Library News

Librarians Join MakerUSA Learning Network to Strengthen Innovation Efforts in XULA Library's Labs and Studios

Xavier University of Louisiana Library has joined the inaugural cohort of the MakerUSA Learning Network. Each network member institution is allowed to offer participation opportunities to up to three staff members. XULA Library will be represented by librarians Mary A. Guillory, Kayla Siddell, and David Williams in monthly collaborative learning sessions on the following pre-determined makerspace related topics:

• Building equitable entrepreneurship ecosystems
• Peer mentoring
• Designing inclusive, community-driven makerspaces
• Creating strong workforce pathways for student makers
• Building an ecosystem of partners to support maker programming
• Sustainability for makerspaces and maker programming
• Creating effective revenue models for makerspaces

With 34 member institutions joining from 20 states, the MakerUSA Learning Network is a national community of practice designed to facilitate the exchange of resources and ideas, develop new regional collaborations and strengthen social capital across institutions and organizations taking community-driven approaches to supporting maker education and pathways to “making” industries. The model also aims to lift up best practices for the wider fields of maker education and workforce development innovation, including entrepreneurship.

“Making” includes industries ranging from advanced manufacturing and biotechnology to computer science and the skilled trades. Maker education uniquely empowers students to explore and improve their world. It enables students to create by building, prototyping, coding, digitally fabricating, and experimenting. Maker education puts the student at the center of the learning experience and is interdisciplinary—fusing arts and design with science, technology, engineering, and math.

The following 2022-2023 cohort member institutions were selected based on unique expertise, leadership, and alignment with community goals:

• Boys & Girls Clubs of the Los Angeles Harbor (San Pedro, CA)
• Cabrillo College (Aptos, CA)
• Coppin State University, (Baltimore, MD)
• Fab Lab Tulsa (Tulsa, OK)
• Folsom Lake College (Folsom, CA)
• Forward Cities (Durham, NC)
• Global Center for Digital Innovation (Chattanooga, TN)
• Greater Cincinnati STEM Collaborative (Cincinnati, OH)
• Harrisburg University of Science and Technology (Harrisburg, PA)
•  Idaho STEM Action Center (Boise, ID)
• Krause Center for Innovation at Foothill College (Los Altos Hills, CA)
• Mantles and Makers (Cleveland, OH)
• MAXT Makerspace (Peterborough, NH)
• Moreno Valley College (Moreno Valley, CA)
• Navajo Technical University (Crownpoint, NM)
• New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (Socorro, NM)
• Norco College (Norco, CA)
• Northeast Community College (Norfolk, NE)
• Open Works (Baltimore, MD)
• Operation Pathways (Stamford, CT)
• Pan African Cultural Institute (Pensacola, FL)
• Patrick & Henry Community College (Martinsville, VA)
• Pinhead Institute (Southwest Region, CO)
• Public Education Foundation (Chattanooga, TN)
• Riverside City College (Riverside, CA)
• Rockland Community College SUNY (Suffern, NY)
• Sacramento City College (Sacramento, CA)
• STE(A)M Truck (Decatur, GA)
• Tallahassee Community College (Tallahassee, FL)
• Tennessee College of Applied Technology Knoxville (Knoxville, TN)
• University of Wyoming (Laramie, WY)
• Urban Manufacturing Alliance (United States)
• West Los Angeles College (Culver City, CA)
• Xavier University of Louisiana Library (New Orleans, LA)

The mission of MakerUSA is to partner with the communities that have been most marginalized by unequal access and opportunity and support their goals to leverage maker education to drive community-led innovation and maker career pathways. MakerUSA is a new organization (founded in 2021) that is incubated within the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE). MakerUSA is made possible by the generous support of founding sponsors Arconic Foundation and Genentech.