School Library Makerspaces: Grades 6–12 - Softcover

Preddy, Leslie B.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1610694945 ISBN 13: 9781610694940

Publisher: Libraries Unlimited, 2013

Synopsis

An essential resource for intermediate, middle, and high school librarians that guides the planning, learning, and implementation of a school library makerspace.

· Explains how to transform school libraries―always considered a destination for thinking and learning―to also be the place of doing, creating, and producing

· Supplies practical guidance on makerspace design, safety, instruction, budget, mentoring, and more

· Includes a "Think, Create, Share, and Grow" section with each makerspace activity that supplies learning and enrichment resources, guidance, and step-by-step how-to instructions

· Provides appendixes of national and local events; of ideas and supplies for makerspace activities; and of maker communities and maker resources

About this title

About the Author:

Leslie B. Preddy is the president of AASL and has been the school librarian at Perry Meridian Middle School in Indianapolis, IN, since 1992.

From School Library Journal:

This guide to setting up and justifying a maker space begins promisingly with practical and helpful information on topics such as space and setup, budgeting, necessary materials and equipment and safety rules. Preddy connects the idea of the school library maker space with the AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner as well as the common core and the STEM movement. She outlines the possibility of rewarding the makers with digital badges and participatory recognition. She also suggests that some of the making should be done in the school community for the greater good, rather than simply the making itself. The bulk of this book is made up of potential projects to do in the school makerspace, ranging from making lip balm and soap to weaving and storyboarding. The focus is on analog rather than digital, with the only tech-based project being creating a video. While this book may be of use to the solo practitioner, it suffers from poor design. Dark and shadowy photographs vary from project to project, cluttered pathfinder pages, as well as the orientation of directions, change from vertical to horizontal for a single project (pg. 110), making the instructions hard to understand. Much of the information contained within is available online in a more attractive format. Indeed, one of the sources sited (makerspace.com) has a free "playbook" available on this very subject.—Stacy Dillon, LREI, New York City

About this edition

• Publisher: Libraries Unlimited
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1610694945
• ISBN 13: 9781610694940
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208