An Asset-Based Framework for Youth Maker Program Development in Libraries

• In Event: Structured Poster Session: Analytical Frameworks to Advance the Study of Making: Themes in Research and Development on Makerspaces

Abstract

1. Objectives
While there is enthusiasm for libraries to become or incorporate spaces for Making (Willett, 2016), the unique and traditional features of libraries as public spaces for the archival, curation, and education around information have yet to be fully leveraged. Our goal is to articulate an emerging framework for the design of library-based, youth-oriented Maker programs that builds upon current library usage patterns and expectations.

2. Perspectives
Drawing upon prior design research and our ongoing work (Lee, et al., 2017), we articulate a framework that emphasizes building upon and extending the literary and information gathering capacity already embedded in library spaces.
● A contextualizing theme. Drawing upon research in which imagined contexts and scenarios serve as important resources for youth (Krajcik, Czerniak, & Berger, 1999), anchored instruction (Cognition & Technology Group at Vanderbilt, 1990) and work in literacy studies that demonstrates youth engagements in literary worlds (Black, 2008), we recognize the value of Maker programs in libraries having a theme.
● Access to low-threshold Maker resources. Because youth often visit libraries on a drop-in and discretionary basis, it is important to emphasize Maker activities and technologies in the library that do not require proficiency in complex formalisms (e.g., computer programming) or extended participation to produce an artifact.
● A showcase mechanism. From Constructionism (Papert, 1980), simply building a new object is alone insufficient for committed learning. Libraries already serve as both information access spaces and exhibition spaces. We encourage library Maker programs to establish a showcase of artifacts to have on display for patrons.
● Strategic information resource usage. Libraries have been and will continue to be spaces for accessing information and working with information specialists (Subramanian et al., 2012). Rather than diminish or change this, librarians have taken on active roles in matching youth to existing information resources to support their making activities.

3. Methods
This framework has emerged through our own design-based research (Lee, et al., 2017) efforts with local partnering libraries, in which various forms of low-threshold Maker activities have been iteratively designed, introduced, documented, evaluated, and revised.

4. Data sources
Our data sources include field notes and photo-documentation from 11 Maker programs, interviews with six youth-serving librarians, and youth focus groups. These data have been transcribed and iteratively coded through a grounded coding process to identify common themes, concerns, and program design processes enacted by librarians.

5. Results and/or conclusions
The framework is still undergoing refinement but embodies solutions to challenges we have already encountered. For instance, we have found that a theme provides youth with a starting point for possible projects and attracts youth participation when they may have predisposed ideas of what is involved in Making.

6. Scientific or scholarly significance
This framework represents a cohesive set of components for drop-in Maker programs that build upon, rather than suppress or supplant, existing expectations and practices of libraries and librarians. This framework helps to mobilize design knowledge and the existing expertise of library professionals in a way that demonstrates the fruitfulness of future learning environment design collaborations.

Authors

• Victor R. Lee, Utah State University

• Mimi M. Recker, Utah State University

• Abigail Leigh Phillips, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee