Cachella Smith speaks to community facilitator Joe Duggan about Hackney Wick’s “Library of Things”, which is due to open in late spring.
Hackney Wick is looking forward to opening a Library of Things within the next few months. Based in The Baths on Eastway, the library will be the third of its kind in London. The other two can be found in Morden and Crystal Palace.
Joe Duggan, community facilitator, has been working with the Library of Things project since it began in May 2018 in Crystal Palace. Hackney Wick’s library will open with the support of three partners: Stour Studios, Sustainable Hackney and LLDC.
Duggan explains that the three co-founders, Emma Shaw, Rebecca Trevalyan and Sophia Wyatt, lived in small flats in London and started questioning why they were buying things that they needed only occasionally.
The co-founders first tested the idea out with neighbours, before creating a small prototype with two shipping containers, over 400 “things”, and 1,000 borrowers.
The Library of Things is exactly what it sounds like; a central hub where items that tend to be used only occasionally are loaned out to members of the community for a small fee. Items are sorted according to categories from DIY and cleaning to adventuring, where you might find a Go-Pro camera or camping equipment.
By way of example, Duggan says: “The average cordless drill is used for around 15 minutes during its lifetime – for the rest, it collects dust in a drawer, and then ends up in a landfill.”
The library has three key guiding principles, “affordability, space and the environment”, Duggan explains. “We do not need to purchase these things when we can own them as a community.”
The other Libraries of Things have also been able to host events including mending meet-ups and repair parties, with the foundational principle being to re-use and to break the consumer cycle.
Not only is the concept designed on practicalities but it provides a central space for the community.
Duggan says: “One of the key things is breaking down barriers as to why people do not use certain items. Not all of us, including myself, would be competent with a jig-saw. I would be fairly okay with a cordless drill, I would manage with a projector, but I am not too good with DIY. So, we encourage people to use more and to help one another also.”
