I forgot to mention one of the best resources out there right now for implementing the library economy wherever you are! Check out Open Source Ecology and their work on the open access Global Village Construction Set: www.opensourceecology.org/gvcs/ The Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) is a modular, DIY, low-cost, high-performance platform based on the vision of a transparent, collaborative, and inclusive economy of abundance. Their project is about developing blueprints for the easy fabrication of 50 different open-source industrial machines that can be made at a fraction of commercial costs and shared for free. Please drop more resources in the comments below!
Thanks again for the great work you do. It takes so much time for us to read, deprogram, energize and identity constructive outlets to organize, activise, and tailor work to better ends. It's a gift to have thoughtful creators helping to bring more of this helpful content and perspectives to light.
Your body of work here is a beautiful gift to the world and each one gives me a little more hope for the world. For this little resource library here in the comments, I have two donations: - Shareable, which is a repository of news and how-to guides on mutual aid, cooperative and commons-based projects. A fantastic resource that's full of practical ideas to get started with - Symbiosis Revolution, A libertarian municipalist federation to help organize and shape local library socialist and mutual aid projects to build dual power
One of the biggest things I e seen w this and socialist is that people complain that they won't get jobs they like like janitorial or street cleaners , thing is they don't realize that there Are people who Love to be cleaners like me and most of my family we actually enjoy cleaning and healing people
I'm sure my city isn't the only to do this (in fact, I know it's not), but our public libraries have a 'Library of Things,' where you can check out all sorts of things. Gardening tools, a quilting machine, a radon testing kit, a telescope, a Cricut, musical instruments, a laptop, and more. They expand their curation efforts based on requests (I'm currently trying to get them to add a viola). But wait, there's more. In their newest branch, they've added a whole media suite. They have a room for podcast recording or zoom calls, a video production studio with a greenscreen, tungsten and LED lights, video and audio equipment, and computers with editing software (and a nice comfy set), and a music recording studio with three isolation pods, a digital and upright piano, a drumset, recording equipment, garageband, and the ability to record with a tech to help you mix it (if you want to do an album or EP, you get 40 hours of the tech's time in exchange for 40 volunteer hours, no other cost. A 2 hour session and self-record is free). AND, they've partnered with a local college to utilize sociology majors as part of a team to meet library patrons along the floors, connecting them with resources both in the library and out in the community. We previously have a lot of homeless in our library, so it's a great way to help them find what they need to help. Oh. And a 3D printer, which is free to use. That's not even half the services they offer, but damn. I love libraries. And I love the idea of a library of things. It's all free, it's accessible, you don't even need an address to get a card and they've done away with late fees here. Just... so much potential. So many ways to enrich the community, which gives back in turn. Brilliant.
@Sappho :O You don't know how badly I want to learn soldering. I'm horribly addicted to crafting, and I've taught myself painting, sewing, embroidery, knitting and crochet, sculpting, some basic carpentry, leatherworking, and more. But things that involve heat... well, my room burned down with a kid, and I set my fire alarm off at least once a year by forgetting I'm cooking, so... Look, I need an adult, lol. But I've been wanting to learn soldering for metalcraft in particular (maybe eventually I could become skilled enough to work on tech, but we'll see). I'd also love to learn glass blowing, stained glass, and metalsmithing. My library had a blacksmithing class with a mobile blacksmith and I MISSED it for work. I'm devastated... I love hearing of all the ways libraries enrich their communities, especially when they partner with local schools. That's so fantastic.
@@alexardov Mmm, I'm not going to dox myself, lol. But there are a many like this in North America. I've heard of some that offer even more than mine. :)
I work in a public library and we actually have an "art" library where people can come and borrow an actual artwork, hang it in their home for 3 months and then return it to get another one :) It works well and is very worth it when you think of how unacessible buying one for themselves is for most people !
Book libraries could be made a lot better too, and I've seen an incredible example of this. I live in Japan where a lot of towns grew around medieval castles, and the castles have become the central landmarks of their cities. But Yamato City, Kanagawa Prefecture (near Tokyo) has no surviving castles, so about a decade ago they built a giant multipurpose library building that would dwarf any castle, and started promoting Yamato as a “library castle town”. When you enter Sirius, the main building of the Yamato City Library system, Pepper the SoftBank robot greets you near the escalator. Inside, the library has big wide open book collection spaces and atriums with beautiful wooden decor. Besides the general literature and reference materials for adults, there’s a huge manga section, as well as a children’s book section and teens section, all with their own seating areas. Parents have dedicated rooms for nursing babies and changing diapers, and there’s an adjacent foam block play area for toddlers, as well as story time areas for slightly older children. Visitors can chat and have refreshments on the terraces and balconies, or the Starbucks on the ground floor. Community councils, support groups, seminars and classes, and other meetings can be held in the many reservable rooms on the top floors. There are plenty of desktop computers and media viewing booths for accessing online and other digital content. They even have a culture hall for holding large scale events and a broadcast studio for making locally-oriented programming. That’s not even all of the features of Sirius, just the ones I can remember from my last visit. I'm from an American college town with old underfunded libraries, so I was amazed by Yamato's library castle that is so inviting to visitors even local teens go there just to hang out. Every city should have a library like Sirius where people can go as an alternative to commercialized spaces like shopping malls or high streets or lifestyle centers or whatever.
@@roblmurphy4135 Now that you mention it, SIRIUS pretty much is a community center in the same building as a library. I just didn't think of it that way because the only "community center" in my hometown is just a building with some rooms where people can hold meetings if they make reservations. It's not actually the center of the community, and most people in the community have no reason to go there at all. This really shouldn't be the case, because my hometown has about the same population as Yamato City, and definitely has a bigger tax base to fund this sort of facility. The closest thing we have to a place for the whole community to congregate and mix freely is the weekly farmer's market, which kind of sucks if it's raining.
I cannot tell you how much I want to slip into this society. I’m a baker. I would give anything to just spread joy via baked goods every day. I’d also volunteer as a doula and gardener. I could do so much!
I would also love do be in this kind of world. I don't know who i want do be in the future, but i would absolutly adore helping people with anything possible. I also have a great interest in architecture and building cities with people in mind, not cars. So i might become an architect do bring my dreams do life.
Yeah. Imagine the pride and pleasure you'd get from serving people with your ability without any need for monetary incentive. That would feel soooo liberating, since you're expressing yourself while contributing to the community, without any pressure and threats of poverty and starvation of a capitalist society. Such a beautiful prospect.
@@ironguard4048ecause I have to pay food and rent. Although, to a degree I do. I've provided guidance and support for friends suffering under poor living conditions, spent thousands of hours designing games and preparing adventures for my friends to go on, spent much more time than that educating people on things I have learned (frequently math/science related because that's my speciality). All for free because I like making other people happy. It's what I'd do most of the time if I didn't have to spend so much of my limited energy earning the privilege to live.
In the midst of me enduring painful, capitalist, classist, and ableist bureaucracy on my path to getting my Library Sciences degree, this is absolutely the kind of motivation I need to really keep my head up and keep pushing! Libraries were there for me as a young kid who could never afford all the books I wanted to read, it was a place with people I felt at home with. It gave me a space away from abuse and violence and a place to simply exist. As I've gotten older I've fallen even more in love with them too. And as already fantastic as books are, using a library system for so much more too. Absolutely going to be a video I watch multiple times to fully digest and let sink in!
The top-down bureaucracy and limitations of capitalism have really been sabotaging libraries for such a long time, yet they're still one of the best places to be. They can and should be run by the people, for the people. All the people.
"It gave me a space away from abuse and violence and a place to simply exist." So much this! I struggle with reading these days so i don't take out books very often but the local library has been so valuable as a public space that i'm simply allowed to exist in, without explaining myself, that is indoors and heated! With the privatisation of public spaces running steadily more rampant, the simple value of "building you are allowed in no questions asked" is becoming ever clearer to me.
Just hard a hard day at my library job and like a fool I’m just thinking of dropping absolutely everything including my grad studies. You’re very positive and I wish I was the same
As someone who is disabled and constantly sees disabled people being framed in terms of how well they can work or not, it’s so refreshing to hear the concept of a world that can provide accessibility and resources that actively contributes to others A banger as always Drew!
Relatable, my current job is the only place I've found a boss who (without even knowing my disability) is accommodating to my energy levels, flashbacks, etc. It's extremely refreshing to just be told "ah, thanks, sweet" on occasion when you do your job. Even if I do it to a different rhythm.
There’s an episode of Judge Judy where a disabled man’s welfare checks had been stolen by a family member & Judge Judy tells him to get a job. Meanwhile his disability was preventing him from fully understanding why he gets welfare checks and clearly shouldn’t be expected to work. Not only is forcing someone who’s disabled to work dangerous to the individual, but possibly dangerous for the other people involved.
You gotta be useful to at least some people. No matter how. That's how a market (or civilisation) works. (It is also how nature works) *just to give you an example: People who can get a lot of difficult work done in a short amount of time are obviously well liked and cared for. People who can't do so usually aren't. However, such people can still be useful in another way. For example, our family has a disabled girl in our daycare. She may usually be more of a nuisance than a help, but the simply her existence can be a blessing, in that she can teach us so much about life, that she becomes useful to us. Anyone can be useful to others with their unique circumstances. They just have to figure out how.
This isn't all just in the future. Many places have tool libraries now, and your public book libraries often have much more on offer than just books. They don't advertise like stores do, so you have to ask around.
libraries, the postal service, and the irs are all very important institutions for which most people have no idea of half the things they do, myself included.
Library socialism is easily my favorite utopian vision. It's hard to think about the intricacies of a future anarchist economy at times, library socialism is very easily imagined because we have a reference right here in the present. I spread the idea wherever I can. You did a great job on this video, thanks for making it. Also loved to see the wrong boys make a guest appearance! Truly a treat.
I prefer automation and energy capitalism Where we focus on production of each individual’s ability to produce Laws are heavily democratic and we use the only money that is real wattage
@@aspiringscientificjournali1505 Wow, that sounds a lot like treating people as objects which should only serve to increase humanity's energy budget. Not to mention that sounds very dystopian for anyone unable to produce. Taking care of disabled people is quite likely to help you at some point. Most people spend at least some portion of their life disabled in some way.
@@solsystem1342 People are technically objects Who said an object can’t have emotions and other factors Also my design actually support the disabled Kinda the whole point Everything is self supporting You don’t need to use tax dollars to do anything Because the structure to support them is built in The focus on our ability to produce is mainly about maintaining a connection between a workers energy input and his final product So capitalism but without the hidden value ideas You know what energy was put in You know what energy is needed to keep people alive You know how much your work is worth So imagine this Everton born is given 1 solar panel ( for ease I just said 1 but really it would be a certain amount of production of wattage ) They amount is calculated to be enough to provide Food water and the ability to shelter yourself with a surplus to build more or spend on small luxuries Now you have what you need… no need for taxes to do it Automation will take care of the very incapable and would require very little oversight Do you see where this goes
@@aspiringscientificjournali1505 People are not objects. It's not helping for you to call people that cause some people already think capitalism is treating people, workers, or customers like disposable objects.
