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This research seeks to better understand the potential uses of maker technologies, such as single-board computers and microcontrollers, more broadly within libraries and not simply confined to the makerspace. Through interviews with librarians creating such projects, this study illustrates their successes, challenges, means of acquiring the necessary skills and knowledge, as well as their perceptions of the broader benefits and challenges to other library and information science practitioners.

This research study employed semistructured interviews with 12 librarians who have created projects with maker technologies for broader library use. Inductive qualitative analysis of the interview transcripts was conducted to identify themes of interest to the stated research questions.

Librarians' projects included: displaying digital signage, hosting online public access catalog stations, tallying reference desk interactions, counting patrons at the gate and monitoring 3-D printing statistics, among others. Participants appreciated the low-cost, flexible and creative nature of such technologies, and though they also encountered technical and organizational challenges in their use, relayed a potential series of benefits to librarians and library staff were these technologies to be more widely used.

Although significant research efforts have focused on aspects of makerspaces across all types of libraries, little work has formally collected and assessed library practitioners' work with maker technologies outside of the makerspace. Participants help detail the potential benefits of having a deeper understanding of this work, and the successes it could bring to librarians' work.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and explore curriculum related to makerspaces and making within library and information science graduate programs and continuing education opportunities available to librarians. These findings are compared against prior assessments of makerspace-related educational offerings, as well as contrasted with recent practitioner survey results indicating the number of library practitioners involved in makerspace work and their needs.

This paper employs content analysis to assess makerspace topics within American Library Association (ALA)-accredited library and information science Masters programs’ course catalogs and in continuing education opportunities for librarians.

This work identified a total of eight courses from seven ALA-accredited Masters of Library Science programs relating to makerspace and making topics. A series of past and current makerspace-related continuing education opportunities were noted, with a variety of durations and structures, all offered in online format. As compared to prior research, these findings describe a notable increase in training and curriculum relating to library makerspaces.

A limitation of this work is the difficulty in assessing frequency of course offerings, details regarding special topics courses and the potential continuing education materials that may have been removed from the internet since their offering.

Although significant research efforts have focused on makerspaces, little work has directly assessed the ongoing impact of the makerspace trend on library and information science graduate programs and continuing education opportunities.