I’ve been thinking about the advantages of tool libraries vs. maker spaces and why I think the latter would be more beneficial for creating access to tools for life and hobbies.
While I like the concept of tool libraries, I think providing larger sets of work spaces: art studios, carpentry spaces, bike shops, kitchens, office spaces, sewing rooms, etc. makes a lot more sense. For most of these activities, you need access to a variety of tools at once, and not everyone has space at home to work on refinishing furniture or spinning pottery. To me, the dream is having a series of community centers in every neighborhood that has various labs for community members to access to partake in hobbies, repair their stuff, etc. I do think integrating tool libraries into these spaces would be useful, for instance, the carpentry studio could have a wall of tools for you to check out if you need to accomplish something at home.
There are of course applications where tool libraries make more sense to me. Neighborhood garden tool sheds for example. I just think focusing on developing maker spaces would be a more effective way of providing these types of resources to communities.
Thoughts?
Hey we are doing this exact thing! My mates and I have been expanding our community toy library into a community workshop and library of things. We’ve started with textile repairs but are working on grants for our new bike and electronic repairs section. We are also offer a space for small social enterprises to host courses. So far I really do agree that having the social aspect helps more people into the space and opens them up to the idea of sharing vs owning.
We live in a small rural village in Aotearoa so we’ve been lucky that we are able to make such a direct impact on our community. We’re hoping to become a model community and put together free resource packs so we can help everyone else start doing the same.
One thing I would really love to hear more about is time banking. It’s something we’d like to try here but we want to see a few examples in action so we can decide how we’ll set ourselves up.
That’s awesome! What sorts of lessons have you learned in navigating that transition?
The hardest part has been navigating the egos of people on local community council but we now have enough of us that we will be pushing for governance changes so like consensus decision-making, co-chairs and collective leadership.
I think it’s really important to learn to delegate and to be open around ideas that might be different than yours but will still address the problem.
As far as having a community hub space, it’s just as great as you can imagine! We get to go for grants or fundraise if there is something in the community we think we need. Things that don’t really make sense for just one person to own. One of the things we would like to get in the next year or two is a good laser cutter. As people started coming for mend-it nights, they started to see all the neat things we have that they can borrow and hear us talking about community. I think giving people a 3rd space that offers both social support and financial support in the way of items they might not be able to afford to buy has really helped people feel that sense of stability. Stability really is the key to progress! Once people feel safe, they can give more energy to their passions and their community.
10/10 would recommend