For toy libraries, tool libraries and libraries of things
Everything goes out. Everything comes back.
Gizzago runs the lending library you already run: the sessions, the desk, the members and the reports your funders ask for. Made for volunteers with ten minutes and a borrowed hall.
Built alongside a real toy library · Data kept in the EU
A Saturday, start to finish
One session. One place for all of it.
No spreadsheet on the side, no Eventbrite list on someone’s phone, no paper labels. This is a session at a demo library, as the volunteers see it.
- 08:50
Desk
Unlock the desk
A volunteer opens the tablet and types their own PIN. No shared password on a sticky note.
- 09:05
Returns
Toys come back, counted
Kate returns the marble run. The desk asks for 24 pieces; she counts 24. Done in one tap.
- 09:20
Members
A new family joins
They sign up on their phone while the children play. Children by month and year, never a full birthday.
- 09:40
Reservations
Reserved toys are waiting
Last night's pick list put their basket on the shelf before the doors opened.
- 11:30
Cash-up
Cash up and lock up
Cash and card for the session are totted up and signed off before the hall keys go back.
- Mon
Reports
The funder report is already there
Families, children by age, sessions and volunteer turns, counted from the records, not from memory.
What it does, in your words
The whole library, not just the loans.
- 01
Sessions and calendar
Weekly sessions, one-offs and closures, at as many halls as you use.
- 02
The desk
Lend, return, count pieces, take cash and sign up a family, on a tablet on a trestle table.
- 03
Members and households
Families, not just email addresses, with everything that happened to them in one feed.
- 04
Reservations
Families reserve online for a session; you get a pick list and a waiting list.
- 05
Kits and counted stock
Products and copies, kits that lend all their parts, and stock you count instead of label.
- 06
Events
Stay and play, music sessions and fittings, with places, bookings and check-in.
- 07
Reports for trustees and funders
Real counts from your records, in the shape funders ask for.
- 08
Capture
Photograph a donation. The details come back with their sources. A person checks them.
- 09
Your own site
Your catalogue, colours, fonts and words, on your own web address.
True today, not on a roadmap
665toys moved
A real toy library's catalogue and its 1,046 photos, moved across from its old system in a test run.
13parts, one place
Desk, sessions, members, reservations, items, Capture, events, reports and more, built and tested together.
<5never shown
Funder reports show small counts as “fewer than 5” so no family can be picked out.
EUstored
Every library's records, photos and backups are kept in the EU. Nothing is stored in the US.
Who it’s for
Small, mission-led libraries that lend things to their neighbours.
Usually a charity or a volunteer group, one coordinator, a rota of volunteers and a hall for a few hours a week. Gizzago speaks your library’s language: toys or tools, families or borrowers, sessions or openings.
Toy libraries
Toys, families and Saturday sessions in a borrowed hall.
toysfamiliessessionspieces
Libraries of things
Gazebos, pasta makers, projectors and the carpet cleaner.
thingsborrowersopeningskits
Tool libraries
Drills, ladders, sanders and the know-how to use them.
toolsborrowersopeningsrepairs
Baby and sling libraries
Slings, wraps and nearly-new kit, lent with advice.
slingsfamiliesdrop-insfittings
How it works
Join. Session. Desk.
Join
Families join on your site, on their phone. Free or paid plans, children by month and year, pay online or at the desk.
Session
Set your sessions once, say Saturdays 9 to 11:30 at the hall. Reservations, reminders and pick lists follow the calendar.
Desk
On the day the desk lends, returns, counts pieces and takes cash. Afterwards the numbers are already in the reports.
Capture, built in
Photograph a toy. The details come back.
Snap a donation, say a sentence about it, and Capture fills in the name, age, contents and condition. Every value shows where it came from, and nothing reaches your catalogue until a person has checked it.
How Capture worksBuilt to be trusted
Kept in the EU
Records, photos and backups are stored in the EU. Nothing is stored in the US.
Safe sign-in
Passkeys, passwords or an emailed link, and two-step sign-in for the people who run the library.
Your data leaves with you
Export your members, loans and catalogue whenever you like. Nothing is held hostage.
Mission-led
Made for libraries that measure success in families helped and things reused, not margin.
We are opening Gizzago to a few libraries at a time.
Tell us about your library and we will be in touch about joining early and moving your catalogue across.