3D Printing in an Academic Library – One Year Later

The idea of bringing 3D printers to libraries has gone from concept to reality in the past year.  The new service has been spreading rapidly the world over.  That reality has sparked a debate.  Should we or shouldn’t we?  Are we blinded by technolust or stepping up to meet an emerging need?
One of the key pieces of evidence necessary to inform the debate is some idea of what students actually do with a 3D printer.  Are they printing downloadable trinkets or unique creative masterpieces?  We’ve found that the truth lies somewhere in between.
We’ll discuss what we’ve been seeing at the Dalhousie Libraries since we began offering 3D printing to our students in June 2012.  We’ve seen some trends in usage and we want to share what we’re learning as our service continues to evolve.