There is only one other field of librarianship competing for my career spotlight. The creation of “Makerspaces” in libraries is on the rise. According to Makerspace a makerspace is:
Modeled after hackerspaces, a makerspace is a place where young people have an opportunity to explore their own interests, learn to use tools and materials, and develop creative projects. It could be embedded inside an existing organization or standalone on its own. It could be a simple room in a building or an outbuilding that’s closer to a shed. The key is that it can adapt to a wide variety of uses and can be shaped by educational purposes as well as the students’ creative goals.
As a hobbyist, learning about this trend a while back made me VERY excited! Can you imagine how cool it is to be able to combine your loves and talents with your job?!? The ability to work in, plan programming for and share creativity with library patrons is about the only thing that could challenge my archivist goals at this point.
I mean, just look at what this knitter/hacker/reallycoolsuperfantastic woman created using an old knitting machine!
While my current skill set does not include mad hacker skills, I can see the potential for so much with the addition of these kinds of spaces. Especially after the afternoon I spent at Missy’s school. Making things is a definite way to connect with children. And adults, too.