We want to bring you a bit closer to some of the folks that help make The Edinburgh Tool Library the special place that it is, and shine a light on some of the unsung volunteers, characters and creatives that help to build our community. First up, is Zoe Ugne, who volunteers every Wednesday, yet is probably not someone you will have ever met at the Tool Library.
Tell us a bit about yourself, what do you do, how are you creative, and what do you do at ETL?
I’m a graphic designer, specialising in branding. My studio is called Studio Zo and in a few months it will be one year old! I help ETL with their graphics – brand guidelines, print design and making sure their visual identity game is strong and uniform.
Who is your inspiration? Where does your creativity come from?
I have an older sister and I grew up constantly trying to reach her level of skill and creativity. We went into slightly different directions – she’s an interior designer and I’m a graphic designer – but we still fuel each other’s creativity. Nowadays I’m inspired by those slow, beautiful moments… #daysofsimplethings
Why do you think sharing/the ETL ethos is important in the modern world?
A few important reasons: we are One and we should share – kindness, love and tools; there’s too many of us and we can’t keep making things, we need to think about our impact on this planet. The reality is that Earth would thrive without us.
Zoe at her desk that she upcycled at ETL, with help from Jonny and our volunteers
Why is volunteering important to you?
Because it’s about giving. Giving more allows us to feel more connected to our community and the world, it’s healthy.
Lockdown is a bit of a weird time. How are you keeping busy? What creative outlets do you have?
Keeping busy keeps us ‘asleep’. I think it is important to use this time now to slow down, look within, face our fears and grow. I am hoping that we will come out of this having more compassion and appreciation for each other and ourselves. I do, however, like structuring my day for work, exercise, chores (but also leaving space for breaks, meditation, reading).
We are all getting used to our ‘new normal’, but once the health crisis is over, how do you want the world to change? What should the new ‘new normal’ look like?
I want us all to appreciate and love nature and our planet more. To understand that slow living is good for the soul. To stop being rats in a maze and start living authentically, stop escapism. To observe our ego and no longer let it drive, put it in the back seat. To stop mindless consumerism, to stop numbing ourselves and to feel more accountability.
If readers want to follow or commission your work, how do they find out more about you/get in touch with you?
Email me at hi@studio-zo.com and I’ll get right back to you. My new website will launch soon but in the meantime have a look at my Instagram @studiozo_design
It’s Volunteers’ Week; a time to celebrate and say thank you to all volunteers around the UK, and here in the Edinburgh Tool Library (ETL) we didn’t want to miss this chance to share with everyone how amazing our volunteers are. Or as we like to call them, our Tooligans.
To get an idea of how much Tooligan power helps ETL, you should know that more than 2400 people have signed up as members since we started and more than 850 are currently active, borrowing a tool every 5 minutes we’re open. With just 40 regular Tooligans, commiting a few hours a week, with others joining the action as and when they are needed, the volunteer team is at the core of ETL activities and running. We are grateful for them every day of the year (although it is nice to have a special occasion to say it louder than usual!!!). Volunteers run the borrowing sessions, support members at the open workshops, repair tools, update the database, help with community builds and so many other things to help Edinburgh to make the most of its Tool Library.
On the team you can find women and men of all ages and walks of life. From those in their teenage years to those in their not-so-teenage years, locals, or people hailing from overseas, expert woodworkers, DIY fans or newbies who previously thought routers were only things that gave you the internet. Some have been volunteering since we opened, showing their commitment to ETL and their shared values but also demonstrating that it is a valuable and enjoyable experience for them – they keep coming back! Many Tooligans are relatively new, but the number of volunteer submissions growing steadily is a sign that word of sharing is spreading and taking root in our community.
Over the last year the Tooligans have, amongst many other things:
Led the borrowing sessions at the depot and the police box in Leith
Supported members in over 100 open sessions at the Custom Lane workshop
Helped design and refit the Portobello workshop
Supported the running of Porty workshop and tool library twice a week
Taught and assisted in over 40 evening classes
Undertaken volunteer build weekends for the Piershill Residents Association and the Duddingston Conservation Society, building outdoor furniture, bird tables, potting sheds and vegetable shop!
