Egbert, Megan. Creating Makers: How to Start a Learning Revolution at Your Library. Denver: Libraries Unlimited, 2016. ISBN: 978-1-4408-4386-1
From the publisher:
This book shows you how, even with a tight budget and limited space, you can foster "maker mentality" in your library and help patrons reap the learning benefits of making—with or without a makerspace.
Just because your library is small or limited on funds doesn't mean you can't be part of the maker movement. This book explains that what is really important about the movement is not the space, but the creativity, innovation, and resilience that go along with a successful maker program. All it takes is making some important changes to a library's programs, services, and collections to facilitate the maker mentality in their patrons, and this book shows you how.
The author explains what a maker is, why this movement is important, and how making fits in with educational initiatives such as STEM and STEAM as well as with library service. Her book supplies practical advice for incorporating the principles of the maker movement into library services—how to use small spaces or mobile spaces to accommodate maker programs, creating passive maker programs, providing access to making through circulating maker tools, partnering with other organizations, hosting maker faires, and more. Readers will better understand their instructional role in cultivating makers by human-centered design thinking, open source and shared learning, and implementation of an inquiry approach.
Features
- Offers librarians creative ways to become involved in the exciting maker movement and encourage maker mentality among patrons
- Presents an approach through which any library, no matter their size or budget, can participate
- Speaks to all ages, experience levels, and educational levels
- Fills a gap in the literature by providing libraries with limited resources the means to offer maker opportunities
