SPEC Kit 348: Rapid Fabrication/Makerspace Services · 21
Please briefly describe the other type of information. N=12
Collected information from institutions that have labs containing 30 or more 3-D printers—Florida Polytechnic Institute
and SUNY–New Paltz. Consulted, and visited, MakerBot headquarters.
Collected information from teaching faculty in departments that might rely on fabrication services.
Conducted a literature review.
Due to when we first considered 3-D printing, our focus was placed on the technology and its capabilities.
Investigated other research-oriented fabrication spaces at other institutions. Bought inexpensive equipment and
encouraged staff to test it, address their own scholarly questions, prior to launching it for the public.
Looked at local (community) makerspaces and their offerings.
We also looked to other non-library makerspaces including museums, academic departments, and for-
profit makerspaces.
We also spoke with Loans Services and the finance office about accepting payment for 3-D printing services. We spoke
to various local 3-D printing experts about equipment and critical making.
We are fortunate to have faculty that have provided detailed breakdowns of how the machines would be utilized in their
classes. We hosted a “3-D Printing Expo” to bring together interested parties and survey attendees.
We did an extensive literature review for more than a year before deciding to pilot this service ourselves.
We purchased a very low cost printer just to pilot the service. We used that printer to understand the technology, gauge
time and service commitments, and patron interest.
We visited several academic institutions that offer digital scholarship services, including NCSU, Duke, Indiana, and
Michigan and spoke with Brown, Georgia State, and Calgary.
4. Please briefly describe how much time and effort your library spent on gathering data and
planning the development of fabrication/makerspace services (for example, number of months to
plan, or number of staff weeks allocated to the project). N=38
We provide such services on an ongoing basis N=16
1+ year to assemble, test, and teach the technologies, plus 6 months to renovate and organize the space.
3 months to plan between myself and my collaborator, the manager of a mobile development lab, who had agreed to
host the 3-D printing equipment. We started an environmental scan in May, got the equipment in August, and launched
the service in October 2014.
4–6 months with 2 librarian staff members (part-time)
6 months
A working group was formed that produced an interim and final report with recommendations.
About two months planning and grant writing. Following the award of the grant we spent about two months
simultaneously waiting for the 3-D printer to arrive and preparing the area.
From conception to implementation, it took us about 6 months to implement 3-D printing as a service.
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