Party kits are most commonly used for children’s birthday parties, with plastic tableware being the most popular choice as it is durable, lightweight, affordable, and suitable for young children. However, party kits have also been used for baby showers, workplace BBQs, community group meetings, and even gallery openings. 

How Party Kits Fit into a Library of Things

The party kit concept aligns closely with the principles of lending libraries, and many have already successfully added party kits to their inventories. There are two main models for incorporating party kits:

1. Pre-packed party kits: These are boxes of tableware lent out as single items. This setup is common in locker-based sharing libraries or libraries where tableware is not the main focus, such as public libraries, toy libraries, and nappy libraries. It simplifies administration by reducing the effort required to prepare each rental, though borrowers may end up taking more items than they need. Here is an example of Share Bristol’s party kit listing: https://things.sharebristol.org.uk/product/2314 

2. Customisable party kits: In this model, users build their own party kits by selecting items from the library’s inventory of tableware, decorations, and other party essentials. A basic party kit, such as a set of plates and cups, may still be offered as a pre-packed option, with the flexibility for borrowers to add other items as needed.  

Regardless of the model, all lending libraries offering party kits require that items are washed before being returned. Clear guidance should be provided on which items are dishwasher safe (most plastic tableware can be washed on an Eco cycle at lower temperatures) and the importance of ensuring everything is thoroughly dried before repacking and returning.

Benefits of Offering Party Kits 

Lending libraries that include kits report numerous benefits for both the library and its members:

Benefits for Borrowers

• Access to a broader inventory, including items like gazebos, bunting, party games, tables, chairs, tablecloths, jugs, and cool boxes. This reduces the need for one-time purchases that can often go unused after the event. 

• Affordability: For libraries with annual memberships, borrowing a party kit is often comparable with buying disposable supplies, with the added benefit that with each hire members are getting even more value for money. 

Benefits for Libraries

• Increased membership: Party kits attract new members, especially families. Anna Perry from Share Bristol said, “The party kits at Share Bristol definitely help us attract new members. Sometimes people find us through the Party Kit Network and join our Library of Things service to borrow one. Other times, people see the party kits as part of our inventory, which is enough to convince them to become members.”

• Inclusivity: Libraries can make party kits accessible to everyone. Lindsey Campbell from Linlithgow Tool Library explained, “We offer a pay-what-you-can system, so we don’t exclude anyone financially.”

• Broader reach: By nature, parties reach a lot of people, an opportunity to increase awareness of the library’s offerings and encourage more people to engage with local sharing.  

Community Impact

• Positive feedback: Borrowers consistently praise the ease of use and reduced waste. Helena Jackson from Stork and the Bees, a sling and nappy library with a party kit, noted: “People who have hired the kits have loved it. They’ve shared how easy it was to use, what a great idea it is, and how it means less waste. Plus, they didn’t have to buy or store reusable items themselves.”

• Visible impact: Borrowers notice the environmental benefits firsthand as they tidy up—there are significantly fewer bin bags of waste! Sharing these stories can inspire others in the community to embrace the switch to reusables and borrowing.

• Health & wellbeing: Borrowing and celebrating foster positive social connections, which are essential for mental health and wellbeing. Karen Elsbury, founder of the Elwood Kitchen Library, explains: “Our kitchen library is all about bringing people together through a love of food. By providing members of our community with access to kitchen items and party packs we enable them to entertain family and friends, celebrate together, and get creative in the kitchen.”

Free Download: “The Library of Things Toolkit”

Getting Started

If your library already includes reusable tableware in its inventory, you can join the Party Kit Network today! Joining is FREE and allows more people in your community to discover your library. Visit partykitnetwork.org/join to sign up.

If your library doesn’t yet have suitable tableware, consider these steps to get started:

1. Gauge Community Interest: Run a survey among your existing members to assess interest in a party kit. This can also be an opportunity to engage the wider community for their input, increasing awareness of your library’s services. 

2. Assess Local Needs: Before purchasing tableware, think about the types of events your members are likely to host. For example, for children’s parties typically 20-30 place settings are needed with durable, lightweight plastic tableware being a practical choice. For adult events such as BBQs, plastic tumblers are often preferred to glass for outdoor gathering due to their lighter weight and safety.

3. Source Tableware: There are several ways to acquire tableware:  

   • Community donations: Reach out to your local community to source reusable items.  

   • Preloved party kits: Purchase second-hand kits to reduce costs  

   • New tableware: Some libraries choose to buy new items, especially if they want to offer matching sets. Aesthetics can be important for members transitioning from themed single-use tableware to reusables.  

   Funding may be available from local authorities through waste prevention or small community grants, which can help cover the cost of purchasing reusable tableware.

4. Plan Hire Logistics:  

   • Hire periods: Many party kits are offered for a three-day hire giving people time to collect, party, wash and return, with most bookings occurring over the weekend. Your opening hours will likely dictate the duration of a hire.

   • Storage: Using rigid plastic storage containers is the easiest way to keep tableware clean and organised. A party kit for 30 can fit into a 48 litre box meaning it doesn’t take up too much space. Choose a size that balances capacity and ease of transport—splitting items into multiple boxes if needed to avoid heavy lifting. 

5. Reduce Losses: Include an equipment list with each party kit to help borrowers keep track of items and return everything they borrowed. Labelling items like jugs can also minimise the risk of them being left behind at party venues, while doubling as advertising for your kit. 

6. Collaborate Locally: I always recommend people check the Party Kit Network map to see if there are existing kits in the area. Most communities can support more than one kit, and connecting with other members allows you to collaborate. For example, you can refer enquiries to another provider if your kit is already booked. 

Case Study

Palo Alto’s Zero Waste Party Packs are reducing event waste

Getting More Support to Set Up a Party Kit

The Party Kit Network is committed to helping lending libraries include party kits, increasing accessibility and strengthening the sharing economy.

Here are some resources to guide you through the process:

• Comprehensive Guide: Download our detailed guide to running a party kit at https://www.partykitnetwork.org/start 

• Facebook Group: Join our active community on Facebook, where members share advice and ideas: https://www.facebook.com/groups/partykitnetwork 

• Online Meet-ups: Attend our regular online sessions to ask questions and get tailored support: https://partykitnetwork.eventbrite.com 

• Tableware Materials: For more information on tableware materials, please see our guide to reusable tableware: https://www.partykitnetwork.org/post/which-type-of-reusable-tableware-is-the-greenest   

Or please drop me an email with any questions or concerns, or to be connected with another library already successfully running a party kit – hello@partykitnetwork.org 

Conclusion

Party kits are a perfect fit for lending libraries. Libraries have seen their members utilise party kits when added to the inventory, and even join a library because a party kit was offered. It has been straightforward for libraries to set up a party kit, requiring minimal storage and experiencing low rates of loss.

By offering party kits, libraries empower their communities to celebrate more sustainably, reducing waste and promoting reuse. This not only strengthens connections within the community but also supports a thriving sharing economy, where resources are used efficiently and inclusively.

Adding a party kit is a small step with a big impact—encouraging more sustainable celebrations and reinforcing the vital role of sharing libraries in creating a better future.

This article was originally published by the Party Pack Network.

The post How (and why) to add a Party Kit to your Library of Things appeared first on Shareable.

As a handy person, Devon Curtin spends a lot of time helping people enrich their living spaces. Recently, while working with a friend to remodel their floor, Curtin noticed that the cost of do-it-yourself projects is already rising because of Donald Trump’s tariffs.

“The cost of mahogany was the same as Douglas fir, which is kind of wild, but the cost of oak was double. And I was like, ‘Oh, we’re probably getting oak boards from Canada, and so the tariff cost on that is going to skyrocket,’” said Curtin. “And so all of a sudden, this project of building an oak countertop doubles in price because the tariffs are there.”

With the price of materials climbing (or set to), many DIY projects have become more difficult to finance overnight. But what if Curtin’s friend didn’t also have to purchase pricey tools to complete the project? What if he borrowed them all from neighbors instead, and returned them when he was finished? And what if those neighbors helped him through the project each step of the way?

This is more or less how tool-lending libraries work. Curtin, who is a volunteer and steering committee member of the nonprofit Rhode Island tool library PVD Things, connects people with the tools and know-how to make daunting do-it-yourself projects more accessible. For a sliding scale fee, members of the cooperatively-run library have access to a catalogue of about 1,630 items that have been amassed over the past four or so years through donations. Tools like the power washers, hammers, drills, cameras, lawn mowers, pet carriers, grills and pop-up tents can be borrowed for one to two weeks. But PVD Things is about much more than just the things. Volunteers get to know their neighbors and their stories, and provide guidance if they need help. Those volunteers told me about a local poet who borrows pop-up tents and tables to speed-write poems for passersby, and a surfer who borrowed palm sanders and dust extractors to build a fiberglass surfboard from scratch. Another member built out a camper van with their power tools. Several weeks ago, 30 gardeners borrowed rakes, shovels and pruners en masse for a big clean up party at a community garden that had been overgrown for years.

