Nebraska Innovation Studio, extension helping communities transform libraries

Authors

Deann Gayman, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Date of this Version

6-3-2019

Document Type

News Article

Citation

Nebraska Innovation Studio, 2019.

Also available at: https://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/today/article/nebraska-innovation-studio-extension-helping-communities-transform-libraries/.

Comments

Copyright 2019, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Used by permission.

Abstract

Nebraska Innovation Studio, extension helping communities transform libraries.

Back in 2012, Beatrice Public Library leaders and stakeholders had an eye toward the future as they drew up plans for a building renovation. Among the ideas was an area to house a makerspace.

“Some in the public hadn’t heard of this concept, so we ended up not having the full space,” library director Laureen Riedesel said. “We do have a 3-D printer and computers set up there, and our idea is to let it evolve and as people become aware of what we have, they’d ask for machines that we could add.”

Now, the Beatrice community will be exposed to an entire makerspace suite for the next five months, thanks to the Library Innovation Studios project. Library Innovation Studios launched in 2017 and has impacted seventeen Nebraska communities, with plans for thirteen more communities to receive makerspace equipment through the program, including libraries in Hastings, Laurel, Plainview, Verdigre and Chadron this summer. Each community gets to house the makerspace suite for twenty weeks.