#LibraryMade

This week is National Library Week, and this year’s theme is “Unlimited Possibilities at Your Library,” complete with a social media hashtag of #LibraryMade, in which patrons are encouraged to share their library-facilitated creations.

It’s a theme at the forefront of my mind because my co-PI Silvia Lindtner and I have just been granted a three-year grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to develop maker-related professional education for Michigan libraries, schools, and communities. From the announcement:

The University of Michigan School of Information will develop a multi-step approach to developing maker culture in Michigan libraries in underserved communities. This will include a statewide “road trip” to share knowledge of making, maker culture, infrastructure, tools, and community building with rural libraries and their communities, as well as closer partnering with two libraries for the purpose of engaging them in making on a more sustained level. The school will share its findings in an online maker handbook and in a free virtual conference at the project’s conclusion.

We’ll be making monthly updates here to share what we’re learning in the field and are eager to hit the road beginning in Summer 2015.

What have you made because of libraries this year? Financial decisions? Home improvements? New inventions? Term papers? We’re eager to hear what you’ve learned — or would like to learn — in libraries.

– Kristin Fontichiaro