22 · Survey Results: Survey Questions and Responses
Gathering data and consulting with other institutions: six months planning and development of services: three months
It took approximately 2 months to gather data and other information about 3-D printing in libraries, train on the use of
the 3-D printer, and develop a policy for the library about the 3-D printer.
Once our IT department felt comfortable servicing the printer, we offered it to the public on a trial basis. Printing was
free at first in exchange for completing a survey about what the patron would use printing for, how often they would
use it, and how much they would be willing to pay. This only lasted a couple of months. We then bought a prosumer-
level printer and continued our trial for a year. We now offer the service on an ongoing basis.
One staff member spent approximately 10 hours a month for one year doing research/literature review, an
environmental scan, and talking to staff at other libraries and museums. The department head in our New Media
Center took a sabbatical to visit 20 academic and public libraries, five of which offered makerspaces or 3-D printing. She
discussed the services with their staff to better understand how we could implement them ourselves.
The Makerspace plan was developed over approximately 10 months at the end of which we implemented our first
prototyping services. Since then (7 months), we have been offering these services while continuing planning and
implementation of other aspects of the plan with most aspects to be realized by September 2015. Total time from
introduction of the plan to implementation: 22 months.
We spent ~40 person hours on the project.
We spent about 100 hrs gathering data and planning the development of the makerspace services. Although this
process from our point of view is an ongoing thing.
We spent several months researching other makerspaces and 3-D printing services before receiving funding from the
university’s undergraduate student government to purchase our first 3-D printer. One staff member was allocated to the
project, but received guidance and assistance from library administration.
When we first entered this market, due to the technology being quite new there was little understanding/interest on
campus. As such much of our interest came from within the organization resulting in only ~1 month of staff time to
acquire funding and implement the system. Moving forward we had a shared interest and multiple staff members
stepped in to help support its continued use.
We are piloting/testing these services N=8
A couple of months were devoted to planning/developing a proposal for offering makerspace support through the
libraries. Existing services on campus were consulted to determine their scope, audience, and what niches remained that
would logically reside in the library. Cost, and business models were similarly investigated, and focus groups conducted
with undergraduate and graduate students to elicit the highest priority equipment they would like to have available.
Approximately six months for the Norlin Commons data and planning phase.
Fabrication/makerspace services are provided at a branch library (Science/Engineering) as well as planned for Digital
Scholarship Center. Planning process has ranged from three months for branch library to longer term for Digital
Scholarship Center, as fabrication will be a pilot service until needs and demands are assessed further.
It took us three months to plan our 3-D printing pilot service.
Not possible to answer this question.
Spent about nine months gathering information, purchasing equipment, and hiring staff.
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