By admin 
Shari Nichelini worked for the Sacramento Public Library for 42 years.
Starting as a library assistant, she worked her way across many of the local libraries in the system before retiring as circulation services coordinator in early 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
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“So much for all the retirement plans,” Nichelini said, in reference to stay-at-home orders brought on by the pandemic.
Instead of presents at her January retirement party, she asked well-wishers to bring an interesting cake pan. Thanks in part to that retirement party, Sacramento library patrons can check out hundreds of different pans, muffin tins and cookie cutters from the Shari Nichelini Cake Pan Library.
Inside the Library of Things
There are plenty of paper-and-ink books at Sacramento’s 28 library locations and mountains of digital materials online.
But the library was an early trailblazer in building what is known as a “Library of Things.” With a library card, people can borrow sewing machines, lawn-care tools, musical instruments and more.
According to Christy Aguirre, collection management supervisor for the Sacramento Public Library, Nichelini “dreamed about introducing a cake pan library. For years, she talked about it.”
To Aguirre, libraries that offered more than books is a no-brainer. “Just like books, you don’t necessarily need to own all the items you may need” in your day-to-day life, she said.
Offering cake pans and other cooking supplies, she said, promotes “accessibility and sustainability,” while helping community members access objects that might otherwise be cost-prohibitive.
The Cake Pan Library, by the numbers
The Cake Pan Library is viewable online, and patrons can request pans to be delivered to their local branch library. But for those who want to browse pans in person, that’s possible too.
Physical pan collections can be seen at Robbie Waters Pocket-Greenhaven Library and the Rio Linda Library. At Pocket-Greenhaven, dozens of pans hang in sturdy plastic bags surrounded by shelves of glossy cookbooks.
There are over 200 pans currently in the library system, up from the initial collection of 74, said Aguirre. There’s a dazzling variety available, from madeleine pans to cartoon character pans to massive stacks of wedding cake pans, both round and square.
Beyond metal cake pans, there are also bundles of cookie cutters and an array of colorful silicone pans as well. Each pan comes with a laminated sheet of guidelines and baking tips. (For example, patrons are encouraged to wash the pans before and after use, and to watch out for burns.)
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Some larger, more unusual pans come with laminated pages of instructions that were included in their original packaging. Each pan, in its sturdy plastic carrying bag, also comes bundled with one of Nichelini’s favorite cake recipes.
The Cake Pan Library, said Aguirre, has been increasingly popular with library patrons since it launched in 2022. From September 2025 to September 2026, pans have been checked out 1,602 times. The most popular time for the collection, she said, is “baking season” — the fall and winter months.
Just like books, cake pans can be checked out for three weeks.
The Sacramento Public Library, said Aguirre, is not currently accepting donations of more pans to the collection. “There are guidelines that we have,” she explained, as well as a list of requested pans from patrons that take precedence.
Certain pans, she added, are “wildly popular.” Chief among them are the madeleine pans. “My theory is that Costco prices of madeleines have risen astronomically,” she joked. The dinosaur cake pan also sees a lot of use. Both types of pan, of course, are not the type of kitchen tool most people would need to have around for daily use, making them perfect borrowable items.
Leaving a legacy
Nichelini is thrilled to know that her namesake cake pan collection has proven to be a hit. “I’m glad people have embraced it,” she said.
According to Nichelini, she originally had heard about cake-pan collections at libraries in the Midwest, and remembered thinking that it was a good idea. “You want to make a special cake, you don’t want to buy special pans,” she said.
She has fond memories of her retirement party in 2020, and first seeing what her colleagues had brought, the roots of what would become the Shari Nichelini Cake Pan Library.
“There were so many I didn’t even know existed,” she said. “The coolest were the beautiful Bundt pans.”
For bakers aspiring to use those fantastical Bundt pans in the collection, shaped like everything from haunted houses to roses, Nichelini offered some advice for making sure they come out in one piece.
Before pouring in the cake batter, “you gotta use a spray that has flour in it,” she advised. “Spray it really heavy.”
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This story was originally published October 21, 2026 at 10:30 AM.