I live in Chicago and I have to say that the Harold Washington Library is one of the few things I'm extremely proud of. I will definitely go check this out next time and I hope it spurs more Chicagoans to explore this treasure located in the heart of the city.
In principal, this is a fantastic idea.<p>In practice, sharing a lab is an uphill struggle when the people you share it with are your coworkers/fellow students. When they're just people that wandered in off the street, I could imagine that without very careful control of the situation the place will end up with piles of crap and absolutely no tools.<p>I suppose it completely depends what type of lab they've built. I hope this idea spreads (because I would like to have access to this kind of resource), and I hope it works!
We're getting one of these in the public library in Downtown Orlando, FL ... looking forward to when it opens :)<p><a href="http://tic.ocls.info/" rel="nofollow">http://tic.ocls.info/</a>
Title:<p>> Why public libraries should follow Chicago’s lead and build maker labs<p>Article summary (from the article):<p>> The lab will operate through the end of the year and offer 3D printers, laser cutters, a milling machine, a vinyl cutter and software.<p>Justification of the title (i.e., why libraries should build maker labs), as far as I can see, after reading the article:<p>> resources like Chicago’s maker lab will bring in people who might have never had the chance to build something otherwise.<p>My summary:<p>Why libraries should build maker labs: Because the author likes them.
Chattanooga has one as well, and a really cool startup incubator, but we have no hackerspace. There should be a daily time lapse gif soon.<p><a href="http://4thfloor.chattlibrary.org/content/about-public-librarys-makerbot" rel="nofollow">http://4thfloor.chattlibrary.org/content/about-public-librar...</a><p><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/10/the-unusual-startup-incubator-that-could-only-exist-in-chattanooga/247498/" rel="nofollow">http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/10/the-un...</a>
The library in my town (pop. < 5,000) has a reasonably well appointed maker lab.<p><a href="http://fflib.org/learn/make/ffl-creation-lab/creation-lab-inventory" rel="nofollow">http://fflib.org/learn/make/ffl-creation-lab/creation-lab-in...</a><p>I've yet to make use of it... but there a few projects I'd like to try out when I have the time.
As much as I like libraries and the services they provide, (books, internet, study and meeting spaces), I don't think this is a good match.<p>As a member and former member of various robot and ham radio groups, shared spaces are a pain to run. They work much better as a paid coop where everyone has skin/money in the game.
Okay, why? The title says "Why...", but the author does not offer us a "why".<p>And I don't necessarily disagree, but I was just hoping for an argument as to 'why', as the title promissed.
All the classes are pretty much full, they don't have very good infrastructure but I will camp out there if that is what it will take for me to use a 3-D printer to make an action figure.