A growing reference of what other Libraries of Things actually stock, drawn from their live catalogues. The aim is to identify which categories of items are most represented — a proxy for community demand and operational viability — rather than to copy specific items.

Source: Kotui catalogue · Retrieved: April 2026 · Total items: 78

Items marked Deluxe in the Hamilton catalogue have premium borrowing conditions: Greater price to borrow and higher late fees.

Category	Item count	% of total	Example items
Coding & Robotics	16	21%	Sphero, mBot, Blue-Bot, Makey Makey, Ozobot, Cubetto, Snap Circuits
Children's Toys & Play	16	21%	Dollhouse, Fire Station, Viking Castle, Sensory Play Kit, Magnetic Tiles
Science & Astronomy	8	10%	Dobsonian Telescope (×3 variants), Zoomy Microscope, Microscope
Games & Puzzles	9	12%	Giant Dominoes, Rush Hour, Gravity Maze, Outdoor Games, Skittles
Music Instruments	9	12%	Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Ukulele, Digital Drums, Keyboard
Media & Content Creation	10	13%	GoPro, Podcasting Studio, Oculus Quest, Projector, Drawing Tablet
Home, Health & Garden	5	6%	Gardening Kit, Healthy Home Kit, Family Fitness Fun Kit, Tool Kit
Crafts & Making	2	3%	Sewing Machine, Overlocker
Educational & Language	3	4%	Ngaa Kupu Ako, Magnetic Learning Kit, Number Line Clock
Total	78	100%

View all 78 items

Coding & Robotics Blue-Bot, Botley the Coding Robot, Codey Rocky, Cooper, Cubetto Adventure, Cue, Dot & Dash, Indi, Makey Makey, mBot, Ozobot Evo Kit, PYXEL, Robot Mouse, Snap Circuits, Sphero, Switcheroo Coding Crew

Children's Toys & Play Activity Cube, Barn Kit, Blazer, Bopper, Busy City Rail, Caterpillar Stacking, Clixo, Dollhouse, Fire Station, Garage, Magnetic Tiles, My Learning Puzzle, Police Station, Sensory Play Kit, Space Rocket Kit, Viking Castle

Science & Astronomy Collapsible Dobsonian Telescope (Deluxe), Dobsonian Telescope (Deluxe), Electronic Magnifier (Deluxe), Junior Digital Microscope, Microscope, Mini Dobsonian Telescope, Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope (Deluxe), Zoomy Microscope

Games & Puzzles Circuit Maze, Giant Dominoes, Gravity Maze, Gravity Maze Junior, Outdoor Games, Perplexing Puzzles, Rush Hour Logic Game, Skittles, Travel Games

Music Instruments Acoustic Guitar, Audio Recorder, Bongo Drum, Digital Drums, DJ Controller, Electric Bass Guitar, Electric Guitar, Keyboard, Ukulele

Media & Content Creation Cassette to MP3 Converter, Drawing Tablet (Deluxe), DVD/CD Player, Film to Digital Scanner, Go Pro (Deluxe), Oculus Quest (Deluxe), Podcasting Studio (Deluxe), Projector, SmallRig Content Creation Set (Deluxe), View Master Virtual Reality

Home, Health & Garden Battery Charging and Maintenance Set, Family Fitness Fun Kit, Gardening Kit, Healthy Home Kit, Tool Kit

Crafts & Making Overlocker (Deluxe), Sewing Machine

Educational & Language Magnetic Learning Kit, Ngaa Kupu Ako, Number Line Clock

• STEM is dominant — Coding & Robotics and Science & Astronomy together account for 31% of the collection. Hamilton has made these expensive, rarely-owned items a clear priority.
• No camping, cooking, or DIY power tools — common in overseas libraries of things, but absent here. This may reflect Hamilton's urban demographics or a deliberate scope decision.
• Multiple telescope variants — three Dobsonian telescopes at different price points suggest high demand for astronomy equipment. The "Deluxe" tier for the largest scopes manages access to the most expensive items.
• Music instruments are a significant cluster — nine items spanning beginner to semi-pro (ukulele through to electric bass guitar and DJ controller), suggesting instruments are well-used.
• Media production equipment — GoPro, Podcasting Studio, Oculus Quest, and Drawing Tablet reflect growing interest in content creation tools that few households own.
• Small crafts category — only two items (sewing machine and overlocker), but both are high-value items that would be heavily used.

Source: MyTurn catalogue · Retrieved: April 2026 · Total items: 1,484

ALoT is specifically a tool library — 92.5% of items are classified as "Tools". This is a different model from Hamilton's general Library of Things.

The MyTurn catalogue uses two tagging systems. Categories are subcategory tags (not mutually exclusive — an item can carry multiple tags, and many items carry none). Types are the primary classification per item.

Types are the primary classification in myturn — each item has exactly one.

