We had another successful Repair Cafe on Feb 18th at Tytler Public School, organized in collaboration with Two Rivers Neighbourhood Group. This was the 3rd Repair Cafe, organized by the Guelph Tool Library. We had 3 volunteers who were helping with mending clothes, one jewelry repair volunteer, 2 computer repair volunteers, 8 volunteers who were Read more about The third Repair Cafe on Feb 18th[…]
Our resident librarian is at it again! Brandon is conducting an innovative new type of research to inform us about how the tool library can improve. Would you like to do an information horizon interview??? Sound cool? It is! The whole process takes less than 30 minutes, it’s wicked fun, and your input will shape Read more about Shape Your Tool Library![…]
I had the opportunity to showcase the Guelph Tool Library at my practicum student exhibition last week. The event also took place at the University of Toronto iSchool alongside the Special Libraries Canada conference also happening at that day. I spoke to dozens of people about the challenges and solutions we’d encountered in providing this service Read more about Special Libraries Exhibition @ UofT[…]
The second Repair Cafe (Santa’s workshop) took place on Dec 3rd at St James the Apostle Church from 9am to 1pm. We had more than 10 volunteer fixers and about 35 visitors. More than 25 items were fixed which otherwise would have been thrown in the landfill. Visitors and volunteers had a great time and there Read more about Dec 3rd Repair Cafe[…]
This has been a busy year for the newly formed Guelph Tool Library. We have managed in a very short time period to put together an interesting selection of tools, set up our location (123 Woolwich Street), develop our website/database and begin lending out tools. As our library is made up almost exclusively of donated Read more about A Reflection on Tool Pick Ups[…]
One of the toughest things to decide on for a community-minded, volunteer-run library is a collection development policy. I say for “a community-minded, volunteer-run” library with reason. Authoring a collection development policy is relatively easy for a more institutionalized library; the collections development librarian takes a look at his/her budget and says, “We’re drawing the Read more about Adventures in Collection Development[…]
Greetings, all! As the Guelph Tool Library’s one and only Librarian I felt the professional obligation to blog about my experiences setting up a library that was so different from any I’d previously managed –so different from most libraries managed throughout the history of librarianship. All my previous experience was with books and media of Read more about It’s Different From Books[…]
The first Guelph Repair Cafe was held on August 20th, 2016 at St James the Apostle church from 9 to 1. Volunteers helped fix broken and damaged clothes, jewelery, bikes, electrical appliances, wooden items, etc. Article about this event on Guelph Today. The Cafe also featured a Swap Table where participants brought items in good Read more about August 20, 2016 Repair Cafe[…]