68 · Survey Results: Survey Questions and Responses
Makerspaces and rapid fabrication will continue to be an important part of future research libraries. Research libraries
are open to everyone on campus and often in the community. Individuals can use library services regardless of what
department they are a part of or what their affiliation is. Before, only certain departments or labs were allowed to use
these types of resources. Makerspaces allow for new technologies to receive widespread dissemination and allow for a
central location where people can learn about them, use them, and discover new uses. More libraries will make these
technologies part of their everyday services and continue to teach and train patrons.
Makerspaces facilitate a different type of information literacy, and rapid protoyping extends the information lifecycle into
the physical. Libraries can provide expert consulting, literacy building, collections development, and data management
for this important new set of tools.
Manifestation of ideas!
Offering these services to all of the campus, not just students in programs where it’s an inherent part, e.g., engineering.
Connecting making to theory and critical inquiry.
Partnerships and collaborations will continue to increase, with equitable access to all disciplines and faculties. Provision
of a common ground in support of interdisiplinarity. Support of research even at the undergraduate level: provides a
critical skill at the entry level. Natural fit for libraries to participate in moving from digital to physical to digital forms
of scholarship.
Provide services in a space that serves all campus users with the possibility of serendipitous interdisciplinary
collaboration. Open for a large number of hours with staff able to help people. This provides greater ROI for the
university for expensive equipment that is often inaccessible in departmental offices. As the needs of students and
faculty changes, we will adopt new services as appropriate.
Providing a space, technology, and services that allow users to experiment and learn through experience despite their
discipline and ability.
Rapid fabrication and makerspace services will be important to many, if not most, research universities. However, the
location of these services will vary. Right now, these services are provided to a small segment of our students and
faculty within specific departments. I don’t know whether that will change.
Rapid fabrication and makerspaces seem a relevant future service that students, faculty, and staff at universities will
want. Libraries, as they seek to define their future, could be very good places to provide makerspaces, as we have
facilities, technologies, and other services with which makerspaces would seem to fit well, given appropriate staff
training. However, it would be a new business for us, and only time will tell whether it is a desired and useful service.
Research libraries may provide research assistance for fabricators however, the tools, equipment, and expertise are
better provided by academic departments.
Research libraries that have an active multimedia design lab, such as the Student Multimedia Design Center, see a role
for rapid fabrication and makerspace services that are centrally available to all users, particularly as a demonstration site,
and for wide application for basic student needs.
Since the libraries support the scholarly resource needs of the entire university community, we envision including rapid
fabrication services in the libraries’ faculty lab, which is currently under discussion.
The 3-D printing service is useful for making quick prototypes it’s great to allow users to experiment. I envision it
becoming more of a service than a research interaction with libraries purchasing more high-end equipment as the
hardware becomes less expensive for the average consumer.
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