Everything your library lends that isn’t a book.
Libraries lend drills, sewing machines, Cricuts, telescopes, ukuleles and board games. Each one lists them on its own page, in its own format. This puts them in one place — then sends you to the library to borrow.
1745 things in 23 cities so far, every one linked to the page it came from. 366 of them make gifts →
Boston MA
250 things · 9 lenders · 56 for gift-making
Boston Public Library, Brookline (incl. its Tool Library), Newton, Somerville, Cambridge, Arlington, Milton, Watertown and Quincy's Thomas Crane Public Library. No community (non-library) tool library in the area could be confirmed as lending today.
New York City NY
64 things · 3 lenders · 10 for gift-making
Brooklyn Public Library carries New York: tools at Greenpoint, instruments, board games and craft kits. New York Public Library and Queens Public Library lend mostly tech and Culture Pass.
Chicago IL
93 things · 5 lenders · 36 for gift-making
Chicago Public Library’s Library of Things across 16 branches, Oak Park Public Library next door, and the Chicago Tool Library.
Los Angeles CA
156 things · 5 lenders · 45 for gift-making
LA County Library’s tool lending at six branches, LA Public Library’s kits and Tech2Go, The Makers Hub in Compton, and the Los Angeles Tool Library in Koreatown.
San Francisco CA
106 things · 5 lenders · 19 for gift-making
San Francisco Public Library doesn’t run a library of things. The tools are across the Bay: Berkeley and Oakland public libraries both run tool lending libraries.
Philadelphia PA
24 things · 3 lenders · 5 for gift-making
The Free Library of Philadelphia lends instruments from Parkway Central’s music department and a handful of kits. The tools are at the West Philly Tool Library — thousands of them.
Seattle WA
116 things · 4 lenders · 44 for gift-making
Seattle Public Library and King County Library System lend tech and park passes, not tools. The tools are at neighborhood tool libraries: West Seattle and the Phinney Neighborhood Association.
Pittsburgh PA
29 things · 3 lenders · 2 for gift-making
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, plus the tool libraries at Millvale and Sewickley — all on one shared Allegheny County catalog.
Dallas TX
23 things · 3 lenders · 10 for gift-making
Dallas Public Library lends nature backpacks and memory kits. For a sewing machine, a Cricut or a telescope, Grand Prairie Public Library next door runs a full library of things.
Hawaiʻi HI
60 things · 2 lenders · 18 for gift-making
Hawaiʻi’s statewide public library lends ʻukuleles and seeds. The tools are at the HNL Tool Library in Honolulu, a membership tool library. Every listing verified against its source.
Alabama AL
44 things · 5 lenders · 11 for gift-making
Covers Montgomery City-County (tech lending), Homewood (Library of Things category tiles only), Auburn (Unconventional Collections), Huntsville-Madison County (Makerspace Studio, in-library) and Mobile (in-library button makers/3D printing); Birmingham Public Library shows no Library of Things, no community tool libraries were found, and nothing is geocoded because the Census geocoder could not be reached.
Alaska AK
34 things · 3 lenders
Covers Anchorage Public Library (Loussac STEM Kits), the Anchorage Tool Library at the Anchorage Museum Seed Lab (membership rules only; its myTurn inventory could not be fetched), Juneau Public Libraries (staff-run Ultimaker 3 plus Juneau-Douglas City Museum loan kits) and Homer Public Library equipment; Fairbanks North Star Borough, Kenai, Mat-Su and the Chena Tool Library are not captured yet.
Arizona AZ
22 things · 3 lenders · 6 for gift-making
Covers Maricopa County Library District, Mesa, Scottsdale, Chandler and Pima County (Tucson) public libraries; Phoenix Public Library (JavaScript-only site) and Tempe (site unreachable) are not yet captured, no community tool library in Arizona could be verified from its own site, and no branch could be geocoded because the Census geocoder was not fetchable from this session.