Type	Count	% of total	Notes
Tools	1,373	92.5%	Hand tools, power tools, garden power, automotive
Furniture & Spaces	23	1.5%	Scaffolding, saw horses, work stands, gazebo
Clothing (PPE)	19	1.3%	Hi-viz, overalls, chainsaw chaps, gloves
Kitchen & Dining	15	1.0%	Stand mixer, slow cooker, ice cream maker, pasta machine
Sports & Outdoors	13	0.9%	Camping gear, bike pump, bicycle tool kit
Hobbies & Crafts	13	0.9%	Sewing, overlocker, speedweave braiders, whittling
Electronics	11	0.7%	Multimeters, soldering irons, VHS digitiser
Other	17	1.1%	Vehicles, party items, science, education, medical
Total	1,484	100.0%

• Tools dominate — ALoT is a tool library, not a general Library of Things. The breadth of tools is extraordinary: from individual 25mm paintbrushes to engine cranes and scaffolding.
• Woodwork and gardening are the core — together, these two categories account for the largest tagged clusters ( 183 + 132), reflecting strong community demand for home renovation and garden maintenance equipment.
• Duplication is significant — many items appear multiple times (e.g. three different cordless mowers, dozens of clamps in different sizes). This suggests that demand for tools is high enough to support multiple copies of popular items.
• Kitchen and lifestyle items are a small but present minority — pasta machines, bread makers, ice cream makers, and slow cookers feature, suggesting appetite for occasional-use appliances beyond tools.
• Camping is modest — only 15 items tagged Camping & Tramping, despite Auckland's outdoor culture. This may reflect a deliberate tool-library scope rather than absence of demand.

ALoT is focussed on practical items more than recreational or educational items. The collection is utilitarian, with a emphasis on tools for home improvement and gardening.

Source: MyTurn catalogue · Retrieved: April 2026 · Total items: 325

A community tool library serving Waiuku (~7,000 people, south Auckland).

Type	Count	% of total
Tools	313	96.3%
Furniture & Spaces	4	1.2%
Electrical Equip.	3	0.9%
Vehicles & Trailers	2	0.6%
Sports & Outdoors	2	0.6%
Electronics	1	0.3%
Total	325	100.0%

• Heavier equipment than most — petrol generator, concrete mixer, tile wet saw, and trailer suggest the library serves lifestyle block and rural home owners alongside suburban borrowers.
• Scaffold trestle and gib lifter indicate the library supports larger renovation projects, not just small repairs.

Source: MyTurn catalogue · Retrieved: April 2026 · Total items: 935

Wellington's largest community tool library, based in Newtown. The most well-categorised library in this comparison.

Type	Count	% of total
Tools	913	97.6%
Art	6	0.6%
Sports & Outdoors	6	0.6%
Electrical Equip.	3	0.3%
Electronics	2	0.2%
Kitchen & Dining	2	0.2%
Hobbies & Crafts	1	0.1%
Vehicles & Trailers	1	0.1%
Total	935	100.0%

• Bike tools are a distinct category (23 items) — not seen at other libraries. Includes bike racks, floor pumps, a bike work stand, chain tools, and cassette lockring sets. Reflects Wellington's cycling culture.
• Painting is well-stocked (42 items) — Auckland doesn't tag this separately; Newtown's explicit Painting category suggests it's a high-demand area for tool borrowing.
• Unusual items: arc welder (140A), drain snake, breadmaker, clay tool set, crochet hook, engraver, digital water pH meter — a broader miscellany than most libraries.
• Sewing is small but present — 5 items including overlocker, consistent with other libraries treating sewing as a minor but valid category.

Source: Spydus OPAC · Retrieved: April 2026 · Total items: 184

Bayside Libraries serves the City of Bayside, a suburban LGA in south-eastern Melbourne. Their Library of Things is administered through the Spydus catalogue and split into six named collection streams: LOT_TOOLS, LOT_HOUSE, LOT_CAKE, LOT_HEALTH, BOARDGAMES, and CPLLENDABLE — the last being the Cheltenham branch's "Create, Play, Learn" technology and maker collection.

