Shhh. The Library Has Power Tools!

A Tennessee library card can now unlock a museum visit, a movie night, garden seeds and even a recording studio. Turns out, the quietest building in town may be hiding some surprisingly loud possibilities.

Start With the Card You Already Have

In Clarksville, active library cardholders can check out a family pass to the Customs House Museum & Cultural Center. According to the museum’s visitor information, the pass is good for seven days and admits four adults plus any children in their household. Patrons simply return it to the participating library when they are finished.

That makes the library a decent starting point for a low-cost weekend: check out the museum pass, spend the day exploring, then head home without adding another family outing to the credit card.

Across the state, the idea keeps expanding.

At Germantown Community Library, an active card opens the door to Kanopy, an ad-free streaming service featuring movies, documentaries, foreign films, independent cinema and educational programming. Cardholders receive 15 digital tickets each month, with ticket costs varying by title. The library also operates a Seed Library with an updated inventory for patrons ready to start planning what goes into the garden next.

Libraries Have Apparently Been Busy

The Portland Public Library has gone well beyond books, too. Its services include a seed library, free outgoing faxing for up to 25 pages and a self-service driver’s license kiosk. That last one may not make for a thrilling Saturday afternoon, but anyone who has spent half a day handling routine paperwork knows the appeal.

Then there is the Sevier County Public Library System, where King Family Library in Sevierville has a third-floor creative space with robotics technology, circuitry kits, robotic building sets and a media lab. Visitors can work with a green screen, professional microphone, musical instruments and computers designed for recording and editing audio and video.

Taken together, these programs make a library card look less like permission to borrow books and more like a key to things many families would otherwise pay to rent, subscribe to or buy.

Eligibility and access vary by library, so check individual rules before building your weekend around a museum pass, streaming account, seed pickup or creative-space visit.

For another affordable way to explore Tennessee, browse museums across the state through the Guide to Tennessee directory at https://www.guidetotennessee.com/museums.