Resources

"They did a couple of different surveys. They they had one "bucket" survey asking about kinds of things, saying "We're thinking about opening a Library of Things collection" and gave them categories like musical instruments, board games, lawn games, tools, a kitchen appliances. and then people, you know, just voted on those and gave us suggestions."
(Michele Caldwell, Beaverton City Libraries)

"I want to create a sort of survey that goes in all the [thing collection] kits; something pretty generic. Because it would be a nightmare to try and make like an individual survey for every kit. But something fairly generic that will get some feedback. And then hoping to also get more feedback from the community as people are checking these things out."
(Eric Buckenmeyer, Jefferson-Madison Regional Library)
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In interviews conducted during our "Staying Afloat" report it was clear that many successful Libraries of Thing's unique and expansive collections grew and shrunk over time in relation to what the community wants, what they already have, and what works well for lending in that particular patron audience. We've prepared a program evaluation guide with sample community needs assessment questions and templates based on our findings and those shared from other libraries below.
You can access a DOCX Version here or a PDF version below.

Download Library of Things Community Needs & Program Evaluation Template

"We actually had a committee back in 2015 that met to talk about Library of Things. Each of the members of this little committee got assigned to 2 or 3 libraries that had Things collections, and we came up with a list of questions for those libraries and interviewed them, and then kind of came back and talked about like what did we hear that was working? What's not working. And we came up with these guidelines based on the feedback that we got from other libraries."
(Lisa Gresham, Whatcom County Library System)
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In our interview with collection manager Lisa Gresham from Whatcom County Library System she spoke about the importance of consistent logistics for the selector process and logistics of intaking any new "Thing" item to make sure its not only an item the community wants, but that the library workers want, love, and that staff can support during transit, checkout, check-in, and maintenance. With permission, we've included a copy of their guidelines created as a result of a committee's research of multiple libraries below.

Download WCLS Collection Manual

On of our key insights in potential differentiators for longevity in Libraries of Things was close relationships with other non-traditional lending libraries. Throughout our study we found many examples of libraries calling and other on the phone, forming committees or coalitions to share learnings, getting insight on new trends in thing lending, or sharing resources. One respondent let us know there was a group of Libraries doing just that online, and sent us this group.

Link to the Library of Things Mutual Aid Group

"It's just kind of a draw for people to come up and go "Hey, what's that? I didn't know you guys had that" and it's a good conversation starter. So we take "Things" to most of the pop-ups that we do."
(Lisa Gresham, Whatcom County Library System)

The best promotion we have is the collection itself, in-house browsing and patron discoverability drive our unprecedented circs. We invested significantly in merchandising the collection at all of our locations.
(Collection Development Librarian, Anonymous)
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We were in awe of the immense diversity of collections in contrast to prior research which painted a picture of many single-item collections such as Tools or Toys. From muffin pans, karaoke machines, ghost hunting kits, and air quality testers, The creativity in collection development, how well these things promote themselves just by existing in space, and how often social media promotion involves showing the collection in use prompted us to put out a call to action to individuals and library workers to photograph and capture all these diverse "Things" in action outside the library.

Our research team invites you to take pictures of these collections with the theme "Where Will Our Things Take You?" and feel free to use these in promotional material, or email us message on the guestbook any photos you'd like us to include on the site by 01/31/2025.