Please correct the following errors:
A business tool for discovery
Fast Facts
Return to Homepage
For copies of this publication or article, contact circulation@businessreport.com.
Published with the October 1, 2013 Baton Rouge Business Report. Copyright © 2013 Louisiana Business Inc. Special Advertising Section.
In a tIme when many libraries across the U.S. are on life support, the East Baton Rouge Parish Library is in the prime of its life—a renaissance, of sorts, with gleaming new technologies and services, all thanks in no small measure to the meticulous planning, budgeting and forethought of a bunch of “geeks.”
The past year’s “What do you Geek?” campaign has encouraged the public to embrace what they “geek,” meaning simply what they are passionate about. The library aims to be a place where people can get excited about learning and embrace their inner geek.
The new River Center branch of the library, opening in 2016, is going to have what Assistant Director of Library Services Mary Stein describes as a “nice, juicy Makerspace filled with lots of interesting things.” Makerspaces, a national trend gaining traction, are exactly what they sound like—spaces for people to hang out and, well, make things. “It’s a place that enables people to be creative,” Stein says, by providing tools and equipment the typical home or office doesn’t have. The most talked-about technology is Timmy, a 3-D printer that can print virtually any shape in layers of plastic. Timmy will be an incredible resource for not only the entrepreneur needing to print a prototype to go on Shark Tank, but also the young inventor wanting to bring to life his custom-designed chess set pieces.
There will also be a laser lathe, a giant plotter printer with banner-printing capability, soldering equipment, a media studio for musicians to lay
down beats and much more, Stein says. “We’ve just got our toes in the water with this,” she adds.
“Libraries in the past did not have to necessarily be early adopters of emerging technologies,” notes Library Director Spencer Watts. “Increasingly, however, libraries need to take a more forward position in bringing new technologies to bear on the basic search and retrieval functions of information, as well as in terms of providing our citizens with up to date methods of handling communications and content.”
The library’s website offers card-carrying members access to a staggering amount of free content, from streaming video, to music downloads, to e-books and magazines, to online courses being utilized by businesses for workforce development.
Gone are the days of stale books, outdated information and shushing librarians. “Libraries are for people,” says Stein. “Libraries are places of discovery.”
Get in Touch