BBQ and Public Libraries
What does BBQ have to do with public libraries? Not much, unless you want to check out some books on some of America’s best food (and of course, there are cookbooks too!). But lately, libraries have been becoming more than just books—they have other resources.
The county library near us has what is called an “innovation center” that makes certain machines available to patrons, usually at no charge unless you need to purchase certain materials. In the process of launching and expanding Smokin’ Bettie’s, we’ve used a sublimation printer (to make potholders and tea towels that we use in our demos), a large-size color printer (to make banners and large signs), a Cricut machine (to make custom labels for sample-sized spice jars), a large-scale laser cutter (to make a wooden sign that, unfortunately, didn’t work out), and a 3-D printer (to make a special bottle holder for when we were producing products in a test kitchen). The center has equipment that we have not used yet, like a mug printer, drawing tablets, a complete sewing setup, and computers that not only control some of these instruments, but also have lots of software for design and production (like Blender for you 3-D animation buffs). And all this from your tax dollars!
The folks at the library, while not expert users of all the equipment, are always happy to unlock the room and share whatever knowledge they may have (indeed, I’ve never met a librarian who is NOT happy to help). And my point? By using this equipment myself, I not only learn a little bit of the skills needed to do that sort of work (and gain additional appreciation for those who are experts!), but I save myself a lot of money by (a) not buying the equipment myself and (b) not paying out the nose for small jobs that a shop would charge a lot for to do such a small job. (And yes, I’ve expressed my appreciation by giving a few bottles of product to those helpful folks!)
If you have similar facilities available at your public library, use them! Again, they’re paid for by your tax dollars, so in a sense YOU own them! And I’m sure the librarians will be happy to help, because they are, after all, librarians!
(Special thanks to all the folks at the Mayfield CCPL for making this blog post possible!)
Eat more BBQ!