Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Abstract
The study assessed the awareness of the concept of makerspace by librarians in university libraries in South-South, Nigeria. This study adopted the descriptive survey research design. The population of this study is 237 (Two hundred and thirty-Seven) librarians working in State, Federal, and Private university libraries in South-South, Nigeria. A total of 237 copies of the questionnaire were distributed to the respondents and 218(92%) copies were returned and found usable for the study. The data obtained from the questionnaire were analysed using descriptive statistics (frequency count and percentage). The findings revealed that the librarians in university libraries in South-South, Nigeria are aware of the concept of Makerspace to a Very High Extent. This finding also revealed that the librarians in university libraries from the South-South, Region of Nigeria are aware of the benefits of Makerspace deployment in university libraries. It is clear from the finding that no university library in South-South, Nigeria had adopted Makerspace, the finding also shows that no university library is in the process of establishing a Makerspace (Initiation Stage). The findings indicated that the challenges affecting the deployment of Makerspace in the university libraries in South-South, Nigeria are unavailability of space for Makerspace, inadequate library funding, high Cost of Makerspace facilities, inadequate qualified staff to operate the makerspace, among others. It was recommended from the study that library management should try to initiate plans to adopt and implement Makerspace in their university libraries because of its enormous benefits to users, adequate space should be allocated to site Makerspace in university libraries due to the wide range of equipment/ facilities that will be housed on the site and sufficient funding should be allocated to university libraries to cater for the cost of equipment/ facilities as well as other training-related cost for users and librarians.