CHICAGO — The Chicago Tool Library, where you don’t just find books, recently expanded to a new space on the city’s West Side.

The Chicago Tool Library is a non-profit library, but instead of books, the organization has much more — from home repair and gardening, to sewing, cooking and camping.

Executive director Tessa Vierk co-founded the library in 2019, six months before the pandemic hit.

“Our resources were more important than ever, people were home cooking, doing more projects, in their yards and we were there for them. It was really great to be able to do that,” Vierk said.

The library first resided in Bridgeport, but now can be found in West Garfield Park.

The library’s philosophy is that instead of buying a new tool that may hardly be used, people can borrow up to seven items at a time for a week with an option for renewal.

The library also recently launched paid memberships for small organizations.

“I think we can all relate to having too much stuff that we don’t use all the time,” Vierk said. “So, over 90% of tools we have, have been donated by people in the community. So, it’s kind of cool we’ve kind of created this together.”

Vierk said the library can always use more donations of handheld power tools, orbital sanders, power drills and more, but they are also working on offering some basic classes.

“The collective ownership people feel over the space really makes me feel optimistic we’ll be around for a long time,” Vierk said.

The Chicago Tool Library is open on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.