Successful libraries providing tools force us to rethink what the public is willing to share

Arik Sleeper is a freelance journalist whose writing has been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle and other California-based media outlets covering topics such as labor, drug reform, food and more. This article was prepared Local peace economyproject of the Independent Media Institute.

As the old saying goes, there’s the right tool for every job, but what happens when a large tree branch falls into someone’s driveway after a big storm and the person doesn’t have a chainsaw or extra money to run out to buy a new one? Or maybe a student in a tiny apartment doesn’t have a place to store tools and suddenly needs a drill to fix a sagging kitchen cabinet door but has never used it and doesn’t know how to do it.

For all these moments when the right tool for the job is not available, libraries are springing up all over the country that provide more than just books.

Based on 2021 data study an alumnus of San Jose State University (SJSU), tool libraries were first documented in the United States in the 1940s. These unique institutions lend devices such as power and hand tools, gardening and gardening tools, and even kitchen utensils to those who need the right tool but don’t have the means to own or store them.

According to San Jose State University studythrough May 2021, there were over 50 instrument libraries operating in the United States. In the late 1970s, there was a boom in the number of instrument lending libraries when these libraries were opened in places like Berkeley, California, which opened in 1979. one employee in a portable trailer, according to study. After over 40 years of development, the current Berkeley Public Library (BPL) Lending Library is now available through the BPL. Web site.

study, which, according to the author, collects “news clippings, peer-reviewed articles, blog posts, and websites,” indicates that scholars in the field have traditionally believed that tool-providing libraries originated in the late 1970s. However, earlier examples date back to the 1940s, when the public library in Grosse Point, Michigan, opened the first tool lending library.

At the end of World War II, household utensils such as kitchen and garden tools were in short supply as the raw materials normally used to make them were diverted to support the war effort.

According to studyand in 1943 Grosse Pointe Public Library created her first lending instrument library, which is still in operation and can also be accessed online, like her Berkeley cousin.

The first inventory of about 25 instruments was donated to the Grosse Pointe Public Library by the Boys’ Work Committee of the Grosse Pointe Rotary Club, which, according to studydonated tools to the community to “encourage dexterity in the younger generation”.

Today, the Grosse Point Public Library’s tool collection includes more than 150 tools and devices, from bolt cutters to birdwatching binoculars, and even includes yard games such as bocce and croquet sets. All games, devices, and equipment borrowed from the facility come with an informational how-to brochure.

The local Rotary Club took over the responsibility for the maintenance and repair of a diverse catalog of items, and still does. Author of the study declared that the survival and growth of the Grosse Pointe Public Library’s instrument collection might not have been possible without the involvement of the Rotary Club, and that until the mid-1970s it was the only instrument library in the country.

The second known instrument lending library in the United States was established in Columbus, Ohio in 1976. A tool lending library was established by the local city government and provided free tools and instruments to homeowners and tenants in the city, the report said. study. The Columbus tool library has been built into the warehouse, which now contains over 5,000 tools such as hammers, drills and ladders, which can be rented for periods ranging from one day to a week.

In 2009, non-profit ModCon Life took over the operation of the instrument library in Columbus from the local government and now funds the venture through membership dues and donations.

Another tool library was set up in Seattle, Washington in the late 1970s by a University of Washington professor who used tools and fixtures donated to him by students who left after the school year and graduation. When the collection became too large for the professor to maintain alone, the Finney Area Association took over operations to maintain these instruments.

Finney’s tool library is still in operation and contains approximately 3,000 items, including many electric and hand tools, as well as unique tools such as apple pickers and a cider press. According to studytools in Finney’s library that are beyond repair are donated to local artists, where they find a second life as a component of a craft piece or art installation.

According to study, with institutions such as the Sacramento Things Library in California and the Chicago Tool Library in Illinois opening as part of this “tool-providing movement”. Another organization that provides tools to charitable groups rather than individuals is called US Tool Bankwas also established at that time in 2008. Author of the study loans advances in technology such as cloud software, and the ongoing boom in libraries to provide tools in the United States.

Tool lending libraries have also been set up overseas in the United Kingdom. study. The Edinburgh Tool Library of Scotland was established in 2015, which inspired similar institutions in similar fields Leith and Portobello in Edinburgh, and in 2018 in London, England, the Thing Library was established, run by volunteers who help interested organizations and municipalities build their own tool libraries.

With the rise in popularity of audio and digital books and rising inflation driving up the cost of tools and tools everywhere, public libraries in the United States and around the world can adopt the instrument lending precedents set by pioneers such as the Grosse Point and Berkeley Public Libraries. which have models of lending tools that have been successfully used for decades.

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