With me is Melissa Donaldson.
She is the head of digital services and innovation at the Racine Public Library.
It's everything you do digital in life now because that's your job.
You're head of digital services.
You do anything the old fashioned way.
Me personally?
Yeah.
Now, we just we
talked
about the banking business and we talked about all that kind of stuff, how we do.
And you're kind of on the latest on the cusp of.
doing it the way you probably should.
And I'm still on the old writing checks and things like that.
But you still have a television?
Yes.
I
have four televisions.
Yeah,
see, that's what I do.
But you talk to my kids and they say, TV.
That's for old folks.
Oh, my kids have TVs.
And they do everything digitally on computers and pads and
things like that.
Well, they do that too.
And they watch everything they have to
watch.
Entertainment is mobile.
I know.
Not with me.
I got a TV and a cell phone.
My cell phone's old.
But other than that, we were talking for a minute on the air about Dolly Parton.
And we're talking about one of the amazing human beings she was.
That's just an entertainer.
Just a nice human being.
And you can't find anybody that has anything negative to say about her.
No, when she's given so many books, I think through her imagination library.
Yeah, I know people that have them.
Yeah, yeah.
And the people could sign up at the library for those two.
So, yeah.
Just give them away.
Yep.
What kind of books are they, do you know?
I do not
know.
And she actually, they showed her reading to children as well.
I just think she's a great human being.
She gives millions and millions of dollars away.
And I guess if you have it, you can afford to do it.
But she does it.
And she's always smiling and writes great songs.
And wow, 80 years old, had a
good
life.
A very humble life.
We talked about the beginning.
She lived in squalor, grew up her parents couldn't read or write.
You didn't even write letters to them because they couldn't read them.
She had to talk to them in person, tell them what she wanted.
Anyway, so yeah, we're just talking about Dolly Parton here.
But you've got something coming up, the Lakefront Expo 2026.
You had to move the date.
Yes, the original date on some of our earlier marketing on this was supposed to be this Saturday, but unfortunately with the death of Bishop Kirby,
and his funeral is this Saturday.
We decided to change it.
The committee decided to change it to allow the community to pay respects to Bishop Kirby.
So the new date is?
October 3rd, 2026, from 11.30 a.m.
to 4 p.m.
OK, so what is the Lake Florida Expo?
Sounds great.
What
is it?
Yeah, it's a partnership that we've done with the African-American Chamber of Commerce.
It celebrates African-American businesses in the community.
We have a Taekwondo group come in and they do a little show.
They're honoring Pastor Malvin Hargrove and they're honoring our legacy tribute this year.
So it's just a lot of fun, food, music, local vendors and businesses.
There'll be some interactive games for the kids.
My team, the Innovation Lab team will be there and we'll have some of our tech out there for kids to try.
Um, so, and it's going to be in the library on the second floor, um, by the East windows and the community room.
So it's, we're kind of taking over the second floor.
There's going to be a DJ there.
It's a takeover.
Yeah.
More.
Yeah.
It's going to be fun.
It's going to be a lot of fun.
This is my third year, um, partnering with them to do this program.
And I'm really looking forward to it.
It's a lot of planning.
It does.
It does.
We've been working on this for almost a year now.
Really?
Yeah.
Yep.
Whoa.
Okay.
Um, community connections, celebration as we gather on the lakefront.
Wow.
Oh, it's a good day.
You can't tell yet though.
Well, it's going to be inside.
It's inside, but still.
It's inside, so we don't have to worry about weather or those, um, yellow jackets that are out at that time here.
Yellow jackets?
Oh yeah, the
bees.
Oh yeah.
Yeah, they come out in the fall like that.
Oh yeah.
You know, why is there last VH effort?
Yep.
To do something about it.
What's next on the list do you want to talk about?
So we're really excited for our community science fair.
This is something new that we're trying.
We're going to be part of the 2026 Wisconsin Science Fest.
And their theme this year is the science of us, a celebration of the brain and body.
We're inviting the community to come and do create a science fair project that they can
share with the community.
That date will be October 24th is the science fair date, but we do try to say if you could try to sign up by September 15th, we have, you'll get a packet of stuff to help you guide you on your journey and what we're kind of looking for, what you'll be judged on, that kind of stuff.
When you pick up your board,
There's going to be three categories.
We're going to do elementary, middle school, high school, and adults.
