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Digitization has afforded new possibilities to access, store, and share nformation that has affected libraries. Libraries have developed from central information warehouses towards being public places for activity, learning, and community building. This PhD dissertation is about library makerspaces – a type of performative library spaces inviting users to create, learn, and take part in a community around tools and materials. The dissertation asks the ostensibly simple thematic question “How are makerspaces practiced in libraries?” that is relevant for two reasons: First because makerspaces associate with expectations of empowerment, democratization, and community while outcomes depend on local conditions. Second, makerspaces in library symbolize change and involve practices not traditionally associated with libraries. That underscores the relevance of understanding ways makerspace activities unfold in practice and integrate with existing values and practices of the library.Library makerspace practices are further deconstructed into three questions covering users’ and staffs’ practices. These include (1) “how do library makerspaces arrange activities?,” (2) “how do material activities connect to makers’ everyday lives?,” and (3) “how do library makerspaces mediate social relations?”. The questions are addressed in six articles relying on data gathered in four complementary empirical studies. The studies include interview studies involving staff and users, an observational study of a communal library makerspace, and a video interaction analysis of father-child interaction in semi-structured non-formal activities. Together, these studies contribute to a nuanced understanding of practices in library makerspaces.Based on practice theory, human-computer Interaction, and library information sciences, this dissertation discusses library makerspaces in relation to organization of activities, information behavior, learning, meaning-making, community, and institutional embeddedness. This dissertation contributes an everyday perspective on library makerspaces enlightening both the new potentials makerspaces offer for libraries and the ongoing challenges of integrating new practices in institutionalized values and practices.

Makerspaces provide communal access to resources such as 3D printers, laser cutters, electronics equipment, and sewing machines. This way, makerspaces aspire to facilitate their users – the so-called makers – in acquiring craft skills, creating products, learning about technology, and meeting other mak-ers. The collaborative qualities of the makerspace community are key to this aspiration. Yet, just like many non-makerspace initiatives, makerspaces of-ten struggle to foster and sustain a collaborative community. In this study, we use the model of me-to-we design to analyze a makerspace that has suc-ceeded in nurturing a collaborative community. We disentangle the mak-erspace activities into the five stages of the model and, on that basis, arrive at six principles for nurturing collaborative makerspace communities: (1) ac-cept diverse entry and end points, (2) plan for transitions, (3) help makers devise meaningful projects, (4) encourage sharing and lightweight documen-tation, (5) collaborate toward communal goals, and (6) attend to the social.