Library’s 3D printers churning out face shields.

HOT SPRINGS — The Garland County Library has moved beyond providing books during the pandemic and is actively equipping frontline defenders combating the coronavirus, its director Adam Webb said last week.

It’s still serving a more traditional supporting role, providing entertainment to fill idle hours for people stuck at home because of social distancing, but it saw a way to do more and stepped up.

While the building has been closed to the public since March, its MakerBot 3D printers have been whirring away making face shields for health care workers and first responders.

“We’ve been meaning to get some 3D printers for a number of years,” Webb said. “This year we had the money in the budget. This pandemic happened, and we said there’s no better time than now. We’ve been seeing news articles about libraries making face shields.”

The library began producing them as part of the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts’ effort to supply the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and is now making shields for use around the Spa City.

“We actually have 100 of them here,” County Judge Darryl Mahoney said. “We’re going to pass them out to people who would rather use those than a mask in an outside setting where they’re going to be around people.”

“It’s amazing what they can do with a piece of equipment that would otherwise be sitting there useless. They’re definitely thinking outside the box,” he said of the library.

Webb said the machines would normally support the library’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Math program, as well as its coding programs, but they have been repurposed to help fill the gaps in a supply chain strained by hospitals, states and localities competing for sought-after protective equipment.

Webb said the library’s two printers can make 12-14 shields a day.

“It used to be very much a hobbyist group that used 3D printers, but you’re seeing more and more industries turn to using that technology for things like prototyping or printing out a model before they put it into production,” said Webb, who was promoted to director late last year partly because of his work integrating technology and the more traditional library experience.

The machines “we’ve got are pretty slick,” he said. “They have a heated chamber and dissolvable support material. You can print a nice and complicated 3D object and have the support material that holds it together while it’s printed dissolve away. So you end up with a nice print.”

Webb said 3D files provided by the machine’s manufacturer are uploaded to printers using the internet or a thumb drive.

“They have a web interface, or you just stick them on a USB and plug them into your machine,” he said. “You select your files, and they just go to town and start printing them.”

The library hasn’t closed the book on its more traditional offerings. It is still offering digital delivery of books and other materials and programming, while also conducting curbside pickup of physical materials.

“Patrons can place things on hold either online or they can call us,” he said. “We still have staff coming in every day.”

It’s just that for now, at least, the library has reached beyond the printed word.