Understanding The “Post-Emergent” Phase Of A Makerspace

Creating and starting a makerspace is an exciting venture; you build a team and purchase new equipment. There are a lot of resources (people and articles) that describe how emergent makerspaces can get off the ground. Once your makerspace has been open for a few years, you begin to experience challenges that are distinctly different from those start-up challenges, and there are very few, if any, resources that describe what this new, “post-emergent” phase entails. Three labs in the YOUmedia Learning Labs Network will lead you through a workshop where they present and talk through a framework that supports makerspaces in thinking through what this phase involves, and how to not be caught off guard by those challenges.

Participants for this episode include:

• K-Fai Steele (host), National Writing Project
• Cathy Cormier, The Mix, San Francisco Public Library
• Lyndsey Runyan, Multnomah County Library Makerspace
• Corey Wittig, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, the Labs at CLP

Resources for this episode:

• Post-Emergent Library Makerspaces
• YOUmedia hallmarks
• Making + Learning Framework
• YOUmedia.org