But, why they do it? Many come to make new friends and to feel part of a community of likeminded people with shared values, both social and environmental. Some enjoy the opportunity to learn new skills from fellow volunteers or members. For some people volunteering is a window to connect with the world in a different way, allowing them to overcome their struggles with mental health through helping others. And there is always the act of sharing: sharing experiences, sharing knowledge, sharing spaces, sharing tools, sharing moments, sharing laughs and fun.
As for myself, I learned about ETL a year ago after deciding that I should give back to the community that has welcomed me. I visited Volunteer Edinburgh, where they helped me to find the right place to start my volunteering journey. On my first meeting with ETL and hearing about the philosophy and values of the organisation, I knew I was already one of them, even if my experience with drills and hammers was quite limited at the time. And so my Tooligan story began. I know it is not going to be a short one!
Whatever the reason, every contribution is invaluable and without it ETL would not be possible. If you are around one of our locations this Volunteer’s Week, don’t forget to show your appreciation to our Tooligans. You can simply say thanks or leave a few words in the Volunteer Thanks Books that you will see appearing in our workshops and depot. Volunteers are essential to keep improving your community, helping you with your DIY, and keeping your Tool Library with its doors wide open for everyone.
Young Syrian refugees on the island of Samos in Greece, using donated ETL tools transported by Edinburgh Direct Aid.
There’s a lot happened at the Edinburgh Tool Library over the past couple years and thanks to our growing team, I am finally able to take a moment and get my thoughts together.
First and foremost, I am incredibly proud of what ETL has become, and is continuing to be. Three years ago, my spare room was full of tools, and I’d drag a big bag to the police box on Leith Walk once a week.
Today, we have: a staff team of six, two workshops in Leith and Portobello, and three other tool library spaces for tool repair, cataloguing and distribution. We recently completed a week of fourteen workshop classes, we run a volunteer build programme, a Tools for Life mentorship scheme for young people, the ‘Young Tooligans’ schools programme, a Creative Edinburgh nominated mobile bike kitchen and have an amazing team of over 40 volunteers.
These resources mean:
There are 750 hours of free workshop access
1000 tools are available to borrow
2100 members, of which 700 are active use ETL
We lend out a tool every 5 minutes we are open
We have completed 8000 tool loans
We have saved our members over £400,000
Our members carbon footprint has been reduced by 50t in the last 18 months
We provided 30 courses training people in a variety of different woodworking and DIY skills
For me, the mission of the Edinburgh Tool Library isn’t focused just on an environmental or community message. We can’t be pigeon-holed into offering one solution when we believe our offering is holistic and multi-faceted. We work with members of the general public, but we also have partnerships with groups that target particular disadvantaged groups. We work with other charities to address challenges our communities face, but also need to reach our own targets. We are Edinburgh based, but we also help people as far as the Greek refugee camps, and even Tanzania.
In addition to our day-to-day work, we feel strongly in challenging the government and funding bodies to support organisations who tackle many challenges, avoiding a single track approach. We know that tools are universal. Our mission at the Tool Library appeals to diverse groups of people from different backgrounds. That is why we are unique and so, so special.
We want to see a Scotland where sharing is a core value. We want our children and communities to embody the ethos that sharing is caring.
As the circular economy ‘butterfly’ diagram from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation shows, sharing is the optimal way of reducing environmental impact (on the diagram, the smaller the loop, the smaller the environmental impact). According to recent research (link), we have 12 years to get our act together to minimise catastrophic climate change yet we focus so much of our efforts on the widest loop in the circular economy.
We were pleased to see that the Scottish Government received recognition at the 2017 Davos World Economic Forum for its adoption of circular economy principles, but we want Scotland to keep pushing forward. Why are we so keen to fund recycling projects, when the best thing is not to create that waste in the first place? The focus should be on the tighter loops, of maintenance, sharing and reuse, which are areas led by community organisations, not large recycling firms.
