Some libraries are carving out makerspaces, public-access laboratories that allow people to try out whiz-bang technology and create new things with it. While a user gets to keep his creation, an additional copy often becomes part of the library’s collection, adding to its own local archive. The Fab Lab in the Free Library in Fayetteville, N.Y., is a good approximation of MIT’s info-tech labs. Funded by state and private grants, as well as in-kind support and an online fundraising campaign, the space encompasses a collection of machines designed to make physical objects, including a 3-D printer that can be used to build any object, from a piece of jewelry to a chess set, out of plastic up to 5 ft. tall. Chicago’s YOUMedia lab, housed in a branch of the Chicago Public Library, is a tech-oriented space specifically targeted to adolescents. To promote creative thinking, teens are encouraged to make podcasts and blogs or to compose an audio track on the in-house recording studio. And in a nod to the surging interest in self-publishing, the Sacramento Public Library has launched a community publishing center called the I Street Press, which can print and bind books for patrons and offers workshops on how to write and lay out a book. Classes are free of charge and books cost 2 cents per page to print, plus a setup fee of roughly $100 — which could provide a nice bit of revenue for the library.
How Libraries are Reinventing Themselves for the Future
Many branches of these public institutions are dying from lack of funding—and reinventing themselves in surprising new ways