Category	Item count	% of total	Example items
Board Games & Card Games	71	38.6%	Azul, Catan, Carcassonne, Codenames, Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion
Coding, Robotics & STEM	18	9.8%	Edison Robot, Micro:bit, Ozobot, Raspberry Pi 400, GraviTrax, Turing Tumble
Kitchen Appliances	12	6.5%	KitchenAid Food Processor, Bread Maker, Air Fryer, Pasta Machine, Pizza Oven
Photography, Film & Video	11	6.0%	DJI Mavic Mini Drone, Panasonic Lumix DC-G95 4K, Ring Light, Chroma Key Screen
Music & Audio Production	10	5.4%	Roland TR-6S Drum Machine, AKAI MIDI Keyboard, Blue Yeti Mic, Artiphon Orba 2
Power Tools & DIY	10	5.4%	Ryobi Drill, Jigsaw, Multitool, Paint Sprayer, Karcher Pressure Washer (×2)
Baking & Cake Decorating	8	4.3%	Novelty cake tins (dinosaur, train, castle), Rotating Cake Decorating Kit
Digitising & Archive	8	4.3%	Film scanner, Cassette-to-MP3 converter, Photo scanner, VHS digitiser
Science & Nature	7	3.8%	Dobsonian Telescope, Binoculars, Microscope (×2), Metal Detector, Stellarscope
Digital Art & Making	7	3.8%	Wacom Cintiq 16, Cricut Joy, Mini Potters Wheel, Prixel
Garden & Outdoor	4	2.2%	Ryobi Lawn Mower, Garden Vacuum, Pruning Secateurs, Bike Tool Kit
Home Cleaning & Maintenance	4	2.2%	Paper Shredder, Upholstery Kit, Window Vacuum, Pet Spot Cleaner
VR & Interactive Computing	4	2.2%	VR Box Headset, Merge Cube, Atari 400 Mini, Rubik's Connected Smart Cube
Health & Wellbeing	3	1.6%	Blood Pressure Monitor, Evaporative Cooler, Fan Heater
Sewing & Textiles	2	1.1%	Janome Computerised Sewing Machine, Singer Sewing Machine
Party & Presentation	2	1.1%	Samsung Freestyle Projector, JBL PartyBox 310 Bluetooth Speaker
Accessibility Tools	2	1.1%	Lego Braille, C-Pen Reader 2
Pet Care	1	0.5%	Wahl Professional Dog Clipper
Total	184	100%

• Board games are the dominant category — at 38.6%, this is by far the largest single category. The collection is modern and well-curated (Azul, Catan, Gloomhaven, Codenames), suggesting strong and sustained demand. No other library in this comparison has invested in board games at this scale.
• Technology and creative tools are the second pillar — the Cheltenham "Create, Play, Learn" stream (CPLLENDABLE) spans coding robots, cameras, music production gear, digitising equipment, and digital art tools. Together with the main tools collection, technology-adjacent items account for roughly a third of the entire catalogue.
• Baking & cake decorating is a standalone category — Bayside created a dedicated LOT_CAKE bucket for novelty cake tins and decorating kits. The signal here is that occasional-use speciality bakeware has clear demand but is rarely stocked by other libraries of things.
• Digitising & archive is a distinct service — 8 items specifically for converting VHS tapes, cassettes, film reels, and floppy disks to digital. This is not common in NZ libraries and represents a time-sensitive community need (old media degrades).
• Kitchen appliances mirror other general LoTs — the 12-item LOT_HOUSE collection closely resembles what ALoT and Newtown carry: pasta machines, bread makers, slow cookers, air fryers, and food processors. The overlap across libraries suggests consistent demand.
• Power tools are present but not dominant — only 10 items (5.4%), compared to 92–97% at dedicated NZ tool libraries. Bayside is clearly a general Library of Things, not a tool library.
• Music production is well-resourced — 10 items including professional-grade synthesizers, drum machines, and MIDI controllers. This parallels Hamilton and suggests creative audio equipment is a high-value niche.
• Sewing is small but consistent — two machines appear here as in every other comparable library. The pattern across all libraries reviewed suggests sewing machines are reliably in demand despite low item counts.

• Two distinct models are emerging — tool libraries (ALoT, Waiuku, Newtown: 92–97% tools) and general Libraries of Things (Hamilton, Bayside: broad categories spanning games, tech, kitchen, and creative tools). The two models serve different community needs and could complement rather than duplicate each other.
• Woodwork and gardening always lead in tool libraries — where sub-categories are tagged, these two consistently account for the largest clusters. Both reflect common home-ownership tasks where people need occasional-use equipment they don't want to buy.
• Board games are a high-demand category in general LoTs — Bayside's 71-item board game collection (38.6% of stock) and Hamilton's 9-item Games & Puzzles category both suggest strong demand. Low cost to acquire, easy to lend, and broadly appealing across age groups.
• Kitchen appliances show consistent cross-library demand — bread makers, pasta machines, slow cookers, food processors, and air fryers appear in both Hamilton and Bayside, and in smaller numbers at ALoT and Newtown. The pattern across libraries is reliable enough to treat these as high-demand items.
• Music and media production feature in all general LoTs — Hamilton (9 instruments) and Bayside (10 audio/music items) both invest in this space. Expensive, occasionally-used gear that households rarely buy outright.
• Sewing machines appear in every library reviewed — from one item (Newtown) to two (Bayside) to a dedicated category (Hamilton). The pattern is consistent enough to treat sewing machines as a core, reliable item.
• Bike tools (Newtown) and heavy equipment (Waiuku: generator, concrete mixer, trailer) hint at locally-specific demand worth investigating for Nelson Tasman.
• Digitising old media is an underserved niche — Bayside's 8-item archive/digitising stream has no equivalent in NZ libraries yet represents genuine community need as VHS tapes, cassettes, and film reels degrade.

More libraries will be added here as research continues.