Contact: Elliot Warren
Acting Director of Library Services
Berkeley Public Library
510-981-6195
ewarren@cityofberkeley.info
BERKELEY PUBLIC LIBRARY’S BELOVED TOOL LENDING LIBRARY TO EXPAND HOURS
Celebrating 40 Years of Service to the Community on August 3 from 10am-12noon
Berkeley, California (July, 26, 2019) – Beginning this August, Berkeley Public Library’s Tool Lending Library will now be open on Mondays, expanding service hours to 40 hours per week. The Library will host a celebration of the increased hours on Saturday, August 3, 2019 from 10am-12pm in front of the Tool Lending Library. Enjoy coffee and light refreshments, meet staff, see examples of projects completed using the Library’s tools, and hear from local officials about the unique history of this beloved Berkeley institution that has served the community for over 40 years.
Following the morning celebration, stay for the always popular Tool Lending Library’s Fixit Clinic. From 12noon-3pm Fixit coaches will share tools and expertise. Bring broken electronic gadgets, fabric items, appliances, computers, toys, sewing machines, bicycles, and other items that needing fixing.
Started in 1979 with 500 tools and one employee, the Tool Lending Library now circulates over 4,500 tools and has three dedicated employees. Patrons of the Tool lending Library may borrow traditional tools such as electric snakes, cement mixers, hand trucks, pipe threaders, circular saws, sanders, drills, wheelbarrows, post hole diggers and hedge trimmers as well as smart phone and tablet repair tools for electronics and bike repair tools.
“Over the last two years we have increased the budget for the Tool Lending Library over 10% to expand the collection and the quality of tools in the collection. Providing Monday hours is the next step in offering excellent service to our community,” explains Elliot Warren, Acting Director of Library Services.
The expanded hours for the Tool Lending Library is the Library’s response to requests from patrons and, in particular, from the findings of the Community Survey the Library conducted this past spring. President of the Board of Library Trustees, Diane Davenport, notes, “expanding the hours of the Tool Lending Library is a result of the public requesting more open hours, of the Tool staff supporting the public’s request, of Administration and the Unions figuring out how to best accommodate the staff and the public, and of the Library Board budgeting for the open hours. It is absolutely a win, win situation for all.”
The Library is also expanding programming at the Tool Lending Library. “In the coming months we will offer more frequent DIY and repair programs with a diversity of offerings from gardening programs to cheese-making workshops to tool sharpening clinics to bike repair sessions,” says Acting Director Warren. “More programs like these, coupled with the new Monday hours, provide increased opportunities for our patrons to access valuable services, information and resources which is the core of our mission here at Berkeley Public Library.”
The Tool Lending Library is housed in the Tarea Hall Pittman South Branch which is located at 1901 Russell Street. Effective August 1, 2019 the hours for the Tool Lending Library are Monday & Tuesday 10am-6pm; Wednesday & Thursdays 12noon-8pm; Friday & Saturday 10am-6pm.
For questions regarding the August 3 celebration and the FixIt Clinic, contact Tarea Hall Pittman South Branch Manager Dan Beringhele at 510-981-6265.
Wheelchair accessible. For questions, to request a sign language interpreter or other accommodations for this event, please call (510) 981-6195 (voice) or (510) 548-1240 (TTY); at least five working days will help ensure availability. Please refrain from wearing scented products to public programs. Visit the library’s website: www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org.
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