By SHAYLA ESCUDERO/Lincoln Chronicle
NEWPORT – The shelf past the front counter of the Newport Public Library doesn’t hold books.
Standing on tipped toes, library director Laura Kimberly shuffles through neatly labeled storage containers to reveal a seemingly random assortment of items – a microscope, a bubble machine, mobile hotspots, board games and a beach clean-up kit.
“The library doesn’t just have books,” Kimberly said. “We want to allow people to borrow non-traditional items.”
The objects make up the city-run library’s newest collection – “The Library of Things.”
The items aren’t what most would typically associate with a library, but they were purchased with the same core belief as any book, magazine or film in circulation – to make learning accessible regardless of income and background.
There are over 100 items in the new collection, from musical instruments to gardening tools to electronics, Kimberly says as she thumbs through the pages of a binder that catalogs each item. There’s even a large canopy tent.
The catalog is how patrons can decide to check out items that librarians can then retrieve from the back shelves and storage closets for borrowers to take home.
“It removes the cost barriers. It promotes equity and encourages creativity too,” Kimberly said.
The collection is years in the making, with many of the items part of Kimberly’s annual trip to Mexico for the Guadalajara International Book Fair, where she stocks up on bilingual books, games and other materials.
Slowly over the past few years, librarians have built the collection, modeling after other libraries and using Newport demographics to decide what people might need or want to check out. For example, a fidget item with shoelaces, a timer and other tactile features helps people with memory loss. Other items are in Spanish and German because there are people in the community who speak those languages, Kimberly said.
Some of the items are meant to encourage early literacy or create better access to technology. Altogether, the cost of items in the Library of Things totals about $20,000, all of which came from donations to the library’s nonprofit Newport Public Library Foundation.
Popular items
By far, the most popular items are hotspots, said librarian Sarah Vaughn.
“We have a couple patrons that cannot afford Wi-Fi, so to be able to have that resource is really important,” she said.
Other items go beyond the practical. A patron recently borrowed one of the microscopes to observe tardigrates, aquatic microscopic creatures that live in most sources of water, she said. Already the telescope has been checked out several times to observe the night sky and the games are commonly checked out items.
Librarians are still logging all the items in the collection and more will be available in the coming months, including a giant Connect-4 game, laptop computers, kitchen wares, and a leaf blower.
Patrons with a valid Newport Public Library card can check out items from the Library of Things at the circulation desk. Patrons will fill out a lending agreement before borrowing for up to two weeks. There are no overdue fines — although late returns or damaged items will incur a replacement cost.
- Shayla Escudero covers Lincoln County government, education, Newport, housing and social services for Lincoln Chronicle and can be reached at Shayla@LincolnChronicle.org
