In the latest twist of the borrow-things-rather-than-own-them movement, Concord Public Library has unveiled a novel program in which they’re lending out stuff as varied as ukuleles, soil analyzers and paper shredders.
At least, I thought it was novel. Turns out they’ve done it before in slightly weirder ways.
“We used to loan out artwork, years and years ago,” said reference librarian Nora Cascadden.
That’s not too weird, perhaps, but this is: “We loaned out taxidermy animals back in the ‘70s,” said Ashley Miller, outreach coordinator for the library.
Taxidermy animals?!?
Sounds intriguing, but unfortunately you can no longer take home a stuffed owl to gaze at you while perusing a handful of Agatha Christies; the collection was long ago donated to the Squam Lakes Natural Science Center.
The new program, launched late last month with the…