RETOOLING TOOL LIBRARIES
 

A New Way Of Sharing

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Non-profit organizations operate with limited or infrequent funding and personnel. As these organizations encounter increasing demand for their services, they face constraints that require them to creatively adapt their work practices in the short term, through forms of contingent action.

Research Methodologies

Participant Observations

Interviews

Document and Artifact Analysis

Collaborators

Ahmer Arif

Andrew Neang

Lucas Colusso

Meg Young

Timeline

1/2017 — Current

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In the long term, it is necessary for organizations to adapt and re-articulate their practices. A tool library functions much like a traditional book library, lending out tools and equipment to patrons.

Tool lending libraries like the West Seattle Tool Library (WSTL) offer users access to a wide variety of tools, training and advice free of charge, as a form of community sharing.

This study examines the ways existing work practices are articulated; how they came to be and how and when the core team departs from them. It also considers the new strategies respondents offered in an effort to re-articulate practices in the space to meet increasing demand on their fixed resources.

 
The Convergence Actors Project
Creating a Data Portal

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