Did We Build What We Promised? Evaluating Maker Culture and Practice at a Public Historically Black University

In 2021, F.D. Bluford Library at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (North Carolina A&T) received a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant to establish a makerspace to expand access to making, support project-based learning, and foster a sense of belonging at North Carolina A&T. Although the College of Engineering has a makerspace, North Carolina A&T did not have one available to students across all majors.North Carolina A&T is a public, land-grant historically Black university, serving more than 15,000 students. As an institution with a longstanding emphasis on STEM education, entrepreneurship, and innovation, North Carolina A&T provides fertile ground for examining making within an academic library.Five years after its establishment, this poster examines the extent to which the makerspace has fulfilled its original purpose.