Did You Know About the 3D Printers at the Library?!

The Wheaton Public Library has a Library of Things. You probably walked past the sign.

I did too. I knew it existed — there was an announcement at some point — but I didn't know what "things" actually meant until I walked through last week. What I found: 3D printers. And not decorative-vase, tchotchke-for-your-desk 3D printing. Functional printing. Accessibility tools. Pen holders. Bag carriers. Toothpaste cap openers. The stuff that makes daily life navigable for people whose hands don't cooperate the way they used to, or never did.

The price list is below. It's cheap. That's the point.

Here's the structural thing about 3D printing that most people miss: it collapses the distance between "someone designed this" and "I have this." A piece of adaptive equipment that would cost you $40 on a medical supply site costs almost nothing to print. The library absorbed the machine cost. You just show up.

Which means the library isn't just lending books anymore. (It never was, if we're being honest.) It's lending capability.

Go check it out. You genuinely don't know what's in there.