My community has a public pantry and a tool library. The city I used to live in also had a whole ass Maker Space in the main branch's basement. Some guy literally started a whole business while homeless and unemployed from there. Very cool. Libraries are amazing.
recently a library opened near my house. it was designed with a lot of input from the neighbors and you can tell telling because it feels communal. it has a large garden with picnic tables and chairs, three floors and a terrace with lots of plants and tables. love the idea of having many more of these types of buildings, all with different utilities. good vid
@@RuinedTemple I think tihako7169 was saying he/she was envious of the communal library designs with a garden that the OP was talking about. Unfortunately, some libraries are a concrete box.
I am a huge fan of the vast library of guides/manuals/blueprints/etc. at the Internet Archive! They seriously have EVERYTHING over there, from building large solar-powered portable batteries w/ full AC/DC outlets,, to urban warfare (applicable to protests/direct action) tactics, and everything in between
A housing library would really be a cool solution to buying a house on stolen land. I'm happy to rent, but rent isn't regulated and landlord are and continue to be trifling. A housing library could be really something.
Imagine instead of having a housing market, we had a housing catalogue that gathered data on the different housing needs of the population and listed the available, empty homes for use as long as people need it.
Community land trusts and real estate investment cooperatives have been thinking along similar lines, though how committed they are to radical democracy vs just an affordable housing program to make capitalism work better varies. I strongly recommend checking out East Bay PREC in Oakland, California, USA. If there isn't one near you, there are hella resources and supports available for starting one, such as the Foundation for Intentional Community and the Grounded Solutions Network (though both may be US-centric).
I'm studying product design in college because I love making stuff, and it's been great in that regard but it's also been very demoralizing. We're not taught to solve the problems of people, we're taught to solve the problems of the companies we work for, which in most cases overlaps just enough to be passed off as the former, but the deeper I get into my education the more that facade fades. We are constantly told how design can change people's lives or change the world, but I've become totally disillusioned because what we're actually being taught to do is how to find new niches of people to exploit. And we keep finding them because our identities as people have been commodified. I love the idea of a library economy. It would completely destroy the industry of "design" but I am fully in favor of that happening, so much talent and work and energy is being poured into carefully thought out design that helps nobody in any meaningful way.
Isn't the reason companies exists in the first place, is that the owner(s) saw a problem/need that required solving/fulfilling? So what you would need, in theory, to solve the problems of people, would be to see what problem(s) still need solving, or can be better solved, and create your own company. But what makes that not just a "of course, I'll go do that!" kind of intuitive step, is how much of an utter pain opening/running a company currently is. In short, they're not teaching you to directly solve peoples' problems, they expect you to "simply" go and start a company to do so.
@@VaeldargThat's true but I don't think it's the full picture, I believe that companies are inherently pretty bad at solving people's problems because of their incentive to create profit. And because of that incentive I don't think I could actually do a better of a job if I started my own company. Even if I wanted to do the bare minimum to keep myself fed and my company afloat I'd still have to pander to the market. A while ago I talked to a designer who created his own design firm, he started with so many big ideas about how he would use design to help people, but eventually the system ground him down and now he's making super expensive lamps for rich people. I don't believe that's a moral failing on his part, I just think it's how our system of production is designed. Rich people hold the vast majority of the wealth so the vast majority of design must be done for rich people if companies wish to stay afloat.
@@StellaByLuna It's kind of the "curse of success" that is the issue for companies. Even without greed coming into play, the "demand" side of "supply and demand" means that if the company is successful, more orders are placed than can be fulfilled, meaning company needs to make more profit to pay for expansion, which leads to more orders....and so on. The problem initially wanted to fix may not be big enough to sustain those solving it, so that may lead to someone looking to solve rich people problems instead.
I studied design in school also (lots of animation, but with a side trip into industrial design 😅) . I think exploring this system might really shake up the way we design things, but the process of design itself would live on! it would be different due to flipped priorities, and I’m trying imagine it 🤔
Some of these libraries have already been implemented where I live and they're amazing! Tools, cooking utensils, camping/hiking gear, instruments, etc. We're teamed up with a stanning service too
The main issue with all of this, is you have to start from square one with it in mind in the first place if don't want a long and painful transition period. The cruise ship analogy is missing the part where as soon as the guy pressed the button, the first person to die would be him as ethics/fairness were thrown out. Likewise, if there isn't a culture of long-lasting craftsmanship of the library selection, or responsible care of the items, there will be those who carelessly hoard/misplace/destroy/modify them. If it is started from within a capitalist economy (which very likely would be), repair/replacement needs to be paid for somehow. If the "somehow" is government (ie. taxpayer) money, they might be hostile to the idea and either not support it or actively shut it down. Even if it was privately/community funded, it would take place on or surrounded by government land. Even if the local government is fine with it, the national government may not be. And to ensure those who control the land are not hostile, enough people and resources must be gathered to have influence. To gather those people, they need to all understand the concept. For them to all understand the concept, there needs to be those who can convince them to learn about it. For those teachers to appear, this channel and others like it on platforms like RUclips, is where it all must first start.
@Vaeldarg yeah the only way this could work is a major transitional period to truly achieve it having it immediately is impossible same with a stateless classless moneyless society if you have it immediately the bourgeoisie will just go back into power or will lead to barbarism
@@Vaeldarg Imagine socialism as a tree trunk and library economy as a branch of that tree. Socialism comes first and from there on we can really evolve into anything.
That last little skit is soooo good. It reminds me of a quote I heard about social change which is emphasizes hegemonic change is only achieved when an ideology is considered a laughingstock or outright ridiculous. A perfect example is how most of us think of monarchy now. I think the concept of a library economy has this potential. It's so intuitive and paints a harmonious picture for our future. P.S. Thank you so much for your work! Your videos continue to inspire me.❤
@@Andrewism thank you for all you do. Not sure if you ever came across their work, but Open Source Ecology has been working on a version of the library. Their approach is to develop the tools necessary for a village and open source the schematics in a Creative Commons wiki. Very oversimplified on my part, but very in line with the philosophy your video demonstrated.
Your whole approach to the our struggles is so constructive and positive. I usually don't comment, but thank you again for your work and all the wonderful perspective.
@@Andrewism In some Swiss cities we have already some initiatives in place to share durable tools and clothes. I hope that the practice spreads even more and proves the feasibility to a wider audience, which, I hope at least (in thrifty Switzerland), will be quite open to this idea in some areas. I love the idea, and I think it speaks to quite a wide range of people. Even the author/ comedian/ etc. David Mitchell suggests something similiar (a lot of market talk as well): Sustainability | David Mitchell's Soapbox: ruclips.net/video/syii9DKnb2M/видео.html&ab_channel=DavidMitchell%27sSoapbox
There was this little wooden hut a local group put up at some point earlier this year, it was about the size of a small shed and it's purpose was as a place where you could bring things to give away and take things as you wanted, a little misc. sharing hut. Recently as I was walking with my mother to get some ice cream while she was visiting me, we passed it and it had been completely burned down. Apparently there had been plumbs in there at the time it was destroyed as charred plumbs littered the burned floor. It must have happened fairly recently because as we walked past it again on our way back, a handwritten sign expressing the anger of someone who may have been involved with it's creation had been put next to it. It chastised whoever had done it and it was kind of heart breaking. The hurt in the message, hand written in light blue on a thin piece of paper fluttering in the wind between two sticks barely more then twigs, standing next to a burned down hut, the remains of some of it's content still identifiable in their charred state and the sheer, almost shiny, blackness of the recently burned wood all that remained.
@@Andrewism Hopefully, I didn't know much about them, it's near the uni campus, so it might have been a student project, there used to be a sign that explained it, but for obvious reasons that isn't there anymore. I also know a community garden was started on a small green island between two small streets nearby, so it could also have been the local community as well as it seems to be active, or a mix of the two. I am just afraid that they might not rebuild, disheartened by this. It's not really a particularly rough neighbourhood either, mostly university buildings, student dorms and townhouses, so I wonder who would of done it.
@@willowarkan2263 Maybe the people using a shed library like that should have a key safe for listed users. It would be slightly more secure. If a shed was built out in the open in my community, it would definitely be used by teenagers with nothing to do, maybe even drug users, pushers and rough sleepers. It would quickly become problematic in itself, and anything placed in it for sharing would be interfered with or thrown about. We have a shed in our yard for the use of a community group that picks up litter, being available but “hidden” protects it from interference and insures it from theft and damage. Local allotments often have issues with break-ins and public phone boxes went from being essential community assets to vandalized urinals within a generation. Community assets still need protection from vandalization and accidents.
@@AtheistEve putting a key on it defeats the purpose. It is supposed to be accessible to anyone. As for sleeping in there, the nearby benches are probably more suitable, it was not that big. Anyway the homeless tend to be closer to the central station area and the pedestrian area. Also considering the damage a lock would have done little to stop the fire. I suspect the local teenagers have better places to hang out, like the campus with it's ramps and stairs and even those lying chairs they have outside the cafeteria, it's where students tend to smoke weed in the evenings anyway. The ramp right next to it is popular with the local scateboarder and inline skaters. The drug addicts also tend to be around the city center area, it's mostly itinerant drunks you find farther a field. If there are addicts hanging about I'd guess the area around the campus would also be more appealing. As for how much interference they get, can't tell you, but the public bookshelves seem to be alright. Public urination tends to be more of an issue in pedestrian tunnels here, not helped by the asinine decision to make the public bathroom at the train station into a fucking pay toilet, not to mention harder to find.
@@willowarkan2263 That becomes the glaring issue of ideas like these. The incorrect assumption that everyone is rational and behaving in their best interest. Not to mention careless accidents, such as a cigarette flicked into a hut of flammable material. Apathy/stupidity are a lot more common than malice. But either way, there is no way for everything to be accessible to everyone. By the very nature of desiring something to not be destroyed, purposefully or carelessly, there must be a way to protect it or deter through possible consequences for those who might do the destroying.
This reminded me of a conversation I had while I was still in school. There was a boy from a wealthy family, he was there on social security somehow from not listing his family. I met him through a church group, he was trying to change himself, but sometimes he would say stuff that shocked me. One day he said he didn't think the poor needs education. That only those with wealth and influence need knowledge. I brought up some of the inventions we have today came from people that were poor. And that different perspectives bring more ideas with make more advancements. It just amazed me that he never thought about it. Even the fact that his family could go bankrupt and he could become poor, then his children would not be worthy of education by his own standards. I hope he found the change he was looking for in himself.
