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At the Library 3/7/24

At the Library
by Cary Ann Siegfried

 

Another MakeIT Place Update

 

For those not familiar with this project, The MakeIT Place will be the Washington Public Library’s new makerspace.  And for those not familiar with the term, a makerspace is a collaborative workspace where people with common interests, often in technology, science or the arts, gather to share resources, knowledge and equipment to create, invent and learn.

 

Construction on the MakeIT Place began in September 2023 and is now down to the last few little details which should be completed by the end of March. The next steps will be to install furniture and equipment.

 

For those interested in seeing a description of the equipment that will be available in the MakeIT Place, we’ve created a new website:  www.washington.lib.ia.us/services/makeit-place

 

Here are some of the highlights (see the website for more details):

 

·         3D Printers: Prusa i3 MK4 3D printer, an AnyCubic Vyper 3D printer and an Elegoo Pro resin printer. Users can download model files from popular 3D communities such as Thingiverse and Yaggi or can create models from scratch with free programs like Tinkercad and SketchUp. 

 

·         Glowforge laser cutter/engraver.  The Glowforge is a machine that cuts, scores and engraves materials such as wood, leather and acrylic using a laser. 

 

·         Crafting equipment includes a Cricut Maker 3, a Cricut Mug Press, a Cricut EasyPress 3, button makers of various sizes, hot glue guns and a large format laminator.

 

·         The Pottery Studio includes 3 Brent B potter's wheels and a L&L E23S-3 Easy-Fire Kiln, as well as space for handbuilding.  Pottery Studio users must purchase clay and glazes from the Library.

 

·         The Memory Lab is a collection of equipment that can be used for converting different kinds of recordings (video and audio), pictures and documents to digital files that can be stored on a USB drive or SD card. 

 

·         A variety of STEAM activities, supplies and equipment for youth from preschool through high school will be available. Activities planned include building with LEGOs, coding programs, robotics and arts and crafts. 

 

·         The Recording Studio is powered by a Mac Studio computer and offers a variety of peripherals and software for activities such as podcasting, video creation and editing, music recording and editing, etc.  A green screen wall is installed in the studio. 

 

·         The MakeIT Place will offer 4 MacBook Pros equipped with Adobe Creative Cloud for graphic design, video editing, web development or photography.  For printing posters, a large-format printer/plotter will be available, as well as a large-format laminator. 

 

We look forward to having the MakeIT Place open to the public before the end of