During open hours, I saw volunteers celebrating a member’s upcoming 10K when she came in to borrow a GoPro to document the run. The space was warm and welcoming, with a wall of free things, a whiteboard full of local event flyers near a seed library, and power tools impeccably organized on curvy psychedelic shelves that were designed and made by a program that works with Providence youth.

“It’s not really like a Home Depot where you just go in, you don’t talk to anybody, you pick a tool up and leave,” said volunteer and board member Erica Bello. “A lot of times we’re having really in-depth conversations with what these people are doing and their projects and all that stuff. And some people just come and hang out.”

Tool libraries such as these have surged in popularity since the Great Recession. Public library systems house many of them, as in Oakland and Berkeley, California; Grosse Pointe, Michigan; and in Providence, Rhode Island, through a partnership with PVD Things. Independent nonprofit tool libraries are flourishing across the country too. Hubs in Denver, Chicago and Buffalo all offer thousands of things and workshops; another in New York City’s Flatbush neighborhood offers free membership to all Brooklyn residents. A longstanding library in Baltimore heavily influenced the organizational structure of PVD Things.

Tool libraries are typically hyperlocal projects sustained primarily by donations and volunteers, making them relatively insulated from the whims of far-away neo-fascists and tech billionaires. As the Chicago Tool Library recently put it, “There are no tariffs on sharing. The more we share, the more we have.”

They aren’t insulated from politics entirely. “This is a not-for-profit, and we are directly benefited by a lot of the programs and grants that kind of extend from what’s available in the state or in the city, or federally,” Curtin said. “That gives us the opportunity to grow.”

“We want people to realize their own self-reliance. You don’t have to be a consumer. You can be a repairer.”

The use of such grants and programs can also be a vulnerability. Last month, the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), a government agency that funds one-third to one-half of state library agencies’ annual budgets, was gutted by the federal government. IMLS had provided grants to fund at least two tool libraries in California. Berkeley’s tool lending program — one of the first in the public library system — was originally funded by a federal grant in 1979.

PVD Things has secured a couple of grants, including one that led to the hiring of their first part-time employee, Manuela Hincapie Vidal, as a workshop programmer and volunteer coordinator. Born in Colombia, Hincapie Vidal moved to Rhode Island at age 11, where she was exposed to squatting culture and the Zapatistas at a community space in Providence shortly after graduating from high school. She first learned about tool libraries after enrolling at Berea College in Kentucky — a tuition-free college for low-income students — from an inspiring professor who also taught the class about back-to-the-land movements, timebanking, and municipal internet.

Hincapie Vidal said her Latina roots inspire her to ensure PVD Things’ workshops are accessible to their mostly Latinx neighbors. She has helped organize three Spanish-speaking workshops, spreading the word through Latina organizations and ditching Google docs — which seemed more friendly for English-speakers — in favor of email and text sign-ups. All three workshops quickly reached maximum capacity.

“Workshops help people feel a sense of belonging and ownership of the space,” said Hincapie Vidal, “and bring people in that feel compelled to be volunteers.”

Through workshops, locals have learned the basics of power tools, electrical work, plumbing, machine sewing, hand sewing, wood working, little free library building, sign making, and more. With these new skills, people are better equipped to repair their belongings when they break, saving them money and keeping things out of landfills.

“We want people to realize their own self-reliance. You don’t have to be a consumer. You can be a repairer,” Bello said. “So many things are kind of built nowadays where you can’t fix it, and corporations want you to discard it. It’s planned obsolescence. We are trying to give empowerment back to the people.”

PVD Things aspires to host open shop hours where people can fix things and collaborate on other projects together. When I asked Curtin and Bello about their other utopian dreams, Curtin said he hopes for each public library to involve a tool-lending program. Bello envisions a world where the proliferation of tool libraries allows people to climb up the economic ladder, and Curtin chimed in that tool libraries can serve as an incubator for small businesses.

Later, Hincapie Vidal pulled me aside and said that she had dreams too. “Imagine a world where there are tool libraries in every neighborhood, and they’re third spaces for people to hang out without having to spend money,” she said. “There are potlucks to share food, and urban farms.” We talked about alternative economic systems, such as solidarity economies that weave together things like worker-owned cooperatives, community land trusts, popular assemblies, and mutual aid networks to build a world that prioritizes people and planetary health over economic growth. “That would just be a disaster for capitalism,” she said cheerily.

Entire economies could even be organized around library concepts, as some have suggested: Under a system called “library socialism,” popularized by utopian comedy podcast “Srsly Wrong,” and further explored by YouTuber Andrewism, all kinds of goods and resources could be collectively catalogued and distributed to meet everyone’s basic needs and desires. Under library socialism, for example, apartments might be doled out by a collectively managed housing committee that is accountable to its local popular assembly. An affinity group might run a collective kitchen and return the space rental to the housing committee once it’s no longer being used. None of the concepts are necessarily new — solidarity economies and library socialism are modern spins on what many societies have been experimenting with since the dawn of humanity.

“It sounds utopian, but it’s not. We’ve been made to believe that capitalism is the only way, because it feels like it has existed forever and that there are no other alternatives,” said Hincapie Vidal. “But that’s not true. It’s pretty new. The history is there so we can bring it forward and learn and share it.”

Free Download: “The Library of Things Toolkit”

The post “No Tariffs on Sharing”: Tool Libraries Offer Resilience Amid Federal Chaos appeared first on Shareable.

There are about 2,000 formally established LoTs around the world, as well as countless informal ones. Modern LoTs have been in operation since 1978 (the longest-running is Berkeley Tool Library since 1979), but LoTs have existed informally for far longer.

LoTs build community while bringing solidarity economy and mutual aid practices to life. They counter consumerism and individualism and are a more environmentally friendly way to meet our material needs.

In 2023, Shareable surveyed existing Libraries of Things in order to gain a better understanding of the field and identify a set of industry benchmarks. The 82 LoTs (from 11 different countries) who participated included respondents who ranged from directors to volunteers and lived in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Oceania.

The State of Libraries of Things 2024 report results reflect the experiences of the survey respondents. In future iterations of this survey, we hope to capture the experiences of even more of the 2,000+ global LoTs for increased accuracy and assessment of the needs and trends in the field.

Libraries of Things may look different around the world, but the core values of an accessible, community practice are constant. Our goal is to provide a helpful and inspiring look into the inner workings of LoTs. We hope this report is a helpful guide whether you are part of an established LoT looking to understand how it measures up to the larger field or if you are just getting started and are learning what it takes to get a new LoT off the ground and open to your community!

Download the Report: “The State of Libraries of Things 2024”

Key Takeaways

• Libraries of Things look and feel different in every community
• Many LoTs are making a difference in their communities with just a handful of volunteers and a small space like a storage unit or garage
• Generally, there are three different “types” of LoTs:
  • Fully volunteer-run, with budgets less than $10k/year, limited inventory, and average memberships of less than 200 people (these are the vast majority of LoTs!)
  • Larger independent LoTs with storefronts, significant annual budgets, and at least 1 paid Library manager
  • Municipal LoTs that are connected to city libraries, including stand-alone dedicated LoTs or collections within regular libraries
• Volunteers are critical to the success of most LoTs, especially for inventory maintenance
• Many LoTs are small with limited usage/items lent out per month
• For financial sustainability, LoTs rely most heavily on membership fees, grants, and donations
• Many LoTs have never conducted a formal needs assessment to determine what their current (and potential) user base wants and needs
• Most LoTs have been operating for less than 5 years and are open 1-3 days/week when they have capacity (with limited hours)
• The vast majority of LoTs provide other services beyond lending items
• Many LoTs are unsure of the racial, gender, income, and employment status of their members–surveying LoT membership can help inform efforts to increase diversity of membership and intentional decision-making

The Library of Things Co-Lab starts on Tuesday, March 5th. For 12 weeks (and beyond) this will be a resource-sharing hub that guides organizers through the process of incubating and strengthening LoTs to serve their communities.

Register for the Co-Lab to access the full schedule of live workshops, recordings, resources, peer network, and more. All participants are encouraged to choose their own adventure and registration will remain open until the end of the Co-Lab.

The post New report: The State of Libraries of Things 2024 appeared first on Shareable.

Today, we are excited to introduce you to the 2024 Library of Things Fellows. The fellowship has been designed with and for communities that have been socially marginalized and most impacted by climate disasters, structural inequality, and class oppression. These fellows will participate in the Library of Things Co-Lab and receive stipends, seed funding, and one-on-one coaching to help them establish new Libraries of Things in high-potential communities. A special thanks to Library of Things Co-Lab partners Purpose Built Communities and the Center for Biological Diversity for their ongoing partnership and sponsorship of fellows in Houston, Jacksonville, and Orlando.

Each of these fellows is already doing amazing work to build a solidarity economy in their local community. We can’t wait to share more about their work and learning journey throughout 2024!

