Makerspace Honored for Innovation

The Special Libraries Association, or SLA, has honored NCSU Libraries’ Makerspace at the D. H. Hill Library with the 2016 Springshare Innovation in Academic Libraries Award in recognition of its array of programs and commitment to outreach.

The award honors new programs or services that demonstrate an innovative approach to academic librarianship. Heidi Tebbe, collection manager for engineering and data science at the libraries, accepted the award on the Makerspace team’s behalf at a June 13 reception at the SLA Annual Conference in Philadelphia.

The award’s $500 prize, donated by Springshare, a library technology company, will underwrite the cost of materials for future student workshops.

SLA acknowledged how NC State has responded to the quality of the D. H. Hill Makerspace’s Web presence and training sessions, as demonstrated by its programs’ integration into curricula. They also praised the libraries’ use of assessment and attendance tracking to best meet the needs of constituencies beyond traditional communities associated with makerspaces.

Makerspace provides access to, and training for, a wide variety of making technologies and tools otherwise unavailable to students outside of labs and studios, such as 3-D printers and scanners, sewing machines, milling machines, a laser cutter, computers, hand tools and soldering irons. The space also stocks project materials: electronics, microcontrollers such as Arduinos, fabric, conductive thread, glue and filament for 3-D printers. An average of 645 people per week used the D. H. Hill Makerspace during the 2015 fall semester.