Globe’s Tool Lending Library

Excerpted from the December ‘League Of Arizona Cities and Towns’. The newsletter includes an interview with Globe Mayor, Fernando Shipley, and a feature story on our very own Tool Lending Library.
The City of Globe is offering its residents a unique resource. The Globe Tool Lending Library (TLL) is the only free, community-wide TLL in the state of Arizona. A TLL is a resource that provides local residents with access to various hand and power tools, ladders, gardening resources, and plumbing and electrical tools they might need to maintain and improve their homes and properties. Created on the same premise as a book-lending library, patrons are allowed to borrow tools for a few days at no cost unless the tools are returned late or damaged.

The Globe program was made available through a number of public-private partnerships. The City of Globe and numerous private citizens provided funds for tool purchase, Gila County provided funding for purchase of a 40-foot metal shipping container to serve as the tool shed, and the Historic Globe Main Street Program provided conceptual drawings to create a façade that would fit with historic district visual enhancement requirements.

Currently, the Globe TLL is housed at the Globe Senior Center where senior volunteers operate the library. Tools are checked out and tracked through the Gila County Library District (with an online catalog that includes the library’s tools). The Southern Gila County Economic Development Corporation has partnered with Globe to provide liability insurance and to help with non-profit status for additional funding opportunities.

Globe City Councilmember Thea Wilshire introduced the idea of a Tool Lending Library to Globe in 2003. It took more than five years to bring the concept to fruition and now the community is enthusiastically embracing this resource. This model has been successfully implemented in many other communities and is seen as an ideal resource for the area given Globe’s rural location and extended distance to large discount stores. It also gives the city an opportunity to reduce blight, which will encourage economic growth and increase community pride.

For more information on this program and tips on how to get one started in your community, please contact Councilmember Wilshire at 928-200-8733 or DrTheaW@yahoo.com.