comments

Fayetteville Library offers cutting-edge technology for patrons

Elizabeth  Doran, The Post-Standard By Elizabeth Doran, The Post-Standard
on July 18, 2012 at 3:26 PM, updated July 18, 2012 at 8:28 PM

Fayetteville Free Library MakerBot 3D
Fayetteville Free Library MakerBot 3D Libraries across the country have to adapt and offer new technology and resources to stay relevant. Fayetteville is at the forefront with its 3d printer/MakerBot that makes three dimensional designs and a room where kids can make a video in front of a green screen. Watch video

It’s been a long time since libraries were simply a place to go to borrow books, videos and music.

Today’s libraries are beginning to offer patrons access to new technologies not usually available to the general public.

The Fayetteville Free Library is emerging as a leader among libraries as it evolves and offers the community free access to cutting-edge technology and services.

Libraries across the country have to adapt and offer new technology and resources to stay relevant; Fayetteville is at the forefront with its 3D printer. MakerBot that makes three-dimensional designs and its room where kids can make videos with a green screen.

2012-07-02-dn-makerbot.JPG Damen Seigle of East Syracuse shows off apiece that he had just made from the MaketBot 3D Printer. Libraries across the country have to adapt and offer new technology and resources to stay relevant; Fayetteville is at the forefront with its 3D printer. MakerBot that makes three-dimensional designs and its room where kids can make videos with a green screen.

“We are figuring out how to be even more relevant in today’s world, and to do that means understanding your community’s needs, and when they change, “ said Susan Considine, the library’s executive director. “We need to be really flexible.”

The Fayetteville Free Library has launched what it calls its MakerSpace or FabLab. The library is offering new tools to aid in that venture, including new software, hardware, equipment, resources and expertise.

The library recently opened its free Creation Lab, which allows patrons to use digital media to make and edit videos and podcasts; and use design software that might otherwise be unavailable to the public.

The lab will offer a Mac desktop, a Podcasting station, two MakerBot 3D printer stations, Adobe Suite, Mac Creative Suite and a large Green Screen wall to use while making videos. Camcorders and digital cameras also are available for check out. Patrons can use the lab for two-hour blocks of time when they present a valid library card.

The library has three MakerBot 3D printer stations, which are mobile and can be moved around the library.

These printers make plastic models of objects users design themselves using special software. They can print anything from a Green Lantern ring to a Lego piece to a prototype of a product someone wants to show to a potential buyer, Considine said

The library received a $250,000 in a state grant to help build a Fab Lab and Business Center. The New York State Library Construction Grant funds help further the library’s mission of providing the community with access to technologies not currently available to the public.

Fayetteville’s library is at the forefront, setting an example for others of what libraries can and should be doing in today’s world, said R. David Lankes, a professor and dean’s scholar for the New Librarianship in Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies.

“What Fayetteville is doing is part of a larger trend where libraries are increasingly
becoming places of creation, and not just consumption, “ he said. “It’s always been that way to a degree, but now it’s really spreading.”

For example, librarians at the public library in Ann Arbor, Mich., serve as production assistants who help the public produce their own videos, music and books.

“Libraries today are helping the community get smarter, “ Lankes said. “It’s not housing materials, but making sense of them and helping people use and create using those materials.”

The Fayetteville Free Library also continues to expand its Job and Career Resources and Assistance. Patrons can sign up for help with resumes, mock interviews, job searches and more. Since 2008, the library has been expanding on this idea and is working to develop a full-scale business center. Eventually, part of the library’s east wing is targeted for renovation to help expand these new services.

It’s all part of a larger effort to evolve to the community’s changing needs, and create access to technology, equipment and software not typically found in a public setting.
“We see it as having a culture of innovation, “ Considine said. “We are introducing new opportunities for learning, creating and developing new ideas. Libraries belong to the community, and we want people to come together and think in new ways.”

Across the country, libraries are becoming their community’s go-to spot, offering cultural programs, instructional classes, help with job searches, research and access to new technology. That’s in addition to loaning books, music, DVDs, audiobooks, eBooks and more.

“We are navigators, and not curators, “ Considine said.
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2012/07/fay.html
www.syracuse.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2013-20
88105
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:NKBKEG7ISW52SMWVVTFAYP4BUT2EMUZE
<urn:uuid:d90e271a-a94b-4701-adbf-4c3600c62f27>
2013-06-19T10:10:53Z
184.51.126.66
sha1:HZC343UBAEKGP6ARSZYMCOUVH6HFWGMK
<urn:uuid:18b3ee24-79d1-4d49-b534-d57e93b3eafe>
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2012/07/fay.html
response
<urn:uuid:4bb7140c-5493-4f85-a91f-a480723cbd68>
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2013-20
operator: CommonCrawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web with URLs provided by Blekko for Spring 2013
publisher: CommonCrawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf