Magnolia's Library Opens a Room With 3D Printers and Embroidery Machines Nov. 9
The Malcolm Purvis Library's new Innovation Space opens Nov. 9 with 3D printers, a Cricut and embroidery machines. Here is how to use it and who paid for it.
Magnolia's public library is getting a room most households could never put together on their own: 3D printers, a Cricut cutting machine, a digital embroidery machine and shelves of hands-on science and engineering kits. The Innovation Space at the Malcolm Purvis Library opens Monday, Nov. 9.
The Montgomery County Memorial Library System announced the opening in a news release posted by the City of Magnolia on Oct. 6. It is part of the library system's Innovate@MCMLS effort, and Malcolm Purvis will be the second library in the county system to have one. The first opened at the Kevin Brady Library in The Woodlands in February, and the library system had originally hoped to open Magnolia's in March, The Magnolia Standard reported.
Opening day
The grand opening runs from 3 to 4 p.m. Nov. 9 at the library, 510 Melton St. in Magnolia. The release lists tours and demonstrations, welcome remarks, a ribbon cutting and free 3D printing tickets while they last. The library's event listing adds a cake cutting and lists the event for all ages.
How to use it
Starting Tuesday, Nov. 10, the library will hold equipment orientations for the 3D printers, the Cricut and the embroidery machines. An orientation is required before you can reserve a machine. The library plans multiple sessions through November, including eleven in the first two weeks after the opening.
Once you have taken the orientation, you can reserve equipment ahead of time by calling the Innovation Space desk at (936) 538-8329. The Cricut and embroidery machines are free to use. The release says "certain fees apply" to 3D printing but does not list them. Orientation times, classes and future programs will be posted on the library system's calendar at countylibrary.org/calendar.php.
Who asked for it, and who paid
The library says it surveyed the Magnolia community earlier this year to help choose the equipment, and that the feedback "showed strong interest in hands-on creative technology, STEM learning, and access to tools people may not otherwise have."
The space was developed with support from the Magnolia Economic Development Corporation, according to the release. Taxpayers can reasonably ask what that support cost and how it was approved, and the release does not give a dollar figure. Dock Line has not yet obtained that number and will report it when we do.
Why it is worth your time
A library at its best is not a place to keep children busy. It is a place where a family can learn to make things. A teenager who learns to design and print a part, a mother who starts an embroidery side business on a free machine, a homeschool family that borrows an engineering kit the way they would borrow a book: that is a good use of a public building, and it rewards the kind of work and initiative our communities were built on.
Parents should also stay involved. Ask what classes are offered, sit in with younger children, and get to know the staff. A good library and engaged parents make each other better.
For more information about the grand opening, the library system lists [email protected] as its contact.
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Hero photo: Library makerspace in Louisville, Kentucky (not the Magnolia library), by Biglogsonfirelittleonestoo via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0; cropped and resized, adaptation shared under the same license.