You always give me hope. I often feel alone on my own path to conceive a more dignified and meaningful society. So it is always refreshing to hear the thoughts of someone with the same intentions and ideals. Godspeed comrade.
As someone on the way to her Library Science degree, this is a very important video to explaining the ideas of the Library Economy. I'll be sure to send people this way if they are interested in a utopian future!
i look at this.. when. i hear these things, and i see my friends thriving and loving and living and well off and happy and joyful... that's a future i want... and i see my friends in this video. i see my family. i see every person i've ever met here.... thank you
As someone who’s job has been awful because of my lack of access to my medication, this was really inspiring. Thanks Andrew, as usual, you make the best anarchist content on RUclips.
This video almost made me cry. Especially the last little skit. Finally getting to hear the ideas I’ve been struggling to articulate to others said and showed so eloquently. I can’t say enough how much I appreciate you and your channel !
When my parents first married, they checked framed art prints out of the library to decorate their apartment. Tool libraries exist in some places, and I love them. I can’t say enough in favor of these possibilities!
This is just the most serendipitous encounter with the RUclips algorithm. Every single word you say has me nodding along. I have been on a lifelong journey of awakening to my true nature, from a compare/compete/hoard mentality toward a collaborate/cooperate/share mentality. It is people like you that are helping me with the language to explain my evolving worldview, first to myself and then to others. Thank you for this.
Check out the SRSLY Wrong podcast. It’s made by the guys who did the cruise ship bit in this video and they have quite a few episodes on library socialism.
It's amazing how often you release videos on concepts as I'm thinking about them. Our local library has a small food bank and rents out internet access points. As I was sitting there enjoying a free meal with my family I remarked that our whole society should work like a library, and boom here's this video. Degrowth economies are also something I've been reading about, definitely looking forward to that video. PS I like the skits they're a nice way of breaking up the content 👍
@@Bri-vy7zx Described by academic Jason Hickel, author of Less is More, he says: "Degrowth is a planned reduction of energy and resource use designed to bring the economy back into balance with the living world in a way that reduces inequality and improves human well-being." Kate Raworth and Doughnut Economics Action Labs is part of this, Tim Jackson and Prosperity Without Growth are part of this, One Small Town initiative are very much a part of this, on the ground, for the community and any non-profit organization facilitating an expansion of the Library of Things for people can be part of this, too.
We are the people, we are here, and there are many of us. The internet is connecting us. I'll be surprised if there aren't many groups in different parts of the world working towards this. I remember watching a documentary based in Kenya on a "Camel Library". This library would use camels to bring books out to rural kenyans. The spirit is here in the world, and the technology is here. @@thestarsailor972
@@snowstrobe Let's find people with like-minds in our community who want the same thing and build cooperatively, collaboratively and have fun along the way! Some tools that may help the broader goal of creating a Library Economy and moving beyond destructive capitalism include: One Small Town initiative, based on Ubuntu Contributionism with Michael Tellinger, Moneyless Society book, podcast and website and Zeitgeist films, "A Viable Society" talk and New Human Rights Movement book by Peter Joseph, coming out soon with "Integral" a parallel open source system for meeting local needs and getting of the deathly grip of capitalism and destructive inequality.
My mind is blown. I described this EXACT concept to my partner as a utopia. My dream, ideal lifestyle. And I had no idea I was entertaining anarchy. I just started studying anarchy and I found your content and now I’m my brain feels like it’s exploding in the best way!
I went into library work with an interest in anti-authoritarianism (progressivism, etc.) and having worked in libraries for 10 years I have found libraries to have all the pitfalls of society and any other jobs that I have had, but one of the things that is hard for me, is that the letdown is so much more, because of my naive optimism that libraries would be better than other things (jobs, etc.). Libraries have all the problems of society and are hierarchical structures. The institution where I work doesn't have any love for me and my attempts to challenge the status quo has sometimes been embraced, but I have largely shot myself in the foot by trying to make positive changes while thinking I could advance, or even maintain, in the library world and specifically at my job. I am currently looking for another library job because I cannot stand the insults from and oppressiveness of my boss, but there are only so many library jobs. Many of the library jobs I have seen are not interested in compensating employees, in a respectful manner. People at the top of hierarchical structures know that people making this video and people in the comments have a love for libraries and are willing to exploit those feelings for their own power and monetary benefits. Solidarity, equality, and freedom for all.
Very true. If you don't mind me, asking, what region have you been working in? I've noticed library jobs in my Midwestern-America state look so much more exploitative than ones in some of the country's southern states or historical areas like Virginia or Massachusetts at the moment.
@@belot217 I am only writing about my experiences in Midwestern-America. I find that city centers seem to place more importance on library staff than the suburbs and lest of all the exurbs. I wish you the best of luck and I hope you keep the values and intrigue that brought you here to check out this video.
This video is not suggesting that libraries embody these ideals, but rather the guiding philosophy of the broader social institution is comprises some ideas that could be very well applied to many other institutions.
@@sirfizz6518 I am confused by your reply to my comment, or maybe I am missing your point. It seems that you disagree with my comment or think that there is something that I don’t understand. Can you be frank/straightforward, what is it that you found disagreeable with my original comment? What is it that you think I don’t understand? Are you saying that I don’t understand the difference between theory and practice? Are you saying that people are only allowed to talk about theory and you are the person who needs to police these types of issues? Again, maybe I just don't understand your point.
I loved the cheeky little personal vs private property joke. On another note, the local library here provides Narcan and is a cool space shelter on top of being a library.
The ending was such a beautiful love letter to the idea. I haven't giggled so freely at how nice things could be. I don't know what sacrifices I'm giving to play my part, but I'm ready for it.
I have OCD and unfortunately have hoarding impulses, I have a hard time getting rid of things because my brain worries that I’ll need it in the future. But since everything will work differently in this economy, it’ll be completely different how my OCD presents in the first place. Anyway, this made me almost cry. I want badly to be in this world… but I’ll probably won’t be. Still, it helps to hope that some day we’ll get here. Love your channel💖
I swear, every video of yours I watch gives me something new to think about/hope for in our future. Thank you for that. I've been volunteering at my local library for about a half a year now, and I never thought about having library-like places for everything, but it sounds so wonderful! I love the library, I work in the kids section, and I've seen so many wonderful books! Books on different religions, books on different kinds of families, books on treating people equally, books in many different languages, and even ones that have speakers and read aloud to you! And all the librarians I have met have been so kind and so inclusive, I never feel like I have to hide any part of myself around them. Volunteering at the library has made me much happier, seeing so many people putting in effort for a community they love. It's not perfect, but there are many people there always campaigning for change, and I'm happy to be a part of it. Great video :-]
I really like the idea of the expansion of libraries and maker spaces to most areas of life. A risk in the longer term is a slide into 'rental serfdom' that the WEF proposals look to lead to? Ensuring they are always community owned would be critical... and they would need some form of 'value' input to be maintained, be that money, time, information etc..... If it were easy I suppose we'd already be doing it :D Very thought provoking work, thank you!
Common ownership is definitely a nonnegotiable component of this. We don't want to fall into that subscription based model capitalism has been trapping people in. This system has to be by the people and for the people.
@@Andrewism Isn't the solution to this the idea behind open sourcing? What is created from your personally-owned resources is yours, but what is created from library-available resources must also presumably be made library-available.
@@Vaeldarg That would be a good start, difficult to police, but allows an input of information. If there was no worry about securing against current or future crisis then I probably wouldn't need too much in the way of personally owned resources? Only for emotional attachments, photos etc.
But would it be good to start with having a option to rent everything to transition capitalists at first? You have to meet people where they are at first. Maybe there can be regulations and protection on renting. Some people want to own items so they can customize it. Or if they use items frequently or have a tight schedule.
Libraries are so good in that they both have transparency for library staff w/o exposing precarious people while maintaining convenience for it’s users
Andrew you have a way of presenting ideas that have been just rumbling around my head for a long time with no direction and no orientation and making them all fit perfectly together. That analogy of the sinking ship is absolutely PERFECT and I will be referencing it (and your whole channel as a matter of fact) a LOT. I used to work at a library and seeing the way the library and the workers fit into the community and help nurture growth has inspired me and has been on my mind constantly; and this video has help so much in framing why library’s have a special place in my heart. They’re a pure form of community, and library socialism is truly the answer to so many problems!
my school has a makers space with 3d printers, sewing machines, a green screen room, cameras tripods lights dolly tracks gimbles, screen printing and more but most students dont even know or care much to use them, the staff in charge gets so excited when anyone drops by
I'm an Architecture student and currently taking my undergraduate thesis. I chose public library as my project and this is such a good source of inspiration for me~ Thank you for this~
Some things I’ve found that I can do to help without spending much money money are like, sharing fruits with my neighbors and building things for common use from the wood that I collect in my yard. I also fix bikes and scooters for the neighborhood kids at no cost since I usually only need to tighten or adjust things, but I could also probably spring for tyres or a seat or pedals or brakes once in a while out of pocket as rarely as it comes up. Not tooting my own horn, but I wanted to share the ideas in case someone like me wants to help and has time but not a ton of money to spend. I am also about to start learning how to make furniture and homes from locally abundant materials, time and opportunity permitting. I see a total divorce from participating in the money economy as a necessary step eventually, and I believe this is one of the paths we can take to get there.
The world you describe in your work is the kind of world that I have always dreamed of. I'm tired of dreaming about it so I try to live by these principles and spread it's tenets to all that I meet. Thank you so much!
The ending piece beautifully captures an anticapitalist future of joy, communalism, and peace. Will definitely need to dig into the sources and references on this. Really grateful for your work.
i love that you included little clips to analogize the ideal situation of a library economy, as well as the sinking cruise ship analogy of our current economy.
Always have thought of myself as leaning mutualist, unsure of the possibility of a moneyless society - until now. This is truly an excellent video, and has really convinced me of how an anarcho-communist society could function. Thank you, and incredible work my friend!