So we really want you to focus on the human, you know, a celebration of the brain and body.
So we really want it to be focused on that.
Give me an example.
Can you?
No.
I can
tell you what my father built for my brother when he had his science fair.
I mean, the thing was, it was beautifully built.
The wood box where
It was had to do with electricity.
Oh, he used batteries in there.
It's real electricity for kids.
And the breaking and connecting of circuits.
And this was obviously my brother didn't build it or anything to do with it.
My father did everything.
My brother just brought it and stuck his name on it.
And it did well.
And he saved it for most of his life.
He may still have it.
But it's a beautiful box stained wood and it had different lights on it.
And you would connect the circuits.
And it talked about electrical circuits and how to
Connect them.
It was beautiful except he had my brother had nothing to do He was not even in the planning was not in the room when it was done.
All he did my father said here Let me show you how to work it.
It's slapped his name on it.
That's cool.
It's cool though You think the teacher was fooled come on a little bit No, not a little bit.
No nothing.
Okay, so but we're celebrating instead of gadgets But we said they could be gadgets there too.
Yeah, they can get I mean like anything that could help anything to do with
the brain and the body.
You know, I'm thinking like all this stuff that people have come up with at various science fairs, like, you know, like the 3D printed hands, you know what I mean?
Like who would have ever thought that that would be something I, you know, there's somebody on, I'm just thinking 3D printing because that's what I see a lot of.
Due to my job at the library, somebody created 3D prints like wheelchairs for little kids.
Yes,
I saw, we actually have a story on the air.
This kid made a wheelchair for a little girl and he also made it so it was expandable.
So as she grew, you can expand the back, the headrest and the feet with the feet go.
And it was all colorful.
It was plastic.
And it looked great and that little girl's able to use it.
He built it as a 3D printer.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So
it's amazing what you can
do.
It's really, really cool.
We are asking that people try to register.
By September 15th, though, we will allow registrations to come in through October 1st.
You shouldn't have said that.
Now people will wait.
Well, it's okay.
And again, the registered participants will receive an information packet and a tri-fold display
board.
Let's talk about some of these rules.
Originality, all projects must be the work of the entrance.
And again, the registered participants will receive an information packet and a tri-fold
display
board.
Let's talk about some of these rules.
Originality, all product, all projects must be the work of the entrance.
Yeah, like my father made my
brother's.
Yes, exactly.
Adults
may guide participants but should not complete the work for
them.
Yes, we do want the kids stuff to look like kids stuff, you know, that it's part of growing, it's a part of learning.
Team size, maximum three members per project, mixed age teams will compete in the category of the oldest member.
Safety first, open flames, dangerous chemicals, explosive, illegal substances are prohibited.
You think that'd be common sense, but
no.
Yeah, but you know, you some experienced you have open flames and stuff like that.
And we're like, we are in a building full of books.
So that's probably not the best
for our building.
You know, when I was in school, David Sorette was his name, still a friend of mine on Facebook.
His father built a volcano, a working volcano.
And the way he did it was, and it was,
I can't believe I remember this from like the third or fourth grade.
He took a match, had the teacher light the match, and she dropped it in the volcano.
And the volcano turned, it was on fire, on the inside.
And it spewed up, it looked like little tiny pebbles, or like a race, you know, if we erase something and get those little, just flowing out, and flames were coming out of it, and it was magnificent to see.
A
volcano like
that, except you're right.
Could have started the whole room on fire.
But nobody thought about it.
Right.
Nobody had a fire extinguisher ready just in case.
We're talking to Melissa Donaldson.
She is the head of digital services and innovation at the Racine Public Library.
And we're talking about the... We have a whole bunch of things we're talking about, but this is the science fair coming up.
and turn on your microphone, it might work better.
The science fair is coming up, and this is, the date of the fair is?
Is
October 24th.
Now,
how old do you have to be to participate?
This is all ages, so if you can read and write, or even if you can just write, or if mom and dad can write for you and you're coming up with their own idea and they can help you along the way, all the way until... dead.
But mama and dad cannot build it for you and
you stop your name on it.
We do want the kids to do the work.
And it's only
obvious if mom and dad
built it.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
All
of a sudden, a toddler comes in with his giant project neatly painted.
Well, that's great.
That's great.
And we left off at the ethics portion of this program here.
We talked about originality, team size, maximum three members per project, safety first, no open flame, no dangerous chemicals, explosives.
illegal substances prohibited.
