If you’re ever at the Milwaukee Makerspace and you hear someone say “It’s in the Library!” you might wonder to yourself (much like I did) why it’s called the Library.
Yes, we do have some books in there, but we’ve also got a giant wall of electronic components, as well as a sewing machine, embroidery machine, computers, projects, supplies, and miscellaneous junk.
I ran the question past Royce, and he had this to say:
It’s because we have a library of electronic components.
For example, if you are reading the Arduino Cookbook and a circuit in there calls for a 47uF capacitor or a 2N2222 transistor that you don’t have, you needn’t pay $5 shipping for a 50 cent part and wait three days to boot. It’s almost certainly in our parts library. Just go grab it!
We have most every value of through hole resistors and capacitors in a variety of working voltages. We also have common discrete silicon devices such as diodes and transistors. We are more limited on the ICs because of the colossal variations in ICs, but we have a lot of common beginner type stuff such linear power regulators, silicon controlled relays, 74 series logic, the venerable 555 timer, RS-232 level shifters and more.
So there you have it! Sure, there’s some books, but mainly it’s a “library of electronic components” which for a hackerspace, is a pretty awesome thing to have.