The White House has declared June 12-18, 2015 the national Week of Making. In honor of this celebration of innovative thinking, we are excited to announce the creation of a pilot Maker Space in Moffitt Library coming in Fall 2015! This venture has been made possible through a collaborative partnership between UC Berkeley’s University Library, Educational Technology Services (ETS) and Student Affairs Information Technology (SAIT) as well as consultations with leaders of some of the many student groups already active in this area.
Thanks to generous support from the UC Berkeley Student Technology Fund, we’ll be purchasing a 3D printer and 3D scanner for campus community use. The Maker Space will reside near the existing ETS Computer Facility on the 1st floor of Moffitt Library.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) described the Maker movement, in a recent Dear Colleague Letter, as an approach that “encourages people to understand how things work, to experiment, invent and redesign things through multiple iterations.” As we renovate the 4th and 5th floors of Moffitt Library over the coming academic year, the University Library is considering how these principles can be integrated into this new space.
In the meantime, check out other Maker Spaces at UC Berkeley such as the soon-to-open Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation and the Student Hub for Engineering and Design (SHED), created by the student-led Design Engineering Collaborative (DEC).
If you have any ideas or suggestions for the pilot Maker Space in Moffitt Library, contact Jean Ferguson (who contributed this blog post) at jean.ferguson@berkeley.edu.