Beyond Books: Transforming Academic Libraries into Innovation Hubs through Equipment Lending

Academic libraries are evolving from traditional repositories of information to dynamic spaces that promote innovation, cooperative work, and hands-on learning. This paper presents a case study of transforming an institute library into an Innovation Hub by creating a Common Component Studio (CCS) — an equipment-lending facility or hardware components library integrated with the institute’s library Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC). The CCS offers over 1200+ prototyping components and tools for home lending, enabling students to engage in Project-Based Learning (PjBL) and Problem-Based Learning (PBL) without the delays and costs associated with sourcing hardware. The study outlines the proposed CCS framework for PjBL and PBL, which impacts Iteration Frequency (IF), Project Completion Rate (PCR), Innovation Quality Score (IQS), and Interdisciplinary Participation (IP) for hands-on learning and rapid prototyping in project-based learning. The results demonstrate that library-led equipment lending can significantly enhance the learning experience and position the CCS as a central hub for lending hardware components in institutional innovation ecosystems.