I plan to speak to my city council about a tool library, and literally have 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 examples, or advice, particularly of this kind of system working in the US, I would love to hear about it!
It might not be relevant to the conditions at your place, but in the city nearest to where I live (Tallinn, capital of Estonia), there is a library that lends out tools. It’s the Pelguranna library, a branch of the Tallinn Central Library, and the only English description I could dredge up is this one:
It looks like the Houston toolbank is a resource you could point to. It’s not a library, but worth taking a look at. I could find prices on their site (you might need an account), but elsewhere online, I saw they charge 3% of the tool’s retail value per week. That’s not bad.
My local library (not in Texas, but in America) has a tool library. They actually call it a “diy library”, and it has tools as well as things like computers, toys, STEM kits for kids, art, kitchen inplements, and even some musical instruments. The user interface is super clunky cause it’s basically filed as if they are books. It doesn’t cost anything, but there are fines if you don’t return stuff on time. They auto-renew stuff for you if possible, but then if you go over your alloted time, it’s $2 per day. If you are a month overdue, you owe them a replacement. I’m not sure if they have actual enforcement of that. It seems to work great overall. I think I had to do a separate waiver and prove that I was not an 8 year old child trying to rent a chainsaw.
Just googling around for systems in Texas, I found this..
Overall, I would try to avoid suggesting a deposit, cause that adds a barrier to entry for people that might not be able to afford it. One way you could pitch it is to start with more “idiot proof” tools. Someone using an expensive wood saw blade to cut something with metal in it could ruin it easily, but you kinda have to actually try to break a wrench or a hammer. Even if you have space for tools, there’re just so many tools that you really rarely need to use, so being able to share them is very useful.