Community members can borrow more than books from the Dartmouth Public Library.

They can take home a party.

From a karaoke machine to cornhole sets to a portable photo studio light box, all the fixings for a fun celebration are available for free from the Southworth and North branches of the library through a new program known as a Library of Things.

“The staff is beyond excited to offer a Library of Things to the community,” said Dina St. Pierre, director of Libraries for the town of Dartmouth.

The library features an array of items, from beach toys to science experiments to musical instruments.

The public has already taken advantage of the new service, which began at the end of June, St. Pierre said. A number of items, including the cornhole, were borrowed over the Fourth of July weekend to add, St. Pierre presumes, to the holiday activities.

The Library of Things reflects the library’s commitment to community outreach and also reflects the importance of reducing, reusing and recycling, said Marissa Perez-Dormitzer, waste reduction manager from the Greater New Bedford Regional Refuse Management District.

Using the already popular cornhole as an example, she noted that people might only need that game a few times a year. Rather than buying it and storing it away without future use, or even throwing it out and adding to the landfill, the Library of Things allows people to borrow it when needed then return it for others to use, she said.

Another advantage, she said, is that people can try items that might interest them — a ukulele, anyone? — without the expense of purchasing something they might end up having no interest in. And since there is no cost to borrow the items, they are accessible to everyone, Perez-Dormitzer said.

Each branch has its own collection of items. Southworth and North Branch both feature an astronaut projector, bubble machine, beach toys, fort building kit, gear bots, binoculars, globe, Mr. Pencil Scribble, Write and Read, a toy guitar and maracas, glow-in-the-dark Marble Run, microscope, Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza card game and wooden Tetris puzzles.

They each also have a hotspot, which is a wireless device that allows electronics to be connected to the Internet, and a kill-a-watt meter, which measures the electrical power consumption of an appliance or device plugged into it. 

The North Branch also includes an additional array of offerings, including a Blu-Ray player, compact keyboard, CD player, foldable garden kneeler seat, gardening tools, among others items.

The Library of Things is funded by the Dartmouth Public Library, the Greater New Bedford Regional Refuse Management District and a grant awarded to the town of Dartmouth from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.

The library staff, which included Bethany Vieira, assistant director of Dartmouth Public Library, reached out to other libraries to see how the program was run at other locations. They also surveyed library patrons to determine what items might have particular interest.

St. Pierre encourages the public to check out the items, which are available to anyone 18 and older with a valid library card. She also seeks feedback about other items that might make good additions to the Library of Things.

The library is committed to ongoing funding for the new feature, St. Pierre said.

So the party will not be stopping anytime soon.