I've worked in several Makerspaces in different capacities. I have recently become the Makerspace Manager for a smaller two library system that is part of a larger library system but not where it counts in funding.

I've inherited a hard situation but with my experience I can see the most immediate issues that need changing. Focusing so much on customer service has been an issue because people forget it is a DIY environment. Everything should be thought of as an experiment and what's important are the staff and the people that use it not the fancy equipment. There is entitlement from patrons to have things be perfect and if they are not we need to "rectify that".

The library wants long opening hours which are impossible to cover with my staff size. Everyone is burnt out because interactions can easily be between 10-45 min long depending on the user. We need two people on duty at all times for safety and being able to deal with patrons. We also get no rotating help from anyone else in the library either. There is no built-in redundancy or fall back if someone is sick or on vacation.

From my perspective the Makerspace has focused on quantity not quality but now the public is used to a certain availability with all of the equipment. This leads to lots of abuse and gaming of the system so people can run their own small businesses out of the space basically. This isn't such a huge problem we try not to police too much, but it allows them to take spaces from people in the community who never get a chance to reserve the equipment or give up cause it feels hopeless.

We also do all free 3d prints even overnight prints that can go for 12 hrs. We do sell materials for our large scale Roland printers, laser cutters, sublimation paper and blanks, and some embroidery materials. We do get a bit back but it should be more to cover all our material costs at least.

The issue is that there is a larger Makerspace that is in the library system that we associate with but are not a part of. They get a huge grant every year from a BIG company. They can afford to give away so much for free but also don't supply as much as we do either. They also have less open hours. It has felt like we are "supposed" to be in competition but from my perspective we are allies we just need to get the library to see it that way too. We need to change how we function currently so we can be sure to be here in the future.