* This post is an article I wrote for the Partnership Among South Carolina Academic Libraries (PASCAL) July Newsletter. The Newsletter can be viewed in its entirety here.
News from Members and Partners
A makerspace within Kimbel Library has been in the works for over a year now. Just after the first of 2020, we began ordering equipment and materials for the space. These had just begun to arrive when the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic hit. Suddenly, all of our services shifted to virtual, campus closed, and the makerspace looked as though it would be taking a backseat. Instead, library staff found the opportunity to put our creative space to good use protecting first responders and front-line workers against the virus.
The Mask Impact project initially started in the Daniel Library at The Citadel. The project sought to build N95-like masks for health care workers at the Medical University of South Carolina. When Conway resident and Citadel student, West Courtney, reached out to Coastal Carolina University for assistance with the project, Kimbel’s University Librarian, Dr. Melvin Davis, was happy to help.
Library staff reached out to campus cohorts to borrow as many additional 3-D printers as possible. With 10 printers running 16 hours a day, library staff began the long process of 3-D printing over 250 plastic masks and 276 HEPA mask filters.
As our part in the mask project was wrapping up, Kimbel Access Services supervisors, Bill Carter and Joe Taylor, looked for opportunities to continue helping front line responders. When they learned that the first responders of Horry County Fire and Rescue needed face-shields, the library shifted its production. We printed 368 face-shield frames with replaceable shields. Thanks to a generous donation of clear plastic from the Office Depots of Surfside and North Myrtle Beach, we were able to provide shields to responders as well.
In all, Kimbel Library 3-D printed nearly 900 personal protection equipment parts and pieces and made over 1,000 clear plastic face-shields. What appeared would be a quiet time for a library makerspace not yet open to its college campus turned into an opportunity to impact the community and help save lives.
In addition to the Mask Impact project, Assessment Librarian Margaret Fain assisted Tidelands Health with replacing the elastic in their N95 respirators. After 20,000 of Tidelands’ masks were found to have brittle elastic, Fain was one of 1,200 volunteers who took up the call to sew.
Fain and the Librarian for Academic Engagement, Tristan Daniels, also offered Facebook Live sessions on how to make sewn cloth masks and no-sew t-shirt masks. Their classes spawned a series of Facebook Live tutorials by library faculty and staff to help students during their time of shelter in place.
Submitted by Christine Anderson, Marketing/Administrative Assistant, Kimbel Library, Coastal Carolina University
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