Rachel Jerusha Kinbar

Central Florida Mutual Aid

Center for Biological Diversity

Greater Orlando, Florida

Tell us about the community where you are starting your Library of Things – geographically and demographically, as well as a bit about what  your community looks and feels like. 

I’m an organizer with Central Florida Mutual Aid. The community is dispersed across three counties (all of which are considered the greater Orlando area) and includes BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disabled, neurodivergent, immigrant, and low-income folx. 

We cover a large area, all of which is vulnerable to hurricanes and flooding, especially because most of our wetlands have been destroyed by developers. Climate change is very visible here, and it is very hot here most of the year. 

The greater Orlando area has a lot of Caribbean and Latin American immigrants, but communities are also very segregated. It’s easy to be in one area and have no clue about another area nearby. These communities are very close-knit and have many decades of experience living in solidarity with one another and not relying on or interacting with the government. Many different Floridas exist in parallel. The Central Florida Mutual Aid community is one that doesn’t get much news coverage, but it is resilient and building a future where we can be safe and have our core needs met. 

Tell us about the work your group is already doing or has done in your community.

One of our earliest projects was a Pet Food Pantry, where people could request items they needed. Because we cover a large area and many people do not have dependable transportation, we would deliver items. We would also table at pop-ups, where we’d bring what we had in stock and people could just come and take what they needed. No gatekeeping, no paperwork, no limitations, no need to provide proof. 

When Hurricane Ian hit in September 2022, we shifted our attention to a neighborhood in West Orlando that was flooded really badly. Though many families had home insurance, the companies refused to cover most of the damage. CFLMA stepped in to muck and gut the houses. For months, we organized crews of volunteers to work on different projects for families in that neighborhood. We also advocated for them when they were hit with massive water and electric bills in spite of not even living in the houses, which were completely gutted. During this time, we also organized a food distribution project that involved collecting food donated by a meal service company and produce donated by a local farm.  

We run a monthly Sustainability Gathering with one consistent partner and some alternating partners. The gathering takes different forms, but is mainly a garden brigade followed by a workshop. This event always has a good turnout and has been a beautiful way to build community. 

This year we launched a Trans Safety Fund in response to anti-trans laws passed by the Florida legislature. The initial aim of the fund was to support folx needing to flee Florida for safety. We have recently expanded it to include those in our community seeking gender-affirming care. We raised $3,000 in the first round and just hosted another fundraiser in early December. 

Why do you think a Library of Things is a good fit for your community? What do you think the impact will be? 

During hurricane recovery last year, we built up a tool repository. While we haven’t publicly advertised it, we are able to respond to queries if we happen to have a tool that is needed. It has already been useful for our members, and knowing that we have those tools available in case of another hurricane gives us peace of mind that we can respond quickly. There is a massive income disparity in Orlando, and so many are struggling to cover their basic needs. Making more tools and other equipment available to community members who could not otherwise afford them will improve quality of life and deepen our sense of community. 

What inspires you to make change in your community? What keeps you motivated? 

I know that a better world is possible – for me, for my friends, for my community, and beyond. I’ve experienced poverty, being a single parent, living as an immigrant without speaking the local language, and being stuck in an awful situation for years. I’m neurodivergent and queer. The world we live in was not designed for me or people like me, so all I can really do is try to make it better for us. I think systems are neutral, but many cause harm by intent or consequence. I’m not a strong believer in reform, but believe that it is possible for people to build better systems, networks, communities for ourselves that meet the needs of the many instead of filling the pockets of the few.  

Tell us an interesting random fact about you, your group, or your community that would not normally come up in an interview or profile. 

When we first launched CFLMA, we covered four counties. The fourth county was included because of someone who showed up to the first meeting and was from that county. We had already written and voted on our charter before we realized that person had never been to another meeting! We finally removed that additional county recently because we literally have no members and don’t do any work there. Live and learn. 

Nicole Huguenin & Leo Nahe Smith

Circular Hawaii

Maui, Hawaiʻi

Tell us about the community where you are starting your Library of Things – geographically and demographically, as well as a bit about what  your community looks and feels like. 

Since we are on Native Hawaiian land, we want to be sure that our tool libraries and community fridge are located in kānaka ‘ōiwi (native hawaiian) communities and other kama‘āina (native born) communities. It is important to us that the people of this land are getting all their needs met via quality food, physical tools, etc. to ensure that they can continue living here. As of right now, our library of things will be located in the fire impacted zones, Lahaina and Kula, as well as Kihei and Central Maui.

Tell us about the work your group is already doing or has done in your community.

A hui (group) of small business owners, nonprofits, community organizers, and individuals have been meeting regularly to support each of our circular economy practices in our community as well as restore the ahupuaʻa system of ancient Hawaiʻi that abundantly managed ‘āina (land), resources, and cared for the people. We each have different projects we are working on, including a barter/trade app called Exchange Ave and starting two tool libraries and a community fridge in 3 of the 141 ahupua’a of Maui, one of which was burned down during the August 2023 wildfires.

Why do you think a Library of Things is a good fit for your community? What do you think the impact will be?

The cost of living on Maui is increasing each day, and Native Hawaiians are forcibly being pushed into diaspora while we wait for our local government to step up and help us. Mutual aid projects, like our tool libraries and community fridge, may not completely solve the deep-seeded issues, but they will provide the assistance that is needed right NOW. The concept of an intimate sharing economy was common in ancient Hawaiʻi, and it worked so seamlessly within our ahupuaʻa system. The impact of bringing this practice back into our present life would only benefit kānaka (people).

What inspires you to make change in your community? What keeps you motivated? 

At this moment in time, the response to the wildfires and windstorms and caring for our two communities directly impacted, Kula and Lahaina, and the larger mokupuni (island) motivates the work we do by, for, and with each other.

Tell us an interesting random fact about you, your group, or your community that would not normally come up in an interview or profile. 

Our work is heavily guided by kānaka ʻōiwi values and systems. We firmly believe in the following statement –

ʻAʻohe hana nui ke alu ʻia

No task is too big when done together by all.

‘Ōlelo No‘eau # 142, Mary Kawena Pukuʻi

Hugo Herrara & Estefany Pineda

Mutual Aid Eastie 

East Boston, MA

Tell us about the community where you are starting your Library of Things – geographically and demographically, as well as a bit about what  your community looks and feels like. 

Hugo: Our community is an immigrant, working-class community, and we face different kinds of marginalization that often results in neighbors living in impoverished conditions. There are folks for whom it is difficult to buy food or acquire a jacket or some pants. 

Estefany: East Boston is small but mighty and diverse. You can find at least one person from each continent but it is mainly known for its Hispanic population. Walking through the streets feels like a community, you’ll see someone who knows someone who knows you. If you want to make a dish from home, you’ll definitely find the items you need at a bodega. 

Tell us about the work your group is already doing or has done in your community.

Hugo: Mutual Aid Eastie is a network of connecting neighbors to neighbors and, through that means, seeking to know both our needs and our abundance, supporting each other through reciprocity. We have a Little Free Pantry that I check every day and post in our mutual aid group chats so neighbors can see what food and items are currently there and also to ask for supporting stocking it when need be. 

Estefany: East Boston currently has a little library which is supported by Mutual Aid Eastie and the community. It has become a place where neighbors truly help each other. It is never empty! There is always books, food, shoes, and clothing. It has become a stamp in our community.

Why do you think a Library of Things is a good fit for your community? What do you think the impact will be?

Hugo: Our Little Free Pantry already helps support and provide relief to our neighbors facing food shortage or in need of clothes and other items. We hope to expand its impact and reach even more members of our community, potentially installing additional pantries or exploring a community fridge. 

Estefany: A Library of Things will solidify and strengthen the Little Library in Eastie. We can have a bigger space physically to bring even more donations and help this community that continues to grow. I think that people will get even more excited to provide help to those who need it. 

What inspires you to make change in your community? What keeps you motivated? 

Hugo: It feels great to see so many members of our community being served and mutually supported by our work. I’m proud of what we have been doing, and motivated because our Little Free Pantry is running out of space! 

Estefany: The people in my community inspire me! Groups like Mutual Aid Eastie inspire me, knowing that there is someone willing to help is amazing. I think my personal story and those who I’ve met along the way in my advocacy journey keep me motivated. There is so much to do, and though we can’t do it all, we can always continue planting seeds.

Tell us an interesting random fact about you, your group, or your community that would not normally come up in an interview or profile. 

Estefany: I was part of a Nickelodeon special on Immigration!

Gabbie Barnes

FREE HART Library of Things

Hartford, CT

Tell us about the community where you are starting your Library of Things – geographically and demographically, as well as a bit about what  your community looks and feels like. 

Despite the misconception that everyone in CT is rich and white, Hartford is a predominantly black and brown city (93% of people in the 2022 census identified as either Black, Hispanic/Latino, or Two or more races). Being in New England, many residents have deep historical and generational ties to the area. However, the COVID-era migration from larger surrounding cities (primarily NY and Boston) has brought a lot of new residents, many that are young creatives. 

Tell us about the work your group is already doing or has done in your community.

