Fab Lab Annex Among Three New Additions to CSUB Library

Campus community members celebrate

By California State University, Bakersfield

October 23^rd, 2019

Those who know about CSUB’s Fab Lab understand it’s a gem on campus. But tucked away on the south side of campus, students outside of the university’s School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics, and Engineering can’t be blamed for not knowing it’s there, open to anyone who wants to create.

But thanks to the recently opened Fab Lab Annex at the Walter W. Stiern Library, students of all majors can discover the possibilities of fabrication right where they already spend plenty of time studying.

On the morning of Oct. 22, President Lynnette Zelezny joined Library Dean Curt Asher, NSME Dean Kathleen Madden and other campus community members to celebrate the opening of the Fab Lab Annex, as well as the library’s new group study space and 50thanniversary exhibit in the Historical Research Center.

“This is one of my favorite times: ribbon-cuttings,” Zelezny told the crowd. “I have had the pleasure of being at so many ribbon-cuttings, but this is a very special one because it really kicks off our 50th anniversary celebrations.”

Fab Lab Annex Among Three New Additions to CSUB Library

The Fab Lab Annex, with funding from Edison International, came about in the spring of this year, when Asher approached the NSME team about creating a maker space in the library. Fab Lab Specialist Bobby Hartsock trained library staff members over the summer so they can help students with projects.

Zelezny said the effort is a “great creative partnership, and I think one of a kind in the CSU.”

In the annex, students will have access to 3D printers and vinyl cutters, as well as staff to help them figure out how to use them. Madden said it will let them experience the engineering design process of making prototypes, testing them and reworking them for a fully realized final product.

“By having this annex here in the library, our hope is that we’re going to draw in all kinds of students who maybe wouldn’t have made it to our original Fab Lab because they just wouldn’t know about it,” Madden told the crowd. “They’re going to get a taste of it here with the 3D printers and the vinyl cutters that we have up here and that’s just going to spur their interest to then bring them down to the Fab Lab.”

Asher was also excited about bringing something new to the library.

“It’s a creative space where people can learn to use technology to make physical things,” he said.

But the Fab Lab Annex wasn’t the only library addition the ceremony attendees were celebrating.

Commemorating a major milestone, the 50thanniversary exhibit takes visitors from the groundbreaking with then-Governor Ronald Reagan of what was at the time called California State College, Bakersfield through the university’s early years and into modern times.

The ribbon-cutting also saw the official opening of the library’s new group study space. Asher explained that in a 2012 survey of students, they answered that the most pressing library need was a group study space. Now, where there once were stacks of print journals, students have plenty of room to study with classmates in quiet rooms, comfortable booths and at tables with several electrical outlets for charging phones and laptops.

Addressing the crowd on behalf of the student body, ASI Executive Vice President Roxanne Esparza expressed her appreciation for the library’s new additions.

“It’s an opportunity to grow professionally, personally and intellectually,” she said of being a student here. “With the support of the staff here in the library and the Fab Lab, we are able to do just that. Because many of us have dreams that are probably not attainable without those type of resources.”