Why public libraries should follow Chicago’s lead and build maker labs

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&#x2F;fellow students. When they&#x27;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&#x27;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&#x27;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:&#x2F;&#x2F;tic.ocls.info&#x2F;</a>

Title:<p>&gt; Why public libraries should follow Chicago’s lead and build maker labs<p>Article summary (from the article):<p>&gt; 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>&gt; 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:&#x2F;&#x2F;4thfloor.chattlibrary.org&#x2F;content&#x2F;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:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theatlantic.com&#x2F;technology&#x2F;archive&#x2F;2011&#x2F;10&#x2F;the-un...</a>

The library in my town (pop. &lt; 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:&#x2F;&#x2F;fflib.org&#x2F;learn&#x2F;make&#x2F;ffl-creation-lab&#x2F;creation-lab-in...</a><p>I&#x27;ve yet to make use of it... but there a few projects I&#x27;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&#x27;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&#x2F;money in the game.

Okay, why? The title says &quot;Why...&quot;, but the author does not offer us a &quot;why&quot;.<p>And I don&#x27;t necessarily disagree, but I was just hoping for an argument as to &#x27;why&#x27;, as the title promissed.

All the classes are pretty much full, they don&#x27;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.

I love these kind of &quot;articles.&quot; I wonder who gigaom has money riding on?