Maker Spaces and Emerging Technologies in a Public Library

I am currently undertaking my three week Master of Information Studies student placement at a public library. Part of my placement has involved helping set up a Maker Space for the community. This has been an interesting and educational experience, particularly as I haven’t had much experience with many of the technologies involved.

Maker Spaces are “community oriented spaces where people gather to create, make and learn using a variety of tools” (Kelly, 2013). As the public may increasingly be looking elsewhere for answers to their information needs and people are spending more time on technological gadgets, Maker Spaces are places that promote community engagement (Editors, 2013). They also support community knowledge creation and sharing of knowledge (Lankes, 2011; Hamilton in Kelly, 2013). Kelly (2013, p.1) states that “this information sharing helps create and promote new culture”. Maker Spaces also support libraries’ missions to enable lifelong learning across multiple literacies (Colegrove, 2013). For the children and young adults involved they promote learning through play and encourage them to learn more about maths, technology and engineering (Britton, 2012).

Part of my placement has involved visiting Thinglab (2013), a 3D printer and 3D scanner shop. As I will be involved in writing a program outline for school visits to the Maker Space, I was most interested in how 3D printers could be used by primary and high school children. To be able to print from a 3D printer, a lay person would either use preloaded designs on the USB stick provided with the 3D printer, or find patterns on websites like Makerbot Thingiverse (2014). However, I am more interested in how school children could create their own designs. I have found an app called 123D Creature that can be used on iPads that would make it easy for children and young adults to get creative. Once designed, their creature would be run through a free program called Netfabb (n.d.) which ensures there are no holes in each individual design. Holes in designs would create spaghetti rather than the desired shape. Once completed, the finished designed would be sent to the 3D printer for publishing and voila! For more creative students, or for students who are learning design at school, the SketchUp program could be used to create a design from scratch (Trimble, 2013). This is quite complicated and would require much more liaising with classroom teachers.

We expect that the 3D printer will become a popular tool in the library. It is hoped that it will not only be available for school programs but also for the general public to use during library opening hours. Running costs are very low, a small bracelet made of corn cellulose fibre would cost about 5 cents each. The main cost would of course be the 3D printer and the electricity charges. Small change when we think of the overall benefit to the library and the community as a whole!

I look forward to creating new designs and using the 3D printer to find out more. I am sure that the more I play the more I will learn.

 

Image Attribution:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/63991153@N00/9135194264

References

Britton, L. (2013). The makings of Maker Spaces, part 1: Space for creation, not just consumption. Library Journal. Retrieved from http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2012/10/public-services/the-makings-of-maker-spaces-part-1-space-for-creation-not-just-consumption/

Colegrove, P. (2013). Editorial board thoughts: Libraries as Maker Spaces? Information Technology and Libraries, 32.1,2.

Editors. (2013). Manufacturing maker spaces. American Libraries. Retrieved from http://www.americanlibrariesmagazine.org/article/manufacturing-makerspaces

Kelly, A. (2013). Why do we need one of those? The role of the public library in creating and promoting Makerspaces. ALIA National Library and Information Technicians Symposium 2013: Waves of Change. Retrieved from http://www.alia.org.au/sites/default/files/Kelly%20-%20final.pdf

Lankes, R. D. (2011). The Atlas of New Librarianship. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.

Makerbot Thingiverse. (2014). Makerbot Thingiverse. Retrieved from http://www.thingiverse.com/

Netfabb. (n.d.). Netfabb: Software for 3D Printing. Retrieved from http://www.netfabb.com/

Thinglab. (2013). Thinglab. Retrieved from http://www.thinglab.com.au/

Trimble. (2013). Sketchup is for everyone. Retrieved from http://www.sketchup.com/