Caitlin A. Bagley

Makerspaces are popping up in many kinds of libraries around the world. And, if you have never visited one, they are spaces where children, teens, and adults make, create, build, experiment, and do all kinds of projects that come close to new inventions or just the use of lots of tools to create something they enjoy. This book is a short review of a number of makerspaces in public libraries in the U.S. and as Bill Derry says (a great district school library supervisor turned chief innovation officer in the public library) that school libraries really need to partner not only with the public library but also other community organizations to have a successful makerspace in the school. If you google makerspaces on YouTube, you will find both there and in the articles section lots of makerspace information. Or, you can take a short course called a QuickMOOC from lmcsource.com on the topic. This reviewer just visited a fabulous learning commons in Scarborough, ME for students from grades 3-5, and our own Leslie Preddy, incoming president of AASL has written a book about makerspaces for Libraries Unlimited. The possibilities for both formal and informal connections to curriculum are endless and whether you have lots of money or little, there is still the possibility to use this as a major feature of your on transformation into a learning commons. While this book may be one to check out from the public library to read, it is one of a huge source of information ready to be digested. Dig in.… (altro)