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On Stands Now!
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East Baton Rouge Parish Library’s 3-D printer creates amazing models and objects anyone can design

  • By Benjamin Leger

The excitement over 3-D printers hasn’t waned, especially at the East Baton Rouge Parish Library’s main library on Goodwood Boulevard. In an upstairs space, the 3-D printer the library bought a few years ago churns out small plastic objects from the practical to the novelty.

Dream it up and submit it to the library via its website, and for a small fee you can have it in your hands within a couple days—as long as you’re happy with a plastic version less than 11 inches tall.

It’s been such a successful part of the library’s services that another 3-D printer will likely find its way into the new downtown library once the facility is built.

“It ties in with what the Chamber likes to call the ‘creative capital of the South,’ and we are playing our part by being a space for creativity and offering emerging technology,” says Assistant Library Director Mary Stein. ebrpl.com

The 3-D printer works by pumping heated plastic into the printer nozzle and then building up an object layer by layer. During our visit, the printer was buzzing as it made a shark-shaped paperclip. “It’s essentially like a hot glue gun,” says Michael Brandyberry, the library’s technology engineer. “It gets the plastic just hot enough to stick to the layer below, but not enough to lose form.”
The 3-D printer works by pumping heated plastic into the printer nozzle and then building up an object layer by layer. During our visit, the printer was buzzing as it made a shark-shaped paperclip. “It’s essentially like a hot glue gun,” says Michael Brandyberry, the library’s technology engineer. “It gets the plastic just hot enough to stick to the layer below, but not enough to lose form.”
Known as the MakerBot Replicator 2X Experimental 3-D Printer, the boxy machine (about the size of an oven) can help builders test a concept before completing a big project. “You get a fairly quick turnaround at a much lower cost,” Brandyberry says. “They make adjustments [to the design based on the model], and when they have what they want, they can send it off to a manufacturer.” If ever the printer needs a replacement part, it can build that too!
Known as the MakerBot Replicator 2X Experimental 3-D Printer, the boxy machine (about the size of an oven) can help builders test a concept before completing a big project. “You get a fairly quick turnaround at a much lower cost,” Brandyberry says. “They make adjustments [to the design based on the model], and when they have what they want, they can send it off to a manufacturer.” If ever the printer needs a replacement part, it can build that too!
225 Goodwood Library 3D Printer, Collin Richie Photo, 2.1.16
Teachers can use the printer to make replicas, museums can make scans of artifacts and some library staff even used it to make business card holders when it was in its testing phase. “The most fun ones are the ones I go, ‘I have no clue what this is, but it looks awesome,’” says Brandyberry, who also organizes the annual Baton Rouge Mini Maker Faire.
From left, digital librarian Bryce Tomlin and technology engineer Michael Brandyberry show what the 3-D printer can do. “I sort of understand now how my parents felt about computers when they first came out,” Brandyberry says, “because I saw this and I went, ‘This is amazing. I’m jumping all over this.’”
From left, digital librarian Bryce Tomlin and technology engineer Michael Brandyberry show what the 3-D printer can do. “I sort of understand now how my parents felt about computers when they first came out,” Brandyberry says, “because I saw this and I went, ‘This is amazing. I’m jumping all over this.’”


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