Branches across the country offer supplies and classes to help novices or those who don’t want to spring for an expensive power tool a way to take on home improvement.
Acacia Thompson went to the second-floor storage room at her job and grabbed a hammer drill so she could demonstrate how to use it.
But Ms. Thompson doesn’t work at a hardware store. She’s a librarian.
It was May 2024, the Brooklyn Public Library’s Greenpoint branch had recently opened a small tool library and word had begun to spread. On this day, Ms. Thompson recalled, she helped a woman who wanted to hang some pictures on a brick wall.
“She held the drill and said, ‘I can do this,’” Ms. Thompson said. “It was very meaningful. It’s akin to saying, ‘I love this book’ or ‘I can recommend another book for you.’ It’s empowering people with information on how they can take care of things on their own.”
For both renters and homeowners, the desire to spruce up their living quarters has only grown since pandemic lockdowns spurred people to channel their newfound downtime at home into D.I.Y. projects.
But purchasing a power tool for a one-time repair job, let alone figuring out where to store it, can be impractical for those on tight budgets and limited space. And repairing the tool when it breaks down is almost impossible.
