Make any space a makerspace with “Equipment to Go”

Kits now available at Rotch Library

The ‘Equipment to Go’ pilot has been discontinued as of January 2022. Please contact MIT MakerWorkshop for tools/kits/equipment.

MIT Libraries is pleased to announce an exciting collaboration with MIT MakerWorkshop, a popular student-run makerspace.

Last summer, students from MIT MakerWorkshop reached out to the Libraries about partnering on a project to provide access to tools and other equipment often used in makerspaces for the MIT community. Rotch Library makes a natural partner for this initiative, not only due to its proximity to the MakerWorkshop space, but also because the type of inventory control and access management necessary for this pilot is at the heart of what the Libraries do every day.

The MakerWorkshop group assembled a number of kits containing items such as drills, heart rate sensors, cameras, clamps, hand tools, and many more pieces of popular equipment. The “Equipment to Go” kits are held at the Rotch service desk (7-238) and circulate for one week.

MIT community members interested in borrowing a kit can browse a binder at the Rotch service desk containing photos of each kit and a list of the contents. Once you’ve determined which kit you’d like, Libraries staff will retrieve it, check it out, and then it’s yours for the week to work on your project.

Not on campus? Browse an online version of the binder or use Barton to browse the contents of the kits and check their availability by doing a title search for “Equipment to Go.”

We welcome user feedback on this collaboration. Please send questions, comments, and suggestions to equipment-to-go-feedback@mit.edu.