When I attended the VAASL conference in 2015, I joined a session about makerspaces. The librarian, Susan Catlett, from Churchland High School was given the chance to have space dedicated to makerspaces in her newly renovated library. She shared her resources and since then, I have been fascinated by this idea.
A makerspace allows students to gather together and CREATE! This is one of the elements I am looking forward to in my future library. These spaces have taken over libraries of all levels and that is exciting!
But there are some obstacles many of us might feel like we're going to face:
- How do we get started?
- Where does the funding come from?
- What products are a must have?
Below are links to help you start your makerspace. Let's get started!
Colleen Graves: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/starting-school-makerspace-from-scratch-colleen-graves
Diana Rendina: http://knowledgequest.aasl.org/start-makerspace-youre-broke/
Interesting post on makerspaces:
Mary Beth Albright: http://theplate.nationalgeographic.com/2014/11/24/school-makerspaces-growing-farmers-gardeners-and-cooks/
I guess my biggest reservation is dedicating space for something at the high school level that may/may not be used. Without dedicated schedule time for library visits I feel like it's harder to take the leap!
ReplyDeleteI agree. The students use these spaces before school and at lunch the most from what I can gather.
DeleteOne of my pet projects this year is to start a MakerSpace in our library. We have been slowly changing our HS library space to accommodate an area where students can create. We did a mini- Makerspace session during a book club and our kids enjoyed it. I'm surprised by how many teachers and administrators don't know what a MakerSpace is even now.
ReplyDeleteOh that is awesome! My library has a great space and it's worked out pretty well for all the kids. Many people are unaware. My librarian said that this is something she use to do near the start of her career in the field and she's been a librarian for 25 years or so.
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ReplyDeleteThe middle school and high school where I visited for my SLIB690 observations had makerspaces. They were used by several groups of students throughout the day. I would be very interested in using them as well. Thanks for the great resource suggestions!
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