Library Staff, Supporters Celebrate Maker Space Birthday

The first "birthday" of the Westport Public Library Maker Space not only marked an anniversary for Westport, but the birth of a movement to return hands-on learning to libraries everywhere.

"If you Googled Maker Space plus Library 18 months ago, you might have found two hits," Library Director Maxine Bleiweis said at
Wednesday's birthday activities.

"But now you'll find it all over the Internet -- it all started here."

And the "Maker Movement" -- that is, a push toward design, hands-on creation, and collaboration -- keeps growing.

Over the past year, more than 8,000 people have visited the Maker Space and used its design tools to make things like models, toys, and even iPhone cases.

Teen and youth volunteers have manned the space and taught people, young and old, to use the printers.

Entrepreneurs and inventors have used the space to create prototypes for inventions, according to Bill Derry, assistant director for innovation and user experience.

The Maker Space received a brand new 3-D cube printer as a birthday gift, bringing the number of 3-D printers in the library to four.

"The printer is magic," Derry said, referring to all of the Maker Space's 3-D printers.

If you can dream up a creation, you can make it with the printer, Derry said.

He called the printer a "disruptive technology."

"We want to disrupt so we have better ways of learning, creating, and designing," Derry said.

The Maker Space has not only been a place of creation, but of collaboration.

"The easiest and best thing made in the Maker Space is friends," Joseph Schott, the library's first Maker-in-Residence, said.

He spearheaded the project to build with patrons the two 15-foot wooden Bee Gee Speedster model airplanes that can be seen hanging over the Maker Space area.

As supporters, volunteers, and staff cut the cake to celebrate the Maker Space birthday, they looked ahead to the future.

First up is the introduction of Arduino boards -- tiny micro controllers -- to the Maker Space. There will be an overview workshop on Wednesday, July 31.

The first video depicts the Maker Space cake baked especially for Wednesday's parties; the second shows a 3-D printer at work.