In July 2025, we started l'Instrumentothéque. It's a new collection in the l'Espace musique et cinéma - a collection of music instruments. Our members can now borrow musical instruments! It's the perfect opportunity to borrow an instrument and try it out without breaking the bank.
This new service is available to anyone 18 and above. I wanted it to be from 14 and over, but the direction decided for 18 and above because of the insurance reasons. Otherwise of age, andybody curious and motivated can borrow an instrument. :)
List of instruments available:
1 acoustic guitar Yamaha GD11M
1 electric guitar Pacifica
1 ukulele
1 banjo
1 mandoline
1 saxophone JSAX (plastic, so it's easy to clean and transport)
1 violin
1 cajón
1 djembe
1 electric piano Yamaha YPT-220
1 tongue drum
This service is available as a normal borrowing, there is no need to leave extra money or sign any extra documents. The idea is to inspire people to play music, talk about it, and to contribute to local music scene. We hopefully lowered the barrier to making music.
Objectives
Some of our objectives with instrumentothéque are:
1. democratization of access to music - it's the mission of libraries, culture is for everyone, noy just for ones who can pay. Instruments are expensive, especially for beginners who don't know will they stick with it. So instrumentothéque removes financial risk. Families who couldn't afford instruments now have a way in.
2. encouraging of creativity and experimentation - low pressure way to explore music, instrumentothéque supports informal learning, which often makes people discover lifelong passions
3. strengthening the médiathèque’s role in the community - we hope to become a creative hub, not only a place to borrow books, music or films. Hopefully this service will attract new audiences and posigion médiathèque as innovative and culturally relevant institution
4. opening the door to new programming - we can organize workshops about different instruments, jam sessions and partnerships with local music associations and institutions. We already organized ukulele festival and we organized initiation to playing ukulele, which was a big success.