CHICAGO, IL — If you've ever had a hankering to try out a 3D printer, a laser cutter, or a milling machine without dropping thousands of your own hard-earned dollars, the Harold Washington Library in Chicago is the place to be. Starting today, July 8, Harold Washington has become the first major urban library to open a pop-up "maker lab," allowing members of the general public the opportunity to experiment with the cutting-edge technologies. And while there are still a few wrinkles to iron out before the public can use all the machines, the Chicago Public Library (CPL) system is already looking forward to where this project will go next.

"There's more buzz about this on social media than anything we've ever done," CPL's First Deputy Commissioner Andrea Sáenz told Ars.

What exactly is the pop-up maker lab? CPL partnered up with Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry—which is offering its own maker lab to museum visitors—in order to put together the program. Unlike the museum's lab, however, the maker space at Harold Washington is completely free and open to the public. Chicago residents will be prompted to use a library card to gain access, but Sáenz told Ars that out-of-town visitors won't be turned away if they don't have a card of their own.

Jacqui Cheng

Jacqui Cheng

Jacqui Cheng

Jacqui Cheng

Jacqui Cheng

Jacqui Cheng



Jacqui Cheng



Jacqui Cheng

Jacqui Cheng

Jacqui Cheng

Jacqui Cheng

Jacqui Cheng

Jacqui Cheng

Jacqui Cheng

Visitors will eventually be able to make use of three MakerBot 2 3D printers, two laser cutters from Inventables, and one milling machine, in addition to open source software on a fleet of computers so that people can design their own projects. In the weeks leading up to the public opening, members of the CPL and American Library Association staff have been using the machines to make wooden iPhone docks with the milling machine, craft their own custom keychains with the laser cutters, and even print an entire chess set with the 3D printers, though they're eager to see what the public will come up with following the launch.

"We have our own pre-set ideas of what people are going to make and what will draw people in, but we also just want them to be exposed to new tools and technology," Sáenz said. "If the lab is super popular, there is a possibility for a larger space in this building, or we could take it to another branch where folks in that neighborhood would be able to use that kind of thing."

Harold Washington's maker lab is in just one room on one floor of the massive downtown library, and it's not permanent. The current grant that allows the library to run the space goes through the end of the year, meaning the staff will then need to evaluate the success of the project.

"We can decide if the maker space makes sense for the library, period. We'll ask ourselves: does it fit nicely into this whole informal learning environment that we're trying to create?" Sáenz said.

Some of those lessons have already come from smaller communities that have installed similar maker spaces into their libraries. "They tend to be a little smaller scale, as most of those libraries just jumped right in," Sáenz said, "but we really took our time so we could figure out what it is about this whole maker thing that fits into a library setting."

One such lesson is that the machines are loud when being used—not exactly ideal for a library. Additionally, since some of these machines are relatively new technology (3D printers, we're looking at you), they tend to break down easily. In fact, that's why the Harold Washington library decided not to make its three MakerBot printers available for public use just yet, despite the buzz around today's launch. "That will be coming very soon, but on launch day, we'll probably just have the MakerBots printing our own projects to give people a feel for how they work," the library's head of business, science, and technology, Mark Andersen, told Ars.

"Our goal was to make our staff comfortable enough with them to fix them," Sáenz said as she described some of the hacks the staff came up with in order to keep the machines running smoothly. "I'm pretty sure they've become experts at re-threading the machines." (Indeed, as someone who has had access to a MakerBot 2 in recent months, I can attest to their occasional flakiness.)

Despite these setbacks, Sáenz and Andersen believe it was a good decision to use consumer-grade machines for the lab—and not just because the grant limited their ability to spend too much money on individual technologies. "We couldn't buy super expensive equipment, but it turned out well because we have equipment that's a little more likely to be in someone's home one day," Andersen said. "These are things that a family could buy today if they wanted to spend the money on it, and we want to teach them how to use it."

So far, it seems the public is dying to jump into the lab—teachers, instructors, and even business owners have reportedly been e-mailing nonstop to find out how they can get involved. "When school gets back in, we have a few high school teachers and principals who want to use that space as a hands-on lab for a class," Sáenz said. She then told a story about an instructor who asked about the output capacity of the maker lab's machines. "If you're asking me about capacity, you're already thinking too big!"

Perhaps the pop-up maker lab isn't quite ready to start churning out custom chess sets with all your friends' faces on the pawns. But the interest in doing so is there, and the library wants to tap into it. Said Sáenz, "We really designed it as an introduction to maker tools, culture, and economies with the hope that people will continue on their own."

Listing image by Jacqui Cheng