This week, the Dude looked at a part of the public library survey that is often forgotten, element number 4.33,
Description of Other Materials. In Nebraska, the leader in this category is cake pans (74), followed by puzzles (33), and discovery packs (9). Others include some fairly obvious choices such as framed art, sculpture, watt meters, toys, puppets, eReaders, games, gaming equipment, and quilt patterns. Some not so obvious choices (but good ideas) include grief kits (Bellevue Public Library), compasses (Lied Randolph Public Library), CD/DVD cleaners (Sidney Public Library), umbrellas and Frisbees (South Sioux City Public Library), overhead projector (Verdigre Public Library), and a Moon Kit (Yutan Public Library). It’s important to note that the other item holdings often differ based on the unique needs of the local communities. Another other material that is worth mentioning is the seed exchange (although the Crete Public Library is the only public library to report this on their survey, there certainly are more Nebraska libraries doing this). While seed exchanges are, technically illegal (but generally unenforced) due to
antiquated legislation, there is a current bill in the Nebraska Legislature to legitimize seed exchanges by adopting the
Community Gardens Act. But while part of the focus of this post is to applaud these other materials offerings, it also is to point out what is missing from it.
So what is noticeably absent? Tools. Not one Nebraska public library reported having tools of any sort. Why is there more of an emphasis on baking a cake than a bathroom remodel? You say cake pan, I say wet saw, lawn aerator, or sawzall. Is it a liability issue? Perhaps. Maintenance issue? Sure, it could be. Expense? Likely, yes. Gender? I dunno. Could it simply be that tools are loaned person to person, and a library isn’t necessary? Possibly. There isn’t a local outcry for tool offerings? Maybe not, but is there a local outcry for cake pans? Conceivably, there could be more investment in a comprehensive tool library and time consumption for maintenance. Now that the Dude has exhausted all synonyms for the word maybe, what about basic or specialty tools that probably aren’t real expensive? What about donated tools? You see, the Dude recently is in the process of working on cleaning a clogged bathtub drain and in the process of the strainer extraction, he broke the screw holding the drain together. Guess what he now needs? A special extraction tool. The Dude will most likely purchase this tool (it’s still cheaper than calling a plumber), and probably only use it once (if it is needed at some point down the road undoubtedly it will become lost in sea of other garage residents or forgotten altogether). This is the kind of thing that would be an ideal choice for donation to a
tool library.
But the point of all this is not to say rush out and get sets of tools (or Frisbees, or moon kits, or framed art), but to say what does your community value? How can you achieve the goals of providing things that are important to them? How do you know? What about bringing local community talents together for programs, then evaluating interest?
Finally, the Sacramento Public Library is worth noting, as they have jumped into the deep end of this sort of thing, implementing a
Library of Things project. The idea is that many residents of their community don’t have the money or storage space for things they don’t often use but occasionally need. The Sacramento Public Library funded its Library of Things from a $10,000 LSTA grant. They set up a separate webpage to collect votes for “arts and innovation” items requested to be made available. You might get ideas from the top vote getters, which were card or board games for children and adults (196 votes); craft tools such as sewing machines and others (183 votes); musical instruments (178 votes); Go Pro cameras (177 votes); camping kits (160 votes); artifacts for the classroom/school students such as WW II memorabilia and other things that illustrate life in earlier times (143 votes); and a binding machine for creating your own books, journals, etc. (134 votes). Some of the Dude’s favorites, but not necessarily top vote getters include garden tools (e.g. loppers, rototillers, etc.), old school/nostalgic video game systems (think Atari, Nintendo, etc.), button makers (hey, the Dude has an upholstery button maker he hasn’t used in about 12 years. Perfect!), food dehydrators, Karaoke machines, carpet steam cleaners, telescopes, basic wood tools, ladders, bread machines, unicycles, bike tool kits, paint sprayers, Kreg Jigs, a drone with HD camera, chain saws, and soldering irons. The Dude would add croquet sets/bocce balls and surfboards or stand up paddleboards to the list. The boards are worth noting because they still are on the Dude’s to-do list for making as soon as the garage gets cleaned out. The Dude is still deciding whether or not to try a
hollow SUP type board or a more classical
Alaia (Tom Wegner is the master of this craft). The other advantage to having these sorts of things in a library is that they can be found, unlike many things that reside in the Dude’s garage, but are impossible to locate when needed. Shaka.