FREE HART Closet opened in October 2022. FREE HART was created to make art more accessible, specifically to adults. We believe that art is a human right, just as important to our survival as food, water, shelter, and safety. In addition to offering high quality art supplies, we use our space to cultivate opportunities for organizers, activists, creatives, educators, and everyone in between to connect. We are a project of Mutual Aid Hartford and a member of the Free Art Supply Network.

Why do you think a Library of Things is a good fit for your community? What do you think the impact will be?

Hartford is full of creatives with no shortage of inspiration and collaboration. Our challenge is that the rent is too damn high, wages are stagnant, food costs have increased exponentially, and it’s just generally really hard to try and make art with the little bit left in each paycheck. We’ve seen a lot of resource sharing among small groups as the main source of success and advancement. Right now, we give away the consumable art supplies that eat up an artist’s budget. Building a community-run Library of Things and being able to offer access to the huge investment pieces that really take art to the next level would be an incredible investment in Hartford artists. 

What inspires you to make change in your community? What keeps you motivated? 

By day, I’m a librarian (read: government employee). I went into librarianship because I believe deeply in democracy and the idea that the people hold the power. As such, I value community-controlled institutions because they ensure that the people most impacted by external influences are the ones making decisions. I also have to believe there is a future that operates with care, cooperation, accountability, and environmental stewardship at the center. By doing this work, I feel like I’m embodying those values.

Tell us an interesting random fact about you, your group, or your community that would not normally come up in an interview or profile. 

I’ve worked in libraries since I was 19 and started collecting “things I find in library books” pretty soon after. I’ve been doing it at every library I’ve worked in for the last 17 years. I wish I had come up with a vision for what to do with the things when I started, but I was just fascinated and wanted to collect them. Now, I figure I’ll just keep going until I retire and then let the collection tell me how it wants to be represented. 

Neema Kiza & Caleb Kurowski

Connect Community

Gulfton neighborhood of Houston, Texas

Tell us about the community where you are starting your Library of Things – geographically and demographically, as well as a bit about what  your community looks and feels like. 

The Gulfton neighborhood, located in southwest Houston, is the Ellis Island of Houston. Around 91% of residents speak a language other than English at home, and the streets are lined with restaurants, groceries stores, and clothing outlets that reflect a diversity of backgrounds. The multitude of apartment complexes present in the neighborhood, where 93% live in rental housing, are full of life and provide space for social gatherings. A variety of organizations work in tandem to provide resources to the newcomer community. Unfortunately, the neighborhood has also faced a lack of development. Green spaces are few and far between, with only one major park that has not been renovated in decades; new housing has not been built since the 80s; and better jobs are needed to assist the 38% of residents who live below the poverty line. These are all problems that Connect Community is working with residents and other stakeholders to solve.

Tell us about the work your group is already doing or has done in your community.

Connect Community works with a holistic model to address four pillars of social wellbeing: Health and Wellness, Housing, Economic Vitality, and Cradle-to-Career Education. We have launched successful projects in all four of these impact areas. With our sister organization, Madres del Parque, we rallied to receive $700,000 in city funds for a master plan to renovate Gulfton’s one major park. We are building the first new housing in over forty years in a complex that will also hold a textile lab and entrepreneurship center to host job trainings and new local businesses. We hope to locate the Library of Things in or near this new complex, increasing community engagement in a place that is already the hub of the neighborhood.

Why do you think a Library of Things is a good fit for your community? What do you think the impact will be?

Newcomers face a variety of challenges when they arrive at their new home. From learning English to translating skills and certifications from abroad into viable careers in the United States, many have a long path before they can start earning enough to establish themselves. These economic hurdles mean that after basic needs are met – after food, clothing and house furnishings are purchased – little money is left each month for critical items to help integrate into their new community, like power tools, sporting equipment and more. A Library of Things is an amazing opportunity to provide the community with those resources, while providing an additional place where members of the community can get together and help each other by sharing skills and ideas.

What inspires you to make change in your community? What keeps you motivated? 

Big changes in a community often happen slowly, and only become noticeable after a long time has passed and many individual actions, projects and initiatives have compounded to create a better environment. We’ve had our big moments, such as the installation of a crosswalk at a busy intersection or the upcoming grand opening of our new apartment complex and textile lab, and these are certainly inspiring. What also keeps us motivated, however, are the day-to-day interactions and small impacts we see in our community: the people we train in English, computer skills, sewing and professional development; the individuals we help with job placements who work hard to achieve financial independence; or the parents who feel more connected to their child’s school through our translation services. These small moments of impact make all the difference. 

Tell us an interesting random fact about you, your group, or your community that would not normally come up in an interview or profile. 

Our volunteers speak nine different languages among themselves, and many speak multiple languages!

Chandler Poole 

Center for Biological Diversity

University of North Florida at Jacksonville, FL

Tell us about the community where you are starting your Library of Things – geographically and demographically, as well as a bit about what your community looks and feels like. 

I’m working to start a Library of Things near the University of North Florida in Jacksonville. The community is filled with a lot of young adult students around UNF campus.

Why do you think a Library of Things is a good fit for your community? What do you think the impact will be?

A Library of Things will really work around a college campus as it is a place for young adults new to the world to access items they normally could not afford. I think it will be great for inspiring young adults on the possibilities of a solidarity economy.

What inspires you to make change in your community? What keeps you motivated? 

Hope that the world can be a better place, but only if we have the discipline and fortitude to make it that way. Being able to create a world for people now or future generations keeps me motivated.

Tell us an interesting random fact about you, your group, or your community that would not normally come up in an interview or profile. 

The indigenous people who lived in North Florida were the Timucuan speaking people, and there is a state park nearby that one can visit to learn more!

The post Introducing Shareable’s 2024 Library of Things Fellows appeared first on Shareable.

Shareable connected with Gene Homicki, co-founder and CEO of myTurn, an online platform that makes it easy for anyone to start and manage a Library of Things. Communities use myTurn to share tools and home goods, universities use it for bike and equipment lending, and utility companies use it to share energy efficiency tools with builders.

As Homicki says, myTurn allows new lending libraries to use the “best practices baked right into the platform” and focus on the things that are unique to their community. The platform is used by over 130 tool, kitchen, and other community lending libraries, as well as hundreds of nonprofits, universities, municipalities, and enterprises.

We asked Homicki for his top tips for starting a Library of Things.

Shareable: The Library of Things movement has grown from a whisper into a buzz. What’s behind the excitement? What’s the future for Libraries of Things?

Gene Homicki: More and more people are realizing the joy of being able to access the things they need, without the burden of owning and storing them. This movement, and the buzz behind it, really started with tool libraries and kitchen libraries, and other specialty lending libraries, most of which got their start using myTurn.

Now, Libraries of Things are rolling together all the things people only infrequently need and bringing them together in one place, so they have something for everyone. Pay one membership or subscription fee, and you can borrow everything from camping gear to a popcorn maker—how awesome is that?

And more than just access to stuff, Libraries of Things typically build community by offering classes and a place where people can share not just things, but also ideas and skills. The best Libraries of Things start out building a place to borrow and share things and end up building a community.

Once someone decides to create a Library of Things, what are the first steps to get started?

It’s really exciting when you first come up with or learn about, a library that lends tools, camping gear, games, and other things, rather than just books. As a first step, share that excitement with others and start to form a team to make the Library of Things a reality. Also, learn more about what’s already been done and the types of resources that are available to help you get started.

Reading posts about Libraries of Things on Shareable is a great start and there are other resources online including the ShareStarter.org site, as well as existing Libraries of Things to learn from. For example, SHARE – A Library of Things, in Frome, England, which was the first permanent library of things, offers a whole packet of information about how they got started and includes sample forms and procedures.

Don’t reinvent the wheel when you don’t have to. Talk with others who have done it already, then start defining the plan that is right for your community. Bringing others in early and learning what resources are available helps ensure you don’t feel too overwhelmed and, besides, it’s more fun to plan and work with others.

Download our free ebook: Library of Things: A Cornerstone of the Real Sharing Economy

What kind of team do you need to get a Library of Things started? What are some valuable or necessary skills?

We typically recommend a core team of three to seven people so you’re not doing everything yourself, and you have a variety of skills on the team. Diverse backgrounds and skillsets are ideal, but not completely necessary.

Useful skills to have include project management, bookkeeping, and finance, fundraising, legal, marketing, design and technology. These are really similar skills needed to start any organization or business. I recommend mapping out the skills your team does have and find advisors to help you fill out the skills your team might be missing.

If you’re starting as a nonprofit, you can often find discounted or pro-bono legal and other professional services. In addition to finding local volunteers, nonprofits may also be able to tap into AmeriCorps volunteers.

As you prepare to open, team members with management (retail, volunteer management if you’re a nonprofit, etc.) skills, and also skills to maintain and repair the items in your Library of Things can be exceedingly useful.

Don’t let one or a few missing skillsets stop you from getting going. If you’re passionate about the idea and can communicate it well to others, you’ll almost certainly be able to inspire others to help you fill in the gaps.