We want to be part of a Scotland that supports smaller organisations to follow best practice to have the largest impact possible, and in that is the key. At the Circular Economy Hotspot conference, Janez Poticnik, Co-Chair of the UN Resource Panel, said that at a global level, there “should be a particular focus on the social aspects of circular economy processes (employment, inclusiveness, local benefits) which are crucial for better acceptance of the circular economy.”
This is exactly what ETL does – we benefit the community we are in, and people see the benefits – they are tangible. This then gives us a platform to talk about the relationship with the circular economy, and sustainable living.
Edinburgh Tool Library is already making a difference. We are following the butterfly diagram from inside to out, and are researching ways in which we can refine our model so our tools can stay circulating for as long as possible, and we are continuing to expand our work to make a greater impact.
We have recently received a grant from NESTA and the Scottish government to bring sharing to other areas of Edinburgh, as part of a pilot study aiming to make sharing easier than shopping (pretty ambitious eh?!!!). This is a collaboration with MyTurn, the US-based folks that administer our database, and that of around 250 other tool libraries across the world, and i-Puk, a German platform developer who have been working with German city councils on monitoring and project management tools to track waste reduction strategies. It’s a truly international collaboration. If we can demonstrate that a distribution network for our tools can work, then we can increase the scope to share more things, in more places. The hope is a platform where resources and services that do not need to be bought, are visible to everyone, and that the impact of this sharing can be recorded and reported with ease.
We want to continue to be at the forefront of the Scotland-wide sharing network so that community resources can benefit more people in a meaningful way across the country. This will not only increase opportunities for people all over Scotland to better themselves and the places in which they live, but save these communities money, and reduce their carbon footprint.
Scotland should be a place of access, not excess.
Tool libraries are a key to this access – access to resources can mean learning a new skill, or building something for your community, or it might be finding the confidence to start a new job after being supported by a local organisation you become involved with. Through the Edinburgh Tool Library we have seen these successes happen in our community.
With our growing organisation and our collaborations with NESTA and the Scottish government, we hope to develop the infrastructure for a national network of sharing organisations, so that people can benefit not just in Edinburgh, but right across Scotland.
We’re pleased to announce the launch of our new Portobello workshop, our next step in creating an Edinburgh Tool Network that will broaden our reach and accessibility across Edinburgh, and making it possible for more people to borrow and share our tools.
The launch of the workshop enables us to expand beyond our base in Leith and open a permanent Tool Library and woodworking workshop situated at the community co-working space, Tribe Porty on Windsor Place.
The impetus to create the space came after last year’s successful Tool Box program, a remote tool lending service that we located at Portobello Main Library. On the back of the positive response we received from the local community, we decided that the seaside neighbourhood offered the ideal location to build a second permanent base and start to create our Edinburgh Tool Network.
Portobello allows us to give even more people access to our tool lending service. It’s a space where people can develop their skills and start their own creative projects and adventures.
The Portobello workshop offers a bigger space than our site in Leith, but with all of the same benefits that has made Leith so successful. We are hoping that the Portobello workshop space will bring the community together, enable them to practice making and repairing, and create an informal educational platform to heighten awareness of climate change and how reuse, repair and the circular economy can make a positive impact and help reduce carbon emissions.
The Portobello workshop will host weekly guided sessions on basic woodworking, tool sharpening, and bike repair, working in collaboration with local partner organisations. It will also be an open space where members can work on their own DIY projects. We will encourage the use of reclaimed materials and introduce members to creative waste reduction and reuse ideas.
Tools on wheels – Introducing Eddy Van Haulin
Apart from expanding our permanent bases from one to two, we are also introducing a mobile element to our Network which will see us deliver mobile workshops from a fully fitted-out electric van – Eddy Van Haulin. The beauty of Eddy, is that it will allow us a greater outreach and the ability to further connect to communities that have less access to our resources.
