Cranberry Public Library has turned a research space into The Forge — a Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math, or STEAM, makerspace, with an emphasis on the arts.

Inside The Forge are several pieces of design equipment — a laser engraver, a 3D printer, sewing machines, a Cricut and more. The laptops in The Forge have the software necessary to operate each of the resources.

Mary Frances Reutzel, makerspace manager, teaches laser engraving, Cricut and 3D printing at The Forge. She offers demonstration classes, “Show, Make & Take” sessions of CorelDRAW, a design software that sends designs to the laser engraver.

Anyone with any library card can attend a Forge demo to watch how a program works to see if it is what they need; or they can attend an appointment session to learn firsthand how to use the software.

These kinds of new opportunities at the library remind us of what libraries have always meant to our communities. Through all of this country’s many evolutions over time and through technology, our libraries have kept those changes within reach of all of us.

Some of us might not have the best computers or the fastest internet, but library cards are free and for as long as personal computers have existed, libraries have put them at our fingertips. When DVD rental prices soared, our libraries let us check out new movies with our cards and eventually video games. We can “check out” an audiobook through a smartphone application.

Our libraries have always ensured that the newest technologies and learning tools have never been out of reach.

— KL