Tentatively scheduled for a spring launch, the Sharing Depot is planned as a community hub where people can lease things like camping gear, sports equipment, kids toys or even supplies for your next house party.
"This will be a real library of things," said co-founder Ryan Dyment.

The next time you need binoculars or a Bundt pan, you may not need any money. Instead, your library card could be the key to accessing an array of items, as public libraries across the country expand beyond books and other media.
This so-called “library of things” isn’t an entirely new concept — a Newark, New Jersey, library started circulating framed paintings over a century ago, according to Alex Lent, library director at Millis Public Library in Massachusetts — but it’s now gaining momentum and expanding the role of libraries in communities.

NPQ has previously covered some of the new items that libraries are lately lending to their patrons — beyond books, CDs, and DVDs. We have covered libraries that provide a seed exchange and that rent sewing machines, but the Sacramento library is launching a full-on library of things, which kicked off on Saturday, that is firmly based in a community assessment.

Locals call it a Leihladen — the borrowing shop.
North of Berlin's centre, Leila is a library of things — a pioneer of sharing in a consumer society.

Neil Gershenfeld, director of the Center for Bits and Atoms at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, presents "From the Library of Information to the Library of Things," one in the series of lectures on "Managing Knowledge in a Digital Context," at 6:30 p.m. in the Mumford Room.