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Makerspaces have proven to be mainstays within library ecosystems. However, alongside the continued popularization of library makerspaces, there remains a seemingly immovable issue endemic to these environments; makerspaces continue to attract a narrow demographic of patrons. The threshold of the makerspace serves as a critical site for inquiry, specifically, for insight around students' everyday life information seeking (ELIS) behaviors. This study responds to the research question, “Why do students from underrepresented communities turn away at the threshold of a makerspace?” The research design is methodologically informed by participatory action research (PAR) and grounded theory and uses a virtual reality (VR) makerspace to provide a consistent “threshold” experience to capture students' fleeting first impressions. The research findings offer novel insight into the information seeking behaviors of students by capturing and analyzing critical data that haven't been collected before: the real-time thoughts and feelings of students from underrepresented communities entering a makerspace for the first time. 

The paper will outline two synergistic analyses that engage with the themes of resilient futures and education: a case study on the pandemic’s impact on LIS makerspace course curricula that was quickly converted from face-to-face to remote learning, and a broader analysis that explores how makerspace information professionals in higher education have adapted their services in response to safety protocols and to the holistic needs of their user communities. This paper contributes both to the conversation of LIS curricula as it pertains to teaching and training upcoming information professionals for careers in makerspaces, while also contextualizing these adaptations within the larger changes that were implemented by academic library makerspaces in North Carolina. 

The paper will outline two synergistic analyses that engage with the themes of resilient futures and education: a case study on the pandemic’s impact on LIS makerspace course curricula that was quickly converted from face-to-face to remote learning, and a broader analysis that explores how makerspace information professionals in higher education have adapted their services in response to safety protocols and to the holistic needs of their user communities. This paper contributes both to the conversation of LIS curricula as it pertains to teaching and training upcoming information professionals for careers in makerspaces, while also contextualizing these adaptations within the larger changes that were implemented by academic library makerspaces in North Carolina.