Yeah, I want to tell you how heroin is made.
Here, I brought
some
heroin and some meth.
We'll show you how it's made.
No, you can't do stuff like that.
Let's talk about the ethics portion of this.
Yeah, so we just want to make sure that if you're going to involve human subjects in your experiment or whatever project that you're doing, that there must be a minimal risk.
What kind of, why would you use a human subject?
Well, I mean, it's a, we're talking about the brain and body if you'd, you know, like...
Well, I guess.
Experiments of all sorts of things.
I
know, but still, the way you said it, human subjects, maybe that scared me when I heard that.
There's certain display and set up guidelines for the science fair.
Let's talk about those.
Yep.
So everybody is going to get a trifold display from the library.
Once you sign up, we'll contact you and let you know when you can come and pick it up.
The display should include a project title, your research question,
the hypothesis you came up with, the procedures you developed, and then all your data.
We would like to see charts and graphs, photos, all that jazz.
And then a conclusion.
If your project would require electricity, would you have electricity in the space that we're going to be using?
You just need to let us know ahead of time so that we can make sure to put you by one of those and then
would need to also provide a grounded three prong extension cord.
Bring that with you.
And live animals.
Now, be careful when you deal with live animals.
We don't want to see them getting hurt.
And glass containers, all spillable liquids not permitted.
But if you're using live animals, no, we don't want
them
getting hurt.
Yes, exactly.
I don't care who they are.
Just don't let them get hurt.
You know, I saw on ABC World News the other day, they showed
humanoid robots racing around a track, you know, like a track, you know,
a track and field
event.
They went faster than the humans.
The only thing they couldn't do was look out of the way of something, because one of the robots tripped and fell, and the other robot just tripped and fell over it.
They couldn't see that
there
was another robot in front of them, so they tripped and fell.
They couldn't walk around it.
Interesting.
Yeah, so, I mean, they didn't perfect them yet, but they were fast.
They look like...
They look like humans running, but they were robots.
Interesting.
And I'm just trying to think.
There had to be a science fair somewhere where some kid came in with a robot.
There's got to be something somewhere
along the line.
I'm sure.
And I just wanted to really give a big huge shout out to the Friends of the Racing Public Library for sponsoring this event.
Because without their support, we would not be able to do this.
There are going to be
prizes in each of the categories.
There'll be a first place prize for each of the categories.
It's going to be an Apple iPad.
The second place is the Android tablet and third place is an Amazon Kindle.
So in each of those categories, each categories are read off earlier.
There will be a first, second, and third place winner.
They still make the
Kindles, huh?
Because that was my wife's first tablet.
She got a Kindle.
Then a Kindle Fire.
Well, that's what they are.
Kindle Fires.
Kindle Fires, yeah.
They're all
good.
Yeah.
She got me a tablet.
Not so long ago.
It was a birthday gift.
She uses it.
I don't use it for some reason.
Hmm.
I still do everything on my phone.
It's just easier.
Yeah.
It's a very heavy tablet, but it's really good.
Just
not for you.
Yeah.
You know, when I had her Kindle Fire, I used to play Scrabble on it all the time.
Okay.
But it was, it was very lightweight.
I was able to use it by holding it with one hand while I was in bed before.
This one's very heavy.
Okay.
So you see how to lean on you.
It's just, it's okay.
It's good.
Now we do stuff on it, but she took control of it.
It was
my gift, which became her gift, which now I have no ownership in it whatsoever.
It's like one of those rules.
If you don't use it for 30 days, it reverts back to the person who gave it to you.
Some rules she made up or something like that.
I'm sure that's not really on the book somewhere.
So this got the science for it.
I'd love to see what they come up with.
But I'd love to see them come up with it, not like my father used to make all our stuff.
Yeah, no, we're really excited to see what everybody comes up with.
Yeah.
And you never know when the next great invention's coming from.
Or yeah, or the next medical device, or you know what I mean?
Like there's so many things that have come up at science fairs that we use today, you know.
And it's always some kid who explains it to you and you can't understand them.
You never get those kids.
Well, here's what I came up with.
And you took the, um, Phanarqura rod and I put it in here and I discovered when I did that it didn't work.
Some of these kids are so smart.
Yep.
I don't
think I could come up with a science fair project.
I never, I never had to do one.
Like in any of this, we never did.
My kids did.
They went to Red Apple.
