'Library of Things': What a novel idea

YOU NEED to cut some tiles, you have a baby, you break a leg. Hopefully not all at once, of course, but it does mean you'll need an angle-grinder or tile-cutter, a pram and cot and baby-carrier – and to employ someone to do your sleeping for you, as you won't be doing much of your own – crutches, maybe a wheelchair depending upon how bad the fracture is.

In short, stuff you need to buy, ranging from inconvenient expenses through to crippling costs involving a second mortgage.

Then, when Baby is on his or her feet and keeping you in a permanent game of 'chase', 'catch', and 'don't touch that because owww', your leg heals enough for you to take part in said chasing, and those tiles are now attractively fixed to the wall, those crucial bits of equipment that depleted or emptied your savings are gathering dust in a spare room.

At some point, you might get around to selling them on eBay, recouping a fraction of your outlay and having the hassle of arranging courier firms and getting quotes so you can accurately price delivery costs for your eventual buyer.

Or if it's something that isn't likely to sell and you can't find someone else who might need it, you'll probably, at some point, call the council to arrange an 'eco-park pick-up', or just dump it in a bin yourself.

All that money, for something you'll use once or, at best, for a few months, only to end up in landfill, polluting the atmosphere and contributing to climate change.

'Object-o-thèque'

A group of residents in a Barcelona neighbourhood came up with the solution in January 2020, and what started out as a community project has now spread all over the city and to other parts of Spain. 

La Biblioteca de les Coses – in catalán; in Spanish it would be La Biblioteca de las Cosas – translates literally as 'The Library of Things' and is, according to project leader Eli Miralles, 'an object-o-thèque' or 'objetoteca'. 

This comes from a word-play on biblioteca, meaning 'library' – the biblio bit refers to 'books' – and 'objeto', or 'object'. 

So its purpose is exactly what you'd expect: A municipal building where you can 'borrow' things in the same way as you'd take a book out of a library, then bring it back after a set period.

Backed by the PSOE, or socialist party's Sustainability department head Antonio Giraldo, a specialist in the circular economy, the 'Library of Things' has now expanded to other parts of Barcelona, including the Ciutat Vella and Ciutat Meridiana.

Once news of the idea got around, others began opening in towns and villages in the nearby shire of Alt Penedès, and in summer 2021, the town council in Arroyo de la Luz in the land-locked western-Spain province of Cáceres, Extremadura, sought advice from the Barcelona creators with a view to setting up their own.

Smaller, local schemes among groups of students or a handful of neighbours are operated in Galicia, although as a specific public entity that anyone can just wander into and become a member of, the Biblioteca de les Coses has proven a pioneer nationwide.

How it works

Nearly 300 people have used the Biblioteca de les Coses since it opened two-and-a-half years ago, and as different modes of membership are in place, they range from habitual borrowers through to passing holiday-home owners who just need an electric screwdriver to put up a shelf on their latest visit.

At 'user' level, members do not pay a subscription, but rent items they need for a symbolic fee – typically as low as €1 to €5 for the week – or at 'friend' level, they pay €10 which enables them to borrow goods worth up to €12 in 'user' hire fees.

You can also be a 'superfriend', which costs €20 and allows you to rent out items totalling up to €24 in borrowing fares.

For those who know they need to borrow a hand-held DIY tool but have no idea how to use it and are faced with paying a builder's or handyman's call-out just to hang up a picture, the Biblioteca de les Coses runs regular workshops.

Here, you can learn how to use a sewing machine, an electric screwdriver, drill, or how to repair items to prolong their lives or restore them to give them a new life rather than sending them to the local tip.

Each workshop costs €3, but those with a 'friend' or 'superfriend' subscription get a discount.

You can't retire on the income, but it's a 'crucial public service'

Given that the hire prices are, necessarily, low – otherwise, there'd be no point in borrowing; you might as well just buy your own – the 'Library of Things' is not a profit-making enterprise and, in fact, barely breaks even.

Eli Miralles says the income only just, in a good month, covers the salary of a contract employee working there 15 hours a week, plus the items for rent themselves when they wear out, or extras for restocking popular ones, and maintenance where they need checks or repairs.

But Barcelona council is so keen on the idea that it gives the 'Library of Things' an annual grant.

Items are sometimes donated by residents, or bought from them, and the organisers are working on a long-term deal with the local Refuse Agency which would guarantee them set funding every year in the local budget.

After all, as Eli Miralles points out, the 'Library of Things' is a 'public service' and, 'if governments really believe in the ecological transition process, they need to put their money where their mouth is and back schemes like this'.

Who borrows, and what do they borrow?

The most popular items taken out on loan are typically steam-cleaners or pressure-washers, hoovers, sewing machines, crutches, walking frames, drills, wheelbarrows, electric saws, or loudspeakers.

Around 400 different objects feature in the catalogue, and are normally lent for a week as standard, but this time period is flexible – it may only be needed for one day and storage could be impossible, such as a child car seat when you have friends or family with kids visiting from abroad, or hi-fi gear for a one-off party or event; otherwise, you might need it for longer if your broken leg is going to take a month or two to fully mend and rely on a walking frame meanwhile.

Women tend to be the most frequent borrowers, and normally those of an age who have been living independently for enough of their lives to have figured out what they can do themselves rather than hiring a specialist, and how to do it, but just need the tools.

Around 72% of library users are female and aged between 40 and 60, says Eli Miralles.

And recent statistics have shown that, with soaring price-led inflation since the end of 2021, coupled with the uncertainty of the first two years of the decade over finances due to the pandemic, nearly half of Spain's residents seriously consider buying second-hand goods rather than new whenever they need or want to make a purchase.

A foreign concept that's crossing borders

Although the Barcelona Biblioteca de les Coses is a trailblazer in Spain, it's not actually a brand-new idea on a global scale. 

Even the name isn't a Barcelona original – it's a literal translation of the English, as the concept of a 'Library of Things' is already a 'thing' in Anglo-Saxon countries, such as the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and the UK, to a greater or lesser degree.

This is in keeping with the much more prevalent and deep-rooted culture in these nations of buying and selling second-hand goods, charity shops, and house-clearance shops; the online auction site eBay was launched in the US, and Amazon's sellers who shift second-hand items were also first introduced in the States.

Spain's charity shop culture has mainly grown from foreign communities, although nowadays, customers and volunteers are just as likely to be locally-born; until fairly recently, unwanted goods were either given free to friends or family, dropped off at a clothing bank, or simply dumped.

“The Library of Things concept works very well and has been in place for much longer in the Anglo-Saxon world,” says Eli Miralles.

“We were completely unfamiliar with such a system in Spain, so we decided that, in the context of circular economy needs, it would be the answer to efficient use of resources.”

It seems this has, indeed, been the case so far: Since January 2020, the Biblioteca de les Coses has made 384 hires of items, and prevented nearly four tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and over 1.5 tonnes of landfill waste.

The aforementioned Antonio Giraldo said the idea was 'really cool' (un concepto muy chulo) and that informal versions could be created by any local community or, on urbanisations and in apartment blocks with an established freehold community, within these – in the case of the latter, everyone chipping in small amounts for necessary DIY tools means being able to buy top-of-the-range versions that would last longer and be easier to use.

Questioned whether such a scheme, either merely among locals or an official, council-backed concept, would be open to abuse, or about problems with breakdowns, non-returns, and general maintenance, Giraldo says: “The proof is in how your traditional libraries work.

“People have been borrowing library books for centuries, and it's always worked out fine.”