What options are there for organizational structure of a Library of Things? Nonprofit? For-profit? Cooperative? An offshoot of an existing organization or library?

We currently have over 130 libraries lending to the public on the myTurn platform, and all of those structures—co-op, nonprofit, for profit, public library and offshoot of an existing organization—are represented by our customers.

Many public libraries are looking for ways to stay relevant and increase the services they offer to their communities, therefore many of these institutions are receptive to the idea of expanding to lend out more types of items.

Personally, I like the co-op model, where community members have a direct stake in the success of the library. One of our first customers, the Vancouver Tool Library, manages both their co-op membership and their tool library membership via our platform.

Since Libraries of Things can help reduce consumption and waste, while providing access to items many people can’t afford to buy, going the nonprofit route can open up funding from local government, community foundations, and people who are willing to donate toward helping address these important social and environmental issues. With a non-profit or co-op model, people are often very open to donating their own underutilized items to help support what is clearly a community resource. This often makes it very easy to build your initial inventory.

At this point, the for-profit model offers the biggest risk—and reward. You typically don’t have the built-in customer base you get with a co-op (the co-op members) and accepting donations of items is not always an option. If you have the resources to go this route though, rental businesses have been successful and profitable for many decades, and this is an extension of that model into other types of items and services. In fact, we hope to see more “sharing centers” and fewer shopping centers in the future.

Do you need a business plan? A budget? What other things are necessary?

Whether you’re a nonprofit, for profit, co-op or other type of organization looking to start a public Library of Things, we do recommend at least putting together basic business plan. Rather than a 20-page formal business plan that almost no one will look at, we recommend using the Social Lean Canvas or one of the other business canvas templates that have come out of the lean business movement.

Whether you’re writing grants, starting a crowdfunding campaign, or talking with potential investors, you’ll also want to have a budget and basic financial projections. Again, cover the basics so you have a general idea of what you’ll need to start and manage the library, but you don’t need to have every piece in place before moving forward.

What types of items work best in a Library of Things? Are there things that don’t work well?

The best items for a Library of Things are those that people want and need, but might not have the space to store, the money to purchase, or the need to use all the time. You also want to stock items that are both durable and repairable, since they’ll see a lot more use than the typical power drill that is only used for 10 to 20 minutes over its life before being disposed of.

So far, we’re seeing all types of items like hand and power tools, baby carriers, board and video games, sporting goods, bread makers, drones, party supplies, camping gear, and just about anything else you can imagine. We strongly recommend doing market research in your community before you open to ensure the items you’re going to carry are the ones that are most appropriate for your area. At myTurn, we can provide advice on the most popular types of items in areas similar to your new Library of Things, and even ones that have proven to be more repairable and durable.

To get started, we recommend putting together—or borrowing from an existing Library—an initial wish list, then get feedback from potential members of the Library of Things to see what they want.

Good examples for a starter list include tools, like a tile saw or floor sander that you might only need for one project or that not everyone can afford. If you live in a food desert, or where there is food insecurity, gardening tools are a great option to help people grow their own food. Camping gear can be a great way to help introduce more people to the outdoors and nature. All sorts of kitchen tools like bread makers, ice cream and pasta makers or other items that most people find to be fun but don’t use every day are useful. Toys, board games, and especially pricey video games are also great items to have, as some parents can’t afford them and kids can get tired of them quickly. I would have loved to have access to hundreds of toys and games as a kid (and love it now!).

Things to avoid are items that are not durable or made to hold up to high usage. Libraries of Things should focus on trying to get more durable and repairable items that can be reused over and over. Other types of items to avoid can be ones that are dangerous (e.g. chainsaws), need a lot of maintenance or calibration between each use, or that need—and can be difficult—to clean between every use.

Again, it is really important that as you are planning your Library of Things that you survey your members and potential members to see what they would want and need—and create and post a wish list.

How does a Library of Things obtain its inventory? Do they purchase it or get it donated?

For nonprofits and co-ops, we recommend accepting donations of items from the community. If you’re getting started in the US, Canada or an area with a good mix of incomes and socioeconomic status, there are almost always some people who have too much stuff in their garages, closets, attics, and storage spaces that are happy to get items back into use.

Accepting donations also gives more people in the community a sense of ownership and accomplishment, because they’ve helped make the library of success. In turn, this sense of ownership helps reduce the number of items that are not returned or are returned late because not returning an item would be like stealing from your neighbor or even yourself.

There are some items that you just can’t get via donation. Things that are in high demand, or where the low-cost versions break down often, for example, pressure washers. For these types of items, we strongly suggest purchasing the most durable and repairable items you can afford. With the large number of organizations using our platform, at myTurn, we can even make recommendations on some of the best items to purchase for a lending library based on usage and durability statistics.

What kind of space works the best for a library of things, and what requirements are there of the space, in regards to infrastructure?

Similar to retail spaces, the best types of spaces for a Library of Things are those that are visible and easily accessible to the community. The Sharing Depot in Toronto recently moved from a basement space to ground-floor retail that allows people just walking down the block to see, and covet, the things they can borrow. Co-locating in community centers, public libraries, or even in schools or universities can provide a way to tap into existing foot traffic as well.

Libraries of Things can get really creative with their spaces though. For example, the Missoula Urban Development project runs a Tool and Kitchen Library out of multiple shipping containers, the London Library of Things also just opened in a reclaimed shipping container. DeDeelkelder in Utrect, Netherlands allows you to paddle right up to the Library of Things as they operate out of what used to be wharf storage space that has been converted into a community resource, and more recently, out of a pop-up shop.

I also recommend getting more space than you think you’ll need, though not more than you think you can afford, if possible. Almost every library we’ve helped get started has run out of space—especially the ones that accept donations of items from the community.

As the Library of Things movement gains steam, we’re going to see new spaces popping up that range from the rugged to the high-end retail. Imagine a traditional mom and pop rental shop with a gaggle of items everywhere, to spaces that look more like an Apple store or Tesla dealership that are ultra modern. What works best is going to depend on the target customer and location.

How do you suggest people find a space? Are there best practices in dealing with landlords or owners?

To an extent, this depends on the type of organization, budget, and where you are.

For small nonprofits and community groups, we recommend trying to find partner organizations that already have potentially underutilized space. Check with developers and landlords that are looking to support a more resilient community and might be willing to provide discounted or even free space. As an example, the Santa Rosa Tool Library operates out of extra storage space for a local architecture firm that supports their mission.

Also work with local government or building owners of vacant space. It’s easier to rent a vibrant space with foot traffic than an empty one, so this often works out as a win-win situation. The Library of Things get a pop-up space for a pilot, and the landlord ends up with a more valuable space.

If you’re in a low or mixed-income area and plan to ensure everyone can afford to use the Library of Things, see if there are programs that can help fund your space or receive other discounts.

If you’re operating your Library of Things as formal business, you’ll likely be going with a traditional lease. Laws and regulations vary from municipality to municipality, state to state and country to country and we typically recommend at least talking with a commercial real estate expert.

No matter the type of space or organization, we recommend having someone familiar with leases and contracts—preferably legal counsel—check over the lease before you sign it.

What kind of insurance options are there for a Library of Things?

A Library of Things looks a lot like either a library or a rental shop to insurers, so there tend to be different options depending on how you form your Library of Things.

In the US, we know a number of Library of Things that have had luck with Philadelphia Insurance as they often write policies for nonprofits and more unique businesses.

There are also newer insurance services that focus on the sharing economy and on-demand economy. These might be more appropriate if, and when, a Library of Things helps facilitate rentals or sharing directly between their members in a peer-to-peer fashion.

Many public libraries are self-insured through their municipality or can get an additional rider on their existing policy for their Library of Things if needed.

In addition to insurance, also be careful of other legal requirements. For example, there are data privacy requirements in Canada, Europe, and other locations that cover even basic contact information. At myTurn we help on the electronic side, but there are often data security and other procedures for how you handle user data locally that can still apply. We’re looking at these types of options and potentially offering insurance via our platform to remove one more pain point from getting started.

Any gotchas people should watch out for when opening a Library of Things? What are the biggest challenges or hurdles to opening one? How are these best handled?

Up-front planning and making sure you put together a good team is important from the get-go. We know of one or two libraries that had to close because their founders had to resign due to personal issues. Be sure to try build something bigger than yourself.

For libraries that rely on volunteers, make sure managing the library is as easy as possible to help reduce volunteer burnout. One Library of Things switched to our platform due to the difficulties and extra work volunteers had to do due to their home-grown solution.

myTurn is used by numerous library of things, providing the software for tracking loans and more. At what point does a tech solution become necessary? Is it possible to create a library without software? What are the challenges of doing so?

While you can start without technology, once you get beyond a couple dozen items or members it becomes very burdensome to manage a Library of Things without a software platform. You’ll be spending your time dealing with writing things down on paper, manually emailing people when things are due or overdue, and reporting will be a hassle at best—and impossible at worst.

