Tools, sports equipment, musical instruments - lending out these everyday objects is also very much in vogue and is therefore an innovative fact of life in the city library.

Borrowing instead of buying is the basic idea behind the "Library of Things" - the name of this special offer. All too often, expensive items are bought that are only needed sporadically. These items often take up a lot of space in the home and become a wasted resource because they are hardly used.

This library service offers a practical, economical and environmentally friendly alternative. The "Library of Things" is currently booming in almost all public libraries. In Salzgitter, it was launched back in April 2019 with the first items available to borrow. Since then, lots of useful items have been added to the first toys. Initially, the focus was on items for leisure activities and birthday parties, but more and more everyday items have been added.

While play and sports equipment such as stilts, pedalos, badminton, soccer goals, throwing games or giant halma form the classic range of this division, there are now some real "sweets". New additions to the range include a drill, ice cream maker, foldable handcart, large cooking pot, glue gun, red light lamp, locating device, microscope, walkie-talkie, piano dance mat and electricity cost meter. The "Library of Things" in the Salzgitter City Library contains over 100 items.

"It's not just nice to have something like this on offer, it also contributes to sustainability and environmentally conscious consumption. This is very important to us, also because we have chosen sustainability as our overarching theme for the year," says Sylvia Fiedler. "If you borrow, you throw away less and why buy when borrowing is so easy," says the head of the city library, citing other good reasons. That's why the library was happy to think creatively about which items could be useful for readers in addition to leisure items.

The items from the are available in all three buildings, can be borrowed for two weeks with a valid library card and can be reserved like all other media.

It's definitely worth browsing and looking through the city library's offerings. "With the 'Library of Things', we are once again underlining that the team at the city library is committed to diversity and progress," adds deputy director Barbara Henning.