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Oakland Tool Lending Library Looks to Branch Out

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By Liam Curley
Oakland Local

The Oakland Tool Lending Library, in the city's Temescal neighborhood. (Glyphjockey.com via Oakland Local)
The Oakland Tool Lending Library, in the city's Temescal neighborhood. (Glyphjockey.com via Oakland Local)

Maybe it’s the cold weather or the leaves piling up, but the Temescal Tool Lending Library in North Oakland is bustling with weekend warriors borrowing rakes, saws, and hammers. You can tell when Oakland’s feeling industrious: Outside the library, the horseshoe-shaped bike racks are yarn bombed. Temescal is one of the busier branches, a clinker brick Carnegie library on the corner of 52nd Street and Telegraph Avenue. The tool lending library is tucked at the back of the building, a neat mishmash of repair manuals and wound-up tools hanging from pegboards.

It’s a small space for such a busy operation. Ty Yurgelevic, the library’s manager, thinks they can do better but stays positive. “Right now, we’re dealing with success.”

The fact is, the tool lending library is long overdue for a bigger space. This month, Oakland City Council member Rebecca Kaplan and the Director of Library Services Gerry Garzon are working with the Friends of the Tool Lending Library to draft a budget request to expand and relocate the facility.

The tool lending library started in 2000 with a city Community Development Block Grant of $81,000. In its first month, the library checked out 51 tools in its first month. This October, it checked out 4,500. The library has seen a 32 percent increase in usage in the past year, with 175 new registrations each month on average. Yet Yurgelevic is the only full-time employee, along with four part-time workers and many volunteers. While the library has better systems for tracking the tools and putting tools on hold, it’s running at capacity. Take weed-whackers, the most in-demand tool. Typically, there's a wait list of 50 people trying to get their hands on one of the library's 18 to 20 weed-whackers.

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Jon Eldan, chair of the Friends of the Tool Lending Library, says the next expansion will be twofold, focusing on efficiency and access. With more room, he says, the staff could handle more tools and more patrons. By finding a bigger location, at least 900 square feet, near public transit with increased parking, the library would become more central and help more of Oakland. Eldan adds that it’s important to think ahead to see the full potential of the library, not only as tool supplier but as a workshop and community hub. “If I’m going to devote the time to get into a new space,” Eldan says, “I’m going to think about making it work for everyone.”

It is unclear what will happen if a new spot is not identified by the time the budget request goes through. The tool lending library is working with Oakland’s Real Estate Department to find a location that meets these priorities without putting to much stress on the city.

“Everyone seems to understand what a great idea the tool lending library is,” Eldan says, “It’s just showing them how much it actually affects people.” He points to construction job training and build-outs by local small businesses, bikes shops and coffee shops, in North Oakland.

The tool lending library has also worked with volunteer organizations like Scenic Streets and Rebuilding Together Oakland to make safer, thriving neighborhoods.

Eldan says that by making tools available, the library empowers residents, helps local businesses (tool borrowers still need to buy nails and other materials) and can have a wider impact in the community.

It’s said that if one window in a house gets broken, it’s more likely vandalism will escalate, more windows will be broken. The Tool Lending Library works on a “reverse broken window theory,” Eldan says.

If one house or yard is fixed up or rehabilitated, it can lead to dozens of improvement projects across a neighborhood. By finding a new space for the library, he says, they’re showing Oakland there’s a future to build.

The Tool Lending Library is located at the Temescal Branch of the Oakland Public Library: 5205 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Branch hours are listed below.

Sunday–Monday: Closed
Tuesday: 12:30 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Wednesday: 10 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Thursday: 10 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Friday: Noon–5:30 p.m.
Saturday: 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.

This post was first published by KQED News Associate Oakland Local.

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