Feasibility Study of Creating Maker Movement in the Central Library of the University of Tehran

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Department of Knowledge and Information Science, Faculty of Management, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

2 ,Assistant Professor, Department of Information Science and Knowledge Studies, Faculty of Management, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

3 Associate Professor, Department of Information Science and Knowledge Studies, Faculty of Management, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Purpose: This research attempts to determine the status of the University of Tehran’s central library to establish the maker movement.
Method: For so doing, both a library study method is used to prepare a checklist, and a survey method is done. By a purposive sampling, an interview with the Head of Central Library and Documentation Center of the Tehran University was carried out and a questionnaire was distributed among the librarians.
Findings: The findings indicate that the central library’s condition in terms of human resources, finances, and infrastructure is not proper for the current makerspace.
Conclusion: The results show that a high level of education and work experience has a positive effect on librarians' familiarity, skill and interest. For librarians, funding from the parent organization is greater than funding from library funding and other sources. Male librarians are less interested in establishing a maker movement, despite being more familiar with the makerspace and skillful in performing activities related to the makerspace. The organizing and cataloging department is more interested in creating a makerspace. The level of education and high work experience has a positive effect on the level of familiarity, skill and interest of librarians with activities related to the creative construction space, which can be used in the field of guiding, training and controlling related activities. For most librarians, there is enough time and space in the central library for makerspace. Undesirable hardware and software equipment in the library and lack of knowledge about digitalization laboratory equipment affect the level of knowledge of librarians.
 

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References

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Academic Librarianship and Information Research
Volume 56, Issue 1
March 2022
Pages 59-72

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