To develop and sustain youth programs and services in public libraries, it is inevitably
important to understand how teens perceive their libraries and how they would design their
library services, programs, and spaces. Current research has mainly focused on teens’ uses of
libraries in urban and suburban communities with little attention to teens in rural areas.
Meanwhile, makerspaces have gained popularity in libraries within the past decade. While an
increasing number of studies show teens’ interests in makerspaces, these studies tend to focus on
active library users’ perspectives on makerspaces. It is unclear how teens who do not usually go
to libraries perceive makerspaces.
This paper reports a work-in-progress study that seeks to explore the opportunities,
enablers, and barriers of library uses among teens in a rural area in the US, along with their
perspectives on designing a makerspace in their local public library. This selected local library
has had challenges in attracting teens to use the teens’ space and other library services and
consequently placed a hold on teen events.
With a goal to understand rural teens’ perspectives on public libraries and makerspaces,
this study employs two-phase data collection. In the first phase, teens between 13 to 18 years old
will be recruited through the snowball sampling method to participate in an online survey. In the
second phase, the research team will host three makerspace programs in the selected rural
library. Additional participants will be recruited to participate in semi-structured interviews.
The researchers will also conduct field observations during the makerspace programs.
Implications for the LIS research community, practitioners, and LIS education will also
be discussed
