Libraries lend things for a living, which makes it oddly painful that the lending system - the ILS - only really understands books. The laptop kits, mobile hotspots, makerspace machines and Library of Things items that now make up a growing share of circulation grew up beside the catalogue, tracked in binders, desk spreadsheets and staff memory. This guide covers how library teams put equipment on a proper register: what to track, how kits and due dates work, and what “returned” should actually mean.
What you will learn
- The catalogue gap
- What a library should track
- Kits, due dates, and what “returned” means
- The register behind the desk
- Getting started with a small team
- FAQ
The catalogue gap
The ILS is superb at titles and terrible at things. A bibliographic record has no concept of a missing charger, a cracked screen, a calibration date, or a repair history - and forcing a sewing machine into a MARC record helps nobody. So equipment lending typically runs on workarounds:
- Hotspots and laptops tracked as generic barcoded “items”, with no record of which physical unit went out or what state it came back in.
- Library of Things items managed from a binder at the desk, where the contents list for the telescope kit is whatever the last staff member remembered to write down.
- Makerspace equipment that never circulates at all, and therefore never gets recorded anywhere - until the 3D printer fails and nobody knows its purchase date or warranty status.
- Branch and staff IT that belongs to the town or the system, counted once at audit time from a spreadsheet that was last true two budget cycles ago - the standard way Excel fails at asset tracking.
The fix is not stretching the ILS further. It is a second, lightweight register designed for serialised items, running alongside it.
What a library should track
Three groups, in order of pain:
- Patron-facing lending - hotspots, laptop and tablet kits, e-readers, and the Library of Things: tools, telescopes, sewing machines, projectors, memory kits, radon detectors, whatever your community borrows. Per item, with serials.
- Makerspace and programming equipment - 3D printers, vinyl cutters, recording gear, and the AV kit that moves between programme rooms and branch events. It rarely circulates, but it breaks, gets borrowed by staff, and has warranties.
- Staff and branch infrastructure - staff laptops and docking stations, public printers, networking equipment and servers in the back room. Often town-owned, always audit-relevant - the same register pattern municipalities use across departments.
Leave true consumables out - filament, paper, craft supplies are stock, not assets.
Kits, due dates, and what "returned" means
Most library equipment circulates as a kit: the laptop plus charger plus case, the telescope plus eyepieces plus manual. Kitting - treating the assembled set as one lendable unit with a documented contents list - is what makes desk transactions fast. The kit gets one label and one record; the record lists and photographs what is inside.
Tip: photograph the complete contents of every kit and attach the photo to its record. At return, staff compare against the photo instead of a from-memory list - and the photo settles “it was already missing when I got it” conversations before they start.
From there, the loan mechanics are familiar territory for any library:
- Every loan is tied to a named borrower with a due date. Anonymous equipment is lost equipment.
- Returns record condition and completeness, not just receipt. A faulty hotspot goes to a repair status, not back into the lending pool.
- The overdue list gets a weekly look. Chasing within days works; chasing within months does not.
| Lending category | Typical loan style | Check at return |
|---|---|---|
| Hotspots and laptop kits | Days to weeks, per policy | Powers on, charger present |
| Library of Things items | One loan period | Contents vs kit photo |
| Makerspace equipment | In-house use, staff-mediated | Condition note after sessions |
| AV and programme kit | Per event, staff checkout | Complete and repacked |
The register behind the desk
The same register quietly solves the staff-side problem. Branch IT, programme equipment and facilities gear get records with purchase dates, suppliers, warranty end dates and attached receipts - so when the public printer dies, the warranty answer is on its record, and when the annual audit asks what the branch holds, the answer is an export rather than a weekend of counting. A clean return and loan history on every item also tells you, at budget time, which equipment actually circulates and which has not moved since it was bought.
Getting started with a small team
A library can do this with the staff it has:
- Start with one collection - usually hotspots or the Library of Things, whichever causes the most desk friction.
- Build each kit’s record before labelling: serial, replacement cost, contents list, photos.
- Label the case, not just the item. A durable QR label on the kit bag or case survives circulation better than one on a small device alone.
- Switch the desk habit: scan at checkout, scan at return, note condition. Seconds per transaction.
- Add staff and branch IT next, importing whatever spreadsheet exists today rather than retyping it.
Where AMPthilly fits
AMPthilly gives a library team the equipment register the ILS never was. Each item carries photos, serial number, purchase details, attached documents and custom fields (contents lists, replacement cost); printable QR labels in your choice of size go on cases and kit bags; and scanning a label with any phone camera opens the item in the browser - no app for staff or volunteers to install. Checkouts go to named borrowers with due dates, returns capture who, when and condition, the overdue list is always current, and every transaction lands in a permanent audit history. Issues reported against an item - cracked screen, missing eyepiece - stay on its record with photos. The free plan covers 3 users and 25 assets with no card required, which fits a Library of Things pilot exactly; see pricing for where it goes from there.
FAQ
How do libraries track equipment that isn’t in the catalogue? With a separate equipment register: per-item records with serials, photos and contents lists, QR labels, named-borrower loans with due dates, and condition captured at return.
What is the best way to manage a Library of Things? One record per item with a photographed contents list, a durable label on the case, due-date loans, and a completeness check against the photo at return.
How should hotspot and laptop lending be tracked? Per device, with its own serial and loan history - so a faulty or missing unit traces to a specific loan. Review the overdue list weekly.
What should staff check when a kit is returned? Completeness against the contents photo, visible condition, and anything the borrower reports - logged in under a minute.
Does a small library need separate software for equipment lending? Once lending outgrows one drawer of hotspots, yes - and free tiers like AMPthilly’s (3 users, 25 assets) make the pilot cost nothing.
The takeaway
Libraries already have the discipline that equipment tracking needs - named borrowers, due dates, return desks. What is missing is a system that understands items rather than titles: serials, kit contents, condition, repair history. Put the equipment on its own register, photograph every kit, make the scan part of the desk routine, and review the overdue list weekly. The lending culture does the rest.