Belleville Public Library. (Photo: Submitted / City of Belleville)
The Board of Trustees for Belleville Public Library joined staff in the new Tech Hub space on Thursday to officially open the space and to demonstrate recently purchased makerspace equipment.
The Tech Hub is a space by the front entrance offering technology access and programming.
It is open for public use, drop-in from 10:00 am each morning until one hour prior to closing.
There is a laptop bar with several stations, each with its own A/C and USB charging unit.
They are also scheduling regular small-scale programs, demonstrations, and workshops. For example, they have 3D printing demos, and demos of the Cricut machine and Mug Press scheduled between now and the end of November. There is a Teen Video Game Club taking place in the Tech Hub at 2:00 pm on Saturday October 1, and Saturday October 15. These programs and demonstrations will continue through the New Year.
Members of the public can also submit their own 3D printing jobs to the library for printing, for a small cost-recovery fee.
Other technology upgrades and purchases:
The entire public wireless internet service (Wi-Fi) has been replaced and upgraded to new equipment. There is a new laptop bar on the second floor with 12 workstations with charging ports. They also recently purchased several new public computers for a total of 19 public workstations. Further purchases in recent years include four children’s iPad stations, gaming laptops, robotics (Dash, Dot, and Sphero), Raspberry Pi units, coding equipment, tablets, gaming equipment, MIDI controllers, music recording and performance equipment, and more.
Library board chair Councilor Paul Carr commented, “Belleville Public Library Board is pleased to open this chapter in technology access with our new Tech Hub space on the first floor. The Library supports our community by providing computer and internet services, workshops and classes on technology and software use, free online college-level training courses for various software applications, and makerspace services including 3D printing. We have recently installed new laptop bars on the first and second floor with charging units at each station, and our public wireless internet service has been upgraded and replaced. I would also like to thank the Friends of the Belleville Public Library for their support for our Tech Hub through their recent purchase of a 3D printer, mug press, and a Cricut cutting machine. I encouraged everyone to visit the library and make use of the new workspaces and technology.”
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