The Brick House was a social center in Louisville, Kentucky that was inspired by and modeled upon ABC No Rio in New York City. The Brycc House was organized in "Do-It-Yourself" (DIY) volunteer working groups to support community based projects. The project contained groups in areas that worked with art, music, bike repairs, radio station, photography, internet access, comics, gardening, power saving practices, entrepreneurship, a lending library, a free clothing closet, and maintenance of the building.
Yad Sarah is the largest national volunteer organization in Israel. Employing over 6,000 volunteers, with a salaried staff of 150, Yad Sarah serves over 350,000 clients each year. It is best known for its free loans of over 244,000 pieces of medical and rehabilitative home-care equipment annually, enabling sick, disabled, elderly and recuperating patients to live at home. This saves the country's economy an estimated $320 million in hospital fees and long-term care costs each year.
ToolBank USA is a not-for-profit organization based in Atlanta, Georgia with a mission to strengthen local communities through the establishment of ToolBank affiliates across the United States and the provision of infrastructure to support affiliates. ToolBank USA affiliates are tool lending resources that serve charitable organizations in their metropolitan areas. ToolBank USA affiliates are stand-alone entities not consolidated with the ToolBank USA. ToolBank USA was established as a not-for-profit organization on March 27, 2008, in Georgia.
The Royal Corps of Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers is a corps of the Australian Army that has responsibility for the maintenance and recovery of all Army electrical and mechanical equipment. RAEME has members from both the Australian Regular Army and the Army Reserve.
The Crucible is a nonprofit industrial arts school in Oakland, California, United States. Established in Berkeley in 1999, the institute was moved to its present location in 2003.
A hackerspace is a community-operated, often "not for profit", workspace where people with common interests, such as computers, machining, technology, science, digital art, or electronic art, can meet, socialize, and collaborate. Hackerspaces are comparable to other community-operated spaces with similar aims and mechanisms such as Fab Lab, men's sheds, and commercial "for-profit" companies.
HacDC is a hackerspace in Washington, D.C., and a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. According to one member's description, "HacDC members improve the world by creatively rethinking technology. We break, build, and occasionally abuse technology in the pursuit of greater knowledge about how it works and re-purpose it to build new things." In March 2009, its activities were described by The Washington Post. In April 2011, its activities were also mentioned by FastCompany., and NPR's All Tech Considered.
A bicycle cooperative can take the many forms of the cooperative model. These often include co-ops composed of businesses to achieve economies of scale, co-ops managed by those who work at the business, and bicycle co-ops owned and managed by the cyclists that use their services. To date, many bicycle co-ops have taken the form of community bike shops and cooperatives organized to give the local bike shop national scale and buying power.
A tool library or shared workshop is an example of a library of things. Tool libraries allow patrons to check out or borrow tools, equipment and "how-to" instructional materials, functioning either as a rental shop, with a charge for borrowing the tools, or more commonly free of charge as a form of community sharing. A tool library performs the following main tasks:
Occupy Sandy was an organized relief effort created to assist the victims of Hurricane Sandy in the northeastern United States. Like other Occupy Movement offshoots, such as Occupy Our Homes, Occupy University, Occupy the SEC, and Rolling Jubilee, Occupy Sandy was made up of former and present Occupy Wall Street protesters, other members of the Occupy movement, and former non-Occupy volunteers. The effort worked in partnership with many local community organizations in New York City and New Jersey and has focused on mutual aid in affected communities rather than charity, and long-term rebuilding for more robust, sustainable neighborhoods.
The Musical Electronics Library is a lending library of homemade electronic musical devices in Auckland and Wellington, New Zealand, and is a worldwide leader in the Scavengetronica movement.
Toronto Tool Library (TTL) is a tool library system based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Tool libraries loan specialized tools for both experienced and inexperienced community members who are interested in home repair, maintenance, building projects, community projects, gardening and landscaping. In The Kitchen Library, small to medium-sized appliances are loaned for cooking and baking, serving equipment, culinary workshops. It partnered with the Toronto Public Library in 2015.
Vancouver Tool Library (VTL) is Canada’s original tool lending library system based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Halifax Tool Library (HTL) is a tool lending library based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Members pay an annual subscription and may borrow specialized tools for home repair, maintenance, building projects, community projects, gardening and landscaping. The HTL is a registered Non Profit community organization in Nova Scotia. The HTL offers standard, Student/Low-Income option, and organizational memberships to non-profits and small businesses. The HTL is supported by the HRM Capital Grant program, Dalhousie University student union, the Veith House Society, Ecology Action Centre, Parker Street food & furniture bank, Forest Friend, Bike Again, North Brewing Company, Catalyst, Fusion HFX, Deiter's tool and Saw.
Calgary Tool Library (CTL) is a tool lending public library system based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Tool libraries loan specialized tools for both experienced and inexperienced community members who are interested in home repair, maintenance, building projects, community projects, gardening and landscaping. Makerspaces provide access to tools and resources and host planned programming, workshops, free play and community group times related to making, DIY, and innovation. The CTL offers tool library memberships to any resident of Calgary and area and to organizations. The CTL is supported by The Calgary Foundation, First Calgary Financial, Brookfield Residential, and Remington Development Corporation.
London Tool Library (LTL) is a tool library based in London, Ontario, Canada.
Cornwall Tool Library (CTL) is a tool lending public library system based in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada. Tool libraries loan specialized tools for both experienced and inexperienced community members who are interested in home repair, maintenance, building projects, community projects, gardening and landscaping. The CTL is a part of the Resource-Based Economy Group (RBEG), a registered Canadian non-profit, is responsible for the operations and management of the CTL. The CTL offers standard memberships to community members over 18 years of age.
Eugene Weavers' Guild is a non-profit organization of weavers, spinners, and other fiber artists in Eugene, Oregon, in the U.S. It was founded in 1946 and has been meeting monthly for more than seventy years. As of 2016, the Guild included 85 members, ranging in skill from hobbyist to professional weavers, from Eugene, Springfield, and rural communities of surrounding Lane County, Oregon, USA. The Guild sponsors workshops, a lending library, skill demonstrations in a variety fiber arts, equipment sharing, and events to raise funds for local charities.
A library of things is any collection of objects loaned, and any organization that practices such loaning. Objects often include kitchen appliances, tools, gardening equipment and seeds, electronics, toys and games, art, science kits, craft supplies, musical instruments, and recreational equipment such as sports and outdoors gear. Especially appropriate are objects that are useful occasionally but cumbersome to store, such as specialized cookware or niche technology items. Collections vary widely, but go far beyond the books, journals, and media that have been the primary focus of traditional libraries.
The Carpentries is a nonprofit organization that teaches software engineering and data science skills to researchers through instructional workshops. The Carpentries is made up of three programs areas: Software Carpentry, Data Carpentry and Library Carpentry.