This week, the Dude looked at a part of the public library survey that is often forgotten, element number 4.33, Description of Other Materials. In Nebraska, the leader in this category is cake pans (74), followed by puzzles (33), and discovery packs (9). Others include some fairly obvious choices such as framed art, sculpture, watt meters, toys, puppets, eReaders, games, gaming equipment, and quilt patterns. Some not so obvious choices (but good ideas) include grief kits (Bellevue Public Library), compasses (Lied Randolph Public Library), CD/DVD cleaners (Sidney Public Library), umbrellas and Frisbees (South Sioux City Public Library), overhead projector (Verdigre Public Library), and a Moon Kit (Yutan Public Library). It’s important to note that the other item holdings often differ based on the unique needs of the local communities. Another other material that is worth mentioning is the seed exchange (although the Crete Public Library is the only public library to report this on their survey, there certainly are more Nebraska libraries doing this). While seed exchanges are, technically illegal (but generally unenforced) due to antiquated legislation, there is a current bill in the Nebraska Legislature to legitimize seed exchanges by adopting the Community Gardens Act. But while part of the focus of this post is to applaud these other materials offerings, it also is to point out what is missing from it.
So what is noticeably absent? Tools. Not one Nebraska public library reported having tools of any sort. Why is there more of an emphasis on baking a cake than a bathroom remodel? You say cake pan, I say wet saw, lawn aerator, or sawzall. Is it a liability issue? Perhaps. Maintenance issue? Sure, it could be. Expense? Likely, yes. Gender? I dunno. Could it simply be that tools are loaned person to person, and a library isn’t necessary? Possibly. There isn’t a local outcry for tool offerings? Maybe not, but is there a local outcry for cake pans? Conceivably, there could be more investment in a comprehensive tool library and time consumption for maintenance. Now that the Dude has exhausted all synonyms for the word maybe, what about basic or specialty tools that probably aren’t real expensive? What about donated tools? You see, the Dude recently is in the process of working on cleaning a clogged bathtub drain and in the process of the strainer extraction, he broke the screw holding the drain together. Guess what he now needs? A special extraction tool. The Dude will most likely purchase this tool (it’s still cheaper than calling a plumber), and probably only use it once (if it is needed at some point down the road undoubtedly it will become lost in sea of other garage residents or forgotten altogether). This is the kind of thing that would be an ideal choice for donation to a tool library.
But the point of all this is not to say rush out and get sets of tools (or Frisbees, or moon kits, or framed art), but to say what does your community value? How can you achieve the goals of providing things that are important to them? How do you know? What about bringing local community talents together for programs, then evaluating interest?
Finally, the Sacramento Public Library is worth noting, as they have jumped into the deep end of this sort of thing, implementing a Library of Things project. The idea is that many residents of their community don’t have the money or storage space for things they don’t often use but occasionally need. The Sacramento Public Library funded its Library of Things from a $10,000 LSTA grant. They set up a separate webpage to collect votes for “arts and innovation” items requested to be made available. You might get ideas from the top vote getters, which were card or board games for children and adults (196 votes); craft tools such as sewing machines and others (183 votes); musical instruments (178 votes); Go Pro cameras (177 votes); camping kits (160 votes); artifacts for the classroom/school students such as WW II memorabilia and other things that illustrate life in earlier times (143 votes); and a binding machine for creating your own books, journals, etc. (134 votes). Some of the Dude’s favorites, but not necessarily top vote getters include garden tools (e.g. loppers, rototillers, etc.), old school/nostalgic video game systems (think Atari, Nintendo, etc.), button makers (hey, the Dude has an upholstery button maker he hasn’t used in about 12 years. Perfect!), food dehydrators, Karaoke machines, carpet steam cleaners, telescopes, basic wood tools, ladders, bread machines, unicycles, bike tool kits, paint sprayers, Kreg Jigs, a drone with HD camera, chain saws, and soldering irons. The Dude would add croquet sets/bocce balls and surfboards or stand up paddleboards to the list. The boards are worth noting because they still are on the Dude’s to-do list for making as soon as the garage gets cleaned out. The Dude is still deciding whether or not to try a hollow SUP type board or a more classical Alaia (Tom Wegner is the master of this craft). The other advantage to having these sorts of things in a library is that they can be found, unlike many things that reside in the Dude’s garage, but are impossible to locate when needed. Shaka. 
