Public Libraries, 3D Printing, FabLabs and Hackerspaces

We want to see 3D printing, FabLabs and Hackerspaces become a regular feature--in addition to its other services--at every public library in the country. This is a description of our proposal to create a FabLab in the Fayetteville Free Library and gives a brief introduction to what 3D printing is and how revolutionary it will be for those who are unfamiliar with it.

A FabLab is a fabrication laboratory (or a fabulous laboratory). A hackerspace is just a public library under a different name (although I'm not aware of any hackerspaces that are publicly funded, its time to change that!), it is a place where people gather to share their knowledge and help each other make whatever project they are currently working on.

This video was made in support of Lauren Britton-Smedley's proposal to create a pilot FabLab at the Fayetteville Free Library. This is Lauren's final project for the "Innovation in Public Libraries" class taught by Meg Backus and Thomas Gokey. In this class we look at avant-garde art from the past 60 years (social sculpture, relational aesthetics, institutional critique, interventionist practice, hacker/maker/DIY culture) and use it as a way to rethink what the library of the 21st century could be. We remain committed to the essence of a public library as a genuine commons, as a university of the people, as a place where the knowledge of past generations is preserved for present and future research, in short: as a democracy machine. Our class asks how to translate this essence of public libraries into our current situation. The class is, in some respects, run as a studio where each student proposes and then actually creates a project like this one.

Other students are working on organizing CSA drop offs through the public library network (http://www.nopl.org/adults/csa), creating a habitat garden at the LibraryFarm (http://www.nopl.org/library-farm), redesigning the bus schedules for our local public transit (badly needed), making a library's piano available to the public, and creating a self-watering, self-tweeting network of cacti with an Arduino (so that you don't over-water your cactus).

• Category

  Science & Technology

[Saint Seiya]

yeah yeah, just give me the cliffnotes:

Can I download a car yet?

[mybluheaven]

Yep.

fastcodesign [dot] com/1663287/3-d-printing-bring­s-citro-ns-video-game-supercar­-to-life

wired [dot] com/autopia/2013/02/3d-printed­-car/

[Matt Bendett]

Could you 3D Print a 3D printer someday?

[mybluheaven]

One of the first 3D printers for personal use was the RepRap, the concept is to create a 3D printer that could print most of the parts needed to create a copy of itself. en.wikipedia [dot] org/wiki/RepRap_Project

[FreiheitKampfer]

Why do you have a DRM button on, video dude?

[mybluheaven]

It's an ANTI-DRM button! It might be too hard to see in the video, but it's the Librarians Against DRM logo.

[Joyless Medic]

We now have....Wonka-Vision!

[doceigen]

So who gets sued when your artificial heart clogs, or your bike snaps in half, or your gun blows up in your face? 95% or MORE of the population couldn't be trusted to make anything more sophisticated than a clothes hook! What happens when 3D Printer hackers put out a self assembling bomb that gets built into other people's builds? What happens when someone's shoes cripple them? Who pays for the medical, who pays for failures, who pays for the morons of the world, with 'the POWER' to create?

[doceigen]

He's not a moron, you are... it doesn't matter what the material is or where it comes from, or where it even goes... it 'just does', and it takes energy to do 'it'. He's right in that we are NOT all artists and so a lot of 'things' which will be created will be total crap, and a waste, and will fail, and people will fall off of broken bikes into deep ditches and die! It's simple moron!... imagine some guy on the street building a bridge that you have to drive across... you WILL fall down!

[zzz43452]

*reprap

[zzz43452]

Makerbot is no longer open.

You should advertise reprep from the beginning.

[Dan Eveland]

Moron. It can use corn-starch-based polymers. A variety of materials can be used outside of harmful plastics. You really think this will have an impact greater than that massive amount of crap produced every second by manufacturers in China? Materials made from PLA are biodegradable, IDIOT.