Measuring the Impact and Value of Makerspaces in Public Libraries

The Project

Makerspaces, maker labs, and other inquiry-based community learning spaces can be found in public libraries across the country. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in professional and scholarly research on these spaces. For example, there are many practical guides to developing a makerspace in the library such as Makerspaces: A Practical Guide for Librarians (Burke & Kroski, 2018) and the Makerspace Librarian’s Sourcebook (Kroski, 2017). Since they are primarily conceived of as learning spaces, there are also several studies that assess individual skills that are developed in makerspaces (Finley, 2016; Willett, 2017).

There are two recent IMLS-funded initiatives that also focus on individual learning outcomes in makerspaces: The University of Wisconsin-Madison and Maker Education Initiative National Forum on Research and Assessment in Makerspaces and the Assessment for Learning in Library Makerspaces at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. However, a survey of the literature demonstrates that although stakeholder evaluation (as opposed to learning outcome assessment) is an important aspect of understanding there is little information on how to demonstrate the value and impact makerspaces have in their communities.

As the authors of the MakerEd white paper state “individual surveys and circulation numbers only tell a small fraction of the richer story at hand. Additionally, much assessment focuses solely on the individual level, but the ways in which to tell the tales of the collective group could be quite revealing” (Chag, S., et al, 2019 p. 20). The proposed project is intended to find a way for libraries to tell these tales.