Joe Clement shares commentary and news on the political significance of libraries, examining the material context of social attacks on them and the utopian potential of their sharing ethos. We hear audio from Mariame Kabe on the podcast Death Panel speaking to how libraries can help us rediscover the grammar of commoning and belonging to one another. Also Shawn Vulliez of the Seriously Wrong podcast speaks as a guest on the LibraryPunk podcast about how the at once practical and yet ideal principle of usufruct, or free use of abundantly circulating public goods, can underpin a “library socialist” solution to the ecological and social crises bearing down on us today.
Listen to Joe's 3/25 segment about Fort Vancouver Regional Library workers still fighting for living wages. Support them by 1. Signing their Petition 2. Emailing the Board of Trustees: trustees@fvrl.org 3. Attending a Board Meeting
Ready, Set, Library / American Library Association / 2024
Notes of a Library Worker / Viewpoint Magazine / Ben Webster (2013)
ALA report says book challenges soared in 2023 / NPR / Tovia Smith (2024)
Huntsville Library Privatized After Pride Display / Book Riot / Kelly Jensen (2022)
Joint statement by Oregon Library Association and Oregon Association of School Libraries condemning Portland Public School cuts to libraries. The school board meets at the Mathew Prophet Education Center 401 N Dixon St Portland, OR 97227
Attacks on Libraries are Attacks on Labor / Truth Out / Jaime Taylor (2022)
For The People: a leftist library project
On usufruct, the irreducible minimum, and Complimentarity / from "The Ecology of Freedom" / Murray Bookchin (1982)
ALA Statement committing Sustainability to Core Librarianship Values (2019)
Berkeley Public Library Tool Library
Libraries can save the planet through SHARE Berkeley / Berkeleyside / Sophie Hahn (2024)
City Council approves Berkeley Public Library’s first Share Hub / The Daily Californian / Summer Choi (2024)
Community tool libraries in the Portland OR Area:
- Green Lents Community Tool Library
- SE Portland Tool Library
- Kitchen Share SE
- North Portland Tool Library
- NE Portland Tool Library
Public libraries with libraries of things and expansive collections near Portland, OR. Anyone with a library card in the metropolitan free service area can get cards in any of these other systems and check their things out.
- Ledding Library of Milwaukie (library of things, seed library)
- Beaverton City Library (library of things)
- Hillsboro Public Library (library of things)
- Tigard Public Library (library of things)
- Cedar Mill & Bethany Community Library (library of things)
- Lake Oswego Public Library (library of things)
- Oregon City Public Library (library of things)
- Fort Vancouver Regional Libraries (seed library)
- Multnomah County Library still needs a library of things, but here are 10 things you can get for free besides a book.
- KBOO