Your channel is so uplifting. There isn't enough content out there that makes me believe in the good in people and feel hope for the future. Seriously- thank you so much, friend. It means so much to me
Amazing video. Very mind expanding for me. I was familiar with the expansion of the library concept but you really flesh out just how useful it is. This video is also helping me to grock the idea that property as it is currently constructed in our society isn't some natural law, something that's been particularly hard to scrub out of my head. Also I loved the skits!
when i was homeless the library was my favourite spot, I could use the bathroom, the internet, the computers and print out stuff. It was also a safe space to just rest and get away from the weather. The books too, of course, are still my favourite form of escapism. Librarians generally tend to be really kind and helpful people. The end bit was so cute, can't wait for the day it's a reality
I love how similar thinkers come to similar solutions. I've been working on a project near the border to create a exactly what your talking for the past 5 years. The "library of things" being the literal words guiding the first principles behind all of the projects I'm involved with. Don't worry we're working on building new libraries. It's already happening
A few years ago I thought of creating a local knitting needle library-- because we usually only need the needles for a particular project or a few projects at a time-- then you put them back into the needle pool! Thanks for reminding me that this shared economy (the 180 of a gig economy?) is aspirational and to begin holding it in my sphere of influence again. 😍
That skit at the end was so perfect at solidifying what the idea was, and just how much better life would be if we built a world like that. Loved this video!
I've even seen this on a micro level. I dont know if it still exists, but Geneva Switzerland used to have an extensive library of toys parents could check out. Everything from bikes to games to dolls.
after studying spanish linguistics and literature in college im now preparing for a public exam to work as a librarian in public libraries (in spain) and its been really hard since im studying on my own. this video reminded me a bit of why im doing what im doing. will definitely rewatch and share with my librarian friends. ✊🏼 love ur work
I work at a school built around the Montessori-Summerhill doctrine. Almost everything in the school is shared in this way, from items to services, simply because we all want it to function as best as possible
It would be really neat if you could collaborate with the other Breadtubers to combine Research (submit to library AFTER your video drops), and essentially create a database of things everyone could pull from.
this kinda exists already in the form of Nebula, but you have to pay some to get it (but that money goes straight to the creators, as they own the site)
@@carsonpearce5980 are you meaning in regards to a centralized platform to view creators? I'm more thinking a resource for established and aspiring creators
In the UK, we have quite a few “library of things” / “share shops”. Mostly quite a struggle to fund, but they do a great job of sharing/providing tools, training, repairs, leisure items etc.
Also, by funding, I mean the people who run it need to gat paid to live. There’s a lot of volunteering, but in the current system, people need to be paid for the work that they do, in order to both give a full service & to allow them to afford to live while spending their time providing that service. That’s something the SrslyWrong guy medium post doesn’t cover. They state the value of the work of the people who produced the items, but not the value of the time/service of people maintaining/promoting/running the service.
Reminds me very much of Cory Doctorow's 2017 novel "Walkaway" - exploring what a possible transition from Capitalism to a post-Capitalism world might look like.
I love the conversation near the end, both for giving an example of life in a library economy, but also because I'm a fan of "casual dialogue" that shoehorns unnatural exposition.
If you’re interested in similar ideas, do look up “Palace Economy” used by the Minoans! They were very advanced for their society, suspected to have fallen from issues with trade due to location. It has worked before!
I really appriciate the demonstration you had at the end. While I had some idea of how a library economy would work, that skit really put it into perspective.
This feels like such an intuitive way to live and feels to me like the perfect way to achieve a minimalistic society where we are actually able to heal the earth and ourselves. I can't tell you how many things I can think of that I would love to have just borrowed from the library rather than buying it. It has never made sense to me to buy really expensive items like camping gear or a truck when I don't need to use them or won't use them very often. As someone with ADHD who regularly goes through intense phases of interest a library economy sounds incredible and I wish I were living in it today.
22:03 the outro skit feels so nice and comforting. I appreciate the sincere imagination of what it could look like to operate this way, with lots of different angles. Why should we need to personally buy and store items we barely use, like camping equipment? Plus, I would love just hanging out at a community kitchen, not only providing for others but just socializing. I think of how absurd it is to pay for tons of streaming services just to watch your shows and movies, and them actually getting rid of content you wanted to continue using. Meanwhile libraries today have video and DVD sections! I got a DVD player to open up that resource for me, but that DVD player as well could have been from its own library. Great vid
Love this video, I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't watched any of your other videos on a solarpunk society. I did the typical consumerist thing and took solarpunk at my percieved face value :an aesthetic. But after a good day with a good mindset, I clicked on this one and watched it until the end. Your depiction of a world structured around library practice is beautiful. It really helped me to imagine a world beyond capitalism. I'll have to go back through and watch your other solarpunk videos.
When I was a kid my mom took me and my siblings to the library a lot, every time we had to check out this one book about dinosaurs, and the fact we didn't have to pay amazed me, this video really has my imagination going
That outro is beautiful. I'd listen to life in a good society as a podcast all the time. Though, I guess it may be important to realize our work may never be done.
We have a relatively new library called Oodi (ode in English) here in Finland that has all kinds of services and stuff like separate area for families and a stroller park for people with small children, sewing machines, studios, all kinds of media equipment to name a few. I always thought it was nice to see the library evolve with the times and wished that we could expand the concept for a more accessible society. Now I have a name for it so that's nice. At that library you must pay some fees for using the epuipment of course so it's not perfect.
Love this idea. Another example is the ‘giving closet’ in my neighborhood. People can freely drop their unused stuff or grab stuff they need. It’s always filled with items ranging from clothes to books and tools. Proving that we don’t need to own most of the things we use.
One of your best! I am always on board with the pictures of society you paint, but sometimes struggle with visualizing them, understanding them. But I understand libraries well enough, and the skit at the end really helped the subject 'come alive' so very good call on that! Thank you for broadening my mind.
I love this idea . I know parts of it are already in use in Iceland. We have a tool library and circular economy things. Also Fablab. Where for small amounts of money you can make cool things. I used it to learn how to solder, make a small circuit, create something I had designed and then later cut what I needed. I paid next to nothing. (Just for material I used and a minuscule space and time fee)
Having the space and resources to fix my phone would be amazing. I would love to customise a flip phone and use that instead 😢 Thankyou for sharing such a lovely world, I'm going to start doing what I can to contribute to a world like this
Thank you for making this! It is wonderful to hear you describe such an attainable utopia! It seems so close in our collective imagination we could all just reach out and take it - and then share it, obviously
The thing is, true socialism just doesn't work in application...that's why no country practices true socialism, not even the Nordic countries that people like you always point to (and such a model really only works for them, being countries with small populations and demographics that are homogenous). Capitalism is truly the only way that works on a global scale
@@tevarinvagabond1192brain dead take consider China has more ppl that the US and Cuba has endured militarily and economic war from the US for over 70 years
@@tevarinvagabond1192oh also the Nordic countries are not socialist a majority of the economy is controlled by the private sector also Walmart Amazon ect already have planned economics the size of countries so saying we can’t plan is stupid when we already do we did it back in the day by hand now we can do it with super computers also where is the success of Nigeria as a capitalist country Iraq of chille of Uganda of anywhere not Western Europe and he US and Canada where?
@@onetomeplz5825 China is not socialist, it's a Communist nation using fascist/national takeover and consolation of the economy. So no, your take is braindead
I live in a pretty rural area with not a lot of resources for public funded institutions like libraries. And yet my local library has a seed library every spring, a tool library, a sports equipment library, a 3 D printer and scanner, soundproofed recording spaces, video and camera equipment, robotics kits for kids, etc and they offer free sewing classes, cooking classes, crochet classes, art classes, etc. My friend is currently learning how to do her first sewing project thanks to a free library class. There is a local toy library for borrowing any toy your child may like. The town council has library of any winter sports gear you may like (skis, snowshoes, sleds, etc). It's truly amazing the free and accessible resources hiding in plain sight when you go looking. I wish there was more promotion of the free economy already available out there. But I guess local businesses that would otherwise sell those items wouldn't love that 🙄
that last skit was just adorable. i’m still working on my determination and hope, so i can only dream of that world… it was seriously wonderful to sit in on. i want to make this happen.
I have a vacuum but I only use it when I need it, a car but it sits most of the day, the idea is that stuff should not just sit there waiting for someone to use it, but be used more by more people
I’m passionate about sustainable fashion, and an idea this video sparked in my head is that in a library economy that is both local and international is that seasons of clothes could be shipped between the hemispheres during alternating seasons. For example, when it’s summer in Australia, we wouldn’t need our winter clothes, and we can instead send them to another country in the Northern Hemisphere. Conversely, they can send us their summer clothes. It might also be a really great form of cultural exchange. Basically other countries sharing their cultural dress with us freely as opposed to the fashion industry appropriating it for profit. Great video! Really made me think 💖
When I was growing up, I'd hear from family constant microaggressions and prejudice against Indigenous Australians. My Nanna would always claim they'd steal her belongings, but as I grew, completely in disagreement with their viewpoints, I came to understand that the nomadic Indigenous people had a library mindset of the land and its ever generating provisions thanks to their careful consideration and use of orally passed down knowledge. They didn't see it as stealing, they saw it as a righteous distribution of resources. A lot of greedy and possessive people are against the library economy, because it doesn't divide their "earnt" possessions from the vast array of resources available to everyone. I believe in a system of distribution as well as heirloom. If you're intent on passing it down to your descendants (while you're still alive), then it shall be your private property. But if it's yours just to gain capital, then you must loan it. Of course people have a right to personal effects, but greed is an ugly sin that ought to be vanquished from our planet, and things without use to yourself should be passed to someone who will make use out of it. Imagine the projects, the buildings, the agricultural centres and so on, that could be. If only we weren't so possessive of items without ongoing purpose to ourselves. Equity and equality for all over advancement of elite individuals. Edit: this is the first video I've watched, and I immediately subscribed by the end. Wonderful work
The amount of work that companies put into developing DRM software that limits access to digital creations (like ebooks) really puts the lie to the idea that capitalism is an efficient way to distribute resources (or an efficient way to organize priorities of what people labor on). Like the idea that libraries have ebooks that could be shared with anyone for free but instead are forced to use act as if there a scarcity is infuriating. The internet could have been so beautiful and liberating but instead we're stuck with walled gardens, manipulative & adversarial technology and everything requiring a subscription to access
libraries are the best!! i go to my local library after school to do my homework and it's sooo great. They have free computers, movies, and even a tax service!! i live in a pretty small town so it's not very big, but it's still really great! GO TO YOUR LOCAL LIBRARIES PEOPLE!!!!
Just to add to the recommendations... The episode SrslyWrong did w Andrewism was really good The trilogy on Library Socialism was great But the trilogy on Social Ecology was fr*cking amazing. Cannot recommend people check it out more strongly. Great video, dude. :)
Does anyone else listen to Andrewism's videos and just start tearing up from the sheer beauty of imagining these kinds of future landscapes? Politics can be a lot like poetry, in the sense of its potential to bring out the best in humanity. The right kind of politics, that is. And I found that in anarchy
I forgot to mention one of the best resources out there right now for implementing the library economy wherever you are! Check out Open Source Ecology and their work on the open access Global Village Construction Set:
www.opensourceecology.org/gvcs/
The Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) is a modular, DIY, low-cost, high-performance platform based on the vision of a transparent, collaborative, and inclusive economy of abundance. Their project is about developing blueprints for the easy fabrication of 50 different open-source industrial machines that can be made at a fraction of commercial costs and shared for free.