2018 Mobile Pilot Project – The Young Tooligan Program
Finally, we’re pleased to announce that this year’s mobile workshop pilot project is the Young Tooligan Program, a series of workshops designed for young people, aged 12-17 years old. The workshops will focus on how we can build our way to a better future. Working together with High Schools and youth organisations, we will work with young people and get them involved in hands on making and discussions on how circular economy projects can have a positive impact on our lives.
To create the Edinburgh Tool Network we’ve been supported by a grant of £98,044 from the Scottish Government’s Climate Challenge Fund, and the grant includes a maximum contribution of £47,147 from the European Regional Development Fund.
The Climate Challenge Fund (CCF) is a Scottish Government grant programme, managed and administered by Keep Scotland Beautiful. Since its introduction in 2008, the CCF has awarded 1,097 grants totalling £101 million to 658 communities for a range projects covering energy efficiency, sustainable travel, local food, and resource efficiency.
We have a new addition to the tool library. Something that has a practical use to us, but also has great personal significance to me.
It’s easy to think of tool donations as useful objects, given in aid of a good cause. But what we often forget is that every one of these objects comes with a story. Sometimes it’s a pretty straightforward one – someone bought a drill, used it once, needs the shelf space and so donates it. Other times there is a whole history to the objects, with great significance and a story attached.
I’d like to tell you the story of our new wood working bench. Let’s call our bench, Mark. Mark was delivered into the Northumberland school system in the 1950s, and spent many years helping teachers demonstrate joinery and wood work to pupils at Amble Middle School. Mark was a trusted companion and a reliable worker. His only vice was at one end.
He helped boys and girls build stools, learn joints and complete assignments for over 40 years. With the approaching end of the 20th century, and the advent of computers, traditional wood work became less of a priority in the curriculum, until one day, it was decided by faceless council bods that Mark should be forced into early retirement.
Luckily for Mark, his boss, headteacher Alan Hellawell had seen him at work, and was aware of his potential for many more years of service. Coincidentally Alan, my Dad, was also retiring that year, and offered to put him to work in his garage, saving him from the scrapheap. Alan and Mark had twenty-four happy years tinkering away, helping each other learn, fix and bodge.
Two months ago, my Dad passed away suddenly. It was a shock to all that knew him and a loss that affects us all still. He instilled many of the values in me, that have formed the ethos of the tool library – helping others, supporting young people to better themselves, and always trying to make your community flourish at every step. Without my Dad, the Edinburgh Tool Library wouldn’t be here.
As we were sorting through Dad’s things, we came across Mark – he’s hard to miss. We knew there would be nothing that would make Dad happier and prouder than seeing his work bench, that had served him so well, help members and trainees of ETL to discover their potential, and hopefully get the same enjoyment from using it as he did. It’s what tool libraries do – we give objects a new lease of life.
I am incredibly proud to help bench Mark write this new chapter, and happy that another part of my Dad’s legacy will continue to help people, as he did his whole life.
Hi Mo, first of all, can you tell us a little bit about yourself
Hello. I’m a self-employed joiner. I worked on sites previously but now trying to set up my own business. I’m born and raised in Edinburgh and live in Leith.
…like all the best things in the city, you’re in Leith?
Aye…!
How did you first come across the tool library then?
I was receiving support through Crisis Scotland and I turned up to volunteer with one of their projects – the Bridgend Farmhouse, and met you (Chris) there. ETL was supplying tools to help the project and so I learned about what you do there.
And what sort of stuff were you doing at Bridgend?
I was building gates, and doing some demolition work there, ripping stuff down… making a mess! While I was there I got a grant from Crisis for just under two thousand pounds to buy my own set of tools to set up my joinery business.
So you got these tools given to you Mo –how come? Tell us a bit about your background with tools.
College first, learned from other people, taught myself.
What do you think about the ETL service?
