Kia ora koutou,

Over the past couple of months there has been quite a lot of development around the Library’s Makerspace that I haven’t updated you on – so here is what we have been doing, and I’ve added in the background information for those of you who want to read that far 🙂

What are we doing?

We have a project team to set up a trial Makerspace in the old Student Care space on Level 2 of Puaka James Hight (Room 214). The project team is Caroline A, Lyndsay, Rebecca F and Te Paea. The SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) for the project is all the people who have been in the Makerspace project teams so far, and we also have Library staff that haven’t been on the team yet but have expressed an interest in being involved. I will email all of you so you know who you are. The project charter for this project will hopefully be approved at this Friday’s Library Project Board meeting.

The space will open for use on Monday 9 September and the first activity will be a banner making exercise currently being planned by Zina. (who is an SME!). Activity 2 will be games (kēmu) held in the space as that week is also Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori. Any student or staff member will be able to come and use the equipment in the space to do their own projects, supported by library staff. Opening times for the trial will be 2pm to 5pm Monday to Friday. If we get feedback that suggests these hours aren’t the most useful, they might shift during the trial, which will end at Show Weekend. We expect to gather feedback throughout the time and then work on what we require for a service in 2020.

We will be advertising for a full time 5 month fixed term person to assist with planning, working with our library users in the space, relationship building and linkages etc. This position is at band four and will hopefully be advertised this week.

Some activities that we’d like to have in a Makerspace won’t be able to be in the trial due to Health and Safety concerns around fume and particulate venting in the space we will be using.

What is a Makerspace?

These are places where people gather to make things, supported by knowledgeable and enthusiastic staff, and with the needs of the specific user community in mind. They often sit in libraries as libraries already bring together diverse groups. In academic libraries, they often support the curriculum or expected graduate outcomes. Being a maker inspires creativity, collaboration and new interdisciplinary ideas. In particular, the opportunity to combine technology and crafting using tools and equipment that is not always available to an individual user.

Moving the Library Makerspace activities from small project-based achievements to a Business as Usual service to our UC community was prioritised by senior management in May 2019. In this context, a BAU approach means creating and trialling a purposeful space, linkage to other similar initiatives on campus, and completing administrative setups.

Relevant Library Operational Plan opportunities identified for 2019 are:

• alignment of services with the Graduate Profile,
• collaborative working,
• emergence of new technologies and associated services.