Makerspaces--also sometimes called hackerspaces--can be any area where people gather to make and create. These spaces often include 3D printers, but do not necessarily have to. In makerspaces, people...

Travel on Amtrak, on the Northeast Corridor route, and you pass through the heart of the mid-Atlantic post-industrial landscape. Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia, Trenton, Newark: these cities once made everything from rope to steel to transistors, taking raw materials from the heartland and transforming them into products for export.

They've long served as communal gathering spots, but these civic institutions are becoming gateways to technological tinkering. Please consider disabling it for our site, or supporting our work in one of these ways Subscribe Now > If you could ask Ben Franklin what public institution he would like to visit in America today, I bet he would say the public library.