Makerspaces: A Practical Guide for Librarians (Practical Guides for Librarians, 38)

Practical guides for librarians

by John J. Burke, Ellyssa Kroski (Editor)

A Practical Guide for Librarians, Second Edition is an A–Z guidebook jam-packed with resources, advice, and information to help you develop and fund your own makerspace from the ground up. Learn what other libraries are making, building, and doing in their makerspaces and how you can, too. Readers are introduced to makerspace equipment, new technologies, models for planning and assessing projects, and useful case studies that will equip them with the knowledge to implement their own library makerspaces. This expanded second edition features eighteen brand new library makerspace profiles providing advice and inspiration for how to create your own library makerspace, over twenty new images and figures illustrating maker tools and trends as well as library makerspaces in action and new lists of actual grant and funding sources for library makerspaces.

Genres: Nonfiction, Education, Library Science, Professional Development

337 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

John J. Burke, MSLS is the Library Director & Principal Librarian of the Gardner-Harvey Library, Miami University, Middletown.

Reviews

[Bethany · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was a whole lot of information that I hadn't already synthesized for myself from numerous blogs, MLS forums, and other professional development resources. However, I'm hoping it will be helpful to convince our director to be more open-minded in his understanding of makerspace philosophy and pedagogy.

A lot of the resources listed in the appendix and throughout are already outdated, which is disappointing, but not wholly unexpected. People run blogs and then chose to stop posting for myriad reasons.

I was disappointed that there were any example makerspace policies or even a template for us to use in developing our own makerspace policy.

In all, if you've been living under a rock for the past five years and know very little about makerspaces, then this book will be helpful. But, if you've kept abreast of the trend as a lurker, then you probably won't gain a lot of new insights from Makerspaces: A Practical Guide for Librarians.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though the book is almost 5 years old, not only is it a realistic approach to makerspaces, it gives the stats to back up what works and what doesn't, what each of 150 (I think) different libraries (public, academic, and school) have found successful or haven't used.
It offers tons of websites and blogs for unique ideas.
It describes the budgeting, space, staffing, time commitment to each, different kinds of makerspaces, how and where to find the supplies, funds, marketing and more...really is a practical guide.
I've read a lot of librarian's guide books and I found myself taking notes on this one...as in...a lot of notes.

[Brandon O'Neill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good ideas in here.

[Allan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just as the subtitle says, this is a very useful guidebook to the process of developing makerspaces in libraries. If your library is anywhere in the beginning stages of planning or creating maker programming or spaces, this is the book to have with you.