It’s great, the website is really smart and I know that, although I have my own tools, there is sometimes I only need something for a quick job, so I can go on to the ETL website and just order it from there. Ten years ago, when I set out, it would have been even more useful!
We are starting a mentorship programme within ETL, pairing young people with older experiences tradespeople. Would this have helped you a few years ago?
Aye, it would have been great. It’s good to learn from someone who has done more than you have, and has more experience. Most trades are like that. You only learn so much in college and after that you learn from doing it yourself. I also think spending time with older people can help young people to have respect for their elders, and that these days often people like these don’t mix. If someone is helping you, and teaching you, you can’t help but learn to respect them.
You have found a few bits of work through ETL too?
Yeah. I did some work for Helen, who I think you have interviewed already, and Tribe Porty got in touch after I did some volunteering there too. I also helped out a couple of fellow members too. I think they’ve all been happy with my work!
Indeed so! When I was talking to Helen she was absolutely raving about you! “5-star review” “so polite and well-mannered, and does such a good job!”
What would you say to someone who was considering joining the tool library?
Just do it eh? Your always gonna need tools, especially if you are moving in to a new flat. It can be quite expensive, so just get your tools from the tool library and save yourself some money. Tools aren’t cheap nowadays! I got my grant from Crisis and I still don’t have all the tools I need!
So I’m really interested in how doing little jobs and making things makes people feel. How do you feel after a successful piece of work?
Well I feel proud, and I feel good about myself. Even if it’s just putting up a shelf, you feel satisfied every time you look at it and it’s straight and plumb to the wall.
I can only imagine straight shelves as I’ve no experience in my flat!
What about your favourite thing you’ve made over the years?
It’s probably a reception desk I built, a crescent shape for a company in Aberdeen, and it’s still there to this day, which is an endorsement of the work I think. Again, that makes me really proud.
* Since the interview took place earlier in the year, Mo has secured full time work as a contract joiner for the next two years. He has also recently taken up a part time role with the tool library, and will be available to help you with your woodwork projects every Wednesday from 5-8pm and Saturday from 2-5pm in our workshop at 9 Spey Street Lane. Welcome to the team Mo!
Helen has been a member of ETL since September 2015. She is a huge supporter of the tool library, and one of our greatest advocates, so we thought it might be interesting to do an interview with her to find out her story, what she is making, and what she thinks is so special about the tool library. Chris Hellawell, our founder, caught up with her on February the 25th, in the run up to a special day for her. We thought it would be appropriate to celebrate this most special of people on International Women’s Day.
Helen – we salute you!
Hi Helen, and thanks for chatting to us today. Firstly, just tell us a little bit about yourself, and how you came across ETL.
I live in Saughton Mains. I moved there two years ago when I downsized because of my health. It’s a single persons flat, tiny, but absolutely beautiful. When I moved in, I loved the peace, the quiet, but I wanted to decorate. I’d left my tools at my old home as there was no storage at the new place. I got some help to decorate – general help, but the hands-on decoration I wanted to do myself eventually.
I go to the library in Wester Hailes and I sit with one of the girls, and I was saying to her that I desperately wanted to hire some tools, and I thought at my age, what’s the point in buying them anyway? And I thought there must be somewhere that hires tools reasonably so I can start thinking about getting things together for the flat. So, we did a search engine on the computer, and eventually we noticed “tool library”. It was just so simple. She said to me “It’s in Leith”, and I said “Leith’s got everything!” I mean, Leith is a community, and it has things like this! So she wrote it all down for me, and on the Saturday morning, lo and behold, I came down to this police box, and I realised I used to go to the dancing at the club behind it!
I went down to the police box, and met yourself, Chris, and I went home thinking I was walking on cloud 5, 9, 6 and 7 – I felt great, because I had found somewhere that had all the tools I needed, and I could afford it. I absolutely loved the idea.
