Check it out: art, gadgets, guitars
These days, some local libraries are offering way more than just books to borrow
One afternoon last spring, Nathaniel Callanan excitedly asked his mother to take him to check out a guitar his school librarian said was available at the Chelmsford Public Library.
“I said sure, we can check it out — thinking he could go see it, not check it out,” Kerry Callanan said of her classic rock-obsessed second-grader, who had long asked for a guitar despite never having played the instrument.
“It turned out he was absolutely right,” added Callanan, who was indeed able to borrow an acoustic guitar — complete with a tuner, picks, extra strings, and an instructional booklet and DVD — for three weeks. After learning how much he enjoyed the experience, Nathaniel’s grandmother later purchased him a second-hand guitar of his own.
Once largely a depository of printed books, newspapers, and magazines, libraries have started offering non-traditional items you wouldn’t expect to find among the shelves — all for free. Looking for a ukulele, or a crepe maker? Sure. How about a metal detector or even a pickleball kit? Check. All of these and more can be borrowed with just a library card.
Funded by a combination of town budgets, library friends groups, fundraisers, foundations, and donations, the movement aims to reduce excessive consumer consumption, storage woes, and packaging waste.
The “library of things” sections are one way libraries are trying to attract patrons.
At the Kingston Public Library, patrons may borrow items ranging from children’s backpack kits to a sewing machine, disco ball, light therapy lamp, manual typewriter, paper shredder, and crepe maker. The library of things at the Duxbury Free Library includes a variety of American Girl dolls with associated clothes and even adaptive equipment such as eyeglasses, a toy guide dog, walker, cane, helmet, leg braces, and forearm crutches.
Melissa Campbell, director of the Plainville Public Library, said their library of things began seven or eight years ago after reference librarians received repeated requests for karaoke machine discs. The library soon purchased a set, as well as a karaoke machine to go with it.
“[Patrons] were looking for something fun for a family party, not a forever item,” Campbell said. “That started our journey.”
The karaoke machine remains popular, according to Campbell, as do outdoor games — especially giant four-in-a-row — which remained in demand over the unseasonably warm winter break. Prior to the holidays, digital converters for videos and still photos were in constant rotation.
According to Campbell, the car diagnostic code reader received special praise from a woman claiming it saved her from paying $175 to learn from a repair shop that her gas cap was loose. After using the metal detector to locate his lost wedding ring in a pile of yard leaves, a beaming man told library staff it was the “best thing ever.”
“More people should definitely know about [the library of things],” said Campbell, noting that an updated list of items is distributed with every new library card.
Despite being a frequent visitor to the Billerica Public Library, Clare Forsons, tune-Lad said she only became aware of its library of things last summer after encountering a newly returned cornhole game at the reference desk.
“I was already planning an outdoor birthday party for my son, so I said, ‘Tell me more about this,’” recalled Fortune-Lad, who lives in North Billerica. “I put a hold on it and it ended up being ready exactly when I needed it. I also put myself in for the giant Jenga, but I didn’t get off the wait list until later. That was fine though, because we used the pieces as train tracks in the living room, which was also fun.”
Fortune-Lad, who is director of religious education at the Universalist Unitarian Church of Haverhill, is currently on the waiting list for an instant camera which her church youth group plans to use for a project. Her 4-year-old Benton and 2-yearold Robin, are frequent borrowers of Chutes & Ladders and the Toniebox audio player.
“We play Winnie-the-Pooh, Bluey, and Lightning McQueen over and over, and although my kids love it, we don’t need to buy [a Toniebox],” she said. “It stays novel because we don’t have it all the time and it doesn’t take up room in our house.”
Alan Long, supervisor of material services at the Newton Free Library, said its massive collection of 700 items in the library of things (within a regular collection exceeding 500,000 resources) offers “just about everything under the sun.”
The half-dozen ukuleles purchased in 2016 remain among the most circulated items, according to Long, along with a 500-piece image of Boston (among 250 puzzles) and “Exploding Kittens” (among 150 board games). After the city recently embraced a climate bill restricting fossil fuel hookups for new buildings and major renovations, Green Newton donated induction cooktops to familiarize residents with the equipment.
The library is also addressing technology equity by offering 15 laptops integrated with Wi-Fi mobile hotspots, plus an additional 11 individual Wi-Fi mobile hotspots. Another robust category is its collection of assistive equipment and activities designed for individuals with dementia: a fidget board and blanket, an activity apron, and games to enhance cognitive abilities and promote social interaction.
“Space is at a premium in libraries, so figuring out where and how to display all these weirdly sized objects becomes part of the puzzle. No pun intended,” Long said.
That is certainly the case at Robbins Library in Arlington, where head of adult services Linda Dyndiuk is glad that so many of its estimated 220 art prints are circulating at any given time.
Prints of virtually every size, color palette, and style can be found hanging throughout the building and lined in racks on the second floor. In addition to innumerable works by classical artists, Dyndiuk said the library has been building its collection of prints by local artists since 2019.
“There are so many talented people making great art nearby,” she said. “[Incorporating their work] makes our collection that much better.”
One of the most recent additions is “FM Signal,” the cover image of Rick Berry’s art book “Invented People.” In addition to his expressionistic figurative paintings appearing in countless galleries, books, comics, and private collections, the Bostonarea artist was Keanu Reeves’s cyber stunt double in the 1995 film “Johnny Mnemonic.”
In fact, Berry credits libraries as being one of his few constant comforts while attending 11 different schools before leaving home at age 17.
“In all that time, and in all those places, the library is the one place I could go — and without it, my upbringing would have been a wasteland,” said Berry, noting that his art training came from library books rather than a classroom. “To think my work is hanging in one of the palaces of learning that are our libraries is a lovely and affirming thing.”