Libraries lend an expanding array of items: bikes, clothes, seeds, and tools, to name a few. In correspondence with this development, the library as concept is increasingly connected with current sharing trends. At the same time, the library is expected to still be about books, literature, and reading, to deal in information and documents. The library is regarded as a well-established and predictable institution of integrity. These intriguing dynamics of responsiveness and stability provide the inspiration for this work.

The thesis presents a case study of tool lending libraries. The aim is to explore what is introduced here as x-lending libraries: the idea of libraries based on the types of materials borrowed and lent. Findings show that patrons, staff, and managers experience their tool lending library as immediately and locally relevant to their community, rather than related to long-term global concerns. In their experience, the tool lending library is also decidedly different from other libraries. Seemingly, what is borrowed and lent is important to understanding the role different libraries play in their communities. In other words, material matters.

The work concludes with proposing a theoretical concept for how different values involved in library borrowing and lending can be understood, again in the community context.