You have become a bit of a champion of the tool library so we hear…
I told them back at the Wester Hailes library, took some fliers in there. Even when I was on the bus this morning I was telling the lady next to me. She is in an army veterans house and is finding it difficult to get everything done in the house because some of the work isn’t in the job description of the maintenance people. So lo and behold I went into my ‘tool library spiel’ as I call it and told her how she could get things and where the police box is, so she wrote it all down.
You’re a one woman marketing team!…
Well I am really. I know that some of the people I know have family that can help do DIY and such, but some people are like me and they don’t have anybody to help them. I know that the one thing that it has done for me it to make me feel confident about myself and make me feel like I’m still worthy. When people come into my house and they say “Oh, who’s done that? It’s lovely.” I feel great because I’ve done it, not a painter and decorator.
The money I’ve saved – it’s hysterical! I got a quote for some people to put blinds in the house and they were asking for £340. Because I can come to the tool library, and I know how to put the blinds up, I could do the whole job for just the cost of the blinds, which was less than £150. I bought them, measured them, mapped them all up and did it myself. It takes me a bit longer than it used to, but I just take my time and work hard one day and then rest the next one.
You’re too kind Helen! So what have you been borrowing?
Mainly drills and drill bits, but I knew that everything and anything I could think of, I could come and see the tool library.
And you also needed help from an expert too?
Aye. I was trying to get a handyman to change the light fixtures in the house. I’d bought each of the fittings and had set about trying to find an someone – God they’re expensive! I was being quoted £200-£250 and I’m thinking “Hello!!!!”
Because of my age, my lights are never going to get changed again – it’s a one off situation, so I need to be able to justify the spend. I had one young laddie who said he could do this, that and the other, but he let me down, and never turned up. So I was wondering who I knew who might be able to help me out, and I was coming down to the tool library, so I thought I’d ask then. So I went down on a Saturday morning and I asked if they knew anyone who could help, and they did! And you know, I left that police box again on such a high, cos you told me you knew someone who might be able to help. Two months I’d been trying to get someone out, and I should have asked at the tool library.
So this young man Mo, phoned me, duly made an appointment, turned up – absolutely fabulous, and I had the job done in two hours, and he was brilliant. You know? I went about that house for the rest of that day turning lights on and off! In a day and a half, the tool library had helped me sort something out that I’d been trying to do for weeks, and I have nothing but good things to say about them.
So where’s the fire Helen? What’s the rush for all this DIY to happen?
Well it’s my birthday next Monday (February the 29th), and because I only have a birthday every four years, my friends and I are having a ladies cocktail afternoon on Saturday! So I’m 17 on Monday… I’ll be six years younger than my grandson, so that’s what all this is for. Since I joined the tool library, I’ve not let anybody visit me, I’ve visited them but I’ve not let them come, and Saturday, 1 o’clock sharp, my closest and dearest friends are going to be there, and I’m going to open that front door with pride.
Stay tuned for another member interview in the coming weeks. In the meantime, happy International Women’s Day.
Forgive me reader, for I have sinned. It’s been (many) months since my last post. I’ve been doing all this awesome stuff with the Edinburgh Tool Library and I just haven’t had time to write to you. I hope I still get through the Tooly Gates…
What has finally driven me to dust off the old keyboard, is down to inspiration. Inspiration from young people, inspiration from a fantastic charity, and inspiration from seeing the potential of ETL.
In the summer, I got a tweet from Dads Rock, who work with dads and their children, inviting me round for a chat. I’d always been told not to take tweets from strangers, but luckily I ignored all my instincts and went and met with David Marshall from Dads Rock and Gavin Smith from RG Workshops. They had hatched a plan to work with a small group of fathers to build wooden balance bikes for their children, and were looking at partnerships and ideas for the project. Fantastic, I thought – Dads Rock provided the space and the dads, Gavin supplied the expertise, and ETL supplied the tools and held stuff!
Roughly eight weeks ago, we began the project with three young dads, all aged around 20, all with young children. The aim was to provide them with a project that they would engage with, an opportunity to learn new things, meet new people, and at the end of it, have an amazing present for their son or daughter, ready for Christmas. It ended up making much more of a difference on everyone involved.
