According to the ALA’s 2012 State of America’s Libraries report, more than two-thirds of the 9,000 or so libraries in the U.S. are lending out e-books. But as libraries try to expand their digital offerings — publishers are particularly wary of these institutions eating into e-book sales of new titles — many libraries have started lending offbeat, non-digital items too. A number of libraries now circulate cake pans, including the P.D. Brown Memorial Library in Waldorf, Maryland, and several branches of Iowa public libraries. The Lopez Island Library in Washington lends musical instruments, and Ohio’s Cuyahoga County Public Library has a toy-lending collection to promote active learning for children. Many of these unconventional items have been donated to their respective libraries by local community members. In Cicero, N.Y., LibraryFarm has turned a half-acre of land owned by the Northern Onondaga Public Library into a community garden, where anyone can “check out” a plot of land for free or work on a shared plot. With its mission to promote food literacy LibraryFarm also offers classes on composting, pest control, and recipes utilizing food from the garden.
How Libraries are Reinventing Themselves for the Future
Many branches of these public institutions are dying from lack of funding—and reinventing themselves in surprising new ways