A university-wide collaborative effort to designing a makerspace at an academic health sciences library

Herron, J., & Kaneshiro, K. (2017). A university-wide collaborative effort to designing a makerspace at an academic health sciences library. Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 36(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2017.1259878

Summary:

Herron and Kaneshiro’s article presents the process taken by the Ruth Lilly Medical Library’s new Tech Team at the Indiana University School of Medicine in designing and creating a makerspace. A heavy emphasis is made on the collaboration between the Tech Team and a variety of campus groups and departments. The paper is structured in a way that parallels the steps in which the Tech Team took in their process. First, conducting an environmental scan consisted of accumulating resources, meeting with other staff members with 3D printing expertise, and identifying who would be potential user groups. This collaborative step of speaking with students, staff, and faculty informed the Tech Team’s proposed focus for the makerspace to provide a gateway to 3D printing and prototyping. The team promoted the new service through word of mouth, sample prints, and an opportunity fair while the physical space was renovated to better serve as a makerspace. This paper offers a comprehensive synthesis of the collaborative process taken by the Tech Team in designing and building a successful makerspace within an academic library. 

Evaluation:

The relevance of Herron and Kaneshiro’s article lies in its value to academic libraries who are at the beginning of their journey to design and build their own makerspaces. The emphasis on collaboration between library staff and other university members provides valuable insight for library staff unfamiliar with makerspaces as they can gain a network of connections in their own campus community. Another significant takeaway from this article is how the Tech Team strategized to differentiate their new space from other similar 3D printing labs in the university. This resource can help library staff to position their own makerspaces in relation to specialized academic libraries, such as medical academic libraries in this case.

The state of library makerspaces

Rivera, Destiny

Wang, F., Wang, W., Wilson, S., & Ahmed, N. (2016). The state of library makerspaces. International Journal of Librarianship, 1(1), 2-16.

This article offers us the important reminder that makerspaces are not only the tools that it provides, but is also the communities they create, the relationships they build between novices and masters, the development of new skill sets, the engagement of the imagination, and the empowering of individuals to not simply be passive consumers but active creators in the economy. The maker movement, while not a recent phenomenon and may even be considered rather old news in terms of library developments, is still an area of expansion within the library world.  While this article stresses that a makerspace is not merely the technology but the human resource and community involved, the emergence of these new technologies is still an exciting feature! Some examples of the technology provided by makerspaces are 3D printing, wood-working and laser-etching tools, metalworking, arts and crafts, robotics and more. We also see in The Creation Lab at the Fayetteville Free Library, one of their makerspaces includes “a wide range of digital media hardware and software such as video cameras, podcasting equipment, a green screen wall, and computers geared for media creation”. These tools help user take theoretical ideas and turn them into working knowledge through doing. It is no surprise that the maker culture is often considered “an extension of Do It Yourself (DIY) culture with a strong technology focus”. There have even been talks, projects and funding by Google within various libraries, which proves its legitimacy, mainstream appeal as well as its potential for growth.

The Future of Libraries

McGuire, Morgan

Future Rooms:  The Intelligent use of Space. (2015, January 15) Tech Learning. Retrieved from: http://www.techlearning.com/resources/0003/future-rooms-the-intelligent-use-of-space/69818

The Future of Libraries

Library collections today are all about strong connections.  Both collections and connections are heavily influenced by technology.  It’s not just about the books anymore.  Technology has a big influence on how people connect to information and to one another.  Successful libraries know that patrons and students want to access collections on-line. Information is being made accessible via the Internet and online catalogs.   Librarians are incorporating technology into collections, and it’s important for patrons to know that connections, to and through technology, are a big part of information services today.  When I came across this article about technology and libraries and space, I had to stop and listen.

According to author Ellen Ullman, educational trends are shifting.  Libraries, and in particular school libraries, are not what they used to be.  The days of the quiet libraries and study halls with rows of books are fading.  The library is no longer a place to sit quietly.  Rather libraries are incorporating more elements of learning commons.  Library space is less about owned items and more about shared collections and connections.  The library as place is about experimentation, creativity, collaboration, and 21^st century skill sets. 

So what are 21^st century skill sets?  The physical aspects of the library are no longer driven by silent reflection and study, but rather 3D printers, maker spaces, spaces for creating art with video, and music labs.   Libraries that are able, are dedicating space for patrons and students to create and learn through experimentation.  Judging from the article, school libraries will still promote reading, but the learning experience is much more tactile, much more hands on.

According the article, students, educators, and administrators that have incorporated “maker-space” and “learning common” space into the physical library have been pleased with the results.  Some school libraries have been redesigned all together and no longer appear to fit the definition of library; “other projects include turning the high school library into a media center with a TV studio, recording studio, and café”. The library of the future is not about passivity, but about engagement and hands on learning.

Maker Spaces in Libraries

The Makings of Maker Spaces, Part 1: Space for Creation, Not Just Consumption

written by Lauren Britton (2012), provides an informative exploration of what maker spaces are and what they mean for libraries and their local communities. The maker space movement has been pushed forward over the last couple years thanks to the innovation of public libraries and some museums. 

While Britton's article isn't the most current information on maker spaces available, the quality and content of this piece is worth checking into. Britton provides an example of different benefits of the spaces, "Maker spaces also acknowledge green concerns by reconnecting consumers to the labor involved in producing what they use". The way makers approach and understand objects encourages engagement and innovation. While schools are working to bring STEM activities into classrooms for students, inadvertently it seems libraries have accomplished a similar endeavor for patron counterparts of all ages. 

This article further investigates what these spaces mean socially. Britton finds approaches to maker spaces suggesting the act of making is a political or social act. By encouraging individuals to make their own things and use different materials, these creators are discovering alternatives to our social reliance on the consumption of goods. In turn, people can make their goods. This causes a social change, regardless of how small, initially. 

Initiatives and involvement between different ages continues to expand, and the idea of these spaces evolves. Teens are a population who have truly excelled and taken the tools in maker spaces to create new ideas, objects, and media. 

The end of this article mentions a maker culture. It's inspiring to think that some simple changes that take place in libraries, schools, and museums have had such a profound effect on our social systems. I like to think these spaces empower people. 

Article Information:

The Makings of Maker Spaces, Part 1: Space for Creation, Not Just Consumption

By Lauren Britton on October 1, 2012

From

  

http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2012/10/public-services/the-makings-of-maker-spaces-part-1-space-for-creation-not-just-consumption/