The Makerspace supplies include patterned duct tape and a button maker
Need to fold some origami, create a snarky political button to force upon your friends or make a good, old-fashioned ransom letter? The SCC librarians have you covered!
The librarians have opened an old room in the library for a new purpose: making things. This “Makerspace” was created for many purposes. Scrapbooking, projects for art classes, brainstorming — all forms of creativity are welcome, but ones requiring large amounts of colorful construction paper seem to be favored, given the contents of the giant metal drawers on one side of the Makerspace.
Once upon a time last quarter, the room that the Makerspace now occupies was the library’s circulation desk and textbook reserves. Now, it houses tables with paper flowers in vases, surrounded by art supplies and old magazines waiting to be made into collages.
The Makerspace project, headed by librarian Jessica Lum, didn’t start in Washington. Lum got the idea for the SCC Makerspace from her days at a community college library in Honolulu.
“I was inspired by the slew of Makerspace events that were hosted there,” Lum said. At those events, students learned how to do everything from Japanese book-binding to designing gift cards.
“Students were able to come together, create something and make friends. I wanted to bring this sense of learning through making and community to the SCC library,” she said.
The remains of gutted books sacrificed for the purpose of scrapbooking lay bloodlessly in the bottom drawer of a metal filing cabinet in the Makerspace. Little literary carnage was required, though, according to Lum, as librarians routinely weed out old books from the collection to make space for books that support the current curriculum and students’ needs. Lum was inspired to add this facet of the Makerspace by vintage book art on Pinterest.
With instructions soon to be posted nearby in the Makerspace, the button-maker may become its most popular asset. Slogans, images and original designs can now all be incorporated into buttons students can make and distribute for themselves, their friends, and any other group of people that could, for instance, be slightly dissatisfied with a certain presidential administration.
To get to the Makerspace, upon entering the library through the automatic doors on the second floor, head left. Turn right at the bathrooms and keep going straight past the study tables, computers and bookshelves toward the hallway that contains office space and Narnia for all most students know. One of the first few doors in the Mystery Hallway, clearly labelled, is the Makerspace, open for use by students during library hours: 7:30 a.m. – 7:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 7:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m Friday, and 12 – 6 p.m. Sunday.
-Nellie Ferguson