I’m trying to privately build a public library in a rural Idaho community. Borrowing sewing machines has been a popular request, as soon as we have space for them. It’s exciting to see that it’s a worldwide desire and not just a rural trend. Very cool to read about how Finland is doubling down on investing in libraries and skill building tools like sewing machines!
How are you going about this? Asking because I thought about doing something similar (e.g., Makerspaces, hackerspaces, Fab Labs).
Luckily a few others here in Idaho have done it by way of a Friends of the Library official non-profit 501(c)(3), so I have a model to follow that works in our region and for our rural conservative conditions. The standard non-profit benefits apply: we apply for a lot of grants, we set up endowments, accept land or stock as gifts, take on capital projects like building a library. The public library can then lease from us (probably for $0) or if we put a large enough endowment fund together we would very much consider taking it all private vs just a purpose built building for the library.