Arkansas AR
87 things · 4 lenders · 17 for gift-making
Covers Central Arkansas Library System (Little Rock tool library / things), Bentonville Public Library's Library of Things, Saline County Library (Benton/Bryant things categories + in-library makerspaces) and Fayetteville Public Library's in-library Center for Innovation; no community tool library with a live site was found, and no coordinates could be geocoded this pass.
Colorado CO
72 things · 5 lenders · 8 for gift-making
Covers Denver Public Library, Pikes Peak Library District (Colorado Springs), Arapahoe Libraries, Jefferson County Public Library and the Denver Tool Library; Boulder, Fort Collins (Poudre River), Douglas County, Anythink and High Plains systems are not yet captured.
Connecticut CT
190 things · 4 lenders · 22 for gift-making
Covers Hartford Public Library (full Library of Things guide, Downtown pickup), New Haven Free Public Library (Ives Main Library of Things, 7 of 9 category pages), North Haven Memorial Library and Windsor Locks Public Library; Stamford, Bridgeport, Waterbury and other systems and any community tool libraries are not yet covered, and nothing is geocoded because the Census geocoder was not reachable.
Delaware DE
58 things · 4 lenders · 4 for gift-making
Covers the statewide Delaware Libraries 'Library of Things' page (items checkable at any Delaware public library with a Delaware Library Card) plus the Delaware Libraries sustainability guide's tool list, pinned to representative branches in Dover, Wilmington, New Castle County and Sussex County; per-branch holdings, Milford and Rehoboth Beach pages, and the Delaware Library Catalog records themselves are not yet captured, and no community tool library was found.
Florida FL
49 things · 3 lenders · 5 for gift-making
Covers Leon County Public Library (Tallahassee main library), Orange County Library System (Orlando, incl. the Melrose Center makerspace) and the Safety Harbor Public Library Tool Library (Pinellas County, myTurn); Jacksonville, Miami-Dade, Broward, Hillsborough and Clearwater are not yet captured.
Georgia GA
58 things · 4 lenders · 15 for gift-making
Covers Fulton County Library System (Central Library), Cobb County Public Library (four branches), Gwinnett County Public Library (Learning Labs, passes and kits) and the Historic Macon Foundation tool library; DeKalb County Public Library and the smaller regional systems (Chestatee, Sequoyah, Moultrie-Colquitt) are not yet captured.
Idaho ID
21 things · 3 lenders · 7 for gift-making
Covers Idaho Falls Public Library (telescopes, Early Learning Bags, in-library Makerspace equipment), Nampa Public Library (lending-policy kit/equipment categories) and Meridian Library District (lending-guidelines categories only, no branch addresses); Boise Public Library, Ada Community Library and north-Idaho systems could not be fetched, no community tool library was found, and nothing is geocoded because the Census geocoder was not reachable. Every listing verified against its source.
Indiana IN
56 things · 3 lenders · 9 for gift-making
Covers Indianapolis Public Library's six-branch Library of Things pilot, Carmel Clay Public Library's Gadget collection (full Equipment-format catalog list) and Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library's Library of Things page; Allen County (Fort Wayne) and Monroe County (Bloomington) are not yet captured, and no community tool library was found.
Iowa IA
74 things · 3 lenders · 9 for gift-making
Covers Marion Public Library (Cedar Rapids metro), Robert W. Barlow Memorial Library (Iowa Falls) and James Kennedy Public Library (Dyersville) item-by-item, plus a Des Moines Public Library Central row without items (its Library of Things page names no items and the catalog could not be fetched); Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Davenport and community tool libraries are not yet covered.
Kansas KS
59 things · 4 lenders · 8 for gift-making
Covers Wichita Public Library's Library of Things, Johnson County Library's circulating Maker Kits and in-building MakerSpace, Lawrence Public Library's Equipment/Kit catalog records, and Topeka & Shawnee County's circulating tech and passes; Kansas City Kansas Public Library and any Kansas community tool libraries are not yet covered.