Assessment Tools

Assessment Tools

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We are committed to developing assessment tools and practices for our learning spaces, and The Bubbler has been cited in numerous case studies focusing on makerspaces and learning through the arts. Explore a growing list of published studies below.

If you have any questions about making and learning at the Bubbler, feel free to contact us!

Assessment Tools

Return to the resources page for more links to resources from other projects that inspire us.

Framework for Learning

Browse some of the assessment criteria we use to gauge the success of our programs, and download a copy of a helpful worksheet you can use for your own program.

LIB Toolkit

Madison Public Library, in collaboration with Waupaca Area Public Library and Skokie Public Library, is developing a librarian’s toolkit app for collecting and analyzing qualitative data and outcomes in library programs.

Our Assessment History

Check out a timeline of how we’ve developed assessment tools over time.

Published Research

Our work has been published in a range of journal articles and studies about makerspaces and hands-on learning in libraries. Explore the list below, which includes our own work focused on assessment and learning within our space.

Halverson, E. R., Lakind, A., & Willett, R. (2017). The Bubbler as Systemwide Makerspace: A Design Case of How Making Became a Core Service of the Public Libraries. International Journal of Designs for Learning, 8(1), 57–68.

King, J. (2015). Maximizing Return On Investment (ROI). Public Libraries, 54(1), 20–22.

Koh, K., Abbas, J., & Willett, R. (2018). Makerspaces in libraries: Social roles and community engagement. In Reconceptualizing libraries (pp. 17-36). Routledge.

Kumar, V., Millerjohn, R., & Wardrip, P. (2019). Designing tools for observation and assessment in makerspaces. In Proceedings of FabLearn 2019 (pp. 197-200).

Lakind, A., Halverson, E., & Willett, R. (2016, April). “Making Across Spaces: Madison Public Library's Systemwide Approach” presented as part of Toward Building Makerspaces for All: New Theories and Practices to Design Inclusive Makerspaces at the American Education Research Association Conference, D.C.

Lakind, A. (2017). Public Libraries as Sites of Collision for Arts Education, the Maker Movement, and Neoliberal Agendas in Education. Journal for Learning through the Arts, 13(1).

Lakind, A. (2018). Patterns of Repair: Sewing with Court-Involved Teens. In Makers, Crafters, Educators (pp. 108-111). Routledge.

Lakind, A. (2018). PATTERNS OF REPAIR. Makers, Crafters, Educators: Working for Cultural Change, 24.

Lakind, A. (2019). Sketching out the programmatic features of Making Justice: a library program dedicated to court-involved youth. Journal of Radical Librarianship, 5, 103-12.

Lakind, A., Willett, R., & Halverson, E. R. (2019). Democratizing the Maker Movement: A Case Study of One Public Library System’s Makerspace Program. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 58(4), 235–245.

Taylor, M. (2015). Madison’s Bubbler. Library Journal, 140(7), 9.

Wardrip, P., Chang, S., Penney, L., Abramovich, S., Millerjohn, R., Kumar, V., ... & Halverson, E. (2020). Assessment in Hands-On Library Learning Spaces.

Willett, R. (2018). Learning through making in public libraries: theories, practices, and tensions. Learning, Media & Technology, 43(3), 250–262. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2017.1369107

Williams, R. D., & Willett, R. (2019). Makerspaces and boundary work: the role of librarians as educators in public library makerspaces. Journal of Librarianship & Information Science, 51(3), 801–813. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000617742467