Maker Spaces and Libraries

Some libraries are providing more customer friendly services which are accessible to low level readers.  The following summarizes a new trend --where libraries are moving from knowledge preserving to knowledge creation. These places are meant to be fun--even for adults, and since they foster making things--many adult learners may find the library a friendlier place for them to learn. Maker Spaces can also be centers for family literacy activities providing opportunities for Parent and Child Together Time.

There are also maker spaces that are not in libraries.  Some of the spaces provide 3-D printers. A dad recently made a hand for his son using a 3-D printer. There is even a concern about 3-D plastic guns which can be taken through security.

The public library in Orlando is putting together a maker space. If your library or another group in your community are doing this, let us know. Or, you may want to talk with library staff to express your interest in partnering with the library as a volunteer literacy program. These creative spaces make the library's services more accessible to adult learners..

Library of the Future

THE MAKINGS OF MAKER SPACES. By: Britton, Lauren, Library Journal, 03630277, 10/1/2012, Vol. 137, Issue 16

A Maker space refers to people coming together to create and share resources, knowledge, and "stuff."  It fosters a creation culture. The equipment and programming required is based on the purpose of the makerspace. The ideal maker space is meant to be fun!

"The biggest impediment to personal fabrication is not technical; it's already possible to effectively do it," Gershenfeld writes. "And it's not training; the just-in-time peer-to-peer model works as well in the field as at MIT. Rather, the biggest limitation is simply the lack of knowledge that this is even possible."

Bleiweis says that, in true Maker fashion, the library doesn't know where it's going next with its Maker space. They are allowing the space to evolve naturally.  Bleiweis says the library is there to provide the framework, not to be in charge. She says there is a shift from a librarian being the person who had all of the answers to the person who has questions and the ability to find the answers.

Susan Hildreth, director of IMLS. "We need to leverage what we know about learning and our trusted role as learning places to help prepare our visitors for success in today's digital world. Maker culture is one way for libraries to support innovation and creativity, using library space in ways that people both want and need. The IMLS stands ready to support libraries in this way."

R. David Lankes, professor and dean's scholar for New Librarianship at Syracuse University, writes in The Atlas of New Leadership, "Librarianship is not about artifacts, it is about knowledge and facilitating knowledge creation. So what should we be spending our precious resources on? Knowledge creation tools, not the results of knowledge creation."