Please drop more resources in the comments below!
Thanks again for the great work you do. It takes so much time for us to read, deprogram, energize and identity constructive outlets to organize, activise, and tailor work to better ends. It's a gift to have thoughtful creators helping to bring more of this helpful content and perspectives to light.
THIS!!♡
Your body of work here is a beautiful gift to the world and each one gives me a little more hope for the world. For this little resource library here in the comments, I have two donations:
- Shareable, which is a repository of news and how-to guides on mutual aid, cooperative and commons-based projects. A fantastic resource that's full of practical ideas to get started with
- Symbiosis Revolution, A libertarian municipalist federation to help organize and shape local library socialist and mutual aid projects to build dual power
One of the biggest things I e seen w this and socialist is that people complain that they won't get jobs they like like janitorial or street cleaners , thing is they don't realize that there Are people who Love to be cleaners like me and most of my family we actually enjoy cleaning and healing people
My dteam is the last 5 mins of the video
I'm sure my city isn't the only to do this (in fact, I know it's not), but our public libraries have a 'Library of Things,' where you can check out all sorts of things. Gardening tools, a quilting machine, a radon testing kit, a telescope, a Cricut, musical instruments, a laptop, and more. They expand their curation efforts based on requests (I'm currently trying to get them to add a viola).
But wait, there's more. In their newest branch, they've added a whole media suite. They have a room for podcast recording or zoom calls, a video production studio with a greenscreen, tungsten and LED lights, video and audio equipment, and computers with editing software (and a nice comfy set), and a music recording studio with three isolation pods, a digital and upright piano, a drumset, recording equipment, garageband, and the ability to record with a tech to help you mix it (if you want to do an album or EP, you get 40 hours of the tech's time in exchange for 40 volunteer hours, no other cost. A 2 hour session and self-record is free).
AND, they've partnered with a local college to utilize sociology majors as part of a team to meet library patrons along the floors, connecting them with resources both in the library and out in the community. We previously have a lot of homeless in our library, so it's a great way to help them find what they need to help.
Oh. And a 3D printer, which is free to use.
That's not even half the services they offer, but damn. I love libraries. And I love the idea of a library of things. It's all free, it's accessible, you don't even need an address to get a card and they've done away with late fees here. Just... so much potential. So many ways to enrich the community, which gives back in turn. Brilliant.
That's amazing
@Sappho :O
You don't know how badly I want to learn soldering. I'm horribly addicted to crafting, and I've taught myself painting, sewing, embroidery, knitting and crochet, sculpting, some basic carpentry, leatherworking, and more. But things that involve heat... well, my room burned down with a kid, and I set my fire alarm off at least once a year by forgetting I'm cooking, so... Look, I need an adult, lol. But I've been wanting to learn soldering for metalcraft in particular (maybe eventually I could become skilled enough to work on tech, but we'll see). I'd also love to learn glass blowing, stained glass, and metalsmithing. My library had a blacksmithing class with a mobile blacksmith and I MISSED it for work. I'm devastated...
I love hearing of all the ways libraries enrich their communities, especially when they partner with local schools. That's so fantastic.
Woahhh dude what city?
@@Prizzlesticks What library is it and where
@@alexardov Mmm, I'm not going to dox myself, lol. But there are a many like this in North America. I've heard of some that offer even more than mine. :)
I work in a public library and we actually have an "art" library where people can come and borrow an actual artwork, hang it in their home for 3 months and then return it to get another one :) It works well and is very worth it when you think of how unacessible buying one for themselves is for most people !
As an artist myself I’d love to put my art into it!
That's actually an incredible idea
Also allows lots more people to appreciate it
Book libraries could be made a lot better too, and I've seen an incredible example of this. I live in Japan where a lot of towns grew around medieval castles, and the castles have become the central landmarks of their cities. But Yamato City, Kanagawa Prefecture (near Tokyo) has no surviving castles, so about a decade ago they built a giant multipurpose library building that would dwarf any castle, and started promoting Yamato as a “library castle town”. When you enter Sirius, the main building of the Yamato City Library system, Pepper the SoftBank robot greets you near the escalator. Inside, the library has big wide open book collection spaces and atriums with beautiful wooden decor. Besides the general literature and reference materials for adults, there’s a huge manga section, as well as a children’s book section and teens section, all with their own seating areas. Parents have dedicated rooms for nursing babies and changing diapers, and there’s an adjacent foam block play area for toddlers, as well as story time areas for slightly older children. Visitors can chat and have refreshments on the terraces and balconies, or the Starbucks on the ground floor. Community councils, support groups, seminars and classes, and other meetings can be held in the many reservable rooms on the top floors. There are plenty of desktop computers and media viewing booths for accessing online and other digital content. They even have a culture hall for holding large scale events and a broadcast studio for making locally-oriented programming. That’s not even all of the features of Sirius, just the ones I can remember from my last visit. I'm from an American college town with old underfunded libraries, so I was amazed by Yamato's library castle that is so inviting to visitors even local teens go there just to hang out. Every city should have a library like Sirius where people can go as an alternative to commercialized spaces like shopping malls or high streets or lifestyle centers or whatever.
Woah that sounds amazing 🥺❤️❤️❤️
@@crumbtember Somebody was kind enough to make a video tour of this library and put it on RUclips. Search for
SIRIUS（シリウス）YAMATO 神奈川県大和市の巨大図書館を動画でレビュー
Amazing! I'm saving your comment to refer to as I evolve my prototype community center.
@@roblmurphy4135 Now that you mention it, SIRIUS pretty much is a community center in the same building as a library. I just didn't think of it that way because the only "community center" in my hometown is just a building with some rooms where people can hold meetings if they make reservations. It's not actually the center of the community, and most people in the community have no reason to go there at all. This really shouldn't be the case, because my hometown has about the same population as Yamato City, and definitely has a bigger tax base to fund this sort of facility. The closest thing we have to a place for the whole community to congregate and mix freely is the weekly farmer's market, which kind of sucks if it's raining.
Honestly I want to fistbump whoever decided that their city's claim to fame should be a library to dwarf castles, because they *get it*.
I cannot tell you how much I want to slip into this society. I’m a baker. I would give anything to just spread joy via baked goods every day. I’d also volunteer as a doula and gardener. I could do so much!
I would also love do be in this kind of world. I don't know who i want do be in the future, but i would absolutly adore helping people with anything possible. I also have a great interest in architecture and building cities with people in mind, not cars. So i might become an architect do bring my dreams do life.
Yeah. Imagine the pride and pleasure you'd get from serving people with your ability without any need for monetary incentive. That would feel soooo liberating, since you're expressing yourself while contributing to the community, without any pressure and threats of poverty and starvation of a capitalist society. Such a beautiful prospect.
Why don't you just do this now?
@@ironguard4048ecause I have to pay food and rent.
Although, to a degree I do. I've provided guidance and support for friends suffering under poor living conditions, spent thousands of hours designing games and preparing adventures for my friends to go on, spent much more time than that educating people on things I have learned (frequently math/science related because that's my speciality). All for free because I like making other people happy. It's what I'd do most of the time if I didn't have to spend so much of my limited energy earning the privilege to live.
Who is going to sign up to be a sewer cleaner, oil rig worker or manual laborer in this system? Always fun jobs.
In the midst of me enduring painful, capitalist, classist, and ableist bureaucracy on my path to getting my Library Sciences degree, this is absolutely the kind of motivation I need to really keep my head up and keep pushing! Libraries were there for me as a young kid who could never afford all the books I wanted to read, it was a place with people I felt at home with. It gave me a space away from abuse and violence and a place to simply exist. As I've gotten older I've fallen even more in love with them too. And as already fantastic as books are, using a library system for so much more too. Absolutely going to be a video I watch multiple times to fully digest and let sink in!
The top-down bureaucracy and limitations of capitalism have really been sabotaging libraries for such a long time, yet they're still one of the best places to be. They can and should be run by the people, for the people. All the people.
My grandmother has a masters in library science! I am intrigued
"It gave me a space away from abuse and violence and a place to simply exist." So much this! I struggle with reading these days so i don't take out books very often but the local library has been so valuable as a public space that i'm simply allowed to exist in, without explaining myself, that is indoors and heated!
With the privatisation of public spaces running steadily more rampant, the simple value of "building you are allowed in no questions asked" is becoming ever clearer to me.
Just hard a hard day at my library job and like a fool I’m just thinking of dropping absolutely everything including my grad studies. You’re very positive and I wish I was the same
Freya and Crow... this usually gets said to the wrong people. Thank you, truly, for your invaluable service. You are heroes.
As someone who is disabled and constantly sees disabled people being framed in terms of how well they can work or not, it’s so refreshing to hear the concept of a world that can provide accessibility and resources that actively contributes to others
A banger as always Drew!
Relatable, my current job is the only place I've found a boss who (without even knowing my disability) is accommodating to my energy levels, flashbacks, etc. It's extremely refreshing to just be told "ah, thanks, sweet" on occasion when you do your job. Even if I do it to a different rhythm.
There’s an episode of Judge Judy where a disabled man’s welfare checks had been stolen by a family member & Judge Judy tells him to get a job. Meanwhile his disability was preventing him from fully understanding why he gets welfare checks and clearly shouldn’t be expected to work. Not only is forcing someone who’s disabled to work dangerous to the individual, but possibly dangerous for the other people involved.
You gotta be useful to at least some people. No matter how. That's how a market (or civilisation) works.
(It is also how nature works)
*just to give you an example:
People who can get a lot of difficult work done in a short amount of time are obviously well liked and cared for. People who can't do so usually aren't.
However, such people can still be useful in another way. For example, our family has a disabled girl in our daycare. She may usually be more of a nuisance than a help, but the simply her existence can be a blessing, in that she can teach us so much about life, that she becomes useful to us.
Anyone can be useful to others with their unique circumstances. They just have to figure out how.
@@lorrainegatanianhits8331how nature works...right 😂 so when a baby us born what is their use?
This isn't all just in the future. Many places have tool libraries now, and your public book libraries often have much more on offer than just books. They don't advertise like stores do, so you have to ask around.
libraries, the postal service, and the irs are all very important institutions for which most people have no idea of half the things they do, myself included.
Library socialism is easily my favorite utopian vision. It's hard to think about the intricacies of a future anarchist economy at times, library socialism is very easily imagined because we have a reference right here in the present. I spread the idea wherever I can.
