Are Maker Spaces the Future of Public Libraries?

misterbarnacles writes "Shareable has an interview with librarian Lauren Britton Smedley from the Fayetteville Free Library, which is adding a Fab Lab to its community offerings. She said, 'I think that libraries are really centers for knowledge exchange, and a Fab Lab fits perfectly into something like that. This idea that libraries are a place where the books live, and you go to find a book, and that’s all it is, I think is really starting to shift. Libraries are a place for social transformation. They’re a place that you can go to get computer access, or access to technology that you can’t get anywhere else, and access to people. ... At the Fab Lab, the impetus behind the whole thing was to create a center for knowledge exchange where we’re not just offering Intro to Word or Intro to Excel — that we can offer Intro to Computer Programming, or Digital Fabrication — these skills that are really important in the STEM fields, and we can push that information out for free. And how do we do that? By getting people in the community who know that stuff to come in and share what they know.'"

Re:Libraries at their core....

[uniquename72]

This idea that libraries are a place where the books live, and you go to find a book, and that’s all it is, I think is really starting to shift.

"Starting" to shift? Libraries haven't been about books in at least 10 years (since I became a librarian). In fact, the "it's not about books" thing was a long-tired cliche even then.

Re:I love your premis.

[Migraineman]

No, no, no. The system is designed to punish those who oppose it. You need to change your public-facing statements such that you are in compliance with the system.

I want to control the World and my first action once elected as Emperor of the World is to prosecute every Goddamn Georgia (US) legislator who violated his oath of office to the fullest extent of the law.

Take a hint from Miranda - anything you say can and will be used against you. Why would you provide your opponents with ammunition?