3D printing: coming to a library near you
A few months back, we talked about the challenges faced by libraries
in the era of ebooks, digital information and shrinking budgets. An emerging
idea, now being pioneered at one New York state library, is to offer 3D
printing facilities to enable constituents to develop and innovate new ideas
and products.
The Fayetteville Free Library of Fayetteville, NY recently has
assumed a new mission in efforts to serve its constituencies with 3D printing
facilities. The “FFL Fab Lab” is a space set
aside with 3D printing technology, which seeks to encourage innovation and
learning of the concept. At the foundation of the FFL’s Fab Lab will be a MakerBot
Thing-o-Matic 3D printer, donated to the library. The Fab Lab’s 3D
printer uses plastic as its raw material.
As stated on the library’s Fab Lab Website, the goal is to provide
what is known as a “hackerspace” to the local public, providing access to
equipment that may be too expensive to purchase on an individual basis:
“These spaces, known as Fabrication Labs (fab labs), Hackerspaces,
and Tech Shops, share common goals: collaboration and ‘making.’ They exist
to give their specific communities the ability to ‘make’ through sharing
knowledge and skills. They provide the technology necessary to make almost
anything. However, these spaces often provide services to a specific or
targeted group and are not easily accessible to ‘outsiders’ - traditional
Fab Labs are tied to MIT and are generally found in underserved communities,
Hackerspaces have membership fees, and Tech-Shops, on average, cost around $1.5
million to start. Imagine - what if the Fayetteville Free Library had
similar tools as MIT at its fingertips (at an affordable cost), with the
knowledge necessary to use them?”
As discussed on this website, along with its high customization,
3D printing offers enormous potential to minimize the costs of mass production,
and even bring a lot of that production back to the domestic economy.
The Fayetteville Fab Lab may also kick-start a new role for public libraries as
well — as incubators and resource centers for new businesses and innovations.
Phillip Torrone first pitched this idea in Make
Magazine a few months back — proposing a new, entrepreneurial and innovator
incubator role for the nation’s 9,000 public libraries:
“If the only public space where 3D printers, laser cutters, and
learning electronics happens is in fee/memberships-based spaces (TechShops,
hackerspaces), that will leave out a segment of the population, who will never
have access. FabLabs often are geared towards under-served communities, so
perhaps it will be a combination of FabLabs and hackerspaces. What if we were
to convert just 1% or even 10% of the 9,000 public libraries in the USA to
TechShops?”
For her part, Lauren Smedley, the genius behind Fayetteville’s Fab
Lab, “wants to prove that libraries aren’t just about books,” as quoted by KQED. “They are
about free access to information and to technology — and not just to reading
books or using computers, but actually building and making things.”
Smedley also would like to add a CNC Router and laser cutter to
the Fab Lab’s inventory, and also plans to offer free classes and programs
on 3D Printing, 3D design software training, and computer programming.
Source | http://www.smartplanet.com/
