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Santa Barbara Public Library expands hands-on sustainability programs under state grant
Summary
Library staff described a two-year, state-funded sustainability program that offers sewing, gardening, repair clinics, a circulating "library of things" and a pilot tool-lending collection.
Paige Sundstrom, the adult programming librarian at Santa Barbara Public Library, told the Sustainability Committee on April 3 that the library's Sustainably SVPL series — funded by the Sustainable California Libraries grant from the California State Library — has offered two years of hands-on classes and community events to teach mending, gardening and sustainable cooking.
The grant-funded program, Sundstrom said, aims “to fund programs, educational initiatives, lectures, etcetera, that promote sustainable lifestyles for communities.” The library used the first grant year to test a wide range of offerings and then focused year two on recurring skill-building opportunities after survey responses showed strong community interest in sewing, mending and gardening.
Sundstrom said the library has partnered with local groups for volunteer-run events such as a Fix It Fair, which repaired about 30 bikes during a two-hour session at Eastside Library and supported more than 20 sewing-volunteer stations for clothing repairs. “We fixed about 30 bikes that day,” she said, and volunteers helped attendees repair items ranging from pajama pants to leather jackets.
The library is also expanding a “library of things” collection that already circulates instruments, sewing machines and family museum passes, and Sundstrom said staff are piloting a tool-lending collection in coordination with the sustainability and resilience department. "Cataloging and circulating a hammer is different than circulating a book," she said, noting staff are developing new workflows for nonbook items.
Sundstrom described program goals for 2024 that include a recurring sewing and mending series in partnership with Explore Ecology’s makerspace, an expanded Fix It Fair on the library plaza (with bilingual service and volunteer calls for jewelry, electronics and furniture repair), a climate-justice film series for teens and adults, and an English cooking series in June followed by a Spanish series during Hispanic Heritage Month.
Why it matters: the library’s mix of recurring classes, volunteer-run repair clinics and circulating tools is designed to build community skill-sharing that reduces waste and supports the city's broader sustainability goals.
Speakers: Paige Sundstrom (adult programming librarian, Santa Barbara Public Library).