My brother did.
I never had to do it though.
Yeah, me neither.
My father made all our projects for us, no matter what.
I used to make dioramas.
Yes.
Yes.
I made the dioramas.
I did those.
Those I did on my own.
Yeah.
I loved making those.
Those were fun.
You got a
cardboard box.
You cut out a window with a cardboard box.
You put all your little characters in there.
Your little shoebox.
We didn't have any shoeboxes.
One time, my project was to make an incubator for chickens, for chicks.
Cool.
And we did it.
And the teacher said, let's actually hatch some chickens.
So we went to a, and this is in New York on Long Island, and we went to, we found a farm where we can get these fertilized eggs, and we actually got a real incubator, a real metal one.
And while we're in class, we heard them hatch.
So then we put them in my homemade incubator, which had a light to keep them warm, and it worked.
They were in there.
It was only about five or six of them, but they were in there.
And so my project worked.
I cut out a window.
And I put a piece of plastic thing or so you can watch them and the light bulb was in there keeping them warm, but it was there where they couldn't touch them.
Right, right.
And we built this thing and it was great.
And then it was time to take him back to the farm because they grew up.
But it was it was a project that I made.
And I remember everything to this day that we we opened it up and it was messy in there.
Oh, but it worked.
Yep.
It was an actual project that actually we
did.
Well, it does anything.
Yeah,
get developed, you know, there becomes a need for it.
There's a
lot of card with the diorama reminded me of that when you said that.
Yeah.
Let's talk about that.
In case people just tuned in, let's talk about some of the things we started off with today.
And this is for the Lakefront Expo coming
up.
The
date was changed to October 6th because
of October 3rd.
Yeah, because of the death of Bishop
Kirby.
Bishop Kirby.
We talked about him when the mayor was in the other day.
And so again, explain what the Lakefront Expo is, where it is, how to get involved in it.
Okay.
So the Lakefront Expo is a partnership with the African-American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Racine.
For me, personally, this is the third year that I've been involved with this program.
And this year, the Legacy Tribute is going to be Pastor Melvin Hargrove.
There's going to be a whole bunch of things, food vendors, music.
local vendors and businesses.
There's going to be workshops that people can attend, business workshops for small businesses.
It's going to be marketing for small business.
There'll be different games for the kids to do, family fun for the whole family.
So it's just a really fun day of community at the library.
And again, it's on the second floor in the adult services department.
We kind of take over the east windows and the community room.
You know, here's the difference with me and you I can tell you right now everybody.
I am reading it off paper.
She's reading it off her phone And I do that too when I when I work at the at the concerts with a concert band Papers you can't use paper when you're up there.
It's a windy and
it's
damp and I use my cell phone to read everything off of there But isn't that funny?
I could have done that this morning, too I decided I could have put it on the computer screen.
Yeah,
but I went with the old paper.
I mean I do
I'm trying to move away from paper just because it's so much clutter, you know.
So I try to use my phone or my iPad for everything.
So
you got a lot of big events coming up for the rest of the year too?
We do.
We have some really fun events.
We have kind of re with Unified going to being off for like some of the Wednesday afternoons or having some early release.
We're doing some programs earlier in the day for the kids.
So our Minecraft club is going to be
gearing up for our school year, which is really, really exciting.
We had a great turnout this past summer.
You just come to the library, build on our Minecraft server, do something together.
It's a lot of fun.
Just the way you said, it sounds like a prison, early release.
They're
on parole every Wednesday,
and we let them out for parole.
My wife does the mahjong at the library once a month.
She just runs over, she loves playing mahjong, and she learned it at the public library.
There's so much going on.
I can't even keep it all in my head.
And it's
not only women.
It's men play mahjong, too.
Everybody plays
mahjong.
Now, there's a learning curve on it.
I will just tell you, because the pieces are all in Chinese characters, that we learned it.
We play it at home now.
And it's a learning curve.
But she said, when do you do it?
It's fun.
That's awesome.
And you get to play with all the people.
The library supplies the mahjong tiles.
But yeah, thanks for coming in.
Yeah, thank you for having us.
Melissa Donaldson, who is the head of digital services and innovation at the Racine Public Library.
Always fun.
Now we have all people coming in from the library now.
Summer's over.
You guys can stop messing around.
We'll get back to work.
And I want to thank Shaking for setting all this up.
Thank you very much.
It's good to have you here.