Join fixers from the Charlottesville TimeBank Repair Café for an introductory repair café right here at the UVA Library, in the Scholars' Lab!

What is a repair café, you ask? Repair cafés are collaborative events to fix your stuff, saving them from the landfill and practicing creative re-use. They're also part of a global movement to build a more sustainable future by making it easier for anyone to repair anything! More information here: repaircafe.org/en.

This repair café will focus on introductory electrical repair via an appliance that everyone uses, needs, and occasionally breaks: lamps and lights. If you have a non-lamp small appliance that you would like to bring and fix, you can! Indicate that on the registration form. Volunteers from the Charlottesville TimeBank Repair Café will walk you through safety guidance, the troubleshooting process, and a variety of repairs. You can sign up to bring your own lamp if you have one that needs fixing, or you can sign up to observe (there may be bonus fixable lamps on hand for you to experiment with). You can sign up for one of three hourly time slots during the event, or come and watch the whole time.

This event is open to all. There will be snacks provided. Free parking is available after 5pm in Culbreth Parking Garage.

This event is generously supported by the UVA Arts Council. It is one of a series of repair café events that will be held this academic year, as part of the Library's 2026-2027 arts initiative, AFK: Away From Keyboard, which urges students, the UVA community, and Charlottesville to experiment with creating intentional connections between body and mind. We want to know: what happens to the way we perceive, learn, make, and research when we're AFK? How does using our hands to tinker, create, and repair deepen and expand research? Less blue light; more insight.