Before there were great technology solutions like myTurn to manage tool libraries and Libraries of Things, there were about a dozen tool libraries, and they were difficult to get started. We’ve seen tool, kitchen and now Library of Things start to rapidly pop-up now that, from the start, you can sign up members and let the community see your inventory (or your wish list) online right from the start.

Whether you use our platform or another, we recommend bringing in a technology platform to manage the library right away. We’ve had customers start to enter inventory as it comes in and, more importantly, sign up paying members months before their library opens. This gives the team experience with the platform from the start, so that when they open they are ready to hit the ground running. To help small nonprofit and community based Libraries of Things get going, myTurn often offers longer term “trials” and discounts to help ensure our costs do not prevent a Libraries of Things from helping build a more resilient local community.

The first three to six months of being open tend to be hectic and a learning experience, and often growth will happen faster than expected. For example, if your organization accepts donated items, you’ll find that your community is likely full of items people would love to find a new home for. If you’re already familiar with a platform, handling those unexpected spikes in activity are much easier. The more you can have streamlined and working smoothly from the start, the easier the learning curve will be after launch.

What pricing or membership structure do you recommend? 

The best pricing model is going to depend on your local community, needs and your goals for your Library of Things.

Four common models are:

1. Membership or subscription-based: where you pay a yearly or monthly fee and then check items out for free
2. Charging a per-item rental/loan fee, similar to a traditional rental shop
3. A combination of membership and fees:
   • More expensive or in-demand items may require an additional fee
   • Different membership levels may offer different percentage discounts on per-item fees—or number of items you can have out at once
4. Completely free: typically used by public libraries, but also some community Library of Things

The model that seems to be the most sustainable and popular is the one with monthly or yearly subscription fee, and then having additional fees for more expensive or popular items. The membership fees give you a steady stream of income, while the additional fees help ensure you can maintain—or purchase more of—popular and more expensive items. The exact amounts we’d recommend will vary based on the area and types of items in the Library of Things, though we do recommend some sort of sliding scale to ensure everyone in the community can afford to access the things they need.

We’re still in the early stages of Libraries of Things, and there will continue to be experimentation going on. This is another area where I especially recommend talking with potential members to see what they can, and are willing to, afford, and try to be as inclusive as possible, ensuring there is a way everyone can use your Library of Things.

What are some of the best ways you’ve seen people building community around a Library of Things? Any tips for getting the word out?

We recommend starting by getting the word out via local blogs, visiting meetings of other community and business groups, and then moving on to more traditional media.

Running a crowdfunding campaign can also be a great way to help start or expand a tool or kitchen library into a Library of Things. Offering membership as a perk can both help you meet your funding goal and start building your membership before you open. Also, when members of the community contribute to starting the Library of Things, they become invested, both literally and figuratively, in its success.

If you are opening the first Library of Things in your area, getting media can be almost as easy as getting donations of items for your inventory. At myTurn, we even field calls from local TV and radio stations wanting to know if there is a Library of Things in their area because they have heard about them and would love to do a story about them. Most people love the idea of a Library of Things once they hear about it, so pitching online and traditional media is usually pretty easy.

Once you have people coming in the door—which is usually not difficult—building and connecting that community is important. We recommend adding classes and workshops as soon as you have the ability to do so. Bringing people together and helping ensure they have the skills to use the different types of things in the library is a great way to connect the community. Also encourage your members and class participants to tell their friends about the Library of Things.

I’d even recommend doing some fun events. For example, a games night where members and friends come and play some of the games at the Library of Things. The Denver Tool Library is even holding a concert series with local bands. It doesn’t get much better than that. These types of events build community and bring people into the space so they can see what it is all about.

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The article was originally published in 2016. Follow @CatJohnson on Twitter. 

Disclosure: MyTurn is an in-kind sponsor of Shareable offering technical support.

The post How to start a Library of Things appeared first on Shareable.

There are more than 400 publicly accessible libraries that provide tools, kitchen items, toys, audio/visual equipment, electronics, musical instruments, and more on myTurn alone. These comprise more than a quarter-million items available to rent and nearly a million loans annually.

For the past decade, Shareable has been on the vanguard of covering this trend. We’ve done deep dives into how libraries are boldly innovating to meet the needs of changing communities, partnered on the successful campaign to save seed sharing in the United States, advised municipal leaders on the benefits of LoTs for their cities, and produced several resources to support organizers around the world to start LoTs in their communities.

“Library of Things: A Cornerstone of the Real Sharing Economy” is both a celebration of how far LoTs have come and a glimpse into where they’re going.

In this book we explore:

• How traditional libraries are reinventing themselves while expanding their offerings and reaffirming their role as a vital community service.
• What you should know before starting an LoT (and how to do it!)
• How pop-up and mobile LoTs like The Thingery and ShareShed are expanding their reach and meeting the needs of more people in their communities.
• What opportunities exist for new services due to several advances in technology.
• And much more.

We hope you’ll feel inspired to support your local Library of Things after reading this ebook and maybe even work with others to start one yourself!

*myTurn is a Shareable sponsor but had no editorial oversight of this article or ebook

The post Library of Things: A Cornerstone of the Real Sharing Economy (free ebook) appeared first on Shareable.

Throughout North America — and beyond — public libraries have quietly become the places to share whatever it may be that people wish to share in a non-monetized context. Katarina Michnik and Catarina Eriksson report how, in some Swedish public libraries, you can now check out bikes, bicycle helmets, bike pumps, fitness equipment and other “tools that facilitate active pastimes.”

This activity typically emerges at the grassroots, with local partners coming together to utilize the infrastructure of the public library to share resources, skills and space. In the United States, approximately 96 percent of the population lives within a public library service area, and about half of U.S. libraries are located in small towns and rural areas. This social infrastructure is extremely decentralized, with nearly 90 percent of library funding coming from municipal or county sources.

In December 2019, Jennifer Johnson of the Vermont Department of Libraries asked members of the Vermont Libraries listserv to complete a form indicating what “non-traditional” objects are available at their libraries for check-out. The results, which are publicly accessible, testify to the heterogeneity of this trend. 

The 56 public libraries in Vermont that indicated they have non-traditional collections circulate everything from a Batgirl costume (Cutler Memorial Library) to ski passes to the Snow Bowl and Rikert Nordic Center (Ilsley Public Library) to a 12-foot tree pruner (Winooski Memorial Library). Through a partnership with the Vermont Department of Health, 47 public libraries also check out snowshoes. 

The phenomenon also extends beyond objects. The latest trend in public librarianship focuses on how libraries can share their spaces. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation reports that, in Monterey Park, California, “Line dance leader Kit Cheung teaches her class of Chinese-American women in an unlikely place — the parking lot of a local library. No other public location offers both the outdoor space and sun cover the group requires for their twist on the traditional Chinese exercise of tai chi.” 

City librarian Norma Arvizu states, “There was a concern for me in the beginning because they would interrupt the flow of folks coming through. Later on I realized that this would be a positive image for the library, because these are residents. These are actual people that live here. Why were we not allowing them to use what their taxes pay for?”

Similar attitudes to sharing of public space emerge across the country. In Bellingham, Washington, the public library removed two rows of shelving to create a SkillShare space. The mission of this space is to “bring people together to share and learn.” Anyone can share their skills in this space, and popular activities have included ukulele lessons, tai chi sessions, arts and crafts, chess and other games, all led by local residents.

National data also backs up these trends. A study commissioned by the American Library Association in 2018 found substantially more voters said they think libraries should provide “activities and entertainment not found elsewhere” in a community (48 percent, up from 38 percent in 2008), and more think libraries should be “a place for people to gather and socialize” (45 percent, up from 36 percent in 2008).

In my research in North Carolina, I’ve found this approach to sharing public space in both rural and urban communities. Libraries in cities like Durham and Chapel Hill, and in rural areas like Hendersonville, all have forms on their websites that anyone can fill out to propose a collaboration focused on sharing skills and knowledge at the library. 

All this activity continues during the COVID-19 pandemic. Everywhere from Salt Lake City to small-town West Virginia, public libraries have continued seed-sharing with their communities. Patrons can request their seeds online and librarians send them out via the USPS. To facilitate the sharing of virtual space, Pennsylvania’s Schlow Centre Region Library invites community members to Reserve a Virtual Community Room. Here’s how it works:

“Schlow now has seven Zoom rooms available for groups, organizations, and businesses to use for free. The digital rooms can accommodate a maximum of 300 people and be reserved for up to two hours, Monday through Friday between 9 a.m. to noon or 4 to 7 p.m. Groups can reserve a Zoom room for a maximum of two meetings per month.”

Every public library is unique, so it is probable that not all of these services are available at your local library. However, the take-away from these facts are as follows:

1. Public libraries wish to maximize their resources to promote sharing of skills, knowledge and resources in local communities;
2. They have already started this work, but could do more with your participation;
3. If you want to promote sharing in your community, and have not yet reached out to your local library, you are “leaving money on the table.”

