About Community Library

I built Community Library because I noticed how many useful items sit unused in our homes for so much of the year. We all have occasionally used outdoor gear, party supplies, puzzles, board games, and more. Facebook Buy Nothing groups help move those items around a neighborhood, but also create a sense of urgency and scarcity around available items. Inspired both by the South Berkeley Tool Lending Library as well as Buy Nothing, I wanted to create a community view of available shared resources.

This community library started off as a simple Google Sheet. The community response was encouraging, with people adding backpacking gear, kids' ski gear, power tools, check-in luggage, ice cream makers, and so much more. This is the next step in making it even easier for communities to share resources.

Whether it's used for a neighborhood, a school, an apartment building, a group of friends, or an organization, my hope is that we can use what we already have and build stronger connections with the people around us.

Community Library is currently in beta. The platform allows communities to create shared inventories of borrowable items, with a simple request and approval system. Members can browse available items, send borrowing requests with messages, and coordinate pickups directly with item owners.

Key features that are live include:

• • Community-based item sharing with invite codes
• • Photo uploads and categorization for items
• • Request and approval workflow with messaging
• • Privacy-focused design (contact info shared only after approval)
• • Default pickup location management

The platform is completely free to use. If you'd like to contribute to development and hosting costs, you can donate here:

Some features that I imagine will be built soon or eventually, depending on user feedback:

• Community Creation: Currently, only I can create new communities. Once the inital bumps are smoothed out, any verified user will be able to create and manage their own communities, making it easier for neighborhoods, schools, and organizations to get started.
• Enhanced Communication: TBD whether this will mostly be off platform or if I'll build in full messaging in. Getting people off the platform and into each other's text and email inboxes also builds community.
• Mobile App: This would allow for easier photo uploading, which is one of the main strong points of FB groups. But I also don't like the constant checking for new stuff on groups and like the idea of this being a calmer, slower community space.
• Bulk-add items: This was super easy on the spreadsheet, so I want to make it as easy here, especially for items that are pretty self-explanatory (6-ft folding table, folding chair, etc).