Resource Banks

The best example are libraries, which are basically resource banks specialized in books. If you need an item for sporadic use for a day, a weekend, or a few days, you can borrow it from a resource bank. Objects you can borrow can be tools, sports or mountain equipment, devices, or even spaces. They can be centralized, like libraries, or decentralized using an app or another organization tool. Apart from “resource bank” they are also called “libraries of things” or “lending libraries”.

When they are centralized, a shared space is managed where things are kept and there is a system of keeping track of who has taken what. Media libraries are also resource banks. In the future almost all the things we will use will be from organizations like this. In most cases, the only reason we want to own something is to have quick and easy access to it. When this is provided with good organization, we don't have to own so many things and we can provide sustainable prosperity for everyone. There is plenty for everyone in this world.

Decentralized ones do not have a shared space. Instead they involve a group of people that are well communicated and organized to lend each other things. Each person manages their objects that they lend. There are applications, web pages and sophisticated programs to well organize the logistics of sharing objects. Sharing things with others is a behavior to which we are not used. Therefore, to teach this behavior to a community it may be easier to simply use phone chat groups (telegram, signal, whatsapp) in which operating rules are established and regularly reminded. Anyone can start such a group for their apartment building, neighborhood, town or city.

For them to work well they need a minimum of people who use it. Until they have a critical mass of a few dozen active users, they must be actively energized. Because they do not generate money, nobody is paid to energize them, so it's up to you. It's not much effort, half an hour a week is more than enough, just a little push. It is worthwhile because it greatly improves the prosperity of users and their quality of life since it expands the amount of things to which all have access to and fosters community and connection.

The best place to start is your local library!

This page contains a map of some resource banks in the world,although many are not on this map. You can look for one near you and if you know one that is not there, please add it yourself! https://localtools.org/find/#map_top

Here we will organize Resource Banks by localization.

Global

Organized by Country

Catalonia Spain USA