcast, and we've been stuck in a small office with a lot of equipment and a bunch of noise.

[1:09] That's pretty hard to do podcast recording. And we started talking back and

[1:15] forth about how it would be nice to have dedicated space to do this kind of recording. And that's kind of the genesis of the Wagnall Studio. studio. Next was funding. And that was a whole nother project because we had to find a way to pay for everything. So I'm guessing a studio is expensive. How did the library pay for it? Yes, it's very expensive. The equipment, the renovation of the room, it all adds up. What happened was we brought the project, the manager at the time, Sarah Mayzem and I, brought the project to our executive director, who said, hey, I think we have a perfect grant opportunity here. She turned around and found the Fairfield County Foundation, who offers grants for innovative projects that can help with education and other areas of interest to support the county of Fairfield here in Ohio. We applied for the grant, we went through a rigorous review process, us and they awarded us the money with a small match from the library to be able to build out the studio.

[2:20] So where is the studio going to be in the library? Well, we had study carrels, little rooms where people used to study downstairs in the children's library against the wall. And those rooms weren't used for a lot except for storage on occasion. And when we looked at it, two of them put together would be just the right size for a recording studio. So we had a volunteer and our maintenance staff come downstairs, take out the wall between the two rooms, repair everything,

[2:54] put a nice fresh coat of paint and good carpet down, and we're going to be keeping the studio down there. When will it be ready to open? We are very excited that the studio will open on October 16th with a grand opening ribbon cutting ceremony and then And starting October 17th, we will start taking reservations.

[3:17] So who can use the studio? Basically, all patrons can use the studio, but there are rules for each age group. With children, we're going to be doing some special programming in groups so that they get to have the excitement and fun of using the studio, but are supervised. Teenagers will be allowed to use the studio on their own, but they will have to get a permission slip signed by an adult, and they'll have to have a Wagnalls library card. Adults are able to use the studio on their own with a library card and some form of state ID.

[3:53] And how do we reserve the studio? Well, everyone that uses the studio will need to go through approximately an hour's worth of training to make sure that you at least have some familiarity with the equipment that's in there. There will be plenty of materials for you to look over, and it's not really complicated. We just want to set you off with the right start to doing recording. Once you've gotten that training, and it'll be a combination of videos in person with me as the tech trainer and paper that you can actually refer back to as you use the studio. You will make an appointment during the studio's open hours to reserve a two-hour block to do your recording. Part of the process will be you'll need to bring in your own USB drive so that whatever you record in the studio you can either take with you, copied on the USB drive, or you can send to cloud storage for you to use later. So we're really excited about this project, not just because it was supported by the Fairfield County Foundation, but also because it opens up a whole lot of opportunities to do some interesting and fun projects.

[5:09] Podcasting is really popular right now. Video podcasting is even more popular with people starting their own YouTube channels and being able to go into a separate space at no cost to the individual. All you need to have is a library card and an ID and you can record. It's going to make it kind of exciting for people in this community. This is the first of its kind in our area and I only know of one other library that has a recording studio like this, and I know that some of the schools also have recording studios, but what's really great about this, it's free to use. It's part of Fairfield County, and we'll be able to do all sorts of podcasting, teaching and learning. It's also available to companies that might want to do meetings online.

[6:02] Zoom kind of of exploded during the pandemic. And a lot of people are meeting online. And this is a way to simply with a webcam and a dedicated space to have a meeting for two hours or under and it not cost anything or make it difficult.

[6:21] It provides access to people that would not otherwise have access to this technology or meeting option. Well, thank you for joining us on the podcast, Ms. Cristy. I'm so excited to see the new studio. I'm really excited to see it open, Avari, and thanks for having me on. And I'm hoping that people like you and the other podcasters on Junior Librarians will kind of branch out and do their own thing now that we have this studio readily available to every single patron in Fairfield County.

[6:55] Music.