The Library, Reimagined Daily
Your Library Has Never Been Only About Books
July 2026 | 5 minute read
In downtown Dallas, teens head up to the seventh floor of the public library, not for a quiet table or a stack of novels, but to slip into prom dresses. Out in suburban Denver, people who chase ghosts borrow EMF detectors and head off to see what’s hiding in the dark. And on Cape Cod, mushroom hunters grab mesh bags and field guides before they disappear into the trees.
None of this is hypothetical. The New York Times wrote about it recently while looking at the expanding “Library of Things” movement, the idea that libraries can lend far more than books or DVDs, tools, instruments, art, even experiences that many people wouldn’t be able to afford or justify buying.
It’s an easy story to like: access, shared resources, a public institution acting like it belongs to everyone. Still, if you’ve paid attention to libraries for any length of time, it doesn’t feel like a sudden reinvention. It feels like libraries being libraries.
The Idea Has Been Around for a Long Time
Calling it a trend makes it sound new, but the roots go back decades. Tool-lending libraries were already a thing around the World War II era. The Berkeley Tool Lending Library, now folded into the Berkeley Public Library system, has kept lending steadily since 1979. By 2024, more than 2,000 programs like this existed around the world.
The Times captured what draws people to it. Shannon Mattern, an author and former professor who studies libraries and public infrastructure, described it as “a reclamation of the commons.” That phrase lands because the reasoning underneath is both plain and familiar: why should every person have to own something they’ll only use once in a while?
What’s shifted isn’t the logic; it’s how many different objects that logic now applies to.
What Libraries Are Lending Now
The Times rounded up examples from across the country that show how far libraries have stretched the old model:
At the Brooklyn Public Library, patrons can borrow musical instruments, guitars, mandolins, violins, banjos, ukuleles, and electronic keyboards, giving people room to learn and experiment without having to buy or rent.
The Nashville Public Library lends original local artwork on three-month terms, including pieces that would otherwise be financially out of reach for many residents.
Near Denver, the Anythink library system puts together ghost-hunting kits stocked with EMF readers, infrared thermometers, digital voice recorders, and spirit boxes. The same system also lends Wi‑Fi hotspots, EnChroma glasses for color blindness, and air-quality testers.
In Clinton, New York, the Kirkland Town Library lends American Girl dolls, outfits, books, and a journal included, a choice the director summed up neatly: “libraries are all about leveling the playing field.”
Hotspot Lending, Where Libraries Meet the Connectivity Gap
One detail in the Anythink list deserves extra attention: Wi‑Fi hotspot lending. It’s often treated like a novelty inside the Library of Things conversation, but it’s not new at all. For more than a decade, it has been one of the clearest, most practical ways libraries help people right now.
It actually began here in our home state of Rhode Island. Back in 2012, Mobile Beacon joined forces with the Providence Community Library and tried something new, the first library hotspot lending program in the country. The concept was straightforward: if you didn’t have internet at home, you could “borrow the internet” by checking out a mobile hotspot, just like you’d check out a book. Simple on paper, it spurred on the adoption of programs that are changing people’s lives and opening doors to opportunity.
In 2014, Mobile Beacon partnered with Sprint, along with the New York Public Library, Queens Library, and Brooklyn Public Library, to roll out what was then the largest library hotspot lending program in the United States. It meant 10,000 4G LTE hotspots deployed across 88 branches throughout New York City’s five boroughs, reaching K–12 students and adults with low incomes.
Since then, the Public Library Association has put structure around the effort through its DigitalLead program, including a Hotspot Lending Playbook that shows libraries across the country how to start their own programs. Now, hotspot lending is just part of what many libraries offer, and that includes Rhode Island too, where both the Community Libraries of Providence and the Pawtucket Public Library continue to run active lending programs.
These aren’t trials or demos. They’re established services, built on the same basic idea that runs through every Library of Things shelf: what matters is access, not ownership, especially when the item is internet connectivity.
What It Adds Up To
The Times ends in Berkeley, in the tool-lending library that has helped residents repair, build, and create since 1979. One patron described borrowing tools over years to add 1,000 square feet under her house. “It was like having an adviser on construction,” she said.
That’s the same story in a different outfit. In Providence and Pawtucket, it’s there when someone checks out a hotspot so a kid can finish homework, someone can apply for work, or a patient can make a telehealth appointment. Lower the barrier, give people the means, trust them to share.
The Library of Things is finally getting a lot of attention, and it deserves it. But libraries, including Rhode Island’s, have known for a long time that “access over ownership” isn’t a slogan. It’s something you do.
