All over the world, sharing projects are providing people an opportunity to access things, rather than own them. This contributes to a much fairer and sustainable distribution of resources, while avoiding a lot of waste and creating potential for communities to connect more.
At the Network of Wellbeing, we’re proud to be contributing with this movement via our project Share Shed – A Library of Things, and by supporting the co-creation of a network of sharing libraries in the country.
The Emergence of a Network
The UK Sharing Library Network is a growing movement of over 50 sharing libraries across the UK, building upon the work done in all four UK nations.
Many of us have different business and operating models, reflecting the different communities we work with. Some of us lend out things from a mobile van that tours rural towns, some from self-serve borrowing kiosks in city centre libraries, some alongside makerspaces and repair cafes in town centre hubs.
We’re united by a shared mission: we want to make it easy and accessible for everyone to borrow useful items at low cost, by collectively growing the movement of sharing libraries across the UK.
Skillshare on How To Set Up and Run a Sharing Library
In light of the interest from people across the world wanting to know more about the ins and outs involved in setting and running a sharing library, we’re running a couple of free online events to share our learnings: Ask the UK Sharing Libraries Network.
The first event will be on 4th February, from 12h to 1pm (UK time), with the Share Shed (the world’s first mobile library of things), Music Broth (Scotland’s musical instrument library), Kloth Tool Library and Benthyg Cymru (Wales’ library of things). Register for this event here.
The second event will be on 1st April, from 12h to 1pm (UK time), with Glasgow Tool Library, Liverpool Tool Library, and Borrow Don’t Buy (Plymouth’s library of things). Register for this event here.
Going Forward
We hope to share more resources in the future, while working with communities and inspiring change, helping people save money, storage space and resources.