You did a great job on this video, thanks for making it. Also loved to see the wrong boys make a guest appearance! Truly a treat.
Extremely naive and infantile. Maybe you will grow up one day.
I prefer automation and energy capitalism
Where we focus on production of each individual’s ability to produce
Laws are heavily democratic and we use the only money that is real wattage
@@aspiringscientificjournali1505
Wow, that sounds a lot like treating people as objects which should only serve to increase humanity's energy budget. Not to mention that sounds very dystopian for anyone unable to produce. Taking care of disabled people is quite likely to help you at some point. Most people spend at least some portion of their life disabled in some way.
@@solsystem1342
People are technically objects
Who said an object can’t have emotions and other factors
Also my design actually support the disabled
Kinda the whole point
Everything is self supporting
You don’t need to use tax dollars to do anything
Because the structure to support them is built in
The focus on our ability to produce is mainly about maintaining a connection between a workers energy input and his final product
So capitalism but without the hidden value ideas
You know what energy was put in
You know what energy is needed to keep people alive
You know how much your work is worth
So imagine this Everton born is given 1 solar panel ( for ease I just said 1 but really it would be a certain amount of production of wattage )
They amount is calculated to be enough to provide
Food water and the ability to shelter yourself with a surplus to build more or spend on small luxuries
Now you have what you need… no need for taxes to do it
Automation will take care of the very incapable and would require very little oversight
Do you see where this goes
@@aspiringscientificjournali1505 People are not objects. It's not helping for you to call people that cause some people already think capitalism is treating people, workers, or customers like disposable objects.
My community has a public pantry and a tool library. The city I used to live in also had a whole ass Maker Space in the main branch's basement. Some guy literally started a whole business while homeless and unemployed from there. Very cool.
Libraries are amazing.
recently a library opened near my house. it was designed with a lot of input from the neighbors and you can tell telling because it feels communal. it has a large garden with picnic tables and chairs, three floors and a terrace with lots of plants and tables.
love the idea of having many more of these types of buildings, all with different utilities. good vid
im so jealous 🥺
@@tihako7169 How far away is the nearest public library from where you live?
@@RuinedTemple I think tihako7169 was saying he/she was envious of the communal library designs with a garden that the OP was talking about. Unfortunately, some libraries are a concrete box.
I am a huge fan of the vast library of guides/manuals/blueprints/etc. at the Internet Archive! They seriously have EVERYTHING over there, from building large solar-powered portable batteries w/ full AC/DC outlets,, to urban warfare (applicable to protests/direct action) tactics, and everything in between
Ooohh, do you have a link to the urban warfare part?
I would recommend getting your hands on old military handbooks. Those things are gold (if often massively bloated)
A housing library would really be a cool solution to buying a house on stolen land. I'm happy to rent, but rent isn't regulated and landlord are and continue to be trifling. A housing library could be really something.
Imagine instead of having a housing market, we had a housing catalogue that gathered data on the different housing needs of the population and listed the available, empty homes for use as long as people need it.
@@Andrewism the broad range of application for this concept is exciting. I love it :)
Community land trusts and real estate investment cooperatives have been thinking along similar lines, though how committed they are to radical democracy vs just an affordable housing program to make capitalism work better varies. I strongly recommend checking out East Bay PREC in Oakland, California, USA. If there isn't one near you, there are hella resources and supports available for starting one, such as the Foundation for Intentional Community and the Grounded Solutions Network (though both may be US-centric).
You happy to rent not me lol.
@@Andrewism Will we be ignoring the housing wants of the population and just focusing on the "needs"?
I'm studying product design in college because I love making stuff, and it's been great in that regard but it's also been very demoralizing. We're not taught to solve the problems of people, we're taught to solve the problems of the companies we work for, which in most cases overlaps just enough to be passed off as the former, but the deeper I get into my education the more that facade fades. We are constantly told how design can change people's lives or change the world, but I've become totally disillusioned because what we're actually being taught to do is how to find new niches of people to exploit. And we keep finding them because our identities as people have been commodified. I love the idea of a library economy. It would completely destroy the industry of "design" but I am fully in favor of that happening, so much talent and work and energy is being poured into carefully thought out design that helps nobody in any meaningful way.
I think itwould liberate design because we would still need designers of all types to make the items in the library!
Isn't the reason companies exists in the first place, is that the owner(s) saw a problem/need that required solving/fulfilling? So what you would need, in theory, to solve the problems of people, would be to see what problem(s) still need solving, or can be better solved, and create your own company. But what makes that not just a "of course, I'll go do that!" kind of intuitive step, is how much of an utter pain opening/running a company currently is.
In short, they're not teaching you to directly solve peoples' problems, they expect you to "simply" go and start a company to do so.
@@VaeldargThat's true but I don't think it's the full picture, I believe that companies are inherently pretty bad at solving people's problems because of their incentive to create profit. And because of that incentive I don't think I could actually do a better of a job if I started my own company. Even if I wanted to do the bare minimum to keep myself fed and my company afloat I'd still have to pander to the market.
A while ago I talked to a designer who created his own design firm, he started with so many big ideas about how he would use design to help people, but eventually the system ground him down and now he's making super expensive lamps for rich people. I don't believe that's a moral failing on his part, I just think it's how our system of production is designed. Rich people hold the vast majority of the wealth so the vast majority of design must be done for rich people if companies wish to stay afloat.
@@StellaByLuna It's kind of the "curse of success" that is the issue for companies. Even without greed coming into play, the "demand" side of "supply and demand" means that if the company is successful, more orders are placed than can be fulfilled, meaning company needs to make more profit to pay for expansion, which leads to more orders....and so on. The problem initially wanted to fix may not be big enough to sustain those solving it, so that may lead to someone looking to solve rich people problems instead.
I studied design in school also (lots of animation, but with a side trip into industrial design 😅) . I think exploring this system might really shake up the way we design things, but the process of design itself would live on! it would be different due to flipped priorities, and I’m trying imagine it 🤔
Some of these libraries have already been implemented where I live and they're amazing! Tools, cooking utensils, camping/hiking gear, instruments, etc. We're teamed up with a stanning service too
wait that sounds awesome!!!
also is there another meaning for stanning im confused
@@rrrrrrrrrr9354 staffing maybe?
that library skit at the end lowkey got me tight. Why cant we all live like that now?? 😭
All very good, except the pig in the canteen should be out in the woods playing with their friends too!
The main issue with all of this, is you have to start from square one with it in mind in the first place if don't want a long and painful transition period. The cruise ship analogy is missing the part where as soon as the guy pressed the button, the first person to die would be him as ethics/fairness were thrown out.
Likewise, if there isn't a culture of long-lasting craftsmanship of the library selection, or responsible care of the items, there will be those who carelessly hoard/misplace/destroy/modify them. If it is started from within a capitalist economy (which very likely would be), repair/replacement needs to be paid for somehow.
If the "somehow" is government (ie. taxpayer) money, they might be hostile to the idea and either not support it or actively shut it down. Even if it was privately/community funded, it would take place on or surrounded by government land. Even if the local government is fine with it, the national government may not be.
And to ensure those who control the land are not hostile, enough people and resources must be gathered to have influence. To gather those people, they need to all understand the concept. For them to all understand the concept, there needs to be those who can convince them to learn about it. For those teachers to appear, this channel and others like it on platforms like RUclips, is where it all must first start.
@Vaeldarg yeah the only way this could work is a major transitional period to truly achieve it having it immediately is impossible same with a stateless classless moneyless society if you have it immediately the bourgeoisie will just go back into power or will lead to barbarism
Same
@@Vaeldarg Imagine socialism as a tree trunk and library economy as a branch of that tree. Socialism comes first and from there on we can really evolve into anything.
That last little skit is soooo good. It reminds me of a quote I heard about social change which is emphasizes hegemonic change is only achieved when an ideology is considered a laughingstock or outright ridiculous. A perfect example is how most of us think of monarchy now. I think the concept of a library economy has this potential. It's so intuitive and paints a harmonious picture for our future.
P.S. Thank you so much for your work! Your videos continue to inspire me.❤
The cruise ship metaphor should be made into a shareable clip!!!! That would spread fast. Great work.
Great idea!
@@Andrewism thank you for all you do. Not sure if you ever came across their work, but Open Source Ecology has been working on a version of the library. Their approach is to develop the tools necessary for a village and open source the schematics in a Creative Commons wiki. Very oversimplified on my part, but very in line with the philosophy your video demonstrated.
@@rustylidrazzah5170 I forgot to mention their stuff! Their work is amazing.
Your whole approach to the our struggles is so constructive and positive. I usually don't comment, but thank you again for your work and all the wonderful perspective.
I appreciate that, thank you!
@@Andrewism In some Swiss cities we have already some initiatives in place to share durable tools and clothes. I hope that the practice spreads even more and proves the feasibility to a wider audience, which, I hope at least (in thrifty Switzerland), will be quite open to this idea in some areas. I love the idea, and I think it speaks to quite a wide range of people. Even the author/ comedian/ etc. David Mitchell suggests something similiar (a lot of market talk as well):
Sustainability | David Mitchell's Soapbox: ruclips.net/video/syii9DKnb2M/видео.html&ab_channel=DavidMitchell%27sSoapbox
There was this little wooden hut a local group put up at some point earlier this year, it was about the size of a small shed and it's purpose was as a place where you could bring things to give away and take things as you wanted, a little misc. sharing hut. Recently as I was walking with my mother to get some ice cream while she was visiting me, we passed it and it had been completely burned down. Apparently there had been plumbs in there at the time it was destroyed as charred plumbs littered the burned floor. It must have happened fairly recently because as we walked past it again on our way back, a handwritten sign expressing the anger of someone who may have been involved with it's creation had been put next to it. It chastised whoever had done it and it was kind of heart breaking. The hurt in the message, hand written in light blue on a thin piece of paper fluttering in the wind between two sticks barely more then twigs, standing next to a burned down hut, the remains of some of it's content still identifiable in their charred state and the sheer, almost shiny, blackness of the recently burned wood all that remained.
I'm sorry to hear that this happened. I hope that group is able to bounce back from the damage done to their efforts.
@@Andrewism Hopefully, I didn't know much about them, it's near the uni campus, so it might have been a student project, there used to be a sign that explained it, but for obvious reasons that isn't there anymore. I also know a community garden was started on a small green island between two small streets nearby, so it could also have been the local community as well as it seems to be active, or a mix of the two.
I am just afraid that they might not rebuild, disheartened by this. It's not really a particularly rough neighbourhood either, mostly university buildings, student dorms and townhouses, so I wonder who would of done it.
