A timer on a big screen in the South Eastern Middle School library ticked down. Angie Chilcoat told students they had five more minutes to put the finishing touches on their civilization projects.

For some groups, that meant last-minute hot gluing of fencing and trees to carefully crafted landscapes. For others, it meant tweaking the 3D models appearing on the Mac screen in front of them.
“You get to pick how you want it, and it’s creative,” seventh-grader Destiney Smith said of the project. “You just make it as you go.”
Chilcoat’s class has been using the school’s “makerspace,” a new role for the school library. The South Eastern district has been working to transform all of its libraries, making them places for students to work creatively.
Other districts have been changing their libraries, too. Dover Area High School has been working to make more collaborative space at its library….