I plan to speak to my city council about creating a tool library, where citizens use their existing library card to checkout tools. To make the idea a bit more robust, I’m also planning to require citizens deposit something as collateral when checking out a tool.
However.
I live in Texas (I love Texas). Thankfully my city council is receptive, but I know they’re going to need compelling evidence before approving something like this.
So, if you guys have any advice, or examples, particularly of this kind of system working in the US, I would love to hear about it!
My gut reaction would be to see if it would be a viable option to begin a tool Library separate from state power.
To that end here’s the Library socialist website, they have some good links to resources and literature to help. https://librarysocialism.org/I’m not opposed to the idea but I don’t know how to get it working in practice.
- Where would I put the tools? I can’t host it myself because I don’t have the space and I’m rarely home.
- How would I tell everyone that the service is available? I don’t have a media following. People know to look at the city website for these kinds of services, in addition to the city having many avenues for announcing the service.
- If I were to ask a large donor for an initial tool supply, they would likely be confident donating to a library. But if it was just some shed somewhere, I would have a lot harder time convincing them.
- When a tool is checked-out, who would keep track of it being checked out? If there’s no book-keeper equivalent, who would host a website, or prevent one bad person from just straight up stealing all the tools? If there is a book-keeper equivalent who would have the time/availability for it?
Hamilton east public library (Hamilton county, Indiana) has features like this. They have a maker space which makes things easier when it comes to tool storage though.
They also have art supplies like full sets for acrylic & oil paint and pastels available to loan. I think they combat theft by requiring some things to not leave the library.
It’s a fairly Republican area and they still manage to make it work, however they also made national news for banking books like the fault in our stars…
Edited to add: you might check with your local library to see if they have any plans in the works to do this
This is exactly what I was hoping for! Thank you so much.
Why would collateral be required? You don’t need collateral for books and people who need to borrow tools might not have stuff to leave as collateral
Other than that, cool idea!
Because the tragedy of commons applies. Someone selfish will keep it or break it, or replace their own broken tool.
The idea of a collateral here would be something the fraction of the cost if the tool thats still an incentive to return it safe and sound.
Thw collateral is returned afterwards
It also prevents gradual decline. If someone keeps a shovel forever, but they left an axe, well now the library has an axe they can lend out.
I mean ideally yeah, and I figured I’d get this comment here.
Librares receive continuous funding for books that wear out over time and books that never get returned. Our existing libraries, at least in the US, are not self perpetuating.
Proposing anything to a city council is going to be an uphill battle. And if there’s one thing they’re always going to ask/listen-for, it’s “funding”. It’s a really big selling point to say the tool system won’t require any continuous funds; tools are donated, use the existing library infrastructure for storage/tracking, and when a tool is not returned by the deadline, the collateral can be lent-out instead meaning the number of tools stays the same until they completely break.
If anything, I’m concerned about them saying something about collateral value-appraisal, and or cost of wear and tear (misuse/mistreatment of the tool). I want to say something along the lines of “just let the librarian eyeball it, and that should be good enough”, and “the library gives a fine for a mistreated book, and they can do the same for a mistreated tool”
If people use the service a lot, and 99% of people return their tools, THEN I can easily go back to the council, present the evidence, and ask for the collateral requirement to be dropped.
@jeffhykin I have a solid collection of tools I’ve built up over the last decade or so. My two-car garage is a woodworking shop, plus I have basic stuff for electrical and plumbing work. I lend my tools on occasion to friends and family, but I usually go with the tools to help with whatever the project is. That’s obviously not scalable though. It’s not quite what you’re talking about, but I’ve considered a “private library” setup for my tools. Do you have any software suggestions for tracking?
While I don’t know of any software for managing it at the moment, I’m a software engineer and it wouldn’t be too hard to make a site that tracks it. I was already planning on making such a site, so when I do I’ll come back here and let you know!
