On a Saturday morning at the Palms-Rancho Park branch library in Los Angeles, anyone with a Los Angeles Public Library card (like LeVar Burton, perhaps) can walk in with an everyday problem that needs fixing—a torn jacket, a bike that wobbles, a clasp-less necklace. Just a few hours later, you’ll leave happy as a clam. Everything’s fixed, and you didn’t have to spend a single cent. 

@lapubliclibrary Next Repair & Fix-It Cafe program will be at Palms Rancho Park Branch on Saturday, June 13 from 10 am – 1 pm ♬ original sound – Los Angeles Public Library

Next Repair & Fix-It Cafe program will be at Palms Rancho Park Branch on Saturday, June 13 from 10 am – 1 pm ♬ original sound – Los Angeles Public Library

This is the Repair & Fix-It Cafe, a free event held every few months sponsored by the Friends of the Palms-Rancho Park Library. Here, volunteers put their skills to good use patching up clothes, sharpening knives, servicing bikes, fixing small appliances, troubleshooting computers, and mending broken jewelry. The work is simple but meaningful. 

That’s the beauty of public libraries: it was never only about books. Libraries across the country are getting creative, cracking open their catalogs, and asking, ‘Why not?’

We already covered all the useful, lesser-known services that most libraries offer (access to online learning platforms, free admission to nearby attractions). But Palms-Rancho isn’t the only library branch that’s, well, branching out. There’s a library in Alaska where you can rent out cake pans in the shape of Hello Kitty. In rural Oklahoma, the Okemah Public Library features a telehealth kiosk that helps remote residents meet virtually with out-of-town doctors. 

We scoured the Web for the 15 strangest, most unique, and downright delightful free services offered by public libraries in America. 

1. They’ll repair almost anything (Los Angeles, California)

Back to where we started: LAPL’s Fix-It Cafe sharpens knives, mends clothes, and tunes up bikes at no cost. It’s a part of a repair-café movement that’s quickly gone national. They’re free community events where neighbors help neighbors tune up the everyday objects that would otherwise be destined for the trash. 

2. You can borrow a telescope (Harrison, Arkansas)

Beneath a dark sky in the Ozarks, the Boone County Library lends out telescopes. There are four Orion StarBlast scopes, donated and set up by the Arkansas Natural........

© Upworthy