Library of Things Returns with New Things & an Easy Reservation System
Posted on June 15, 2022 at 6:00 am
By Gwendolyn Haley
Did you know you can check out a telescope, Instant Pot, educational toys, tools, and electronic equipment from the library?
We’ve been adding more and more non-book items to our collection to help you learn, work, create, and thrive. As the Library of Things collection continues to grow, you’ll find interesting new things to explore.
Updated Reservation System
It is now easier and more convenient to explore and reserve things using the My Turn catalog for many of the Things you can check out. With an in-district library card, you can reserve items in advance for 7 days, selecting the timeframe when you want to use them.
The convenience of this new catalog can help you plan ahead to get the most out of these items, as long as items aren’t already reserved.
For example, if you want to get a good look at the annual Perseid meteor shower in August, you can reserve one of the Orion Telescopes in advance. If you are hoping to take new family photos at a summer reunion, you can reserve a DSLR camera for the event.
Things to Check Out
Our Family Museum Passes and other cultural passes are part of the Library of Things and available on our Museum & Cultural Passes web page.
We have STEM activity kits for kids and families to explore available for check out from our online catalog. For preschool-aged children and their families, the Ready for School with STEM kits each contain a book, activity guide, and toys or manipulatives—blocks, coins, puzzles, and so on—that help demonstrate a concept to develop skills to get ready for school.
For elementary-school age kids, we have added STEM Explorer Kits on a variety of topics, such as human anatomy, exploring the outdoors, astronomy, and robotics.
You can check out an Avista Energy Efficiency Kit to help you track down the energy vampires in your home and save money on your electric bill.
If you enjoy DIY projects, crafting, or cooking, you can check out:
Our Project Memory items include electronic tools to help you convert older film, video, photo, and audio formats to new digital formats, such as VHS or 8mm film to digital, so you can preserve and share your memories anew.
Our Library of Things also offers some larger, specialty items:
- Video production equipment with lights and cameras
- Classroom set of Snap Circuits
- A 10-tub set of LEGO bricks
- Family construction zone blocks
- Skull replicas from the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History
I hope you browse our Library of Things and find something new to try.
Tags: adults, kids, Library of Things, parents, teens, things, tweens
