Kia ora,

It’s officially Spring and we know everyone is itching to get back outside and into their gardens and DIY projects! If you’ve noticed you haven’t heard much from us this year, it’s because our team has been busy behind the scenes. We’re excited to finally share some big updates with you.

­

Great news for sharing!

Environmental sustainability has always been at the heart of the tool library’s kaupapa. By sharing tools and other consumer items, members are able to reduce the environmental impact of a whole suite of activities. Sharing and reusing items helps our members avoid waste by operating at the top of the waste hierarchy. This work has been recognised by the Waste Wise team at Auckland Council, who have agreed to support the library’s work over the next 3 years! This funding will help the library hire our first ever dedicated Library Manager, improve our services, and build capacity with our amazing team of volunteers.

Member spotlight: Alex Keall

We love hearing about what you guys are getting up to with our tools! If you have a project you’d like to share please get in touch, we’d love to share your DIYs to help inspire our community!

This week, Alex, (our Co-Chair, Librarian and Repairer pictured above) shared his automatic door closer with us.

“Here’s an automatic door closer I made. It keeps the warm air in the living area. It is a weight, string and pulleys to pull the door closed. The weight is in a pipe with some small holes to restrict the air flow and make it close nice and slowly.”

Tools used: drill, hacksaw, files, chisel

­

Why give 1 tool when you can gift 1599?

Did you know you can gift a tool library membership? If you’ve forgotten to get a gift for Fathers Day, a membership to ALoT is the perfect last minute gift! You can purchase them online here.

­

Lastly, if you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading! Here’s an interview we liked with Sarah Stein Lubrano about politics and changing our minds through friendship, community organising and social infrastructure.