Sawing and Shushing: How Makerspaces Exist in the Library

The Maker Jawn Library is a special art space that helps you create projects, study or learn, it's what helps you show your personality! And that is why it is important to give everyone space and not to disturb others, if you want to create such a place, mba essay writing service https://place-4-papers.com/mba-essay-writing-service/ will advise you and help you with the development.


This is what I love about Maker Jawn. I’m sitting on a 6 foot plank to keep it still while one of our Makers furiously hacks it with a saw. Sawdust flies up into our noses and settles on the carpeted floor. The table shudders, the saw grinds and barks at the cheap wood.  After a 4 inch piece of wood finally splinters off the plank and thuds to the floor, the Maker grabs it along with 3 other pieces of wood, and I join her on the floor to help nail her birdhouse together.

 

We start on one side, and I show her how to hold the wood together while I place the first nail. I slam the hammer down three times, determinedly. While this nail sinks into the wood it won’t be this easy every time, especially for a 10-year-old who has never even held a hammer before. But she learns quickly. Seven bent nails and a sore thumb later we’re still going at it, attempting to secure the first 3 sides of wood to the base of the birdhouse.

 

My point is this—Maker Jawn is messy. It’s loud. It’s especially loud today. We’re squarely in the half of the library where people are doing homework, playing on computers, and trying to read…but NO ONE says anything! We don’t get warnings from the librarians or dirty looks from the patrons. To me it’s miraculous that we’re allowed to saw, nail, experiment, and learn without reproach in one of the reputedly most quiet, tidy and rule-driven places in the community. Or at least that’s how it used to be.

 

I want to express my thanks to all the staff and librarians at our 5 branches who accommodate Maker Jawn. We have a lot in common with the libraries we are in. We’re here to spark imagination and curiosity, to provide guidance and mentorship to kids who want to learn more. I know that if I tried to cobble a birdhouse together at MY childhood library, there would be lots of shushing. I’m thankful that this doesn’t happen at Rodriguez, and it gives me hope that people are starting to understand there are many different ways of learning, even if they are messy.

 

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