Beyond Books… Library lending

My boyfriend sends me links on just about anything, things he’s interested, things he thinks I might be interested in, sometimes random things that I can’t make sense of.  But, he’s always really good about sending me links to articles about all things library-related.  A few days ago he sent me this link from NPR – a story about how libraries are remaining relevant to their communities by lending more than just the typical books, DVDs, and magazines.

The story highlights the Honeoye Public Library near Rochester N.Y. because they lend fishing poles, that’s right, fishing poles and tackle boxes.  The library is in New York’s Finger Lakes region where fishing is a year around sport, so the library offers fishing poles to check out.

Another interesting part of the story was that some libraries lend people, experts in a certain field that can help someone in the community with questions about a specific topic.  This idea blew my mind, but as I think about it some more, what a great way for a community to come together and help each other out!

Many people don’t realize the extent that librarians are willing to say “yes.”  My library has a toy collection that can be checked out by patrons – they can take toys home (for free!) for a three-week period.  This really works well with grandparents who have grandchildren visiting and parents love the novelty of new toys for their kids without spending the money on it.  I’ve heard of other libraries having seed collections for flowers and vegetables, other libraries offer cake pans to check out for kids’ birthday parties.

As I’ve said in the past, libraries are constantly changing how they do things to keep up with the times and these new and really cool ideas are just a few of the ways public libraries are becoming engrained in their communities!