Theresa Willingham and Jeroen De Boer. Makerspaces in Libraries. Library Technology Essentials; 4. Ellyssa Kroski, ed. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015. 142p. Paper, $45.00 (ISBN 978-1-4422-5300-1). OCLC: 906121721.


560 College & Research Libraries July 2016

intended audience for the book, The Student’s Survival Guide to Research has the potential 
to supplement the librarian’s knowledge about the broader expectations facing new 
college students or first-time researchers.

Monty L. McAdoo’s beginner’s research manual is a step-by-step journey from re-
ceiving a first writing assignment to composing a paper. While it follows the general 
outline of other research handbooks, the book reflects McAdoo’s background as a 
research and instruction librarian in its nuanced consideration of library-related issues. 
The Student’s Survival Guide to Research offers tips for students, definitions, and helpful 
models for thinking about research as a process, while its ability to convey these ideas 
in a concise and memorable way varies from chapter to chapter. The book’s blending of 
library skills and broader lessons about academic preparedness works well and reads 
easily.—Michael R. Mitchell, Bethel University

Theresa Willingham and Jeroen De Boer. Makerspaces in Libraries. Library Technology 
Essentials; 4. Ellyssa Kroski, ed. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015. 142p. Paper, 
$45.00 (ISBN 978-1-4422-5300-1). OCLC: 906121721.

Makerspaces in Libraries is not the first, nor will it be the last, book on this complex 
subject; however, it is a good book: substantial, thorough though not exhaustive, ap-
proachable, and concise. This blend of professional essay, descriptive narrative, and 
how-to is recommended reading for anyone whose ideas and opinions on this subject 
are still forming and goes some way toward filling a gap in the published literature 
for those whose institutions are preparing to establish a makerspace in their building 
or on their campus.

The authors begin the book with a chapter giving a brief history of makerspaces, 
foregrounding the natural affinity between the makerspace concept and the library 
mission. The next two chapters cover many of the most pressing practical consider-
ations. Subsequent chapters focus on case studies, project ideas, tips and tricks, and 
future trends. The book is structured to be read beginning to end in a linear manner, 
although once read it is usable as a reference and planning tool. While the index cover-
age is limited, after one read-through of the text it is a small matter to locate each major 
topic again. Chapter endnotes provide the reader with additional information as well 
as source citations, and there is a concentrated list of “further reading” following the 
book’s conclusion. Those sources include books and articles, as well as websites pro-
viding more library-specific background on makerspace, in addition to sites relevant 
to the entrepreneurial “maker.”

Chapter 2, “Getting Started with Makerspaces,” is one of the book’s stronger chap-
ters. It provides, among other things, a solid analysis of considerations necessary to 
the process of planning a makerspace. What makes it especially useful, and rare in 
the makerspace literature to date, is that it addresses directly the minimum physical 
space required for a functional makerspace and supplies sample groundplans from 
two real-world makerspace builds. While some of the information given is specific to 
fixed-space planning, pop-up or mobile programming will also require estimation of 
space needed, so it is useful for that as well. This section of the chapter also accounts 
for the intersecting requirements of comfort and safety, spelling out the square footage 
needed for engagement in table-based maker activities, safe operation of equipment, 
and emergency aisles. With very little effort, significant details from this chapter 
could be abstracted into a rubric or checklist to inform productive consultation with 
members of the library’s community as well as for organization-internal implementa-
tion planning.

The library examples and case studies presented in chapter 4 are intended “to glean 
best practices and recommendations from librarians experienced in makerspace […] 

doi:10.5860/crl.77.4.560



Book Reviews 561

development and operation.” (xiii) These examples and case studies make explicit the 
real implications to a library of committing to engaging its community via a makerspace 
or maker programming. Only one of the case studies included is specific to the univer-
sity library setting, and that example includes no specific discussion of how alignments 
with curriculum might be crafted to gain and retain an informed commitment from an 
institution’s administration. However, despite this relative lack of specificity to current 
reality in U.S. academia, all of the examples included are worth reading for what they 
may have in common with the reader’s institution, and perhaps most especially for 
what they have in common with each other (hint: nearly all say, “Start small.”)

Each of the book’s authors brings a unique perspective to the makerspace discus-
sion. Theresa Willingham is a U.S.-based writer/creative space designer, and Jeroen 
De Boer is a new media specialist and chairman of the FabLab Benelux Foundation. 
Their treatment of the subject is practical in the extreme; and while their work deals 
largely with the United States, it also serves to extend the scope of our thinking to the 
state of the shared makerspace concept in the Benelux countries, the United Kingdom, 
and Scandinavia.

One minor criticism of the book is that it does not include even rudimentary analyses 
to assist either with planning makerspace hours of function or operation or of staff-
ing levels and types. Optimization of hours and staffing are strikingly critical to the 
short-term success, as well as to the sustainability, of a makerspace program. Quota-
tions from some of the institutions included in chapter 4, “Library Examples and Case 
Studies,” remark on this superficially, and the need to communicate with the library’s 
user base is emphasized throughout; but some explicit basis for thinking about these 
questions, analogous to the chapter 2 discussion of physical space, would have made 
a successful book even stronger with only minimal addition to the overall page count.

It is cliché, yet nonetheless true, to state that “change” in the librarianship profes-
sion may in the end be the one thing that may be counted on. Willingham and De Boer 
themselves invoke Ranganathan’s 5th law: “The library is a growing organism.” Like 
the library itself, the library makerspace is also certain to change in its substance over 
time. Even contemporaneously, it adheres to no single formula. It will remain concep-
tually complex and retain many moving parts, has yet to reach full maturity, and in 
the academic library world the saturation point is only the tiniest speck on the distant 
horizon, if it is on the horizon at all. Interest will continue to grow, and the number 
of different forms these spaces take will continue to increase. Given the nature of this 
book’s content, it will have a shelf life and the best time to read it may be now; but the 
advice it gives is resilient. Makerspaces in Libraries promises to remain interesting and 
useful for some time to come.—Mary E. O’Dea, St. Cloud State University