Discussion on:

3D printing: coming to a library near you

3D printing combined with libraries = 100% awesomeness!

super cool!

but the only kind of lab the youth of today is looking for are meth labs...
IN today's economy where we are shutting down essential services like post offices and police stations, the extreme vast majority of neighborhoods (think 5-9s here folks) cannot afford to support one of these technology labs. Suburban areas are too wide spread to make this profitable, and cost of space in urban areas are prohibitively expensive for such an en devour. Yeah, but no...this will never work in today's economy. Perhaps in 20 years when America is back on it's feet, we may...but then we'll probably have to ask the Chinese for permission...

I for one would support/use something like this. Open up some creativity in a way not seen in a long time.

Besides being utterly depressing, tech_ed's post generalizes and is disjointed. Libraries are not profit centers; the idea is to use collaborative funds (public) to fuel creativity and innovation. Makerbots fueled by volunteers are in the $1000 range - think of roughly 50 books at $20 each. I realize not everyone can afford this, but is the argument really "if everyone can't do it, then no one should"? Really?

I'm going to curl up in a fetal position now. Too depressed to breath after re-reading tech_ed's post.

Along this line take a look at the MIT Fab Labs which already exist in some communities

With innovative thinking like Lauren's there's hope for this country yet.