Makerspaces Publication Moves Beyond Equipment Lists
August 14, 2020
Across the nation, universities are maximizing their impact on student learning by fostering a collaborative community of makerspace labs to immerse multidisciplinary interaction鈥攁nd students, eager for collaborative fabrication, are drawn to makerspaces to find others ignited by similar creative endeavors.
That hunger led Katy Mathuews and Daniel Harper to collaboratively write, 鈥溾 (2020), with the intention of offering
pragmatic guidebook to programming and basic design principles.
鈥淲e talked about this idea that an equipment list seemed to be driving the design of makerspaces, so we wanted to take a very different approach,鈥 said Harper, an assistant professor of interior architecture in the College of Fine Arts. 鈥淎nd, 鈥榃hat are those things that make it both inviting and functional to use?鈥欌
Although Harper and Mathuews come from very distinct backgrounds, they make a good collaborative fit with complementary points of view about the natural balance of innovative student spaces on campus.
鈥淒an鈥檚 perspective was valuable in providing guidance on the planning and design of makerspaces,鈥 said Mathuews, head of collections assessment and access and the interim head of regional library managers at University Libraries. 鈥淪o, I came in with, 鈥極kay, once you have it set up, then what do you do?鈥 The chapters I wrote have to do with programming, advocacy and assessment.鈥
Even in today鈥檚 global climate with the Covid-19 pandemic impacting everyday student life, the book carefully and smartly talks about planning makerspaces.
鈥淭his is still a relevant topic because what we are seeing is that students are hungry to be together,鈥 explains Harper. 鈥淲e 鈥榤ake鈥 to find solutions to problems, so this is still near and dear to our hearts. We cannot just abandon ideas of collaboration and doing things together in a space. [What] we need to do is to think, 鈥楬ow do we do it differently now?鈥欌
And, many of the same contexts discussed in the book can also be applied online.
鈥淭here is an opportunity for virtual makerspaces, and developing online environments 鈥 [because] there is a lot of training and workshops that go into helping people use equipment, and lot of that can happen in the electronic environment,鈥 explained Mathuews. 鈥淢akers could meet together in a virtual space, if they were not able to get together in a physical space. The same contexts [in the book] can be applied to a virtual environment as well.鈥
To learn more contact Katy Mathuews or Daniel Harper.
Book cover courtesy of Libraries Unlimited