Makerspace as Part of a Research Commons?

Each year the Electronic Library at Baylor sponsors a round of information sessions based on the EDUCAUSE 7 Things series. Yesterday I participated in a session on "makerspaces," led by David Burns. The discussion led me to thinking (and rambling, I'm afraid) about the possible connection between the makerspace concept and the "research commons" idea that I'm working to define for the Baylor Libraries.
The conversation brought to mind Howard Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI). Gardner challenges the unitary intelligence model implied by an I.Q. test or the SAT with at least seven recognizable "intelligences": musical, bodily/kinesthetic, logical-mathematical, linguistic, spatial, interpersonal, intrapersonal.While critics argue that Gardner's theory lacks rigor, and that what he labels "intelligences" might be more accurately described as "abilities," the theory has nevertheless been influential in education circles. For me, in this instance, it provides a way of articulating what struck me during yesterday's presentation.
Many of the examples David shared involved highly tactile activities, with a corresponding bias (in a good way) toward Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence. There also tended to be many proto-engineers in the spaces, hinting in my mind toward support for Logical-Mathematical and Spatial intelligences. We also observed that the orientation of the workspaces, and one explicit intent of those building the spaces, was to bring people together in collaborations, promoting Interpersonal intelligence.
It is my belief that the academic libraries overarching purpose is to provide those pieces of infrastructure that directly support the academic mission of the institution (teaching, learning, research) and which are better held in common than parceled out to or customized for the various colleges, schools and department. In the past this meant, at a most basic level, buying and storing books and journals. As we seek to redefine our roles in this online/hybrid course, hybrid collection, MOOC-hype, and student-amenities warfare era, we need to step back and reflect on this larger purpose. Where are the gaps in the academic infrastructure of the modern academy? What strengths do we have that align with solutions for these gaps? Where might we have a perspective useful for shaping the future of higher education? What do we lack in our skills and orientation that keep us from filling these gaps successfully?
This brings me back to Gardner, MI, makerspaces, and the research commons. The research commons, at least as I'm thinking about it now, is about shifting our energies from a rather intense focus on the perceived needs of undergraduates (and a bias toward support for active, group learning modalities),  and toward greater attention toward faculty members, graduate students, and undergraduates doing research, with a more nuanced and diverse approach to development of spaces for discovery. Most of my thinking along these lines has been leaning toward spaces for quiet reflection, small group discussion, and serendipitous, interdisciplinary encounters. What I realized yesterday, and as I've tried to unpack my reaction to the makerspace presentation, is that my research commons ideas have been fairly one-dimensional. For all of my excitement about a "revolutionary" space and suite of services, the outline in my head has been rooted in a traditional library orientation toward support for linguistic intelligences, with perhaps a bit of logical-mathematical and interpersonal thrown in.
What if we conceived of a space designed to nurture all of the intelligences, and to bring those with different strengths into contact and collaboration with one another? What if, in addition to a floor plan which moves from quiet on one side to active on the other, we overlay a set of services which intentionally nurture the full set of intelligences in Gardner's MI theory? What if a makerspace (or several such spaces) was part of this research commons?
I see at least three positive outcomes from this model. First, on a practical level, I think this brings interest (and potentially resources) from areas of the university which currently look on us as a pharmacist dispensing annual doses of electronic journals. Second, and more interestingly, the library may be able to make a real (perhaps even measurable) contribution to student retention and completion rates. This space could become a home for those who might be struggling with some of their traditional, linguistic/logical-mathematical courses but who have tremendous gifts in the other intelligences. The buzzword in the area of student retention and completion (OK, those are buzzwords, too) is engagement. The research commons could be the place a differently-gifted student becomes truly engaged in her educational process. Finally, this intentional diversity in purpose, aiming to nurture a range of intelligences, has a greater chance of attracting an intellectually diverse set of students and faculty, and creating the kinds of serendipitous collisions which lead to break-through ideas (more on serendipity, "collisions," and my debt to Steven Johnson in a later post).
It seems I'm rambling again, so I'll stop. I would like to know what you think. What is the potential of the "makerspace" to broaden the reach and relevance of the academic library? Can Gardner's MI theory stimulate our thinking about the diversity of library services we should offer?