On July 12, we launched a new Tool Sharing Library in Burnsville with an open house. On Saturday afternoon, community members stopped by the library site at the St. Thomas Episcopal Church to check out the new venture. Volunteers also helped attendees repair tools from wheelbarrows and shovels to chainsaws.
What is a tool library? A tool library is much like a regular library, but instead of checking out books, members can borrow tools that are otherwise expensive, bulky to store, or get used so infrequently it’s hard to justify owning them individually.
The Dig In Tool Sharing Library focuses on carrying food-related tools to empower people to grow, harvest, and preserve food to increase our county’s food security and resiliency. We carry food preservation tools like canners, a large cider press, an Excalibur dehydrator, and a high-end meat grinder. Some of our gardening tools include precision seeders, broadforks, hoop benders for building hoop houses, tools for installing deer fencing, and much more! Check out our full inventory of loanable items at diginyancey.myturn.com.
The Tool Library also has a free section where folks can swap supplies related to gardening, food preservation, or even non-food tools. Members are encouraged to share their extra usable supplies like canning jars, fencing supplies like staples or stakes, insect row cover, or seed starting trays.
We believe that everyone has a right to eat well. By providing affordable access to specialized tools for gardening and food preservation, we hope to increase how much high-quality, local food is grown and consumed from backyard gardens and home kitchens. We also hope this library helps to build a community sharing economy to grow food security from the ground up!
The Tool Sharing Library is conveniently located in downtown Burnsville and is open multiple times a week so members can easily borrow and return their items. Membership fees are affordable and on a sliding scale from $30-50/year. Anyone can become a member and borrow tools to help garden, harvest, and preserve food.
We are also still accepting tool donations for the library. Reach out to Olivia Ramos at olivia@diginyancey.org to coordinate donations of tools aligned with the mission. We’d like to thank Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, John William Pope Foundation, and the Mountain Air Community Fund for supporting the launch of this Tool Sharing Library program.