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Share Bristol – A Library of Things
- qubex 3y agoAs a Bristolian native living abroad I’m absolutely fascinated and would really like to set up something analogous.
- qingcharles 3y agoEx-pat Bristolian checking in ;)
- lukevp 3y agoWe have a lot of these at the libraries in Portland! You can borrow all sorts of stuff for free - board games, puzzles, baking stuff, tools, a huge gamut. They also have 3d printers, button making machines, tshirt presses, sewing machines, cricut machines, and all sorts of stuff like that that you can use for free (but not borrow).
- robinwarren 3y agoThat's really cool to hear. We used to make use of the toy library in Bristol when we lived there, it was a great way to get toys the kids could play with for 2 weeks then return them when they got bored :)
- daveoc64 3y agoMost of the time HN feels a little alien to me being from England. But here we have something that's less than 3 miles from where I live.
- southwesterly 3y agoI love it when my town gets onto HN.
- qingcharles 3y agoOoo, my lover. Bristol peeps out here representing.
- flir 3y agoI don't think I've ever seen them open (check the location history on google maps - the shutters are always down). But I see from the website that the opening times are quite staggered.
- SamSkjord 3y agoBetter not be Yate!
- qingcharles 3y agoLOL, you reminded me of the "Totterdown" cover of Beautiful South's Rotterdam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z9PMXZjATc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z9PMXZjATc "... anywhere but Knowle."
- Elucalidavah 3y agoSo how well do you expect this to survive long-term? Surely there's a reason I can find a rotary hammer drill rental, but not a library-like borrowing?
- wcerfgba 3y agoRental services are usually privately-owned for-profit businesses, whereas this is a community initiative, and probably has lower overheads.
- IshKebab 3y agoI live near this and looked into it a year or two ago. They didn't really have anything difficult to get (e.g. I don't need to borrow a drill or hand saw) but it looks like they've expanded quite a bit since then!
- diego_moita 3y agoAnother one, in Edmonton, Canada : http://www.edmontontoollibrary.ca/ http://www.edmontontoollibrary.ca/
- k7vin 3y agoThis is very cool. I'd love them to open source everything they could to help kickstart as many people as possible to open such libraries in their own cities/ neighborhood/ area. This is much needed.
- wcerfgba 3y agoI think the main difficulties here will be social, and a story of how this all started and the cultural, legal, and operational barriers they've overcome would be a valuable contribution. I am reminded of pg's advice to "do things that don't scale".
- bambam3000 3y agoMy friend borrowed a tent from Frome's equivalent over the summer. When he unpacked it at the site there were no pegs. He managed to borrow pegs off other campers and got it set up. It rained heavily that night and he quickly discovered the waterproofing had worn off and his tent was actually absorbing instead of repelling water. The water pooled in their tent and gradually soaked all the bedding and possessions. He gave up and went home in the morning.
- Animats 3y agoRight. The quality of the borrowable things tends to stabilize at just above total junk level.
- dave333 3y agoObviously would like to be able to enter my zip/postcode and get a list of links to tool/thing libraries local to me. Does this exist already? Googling it seems like these are few and far between except some hardware/auto parts stores will lend some tools, and there are commercial tool rental places for a fee. I once borrowed a post hole digger on Craigslist, and lent a stapler on Facebook.
- thingsgg 3y agoA similar thing in Norway is BUA: https://bua.no https://bua.no Focused on outdoor equipment and for children / young people being able to try out new sports for free. Adults can rent stuff too though for a very reasonable price. The major difference is that it operates nationwide, nearly every bigger city has a BUA location. We got Ski equipment from there as students and it was actually super high quality. They seem to look after the equipment carefully and also sort out half broken stuff.
- matthewfelgate 3y agoI hope it does well. I always wonder how well these things work in practice rather than theory. In theory borrowing things should be cost effective.
- dave333 3y agoFor those in the US unfamiliar with Bristol UK, the drivers there are just as mercilessly aggressive as the ones near Boston MA.
- eastlalbagh 3y ago[flagged]