Makerspaces

Makerspaces are becoming increasingly an popular part of school library services. From cardboard to 3D printers, makerspaces can consist of just about anything that students can use to create. I recently found an article on the Room 241 blog, sponsored by the University of Concordia-Portland, that helped me to think of a makerspace as a realistic addition to my future school library. This blog post identifies the unique opportunities that students have in makerspaces. The author writes of makerspaces: "no matter the size or amount of equipment, they need only foster curiosity, discovery and learning." This is important to remember when starting a makerspace in a library; it does not matter what kinds of tools and equipment you provide as long as your students feel supported and encouraged in their "making." As this piece from the Digital Shift mentions, makerspaces make libraries places of creation instead of simply places of consumption.

The Room 241 blog post provides specific steps for school librarians to follow when creating a makerspace. These steps are: study up and network, bring the outside world in, start a design challenge practice and get creative with the curriculum. This sequence is important because it begins with getting buy-in from teachers, administrators and other school librarians in your professional network. Then, you "bring the outside world in" by turning to the community for materials and support. Next, a design challenge such as asking students to design a game or providing them with set materials and seeing what they can make out of those materials. This step generates interest from the students and nurtures the relationship between them and the library. If this relationship is already strong by the time you "get creative with the curriculum," then working in the makerspace does not feel like just another content-heavy assignment to students. Even when they are working on projects aligned with the standards in their classes, they will approach it the way they approached the earlier design challenges.

Before reading this blog post, I had not considered the steps necessary to set up a makerspace in a school library. I had just imagined setting up a makerspace, planning some lessons around it and hoping that students used it. The carefully planned steps in this blog post set the makerspace up to succeed by building out from educators to the community and students.