@@willowarkan2263 Maybe the people using a shed library like that should have a key safe for listed users. It would be slightly more secure.
If a shed was built out in the open in my community, it would definitely be used by teenagers with nothing to do, maybe even drug users, pushers and rough sleepers. It would quickly become problematic in itself, and anything placed in it for sharing would be interfered with or thrown about. We have a shed in our yard for the use of a community group that picks up litter, being available but “hidden” protects it from interference and insures it from theft and damage.
Local allotments often have issues with break-ins and public phone boxes went from being essential community assets to vandalized urinals within a generation. Community assets still need protection from vandalization and accidents.
@@AtheistEve putting a key on it defeats the purpose. It is supposed to be accessible to anyone.
As for sleeping in there, the nearby benches are probably more suitable, it was not that big. Anyway the homeless tend to be closer to the central station area and the pedestrian area.
Also considering the damage a lock would have done little to stop the fire. I suspect the local teenagers have better places to hang out, like the campus with it's ramps and stairs and even those lying chairs they have outside the cafeteria, it's where students tend to smoke weed in the evenings anyway. The ramp right next to it is popular with the local scateboarder and inline skaters. The drug addicts also tend to be around the city center area, it's mostly itinerant drunks you find farther a field. If there are addicts hanging about I'd guess the area around the campus would also be more appealing.
As for how much interference they get, can't tell you, but the public bookshelves seem to be alright.
Public urination tends to be more of an issue in pedestrian tunnels here, not helped by the asinine decision to make the public bathroom at the train station into a fucking pay toilet, not to mention harder to find.
@@willowarkan2263 That becomes the glaring issue of ideas like these. The incorrect assumption that everyone is rational and behaving in their best interest. Not to mention careless accidents, such as a cigarette flicked into a hut of flammable material. Apathy/stupidity are a lot more common than malice. But either way, there is no way for everything to be accessible to everyone. By the very nature of desiring something to not be destroyed, purposefully or carelessly, there must be a way to protect it or deter through possible consequences for those who might do the destroying.
Glad you mentioned Mali as a prominent library 👏🏿🖤
Of course! I think it's one of their best accomplishments
This reminded me of a conversation I had while I was still in school. There was a boy from a wealthy family, he was there on social security somehow from not listing his family. I met him through a church group, he was trying to change himself, but sometimes he would say stuff that shocked me. One day he said he didn't think the poor needs education. That only those with wealth and influence need knowledge. I brought up some of the inventions we have today came from people that were poor. And that different perspectives bring more ideas with make more advancements. It just amazed me that he never thought about it. Even the fact that his family could go bankrupt and he could become poor, then his children would not be worthy of education by his own standards. I hope he found the change he was looking for in himself.
You always give me hope. I often feel alone on my own path to conceive a more dignified and meaningful society. So it is always refreshing to hear the thoughts of someone with the same intentions and ideals. Godspeed comrade.
We are many but isolated, seek out likeminded people near you and organize
Yes! You’re not alone 🎷🐛
That break with the sinking cruise ship is the clearest critique of private property I've heard yet.
As someone on the way to her Library Science degree, this is a very important video to explaining the ideas of the Library Economy. I'll be sure to send people this way if they are interested in a utopian future!
i look at this.. when. i hear these things, and i see my friends thriving and loving and living and well off and happy and joyful... that's a future i want... and i see my friends in this video. i see my family. i see every person i've ever met here.... thank you
As someone who’s job has been awful because of my lack of access to my medication, this was really inspiring. Thanks Andrew, as usual, you make the best anarchist content on RUclips.
Medicine should not be a privilege. For crying out loud why do we let people get away with charging for lifesaving treatments😢
This video almost made me cry. Especially the last little skit. Finally getting to hear the ideas I’ve been struggling to articulate to others said and showed so eloquently. I can’t say enough how much I appreciate you and your channel !
When my parents first married, they checked framed art prints out of the library to decorate their apartment. Tool libraries exist in some places, and I love them. I can’t say enough in favor of these possibilities!
This is just the most serendipitous encounter with the RUclips algorithm. Every single word you say has me nodding along. I have been on a lifelong journey of awakening to my true nature, from a compare/compete/hoard mentality toward a collaborate/cooperate/share mentality. It is people like you that are helping me with the language to explain my evolving worldview, first to myself and then to others. Thank you for this.
Check out the SRSLY Wrong podcast. It’s made by the guys who did the cruise ship bit in this video and they have quite a few episodes on library socialism.
It's amazing how often you release videos on concepts as I'm thinking about them. Our local library has a small food bank and rents out internet access points. As I was sitting there enjoying a free meal with my family I remarked that our whole society should work like a library, and boom here's this video. Degrowth economies are also something I've been reading about, definitely looking forward to that video.
PS I like the skits they're a nice way of breaking up the content 👍
What’s a degrowth economy?
@@Bri-vy7zx Described by academic Jason Hickel, author of Less is More, he says: "Degrowth is a planned reduction of energy and resource use designed to bring the economy back into balance with the living world in a way that reduces inequality and improves human well-being."
Kate Raworth and Doughnut Economics Action Labs is part of this, Tim Jackson and Prosperity Without Growth are part of this, One Small Town initiative are very much a part of this, on the ground, for the community and any non-profit organization facilitating an expansion of the Library of Things for people can be part of this, too.
I want to live in a library economy so badly!
Spread the word! It's definitely within reach.
Me too... I spend way too many hours dreaming of it.
I am really excited to see what the future might hold if we get enough people to work towards it!
We are the people, we are here, and there are many of us. The internet is connecting us. I'll be surprised if there aren't many groups in different parts of the world working towards this. I remember watching a documentary based in Kenya on a "Camel Library". This library would use camels to bring books out to rural kenyans. The spirit is here in the world, and the technology is here. @@thestarsailor972
@@snowstrobe Let's find people with like-minds in our community who want the same thing and build cooperatively, collaboratively and have fun along the way!
Some tools that may help the broader goal of creating a Library Economy and moving beyond destructive capitalism include: One Small Town initiative, based on Ubuntu Contributionism with Michael Tellinger, Moneyless Society book, podcast and website and Zeitgeist films, "A Viable Society" talk and New Human Rights Movement book by Peter Joseph, coming out soon with "Integral" a parallel open source system for meeting local needs and getting of the deathly grip of capitalism and destructive inequality.
My mind is blown. I described this EXACT concept to my partner as a utopia. My dream, ideal lifestyle. And I had no idea I was entertaining anarchy. I just started studying anarchy and I found your content and now I’m my brain feels like it’s exploding in the best way!
You should lookup AnarchyWorks on the anarchistlibrary if you havent already. It provides a lot of practical insight.
I went into library work with an interest in anti-authoritarianism (progressivism, etc.) and having worked in libraries for 10 years I have found libraries to have all the pitfalls of society and any other jobs that I have had, but one of the things that is hard for me, is that the letdown is so much more, because of my naive optimism that libraries would be better than other things (jobs, etc.). Libraries have all the problems of society and are hierarchical structures. The institution where I work doesn't have any love for me and my attempts to challenge the status quo has sometimes been embraced, but I have largely shot myself in the foot by trying to make positive changes while thinking I could advance, or even maintain, in the library world and specifically at my job. I am currently looking for another library job because I cannot stand the insults from and oppressiveness of my boss, but there are only so many library jobs. Many of the library jobs I have seen are not interested in compensating employees, in a respectful manner. People at the top of hierarchical structures know that people making this video and people in the comments have a love for libraries and are willing to exploit those feelings for their own power and monetary benefits. Solidarity, equality, and freedom for all.
Very true. If you don't mind me, asking, what region have you been working in? I've noticed library jobs in my Midwestern-America state look so much more exploitative than ones in some of the country's southern states or historical areas like Virginia or Massachusetts at the moment.
@@belot217 I am only writing about my experiences in Midwestern-America. I find that city centers seem to place more importance on library staff than the suburbs and lest of all the exurbs. I wish you the best of luck and I hope you keep the values and intrigue that brought you here to check out this video.
@@feefawfern8240 That checks out with what I've heard from everyone around here. Thanks. Hope you can find better opportunities, too!
This video is not suggesting that libraries embody these ideals, but rather the guiding philosophy of the broader social institution is comprises some ideas that could be very well applied to many other institutions.
@@sirfizz6518 I am confused by your reply to my comment, or maybe I am missing your point. It seems that you disagree with my comment or think that there is something that I don’t understand. Can you be frank/straightforward, what is it that you found disagreeable with my original comment? What is it that you think I don’t understand? Are you saying that I don’t understand the difference between theory and practice? Are you saying that people are only allowed to talk about theory and you are the person who needs to police these types of issues? Again, maybe I just don't understand your point.
I loved the cheeky little personal vs private property joke.
On another note, the local library here provides Narcan and is a cool space shelter on top of being a library.
The ending was such a beautiful love letter to the idea. I haven't giggled so freely at how nice things could be. I don't know what sacrifices I'm giving to play my part, but I'm ready for it.
Thank youuuu so much for this ❤️ I'm a new library science student so this is amazing for me
Hell yeh! I'm in my second year of my MLIS!
Thank YOU for your service🫡
I have OCD and unfortunately have hoarding impulses, I have a hard time getting rid of things because my brain worries that I’ll need it in the future. But since everything will work differently in this economy, it’ll be completely different how my OCD presents in the first place.
Anyway, this made me almost cry. I want badly to be in this world… but I’ll probably won’t be. Still, it helps to hope that some day we’ll get here. Love your channel💖
I swear, every video of yours I watch gives me something new to think about/hope for in our future. Thank you for that. I've been volunteering at my local library for about a half a year now, and I never thought about having library-like places for everything, but it sounds so wonderful! I love the library, I work in the kids section, and I've seen so many wonderful books! Books on different religions, books on different kinds of families, books on treating people equally, books in many different languages, and even ones that have speakers and read aloud to you! And all the librarians I have met have been so kind and so inclusive, I never feel like I have to hide any part of myself around them. Volunteering at the library has made me much happier, seeing so many people putting in effort for a community they love. It's not perfect, but there are many people there always campaigning for change, and I'm happy to be a part of it. Great video :-]
I really like the idea of the expansion of libraries and maker spaces to most areas of life. A risk in the longer term is a slide into 'rental serfdom' that the WEF proposals look to lead to? Ensuring they are always community owned would be critical... and they would need some form of 'value' input to be maintained, be that money, time, information etc..... If it were easy I suppose we'd already be doing it :D Very thought provoking work, thank you!
Common ownership is definitely a nonnegotiable component of this. We don't want to fall into that subscription based model capitalism has been trapping people in. This system has to be by the people and for the people.