Week to week, I saw first-hand, what I have always thought about making – that it builds the image one has of oneself. These young men, who were reserved and quiet in the first week, came out of their shells, and were quickly laughing and joking, and really enjoying what they were doing. They walked taller, and the Wednesday sessions quickly became the reference point for their week in what are often, fairly chaotic lives.
Making something gives people purpose and a goal. For these young men, that goal was seeing their children’s faces when they gave them a bike, built by dad. For others, it is solving a problem. For many people, what you make is completely unimportant – it is the act of making and the benefits that come with it that are important. Whilst the dads were focussed on the end goal, I think they picked up a lot of other skills and experiences along the way.
Projects like this one really re-energise me, and show me that the vision I had when I began this odyssey with ETL, is right – that in order to help people, we just have to give them the physical and the metaphorical tools. With opportunity and support, we, as human beings can achieve amazing things.
Just ask the children of the young dads from Dads Rock.
One of the wonderful things about establishing the Edinburgh Tool Library has been speaking to the people of Edinburgh about all their hopes and aspirations for the tool library. Something that I didn’t envisage was the support from overseas.
In October last year I visited friends in Toronto, where I used to live. Part of my visit was to catch up with my pals, but while I was there I was keen to visit the Toronto Tool Library, which I had been in contact with via email. I popped in and met Ryan Dyment, who runs the show, and had a fantastic afternoon. I had a look round, met some customers and got the whole story of the TTL. It was really inspiring, and gave me the impetus to follow through on what was, until that point, just an idea.
Since my visit, the Toronto Tool Library has gone from just a basement lending out tools, to opening a maker space complete with a second library. All this happened in six months from opening the initial library. They have also expanded their services to lend out kitchen-ware and even have a 3D printer!
I’ve recently been in correspondence with the Halifax (Canada!) and Vancouver tool libraries who have been really supportive and encouraging and have very generously offered their advice and expertise. What is it about Canadians eh?! I’m hoping to visit a friend in Berlin and while there pop in to the Library of Things, and in August I am holidaying in San Francisco and hopefully visiting the tool library there. I’m turning into a bit of a tool library bagger!
It all goes to show that, although we are spread across the globe, the tool library community are all pulling in the same direction and it really does make the world seem that little bit smaller.
Over the last couple of weeks, through various channels, I have bumped into a lot of people who have been asking how the tool library is going and what the latest is. I thought it was probably a good time to update the website to fill you all in on what has been happening, and what our next steps will be.
Firstly, where we are now.
I’m delighted to say we have a board of trustees. I am joined by Joyce MacAree, Emma Pattinson and John Sinclair, all young(ish) souls like myself who share in the enthusiasm and excitement for the tool library. We have a constitution and an application for charitable status (still) being reviewed by OSCR, the charities regulator.
Marketing and web design skills have been donated by the team at If Looks Could Kill, and we have been approached by a willing volunteer to manage all the computery internety stuff too. We have reached out to lots of other potential partner organisations to raise our profile, spoken to housing associations, local politicians and had informal conversations with funders. Most importantly, we have spoken to a lot of you, the Edinburgh public, about our idea, and have had a lot of support. Rest assured, this makes a huge difference to us and keeps us going when times are tough.
In the coming weeks we hope to have the OSCR application rubber stamped, we can begin the next phase, which will be applying for funding. We want to get as many grant applications done, as soon as possible, so there are some long nights ahead for the trustees. When we have secured funding, we will be able to secure premises and have a physical home for the tool library. With help from our volunteers, and donors, we will have the tool library up and running lickety split after that.
Opening the Edinburgh Tool Library is a big task, but one that we are happy to do. We have already had many adventures and learning experiences, and are looking forward to even more fun times ahead. If you, or someone you know can help with any of our upcoming challenges, or if you can suggest other ways to contribute, please get in touch. Many hands make light work, as they say.
