Makespace Inventory Reflection

 Reflect on the process of creating your makerspace inventory.

It was interesting to start working as a group together more not just for one class and it be a quick group work assignment. This was one that needed more time and research to be done for the project. It was a very slow start in figuring out what we wanted to do. Someone works at Elmhurst Library and they have a Makerspace so we ran with that idea but it is not the Elmhurst Library per se that we are doing it on it is loosely based on it. There was a moment when they didn’t want us using Elmhurst Library when they brought it up they were just saying it as an example. Though that is not what we wanted to do exactly. We came up with basing it loosely on the Elmhurst Library so we could have an idea of the demographics of a place and not try to create more research on ourselves. Diving the work up was another story since we have five group members there were only four of us that we were able to meet when we divided up the work. Emailing/messaging the other group member with a link to the Google Doc so they can have access to it same as the rest of the group members. I suggested doing a wishlist of equipment instead of just picking right off the bat what we wanted to buy. The reasoning behind this was why to choose what we wanted without at least looking to see what else is out there. Also, while it is a wishlist it doesn’t mean we had to get everything. I knew that from the start we were going to go over budget but it gives us a chance to reflect on what we actually want to keep. The makerspace we are creating is a brand new space with the idea that there wasn’t a makerspace beforehand. It is about bringing in teens and young adults in their 20s and 30s. Having that in mind seeing what could attract people in that demographic while also trying not to alienate other demographics. Making the makerspace a space for all while trying to get more people to use the library that previously has not seen a need to use the library.

It was slow progress since people couldn’t start doing things till the weekend or whenever they had free time. Since I had free time I just started adding things to my section that I shared with someone else just went a little overboard. Although I did make sure to share the responsibility and have the other person look up other things that I thought of but didn’t have the time to look up how much they cost. They also added items that they thought would be great additions to the makerspace. It was slow to fill out the document with what we needed to do. It was because of everyone’s busy schedules and that is part of life trying to make time for things. This project has shown me that being a bit organized is helpful but if everyone’s schedules are busy and trying to set up a time for everyone to meet can be impossible. Although it is important it can also be helpful using other forms of communication in the document we used we used a lot of comments to ask/comment on things in the document. I had to be patient when waiting for a response. As well as knowing I was probably causing the same problem when I wasn’t online and had to work. I had to learn to not let that stress me out and learn to let it go I’m still learning.