AIC's 47th Annual Meeting

The carbon dioxide laser is not new as it was first developed in the 1960s. However, it is really in the last decade that the technology became more commonplace in the hands of hobbyists and smaller institutions. The maker movement has certainly had an impact on the development of more affordable laser technology. Many museums and archives order archival boxes, which are cut with laser technology designed for the commercial industry. Living Computers purchased a Full Spectrum CO2 laser for use mainly by the Education department. The Education Coordinator had developed a kit for instruction of parts of a computer made out of cardboard. It was determined that the museum would benefit from the purchase rather than outsourcing the production of the kit. Once the laser was set up, other departments were offered training. The advantages of using the laser for the collections department was to expedite the few custom enclosures that were needed for the collection. Since using the cutter for boxes and dividers, its use was recently expanded to create a storage solution for the many keyboards in the collection. Using a repurposed wire magnetic tape holder as a model, a shelf divider was created using the laser cutter. Now use of this technology has allowed the Collections staff to create storage solutions on-demand.