San Diego Central Library Quadrupling Size of Maker Lab Next Month, New Printers Will Also Become Available
From NBC 7 (San Diego):
The Maker Lab at San Diego Central Library, filled with 3D printers available for public use, will soon expand due to its overwhelming popularity.
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The printers, located on the eighth floor, are so popular…that the library plans to move the lab in November to the third floor. There, visitors will have four times as much space to work. In addition to the move, the lab will welcome three more 3D printers as well as a sewing machine, a vinyl cutter, a milling machine to create circuit boards and a laser cutter.
“I’m in shock, I would say, from the reactions people have coming here,” said Uyen Tran, the Emerging Technologies Librarian who runs the lab, “It’s been an amazing journey.”
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Tran believes 3D printers are exactly the kind of shared community resource that should be made available in a modern library. Just like books were long ago, 3D printers are something that most people cannot afford to own themselves. The library’s most expensive donated 3D printer costs about four thousands dollars.
Read the Complete Article (Including Several Examples of the Printers Are Being Used)
See Also: Community Biology Lab Officially Opens in La Jolla’s Riford Library (September 2, 2015)

About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.