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This post is part of our 2020 editorial series on libraries of things. Download the free ebook from the series here.

The post Coming soon to a library near you: A sharing culture appeared first on Shareable.

“It is absolutely a trend,” says Ken Haycock, a professor and coordinator of graduate programs in Library and Information Management at the University of Southern California. “What is happening is that libraries are seeing needs in their communities, and responding to them.”

LoTs themselves are not new — some, like Berkeley, California’s tool library, have been open for decades — and are now also run by nonprofits, social enterprises, and local communities directly.

“Libraries that offer tools or a wider range of products for lending seem to have a remarkable cultural function,” says Najine Ameli, a researcher at Bochum University of Applied Sciences in Germany, who is doing her thesis on LoTs. “They present a deviation from the standard, a viable alternative to the previous use-own standard.”

The future of LoTs is likely one where technology empowers more efficient sharing, communities play a direct role in management, and the impact is not merely economic, but social as well — a direct counter-model to unsustainable consumerism — and one that is not only more sustainable, but easier, too.

Technology can increase scale and impact

James Dong started Last Minute Gear in his San Francisco apartment back in 2015 with a simple focus — one particularly relevant to Northern California, where there is ready access to outdoor activities: Create a platform for the renting and sharing of outdoor gear.

“The mission is to reduce waste and increase access by developing scalable alternatives to buying,” says Dong. He saw technology as crucial to the success of Last Minute Gear. He knew that success for a start-up meant that it had to be financially sustainable, focusing on usability and convenience. Last Minute Gear was competing with the ease of the buy-and-keep or throw-away alternatives people were used to, like Amazon.

“Our economy has evolved in such a way that customers have come to expect to be able to eat almost every slice of the cake and have it for later, too,” says Dong. “People can ‘virtue signal’ about shopping small and local all they want, but it’s not enough people, not enough instances to reverse the trend.”

After some early success, Last Minute Gear moved to a showroom in 2016, and then to a regular retail shop in 2017. Physical presence was crucial, as Dong aimed to build a platform that allowed people to rent and borrow goods whenever they wanted, regardless of staffing. 

“Last Minute Gear’s rental program is available 24/7,” said Dong. “You can be outside the shop when no one is working inside, place an order on your smartphone, then get a button on your phone to unlock the door, and access gear from a locker inside.” This allows him to be both more sustainable, cheaper, and faster than Amazon.

Tech has also been key to a London, England-based LoT start-up. When the very aptly named Library of Things opened their first sharing library in 2016, it was a retail location like Last Minute Gear. Now they’ve turned to a more tech-driven solution: self-serve kiosks in accessible community spaces, some of which are public libraries.

“The kiosk itself can look different in different places, and can be configured to any community space,” says Rebecca Trevalyan, one of the original co-founders of Library of Things. “It’s designed to be modular, so it can be larger or smaller to fit different places, and even be moved if the host space needs to use that particular spot for other activities. Additionally, they all have community boards, photos, and spaces for the community to adapt themselves.”

Like Last Minute Gear, Library of Things relies on technology to function, having built their own platform after realizing that existing platforms were not quite adaptable to the needs of local communities or users. 

“Without the right tech it’s not a user-friendly experience, and so it’s difficult for borrowers to borrow,” says Trevalyan. “Having the right technology drives usage, and also means you can replicate the model.”

Sustainable impact for communities

Historically, LoTs have performed a primarily economic function; allowing people to rent or borrow items saved them money. While that is still an important factor, the goals are far broader today: to promote local, sustainable development, with the understanding that mass consumerism is a key driver of environmental degradation. 

Ameli believes that, in the future, LoTs can be a direct tool for communities to reduce their environmental and climate impact through the sharing of reusable goods, while also helping reduce waste. 

“Possibly, municipalities could help provide suitable space or financing,” said Ameli. “Sharing libraries are [part of] the urban model for a sustainable or sharing city, since it enables the intelligent use of raw materials and energy, and furthermore improves the quality of life of inhabitants.”

Considering that, it is no surprise that the success of modern sharing libraries are directly connected to other factors that make sharing cities vibrant. London’s Library of Things has found that certain types of locations are more amenable to LoTs. 

“Our model is particularly suited to densely populated urban areas,” says Trevalyan. “Seventy percent of borrowers come from within one mile of the kiosk. Hyperlocal neighborhoods are really instrumental to building community, because it is about creating connections between individuals.”

Dense, walkable neighborhoods are enablers to other forms of sharing as well, so it is no surprise that LoTs work better in this setting. The impact can be measured in ways beyond the direct benefit of any single transaction. Dong sees the potential to empower communities in an increasingly automated world.

“Beyond reducing waste and increasing access, not buying has some other really cool potential positive impacts as well,” said Dong. “Scandinavian studies have shown that rental programs help resist automation and provide apprentice-like skills development by creating a strong adjacent market for repairs.”

The past and future

Public libraries are certain to continue to be at the center of future LoTs, which — despite the shift to people accessing information digitally — remain central to vibrant communities and are more popular than ever.

“People are seeing that libraries are evolving as unique community spaces,” says Hancock. “They are safe, inclusive spaces that provide access to information and ideas that are neutral. The reality is that more people are going to libraries than ever before.”

Hancock sees some types of items as more “educational” than others and hopes public libraries can find a balance between lending non-traditional items while remaining focused on their missions to provide access to information and ideas. That means there will always be additional space for startups and community-driven platforms like Last Minute Gear and Library of Things to allow community members to share things that libraries cannot provide. 

Both platforms are already looking to expand. Library of Things is opening up six more kiosks in London, and is talking with city officials in Briston, Brighton, Cambridge and Manchester about launching there. Meanwhile, Last Minute Gear recently had a tool rental pop-up in their store. Dong sees an opportunity to expand to other product verticals, but with the same goals. Longer term, he hopes the borrowing movement may even spur changes in how goods are produced.

“I always hope that demand for rentals incentivizes the design and manufacture of more sustainable products, rather than planned obsolescence, since you want rental gear to last,” says Dong.

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This post is part of our 2020 editorial series on libraries of things. Download the free ebook from the series here.

The post The future of Libraries of Things is digital and bright appeared first on Shareable.

Croatian tool library inspires tolerance through sharing

In the Eastern Croatian rural town of Beli Manastir, stands the country’s first and only tool library. “We saw a story about one tool library in the United States and thought why not start it here,” says Duško Kostić, the president of non-government organization Luna,  which runs the library. “Lots of tools you will just use twice a year. Why would you waste money buying it, when you can borrow it in our library.”

Luna works with the region’s marginalized Roma population but the library is open to the whole community, which today includes many unemployed or retired people struggling with financial issues.

“All of this certainly had a lot of impact. Roma people are closer with their neighbors now and some people even managed to get jobs or started their own businesses,” Kostić says.

As well as lending tools, the library runs trainings on how to use them and provides certificates for the use of potentially dangerous tools. This upskilling gives community members an advantage when looking for work.

“We also bought equipment for hairdressers and beauticians. We have girls from Roma community going to these schools but they need practice to have better chances to get a job. So they use this equipment and give free haircuts to older people in the community,” says Kostić.

The tools are used to produce vegetables in two greenhouses and distribute the vegetables free to community members.

Ski hire could level the snowfield for Norwegian kids

Schools throughout Norway frequently hold “ski days” which despite being fun for some, disadvantage children who do not have access to the expensive equipment. An Oslo initiative is calling on schools to get into the library of things business. 

“Children that have access to ski equipment go skiing and the ones that don’t are given an alternative option such as sledding. This creates a social inequality among children, hurting those with the least resources,” says Cynthia Reynolds, coordinator of the Circular Oslo initiative.

“If schools have access to libraries of things, where you could borrow sports equipment, parents would not have to invest in equipment that their children will outgrow in a season, and no children would be excluded from participating,” she continues.

Circular Oslo is a best-practices project which demonstrates how sharing economy initiatives can benefit from government support.

“There are some brilliant initiatives within the circular economy that are also sharing economy solutions, many of these initiatives are flying under the radar. Circular Oslo and the methodology behind it is designed to identify these as well as other Circular Economy initiatives bridging top-down and bottom-up solutions at all stakeholder levels. We map them to identify which of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals they support, as well as the social, economic and environmental impact. This data will help decision-makers develop policy and funding mechanisms to help scale the impact,” Reynolds says.

One of the first mapped projects was Tingenes Bibliotek, a library of things that aims to become financially sustainable by encouraging local companies and government agencies to buy memberships for their staff as a perk.

“This way they would support the sustainability of the organization and enable their workers access to a vast array of products while at the same time lowering the environmental footprint of the whole community,” Reynolds says. “Surprisingly, people didn’t want only stuff like gardening equipment and tools but instead, they also wanted wine glasses, utensils and other stuff for parties.”

Tool library a ‘keystone species’ in Edinburgh community

Chris Hellawell started the Edinburgh Tool Library (ETL) out of an old police box on the main street near his house. Every Saturday for a year, he sat outside, talked to people and signed them up as members but he soon realized people wanted to be more involved.

