A Major Making Undertaking: A New Librarian Transforms A Middle School Library into a Makerspace Aligned to High School Career Endorsements

Learning in makerspaces involves doing, playing, thinking, experimenting, creating, collaborating, mentoring, inquiring, problem-solving, producing, inventing, designing, building, and sharing (Loertscher, Preddy, and Derry 2013). Whatever the character of a makerspace, all makerspaces have the same goal: to actively engage students in open-ended exploration and learning. To encompass this learning, makerspaces have taken on many different personas in school libraries. Some librarians have begun their makerspaces in a small area of the library that consists of a table or two with shoeboxes of Legos, electrical circuitry, and play dough. Other makerspaces are embedded throughout the library and focus on STEM activities including coding, gaming, power tools, laser-cutting, and 3-D printers. Still others include makerspaces that spill beyond the library into the school's classrooms and include STEM, art, music, crafts, and, yes, those shoeboxes full of Legos and modeling clay and dough. One makerspace is not necessarily better than the other--they are just different. This article provides insight into the transformation of a traditional middle school library into a makerspace that focuses on high school endorsements. This particular makerspace was created from the perspective of--and is the brainchild of--a new librarian in her first year of practice.