A Complete Guide to Creative Technology Spaces in Academic Libraries: Media Labs, Makerspaces, and More

Emily Thompson (she/her) is an associate professor and the director of the Library Studio at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She has also worked in creative technology at the State University of New York at Oswego. At UTC, she manages the lab and a team of two faculty librarians, three full-time staff, and six student assistants. The Studio has a robust instruction program and a busy desk that answers reference questions and circulates equipment. Emily has an MSI from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and a BA in theatre from Drake University.

Vanessa Rodriguez (she/her) is a librarian associate professor at the University of Miami. As the head of the Creative Studio, she provides instruction to the UMiami community in multimedia software, hardware, copyright, design, and emerging technologies. She is the librarian liaison for the Interactive Media Department in the School of Communication; and she manages the library’s collection in that area, as well as the graphic novels collection and video games collection. She also teaches an Introduction to Visual Design course. Vanessa has an MLIS from the University of South Florida, and a BA in art photography and creative writing from the University of Miami.

Eric Johnson (he/him) is the head of the Creative Technologies and Scholarship department at Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries. He heads the department that created and oversees The Workshop, the multimedia studio and makerspace that opened in 2015. He was previously the head of outreach and public services in the Scholars’ Lab at the University of Virginia Library, and was a librarian at Thomas Jefferson’s historic home, Monticello. Eric’s research interests include GIS and visual design; creativity in libraries; communicating scholarship through creative technologies; and the history of libraries and museums. He has an MA in U.S. history from George Mason University, an MSLIS from Florida State University, and is completing an MS in cartography/GIS from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Kelsey Sheaffer (she/her) is an artist, librarian, and educator in rural New Hampshire. She works in education at Ithaka S+R, a library nonprofit, and previously worked as the creative technologies librarian and director of the Adobe Studio & Makerspace at Clemson University. She received her BA in art from Davidson College and her MFA in kinetic imaging from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her work investigates the history of interdisciplinary creative spaces and the pedagogy of line, sound, media, and movement.

Oscar K. Keyes, PhD (he/him), is the multimedia teaching and learning librarian at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA. His research investigates the emergence of the camera in education and explores how that historical context might help us teach with emerging technologies today. He considers how social issues can be critically scaffolded into technical instruction for various digital tools, such as image-editing software, game engines, and generative artificial intelligence. He has taught (new and old) media arts in various spaces, including higher education, K–12 schools, summer camps, community-based arts organizations, and detention centers. When he’s not busy teaching, Keyes still makes movies with his friends, having worked on award-winning short and feature-length films.

The former Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS), the Library Information Technology Association (LITA), and the Library Leadership and Management Association (LLAMA) are now Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures, a new division of ALA. Its mission is to cultivate and amplify the collective expertise of library workers in core functions through community building, advocacy, and learning.