“We started to get people offering to run the lending side on a Saturday, and so I spent more time looking for further funding and ways to develop the ETL. Others helped me, and eventually, we began employing staff, set up a workshop space to use, and [were] able to generate a significant income, meaning we are much less reliant on grants for our long-term sustainability,” Hellawell says.

After nearly seven years, the library now lends more than 1,000 tools for DIY, gardening, decorating and machine repair. The average UK household spends £110 a year on tools, while annual membership to the tool library costs £30. With the average power drill used for a total of 13 minutes in its lifetime, the library says it is clear most of us do not need to own one. It also runs workshops on woodworking, tool maintenance and bike repair.

“We see ourselves as a keystone species in our community ecosystem and collaborate a lot with other groups who are also doing great work. We aim to bring people who are supported by other charities into our community by introducing them to our spaces…, before giving them the opportunity to be a member or volunteer, like anyone else,” Hellawell says.

Collective buying the secret to 40 years of lending success

The Berkeley Public Tool Lending Library has been in the business of supporting DIY projects in the Bay Area for more than 40 years. Supervising librarian Dan Beringhele said the secret to its success was that it was responsive to community needs.

“All of our tools are used dozens or hundreds of times and repaired to keep them in service. Sharing eliminates waste and all the environmental effects of manufacturing and shipping goods that may only be used once or twice a year. It allows apartment or alternative-dwelling residents the opportunity to use tools without having to store them.  And sharing provides access to high-quality, well-maintained tools to all Berkeley residents, whatever their socioeconomic status may be,”Beringhele says.

The library began as a way to make home repair accessible to people with low incomes and is now housed in the Tarea Hall Pittman South Branch Library, which lends books. 

“Both libraries utilize communal purchasing power to enrich the lives of our community members,” Beringhele says.

It also hosts DIY, gardening and home-maintenance classes. This spring, it will add a culinary tool collection. 

“Providing culinary tools benefits so many in our community: those who cannot afford expensive culinary tools, those who wish to explore a new tool and/or test out new equipment before making a large purchase, those who live in small and/or shared spaces without room for storing culinary tools and those who would use a particular item only once or twice a year so would not purchase it on their own accord,” Beringhele says.

The library’s staff have helped establish other tool libraries in the US, Europe and Mexico. 

“We are excited this special Berkeley Public Library institution has inspired others around the world,” Beringhele says.

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This post is part of our 2020 editorial series on libraries of things. Download the free ebook from the series here.

The post The lending ripple: How libraries of things are changing their cities for the better appeared first on Shareable.

The Sacramento Public Library has built up one of the largest and most respected Libraries of Things in the nation. At two locations and expanding into a third, its Library of Things catalog lists 120 items including handheld metal detectors, an air compressor, projectors, button-making machines, games, musical equipment, digital cameras, pressure washers, sewing machines, telescopes and even a post hole digger. 

Across the country in  Illinois, the Kankakee Public Library has just started  a Library of Things with 17 items – including a ukulele. One challenge they face is that organizers don’t currently have a place to display the items, so they rely on a binder to advertise the library’s existence. 

What does it really take to start a Library of Things within an existing library? While every librarian or community member might have a different perspective, it is important to identify community needs and obtain objects that will serve those needs. Libraries must be open to feedback and adapt to member needs. Passion is important but so are logistics – that’s why building a Library of Things within the strong infrastructure of a public library can lead to a very successful LoT.

Five steps to start a library of things within a library

1. Gather a multidisciplinary team and build resources

When first developing a library-based Library of Things, it’s important to have clear goals. “We thought the idea of the Library of Things would [be] fun, useful, and helpful.  One one hand we thought of purchasing items that you use only once a year and therefore don’t need to invest money into.  Instead of going to the store or borrowing from a neighbor you can come straight to our library. On the other had we also thought it would be a great way to try a product before purchasing it,” says Vicky Forquer of the Kankakee Public Library in Illinois. Once you have clear goals, it’s important to gather a team that can support the achievement of those goals. 

While the idea for a Library of Things might come from one librarian, no one should embark on this endeavor without a support system. Think about what you might need to get the project off the ground, like legal advice and a marketing plan, and clearly define roles for each member. These roles might already exist within the library, but tackling a new project will require renewed commitment from all involved.

Next, seek out the resources you will need to get off the ground, remembering that you don’t have to start from scratch. Share Starter has published documents with advice on everything from bylaw wording to marketing strategies. Learn from pioneers  like Gene Homicki, the cofounder and CEO of MyTurn, a software program used by over 400 Libraries of Things to catalog and organize their items. 

While a committed team is essential, make sure that the program is bigger than any one person. If a program leader quits, will the Library of Things be thrown into a tailspin? More than one Library of Things has fallen apart following the sudden departure of a core team member. Distribute tasks and set up a system of checks and balances to ensure that power is decentralized. 

2. Develop a budget

Even within an existing library system, the Library of Things still depends on funding, so develop a clear and realistic budget. How much should be invested in the project at the beginning? Set up a realistic and sustainable system for fees, returns, and fines to make sure that items are returned on time and in good condition. Many public library-based LoTs are totally free, but others may charge a small fee to use big-ticket items like lawnmowers or expensive power tools. It may be possible to tap into the library’s existing budget to fund a new Library of Things or leverage its nonprofit or government status to apply for grants. Molly Milazzo, Youth Services Librarian at the Sacramento Public Library’s Arcade Branch, says their Library of Things began as a grant-funded initiative but has since been absorbed into the library’s general budget.

Along with a budget, don’t forget about insurance. Public libraries may need to get an additional rider on their insurance policy when starting a Library of Things, but they may also be fully covered under their municipality. Either way, read the small print before stocking potentially dangerous items like chainsaws.

3. Do market research in your community. 

Every community is different, so no two Libraries of Things are exactly alike. To ensure that your LoT fulfills a purpose, librarians must be attuned to the needs of the community—both immediate and long-term. Vicky Forquer of the Kankakee Public Library in Illinois said geography was a factor: “I would suggest starting small. Also, what works for one library won’t work for another. For example, we heard of a library checking out fishing poles. We didn’t think this would be popular in our community.” Fishing poles may not be popular in Kankakee but in Mesa, Arizona, a hiking kit or telescope (both available at the Stuffbrary) might fly off the shelves. In an urban food desert, gardening equipment could fill a need, while board games would be a welcome addition to a community with many young families.

Milazzo encourages librarians to “reach out to individual community members and local organizations for feedback; some of their suggestions may surprise you and will make for a richer collection.” Once you’ve identified community needs, consider posting a wish list if you are soliciting donated items. Doing basic local market research will ensure that the Library of Things makes an impact. 

4. Plan storage and organization.

Many physical objects at LoTs can be bulky, which creates the challenge of how to store and display the items. Milazzo says, “Think as deeply as possible about the possibility of expansion (adding new items to the collection), maintenance, and storage of the collection. How large or small of a collection can your site conceivably support?” Storage is one challenge that the Kankakee Public Library system is facing right now. Forquer says, “As of right now, we don’t have a display case to show the items. We have a binder with all the items, which works for now but we want the items to shine!”

You also need to catalog the items and set up a system for lending them. Some libraries have incorporated the items into their existing catalog systems, while others use MyTurn, including the Sacramento library. One advantage of donated items is that the entire community often feels a sense of ownership and responsibility regarding the items, making it more likely that the items are returned on time and in good condition.

5. Keep an open mind.

Starting and running a library-based Library of Things is not without its challenges, which is why it requires an open mind. Learning about the objects is a significant aspect of ensuring that the community benefits from them but it can be time-consuming. If librarians embrace it as part of their daily life, the community will benefit. The librarians who oversee the Sacramento Public Library’s Library of Things have taken a hands-on approach from day one. They polled the community and, once the items were acquired, they used them themselves to make sure they knew how to show members how to use them. Milazzo said that having staff handle the items themselves — taking a GoPro on vacation, using a sewing machine, and testing a hedge trimmer and leaf blower — helped them anticipate potential complications and buy additional supplies like needles and thread.” As with any area of the library, such experimentation has allowed us to speak with greater authority about this collection and the different ways our patrons can use it.” 

Sometimes change means downsizing or expansion. The Sacramento Public Library is considering expanding its Library of Things to South Sacramento. Milazzo explains, “We’re considering both the individual needs of South Sacramento communities and using data accumulated from the Library of Things on the most/least popular items, as well as which items require more attention than others (i.e. a lot of accessories that we’ve had to keep track of). Ultimately, this will likely manifest in an online poll and in-person feedback from patrons, since those methods have served us well in the past.” 

When libraries decide to start a Library of Things, they leverage their reputation as a well-known, trusted community resource to meet a community need. With a clear plan, flexibility, and a dedication to patrons, Libraries of Things have the potential to change members’ lives for the better. 

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This post is part of our 2020 editorial series on libraries of things. Download the free ebook from the series here.

The post How to start a Library of Things inside an existing library appeared first on Shareable.