Origins
The Fab Lab is a creative makerspace where everyone can learn, create and discover using cutting-edge technology that they don’t have access to at home.
It's part of a global network of similar facilities in libraries and other venues that give people access to ‘digital fabrication’ technology. People can use this technology to design and make almost anything. There are Fab Labs in more than 120 countries around the world.
The Fab Lab at the Guille-Allès Library was founded in 2021, thanks to a generous grant from the Guernsey Community Foundation (GCF). It was the brainchild of Jodie Knight, Deputy Chief Librarian, who visited a Fab Lab at a library in the UK and became passionate about starting something similar in Guernsey. She was instrumental in getting the project off the ground.
The Fab Lab started life in a room on the top floor of the Library building, home to thirteen digital fabrication machines that were purchased using the GCF grant, including a 3D printer and digital sewing machine. It quickly established itself as a popular and exciting part of the Library service. Usage grew and grew, with more than 3,000 bookings over the first three years.
2025 Upgrade
By the summer of 2024, it had become clear that the Fab Lab had outgrown the relatively small room it was based in. A new, larger space was needed. Having seen the Fab Lab's success and its impact on the community, the Guernsey Community Foundation once again stepped in to provide support, awarding another grant to enable an expansion and relocation to the first floor, opposite the Children's Library.
The new space opened in January 2025. It's more accessible and more visible, right in the heart of the Library. It's also a much larger room, better suiting the requirements of users, and creating more opportunities for events, group visits, and workshops. And it boasts more technology than ever, including coding robots, more laptops, and a Cricut crafting machine. It's a bright, welcoming space, ready and waiting for people to come and bring their ideas to life.
The Jodie Knight Fab Lab
The Fab Lab is dedicated to the memory of Jodie Knight, our former Deputy Chief Librarian and Chief Librarian Designate, who passed away from cancer in 2020 at the age of 44. She is dearly missed by all her Library friends and colleagues.
Jodie loved the Library, and she played a key role in driving lots of improvements to the service. The Fab Lab was a long-cherished dream of hers. While it's desperately sad that she never saw it become a reality, we know she would be incredibly proud of it. And that's why it bears her name.
