@9042307f This is a great idea and some places do this in terms of tool library stuff (i.e. instead of a centralized tool library the tools just live in people's houses etc) but I think the devil is in the details-insurance is a concern (and who pays it), librarians don't want to be enforcers for stuff in other people's homes (I know I wouldn't, not as my job) and people who tend towards this are already doing it within their communities. Let me track down some examples that work. 

 @9042307f I feel like more people have written software to do this than have actually done it effectively. :lolsob: 

More to the point, I think if it's distributed it starts being outside of the usual "In the building" domain of the library but there have been other community groups that seem to be able to do it in small scale but all the ones I know about, while they have the *capacity* to have multiple locations, don't use that. A good starting point:

https://sustainableconsumption.usdn.org/initiatives-list/tool-lending-libraries 

 @8b189dd1 Thanks for that link. It seems like this might be the kind of project that could partner with the library, but perhaps would be separate in order to insulate the library from some of the bad fallout that could come from a project like this.

I should go looking on GitHub for some of that software—having a usable web interface would be key to this working! 

 @9042307f Exactly. In my ideal scenario the library could lend its catalog infrastructure to a project like this which could have non-library leadership but realistically that's a tough sell for libraries which can be very very strict about data hygiene as well as privacy. In fact I think current library privacy regs might actually be the larger stumbling block, now that i am thinking about it.