Tool Libraries: An Idea Whose Time Has Come
The East Portland Tool Library celebrated its second anniversary in June of 2025. Yay. The founders started working on this project in 2018. “It took one meeting to decide and the rest of the time to work out the details,” says Robert Bowles, one of the founders. Details like where the library will be, what organizations will donate tools, and how to win grants from the City of Portland, Oregon. Well done!
As I sat at the table eating crackers with spinach dip and pizza I asked about the founders. Robert brought experience and connection with another tool library. Stephanie Irish offered internet technology skills. Phil Dekker, with an accounting background, is the Treasurer. Nancy Artson says, “It’s all about community.” She chased down grant funding and is a member of the Cherry Park United Methodist Church which graciously hosts the tool library. They are part of the crew of fifteen volunteers who check out and maintain the tools.
Two specially modified and painted shipping containers neatly house the library’s tools at the rear of the church parking lot.
Browsing the tools brings back memories of summers in my Dad’s workshop. Hand tools galore. Table saws. Drills. For yard work we have picks, shovels, wheel barrels, an edge trimmer. No gasoline tools. This is my go-to place for our on-going effort to transform our lawn into a food forest.
I asked Ron, another member enjoying the snacks, what tools he had checked out. “A planer and a belt sander.” He used them to restore a rickety old picnic table into a source of pride. “With a little stain the wood looks like Brazilian mahogany.”
Recently I also had the need/opportunity to check out an electric lawn mower at the Rockwood Tool Library, the area’s newest. Their tools line the inside of a box truck which is driven to the Community Center on Saturdays. There are now seven tool libraries in the Portland Oregon metropolitan area, each with a founder’s story, a host location, passionate volunteers, and hundreds of alternatives to mining mountains for our domestic chores.
The tool library concept goes back to the Gross Point Rotary Club in Michigan, started in 1943. In 2021 a college student identified some 50 tool libraries. The Tool Library Alliance hosts an in-progress interactive map showing tool libraries. Besides those in the U.S., a handful are scattered in Canada, Iceland, Israel, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom. Plus…
The Australian Library of Things Network has “nearly 40” libraries. The Inner West Library in Sydney collected data for their first three years of operation (excluding being closed for 6 months during COVID): 340 “items” (presumably tools) donated to the library; 5,220 loans to 450 members, avoiding 14.2 metric tons (12.9 English tons) of new products being manufactured. Tools with over seventy loans include a cordless drill, two sanders, a whipper snipper (weed whacker) and a hedge trimmer. Other popular tools include clamps, power saws, and a pressure washer. You get the idea!
Also, some conventional libraries loan things other than books. Think ice cream makers, food dehydrators, fishing rods, pickle ball sets, puzzles, sewing machines, mobile hot spots, metal detectors, and musical instruments. Check out what your local libraries have to offer… or inspire them to broaden their offerings.
Like all libraries, tool libraries are part of the “sharing economy”. Before that next last-minute-rarely-to-be-used-again purchase, explore the abundance and potential of a tool library. Save money. Take on a project you would otherwise avoid. Be a crew member and care for Spaceship Earth. Make yourself proud.
Bio: Jon Biemer, P.E. is a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists and a registered Professional Mechanical Engineer in California. Jon is author of Our Journey to Sustainability: How Everyday Heroes Make a Difference (Rowman & Littlefield 2024) and Our Environmental Handprints: Recover the Land, Reverse Global Warming, Reclaim the Future (Rowman & Littlefield 2021).