MAKERSPACE INTIAL PROPOSAL 1

Makerspace Final Proposal

Sarah Fetzer

University of North Carolina at Greensboro

MAKERSPACE INTIAL PROPOSAL 2

The Matthews Library is a community branch of a large and well stocked library system.

It supports a fairly affluent area in the south of the county consisting primarily of retirees and

families with young children. The library occupies the bottom floor of the town hall building

and is very involved in the local community. It sits two blocks from the nearest elementary

school in the middle of downtown Matthews.

I think the most effective type of makerspace for the Matthews Branch would be one

focused on crafts and crafting. It would be ideal to have a space that catered heavily to children

here, as our children’s programs are especially well attended and successful. There is not

currently a space in the relatively small Matthews Library Branch that could be dedicated to a

sizable maker space. Therefore, I would like to propose a pop-up makerspace which can be

assembled and disassembled in the available community room (capacity of forty people).

The makerspace can be assembled and staffed during set hours of the week when

programs are not normally occurring. Directly after school and work would be ideal hours for

this space. The information services department and circulation department would trade off

staffing the space for one or two hour increments. This would give staff plenty of time to plan

and work to enhance their time in the space, an important component noted by Moorefield-Lang

(2015). Ideally the makerspace would be open at least 20 hours per week. The staffing hours

may start out more limited, however, as staff members must be trained to set up and break down

the pop-up makerspace. Staff training will be done by using peers in the library system who are

familiar with the components of the space through their work in the Main Library’s Idea Box.

Per Moorefield-Lang (2015), peer training is common for those staffing makerspaces.
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The pop-up makerspace would be stored in the large community room closets when not

in use. These closets lock in addition to the community room itself locking. Only staff and

trained volunteers would be setting up the maker materials and putting them away.

According to research by Wang, Wang, Wilson and Ahmed (2016), the library would

better be serving its users with this new makerspace by fostering an environment of informal

learning and play. The Matthews Library certainly does not lack in formal instruction. It offers a

regular retinue of programs including storytimes, STEM programs, learning circles, and book

clubs for all ages. This makerspace would both give the current library users a space to express

their creativity and draw new potential users from the surrounding community. Matthews, North

Carolina is a walking community and as a result, the library attracts a large number of sporadic

users during community events. Giving the public a place to do informal programming at their

leisure may turn these sporadic users into library regulars.

Additionally, adding a makerspace to the Matthews Library will be a recognition, as

noted by Stager (2014), that “knowledge is a consequence of experience.” This

acknowledgement by the library will help it reach populations for which formal learning and an

information repository has not been sufficient. It will display that the library is committed to

reaching out to those in the community who learn best by doing and creating. It also keeps the

library abreast of the trend, in the words of Wang et al. (2016) of a “resurgence in making things

both digitally and physically.” It will act as both a tool of inclusivity and innovation for the

library both on the branch level and system-wide. The pop-up makerspace is a good solution for

the lack of space, need for informal programming, and general community needs of Matthews.
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References

Moorefield-Lang, H. (2015, May/June). Change in the Making: Makerspaces and the Ever-
Changing Landscapes of Libraries. TechTrends, 59(3), 107-112.

Stager, G. (2014, Winter). What's the Maker Movement and Why Should I Care? Retrieved from
Scholastic Administrator: www.scholastic.com

Wang, F., Wang, W., Wilson, S., & Ahmed, N. (2016). The State of Library Makerspaces.
International Journal of Librarianship, 1(1), 2-16.