Connecting through Libraries (and a new Maker Movement)

Libraries, as we know, are being reinvented as spaces for dynamic interaction and lively exchange of ideas.  Traditionally libraries were where we went for quiet reading and researching with break out rooms for interaction.  As the world flips, so do libraries.  Libraries are now ‘upside down’ according to Bill Derry, Assistant Director of Westport Library, Connecticut NYC.  They are community centres, they are noisy and you now find the break out rooms for quiet time.

Libraries are places to engage, be creative, think and also produce.  Why do I say produce?

Westport library, has a space where a mix of people come together, from entrepreneurs to school children, for the production of their inventions.  A new movement is taking hold - the Maker Movement – no longer is invention reserved for specialists, the Maker Movement is  allowing anyone and everyone to innovate, invent and produce.

Westport Library have constructed a “Maker Space” smack bang in the middle of their library.  Bill advised they held a Mini Maker Faire in April 2012 expecting around 800 people, but instead 2,200 came. The Faire was so popular they knew a new trend was upon them and went about finding a way to continue and bring the movement into their Library.  So they built their own Maker Space and bought a 3d printer.  Check out Detroit's Maker Faire

Just as the community came to libraries to learn how to use computers back in the 1980’s, now they are coming to learn how to ‘print’ physical objects from digital designs, Bill advises.  People imagine, design, create and connect using the space and the Libraries free open source Computer Assisted Design programs.

The Maker Space has replaced the stacks and stacks of reference books at Westport Library and boy it gets noisy in there, especially after school, Bill tells me. 

IDEO, when I visited, also showed me their 3d design machine and what they can produce by pressing the ’print’ button. It’s not paper that comes out but physical objects.

I’m personally off to the Maker Space in New York tomorrow.  I’m told to sit in the photo booth.  I won’t get a photo of myself however, I will get a mould of my face

Just as an aside -  the key note speaker, at a recent conference I attended, futurist Dr Cartlett, mentioned, as did President Obama in his State of theUnion Address, manufacturing is coming back to the US with a new focus on creating manufacturing hubs and jobs.

Is this the 3^rd Industrial Revolution

When we finished Bill was off to discuss ‘TEDMED’ with library staff.  What's next in the arena of Libraries?