How Collaborative Innovation Aided in the Fight Against COVID-19

Makerspaces have a reputation for innovative collaboration and creative problem-solving,1 and the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown proved this to be the case for the Texas Tech University Libraries’ Makerspace (TTULM). Operating as a small-scale service tightly shoved into a shared office space and mostly hidden from view, TTULM faced an all-too-familiar environment of uncertainty, adversity, and urgency by confronting the pandemic with an industrious outlook. By mobilizing members of our maker community, tapping into strategic priorities, and utilizing our resources to design and coordinate remotely, TTULM was able to play a key role in connecting almost forty individuals from numerous college campuses, departments, and organizations across the region into the West Texas 3D COVID-19 Relief Consortium (the Consortium). More than just working independently with disparate groups, TTULM facilitated real collaboration among Consortium members as they all brought their individual skills and resources together, working across disciplines and industries to create a solution to this global force impacting the home front. Drawing upon the collective knowledge of the home-grown community and embracing the natively digital, socially distant tools at our disposal, TTULM established and reinforced the Consortium’s efforts in supporting frontline healthcare workers at a critical stage of the pandemic’s first wave of devastation in the area. Though institutions and regional networks all have their own strengths and identities, our hope is that the work we provided in establishing TTULM before and during our time in the Consortium can be applied to other institutions wanting to face local challenges. These applications and best practices align closely with the strategic priorities of the TTULM and the university.