@@Andrewism Isn't the solution to this the idea behind open sourcing? What is created from your personally-owned resources is yours, but what is created from library-available resources must also presumably be made library-available.
@@Vaeldarg That would be a good start, difficult to police, but allows an input of information. If there was no worry about securing against current or future crisis then I probably wouldn't need too much in the way of personally owned resources? Only for emotional attachments, photos etc.
But would it be good to start with having a option to rent everything to transition capitalists at first? You have to meet people where they are at first. Maybe there can be regulations and protection on renting.
Some people want to own items so they can customize it. Or if they use items frequently or have a tight schedule.
@21:52 "If you have a garden, a library, you have everything you need."
Libraries are so good in that they both have transparency for library staff w/o exposing precarious people while maintaining convenience for it’s users
Andrew you have a way of presenting ideas that have been just rumbling around my head for a long time with no direction and no orientation and making them all fit perfectly together. That analogy of the sinking ship is absolutely PERFECT and I will be referencing it (and your whole channel as a matter of fact) a LOT. I used to work at a library and seeing the way the library and the workers fit into the community and help nurture growth has inspired me and has been on my mind constantly; and this video has help so much in framing why library’s have a special place in my heart. They’re a pure form of community, and library socialism is truly the answer to so many problems!
my school has a makers space with 3d printers, sewing machines, a green screen room, cameras tripods lights dolly tracks gimbles, screen printing and more but most students dont even know or care much to use them, the staff in charge gets so excited when anyone drops by
That commercial really take me for a loop 😮💨
Almost had you there ent
I'm an Architecture student and currently taking my undergraduate thesis. I chose public library as my project and this is such a good source of inspiration for me~ Thank you for this~
Some things I’ve found that I can do to help without spending much money money are like, sharing fruits with my neighbors and building things for common use from the wood that I collect in my yard. I also fix bikes and scooters for the neighborhood kids at no cost since I usually only need to tighten or adjust things, but I could also probably spring for tyres or a seat or pedals or brakes once in a while out of pocket as rarely as it comes up. Not tooting my own horn, but I wanted to share the ideas in case someone like me wants to help and has time but not a ton of money to spend. I am also about to start learning how to make furniture and homes from locally abundant materials, time and opportunity permitting. I see a total divorce from participating in the money economy as a necessary step eventually, and I believe this is one of the paths we can take to get there.
The world you describe in your work is the kind of world that I have always dreamed of. I'm tired of dreaming about it so I try to live by these principles and spread it's tenets to all that I meet. Thank you so much!
The ending piece beautifully captures an anticapitalist future of joy, communalism, and peace. Will definitely need to dig into the sources and references on this. Really grateful for your work.
i love that you included little clips to analogize the ideal situation of a library economy, as well as the sinking cruise ship analogy of our current economy.
As always, I share the heck outta this. It's rare that anyone actually gives us ways out of this hellscape. Positive action.
+
Always have thought of myself as leaning mutualist, unsure of the possibility of a moneyless society - until now. This is truly an excellent video, and has really convinced me of how an anarcho-communist society could function. Thank you, and incredible work my friend!
Your channel is so uplifting. There isn't enough content out there that makes me believe in the good in people and feel hope for the future.
Seriously- thank you so much, friend. It means so much to me
Amazing video. Very mind expanding for me. I was familiar with the expansion of the library concept but you really flesh out just how useful it is. This video is also helping me to grock the idea that property as it is currently constructed in our society isn't some natural law, something that's been particularly hard to scrub out of my head. Also I loved the skits!
when i was homeless the library was my favourite spot, I could use the bathroom, the internet, the computers and print out stuff. It was also a safe space to just rest and get away from the weather. The books too, of course, are still my favourite form of escapism. Librarians generally tend to be really kind and helpful people.
The end bit was so cute, can't wait for the day it's a reality
That closing segment was amazing. It sounded like a real conversation and really put the finishing touch on this video.
I love how similar thinkers come to similar solutions. I've been working on a project near the border to create a exactly what your talking for the past 5 years. The "library of things" being the literal words guiding the first principles behind all of the projects I'm involved with. Don't worry we're working on building new libraries. It's already happening
I love this idea! And the concept of an irreducible minimum. It's like a UBI for the Internet of things that are necessary.
A few years ago I thought of creating a local knitting needle library-- because we usually only need the needles for a particular project or a few projects at a time-- then you put them back into the needle pool! Thanks for reminding me that this shared economy (the 180 of a gig economy?) is aspirational and to begin holding it in my sphere of influence again. 😍
The outro bit is genuinely incredibly inspiring. Such an unassuming example of a possible interaction but so incredibly refreshing. Thank you.
love the storytelling segments you included, especially the ending one. thanks for sharing!
Glad you liked them! Thinking of incorporating them more in the future!
That skit at the end was so perfect at solidifying what the idea was, and just how much better life would be if we built a world like that. Loved this video!
This is reminding me of The Dispossessed. Possibly my favourite book. Thanks for all your work
Your story at the end is such a beautiful illustration 🥲🥲
I've even seen this on a micro level. I dont know if it still exists, but Geneva Switzerland used to have an extensive library of toys parents could check out. Everything from bikes to games to dolls.
after studying spanish linguistics and literature in college im now preparing for a public exam to work as a librarian in public libraries (in spain) and its been really hard since im studying on my own. this video reminded me a bit of why im doing what im doing. will definitely rewatch and share with my librarian friends. ✊🏼 love ur work
Yes! Good luck on your worthy librarian quest!
I work at a school built around the Montessori-Summerhill doctrine. Almost everything in the school is shared in this way, from items to services, simply because we all want it to function as best as possible
It would be really neat if you could collaborate with the other Breadtubers to combine Research (submit to library AFTER your video drops), and essentially create a database of things everyone could pull from.
I wonder if you could collaborate with a place like HunbleBundle business model as well; to offer payment and build a source list
Check out the playlists listed in my profile. It’s easy to automate and document whenever they post btw.
this kinda exists already in the form of Nebula, but you have to pay some to get it (but that money goes straight to the creators, as they own the site)
@@carsonpearce5980 are you meaning in regards to a centralized platform to view creators?
I'm more thinking a resource for established and aspiring creators
@@Sugar3Glider ohh now i see what you mean
ok
yeah no that actually sounds really cool, i was just a little confused at first
i would totally use that
In the UK, we have quite a few “library of things” / “share shops”.
Mostly quite a struggle to fund, but they do a great job of sharing/providing tools, training, repairs, leisure items etc.
Also, by funding, I mean the people who run it need to gat paid to live.
There’s a lot of volunteering, but in the current system, people need to be paid for the work that they do, in order to both give a full service & to allow them to afford to live while spending their time providing that service. That’s something the SrslyWrong guy medium post doesn’t cover. They state the value of the work of the people who produced the items, but not the value of the time/service of people maintaining/promoting/running the service.
Reminds me very much of Cory Doctorow's 2017 novel "Walkaway" - exploring what a possible transition from Capitalism to a post-Capitalism world might look like.
I love the conversation near the end, both for giving an example of life in a library economy, but also because I'm a fan of "casual dialogue" that shoehorns unnatural exposition.
I want to be a librarian when I grow up. Thank you for the motivation to keep going with my path to this honestly pretty thankless job
If you’re interested in similar ideas, do look up “Palace Economy” used by the Minoans! They were very advanced for their society, suspected to have fallen from issues with trade due to location. It has worked before!
I really appriciate the demonstration you had at the end. While I had some idea of how a library economy would work, that skit really put it into perspective.
This feels like such an intuitive way to live and feels to me like the perfect way to achieve a minimalistic society where we are actually able to heal the earth and ourselves. I can't tell you how many things I can think of that I would love to have just borrowed from the library rather than buying it. It has never made sense to me to buy really expensive items like camping gear or a truck when I don't need to use them or won't use them very often. As someone with ADHD who regularly goes through intense phases of interest a library economy sounds incredible and I wish I were living in it today.
22:03 the outro skit feels so nice and comforting. I appreciate the sincere imagination of what it could look like to operate this way, with lots of different angles. Why should we need to personally buy and store items we barely use, like camping equipment? Plus, I would love just hanging out at a community kitchen, not only providing for others but just socializing.
I think of how absurd it is to pay for tons of streaming services just to watch your shows and movies, and them actually getting rid of content you wanted to continue using. Meanwhile libraries today have video and DVD sections! I got a DVD player to open up that resource for me, but that DVD player as well could have been from its own library.
Great vid
Love this video, I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't watched any of your other videos on a solarpunk society. I did the typical consumerist thing and took solarpunk at my percieved face value :an aesthetic. But after a good day with a good mindset, I clicked on this one and watched it until the end.
Your depiction of a world structured around library practice is beautiful. It really helped me to imagine a world beyond capitalism. I'll have to go back through and watch your other solarpunk videos.
When I was a kid my mom took me and my siblings to the library a lot, every time we had to check out this one book about dinosaurs, and the fact we didn't have to pay amazed me, this video really has my imagination going
I am so excited to find this I'm creating a system similar to this, but without realizing the idea had been considered before. Thank you for creating!
I always get excited seeing a new video by you, you make anarchism make sense and are probably the best video essayist out there
That outro is beautiful. I'd listen to life in a good society as a podcast all the time. Though, I guess it may be important to realize our work may never be done.
We have a relatively new library called Oodi (ode in English) here in Finland that has all kinds of services and stuff like separate area for families and a stroller park for people with small children, sewing machines, studios, all kinds of media equipment to name a few. I always thought it was nice to see the library evolve with the times and wished that we could expand the concept for a more accessible society. Now I have a name for it so that's nice. At that library you must pay some fees for using the epuipment of course so it's not perfect.
Love this idea. Another example is the ‘giving closet’ in my neighborhood. People can freely drop their unused stuff or grab stuff they need. It’s always filled with items ranging from clothes to books and tools. Proving that we don’t need to own most of the things we use.
One of your best! I am always on board with the pictures of society you paint, but sometimes struggle with visualizing them, understanding them. But I understand libraries well enough, and the skit at the end really helped the subject 'come alive' so very good call on that! Thank you for broadening my mind.
+
I love this idea . I know parts of it are already in use in Iceland. We have a tool library and circular economy things. Also Fablab. Where for small amounts of money you can make cool things.
I used it to learn how to solder, make a small circuit, create something I had designed and then later cut what I needed. I paid next to nothing. (Just for material I used and a minuscule space and time fee)
The final skit left me gleeful and euphoric. Sometimes it can be hard to imagine a different world and this was a powerful and invigorating peek.
The part about kids furniture alone made so much sense! And the idea of only using trucks and other big vehicles when you actually need them ⭐️
Having the space and resources to fix my phone would be amazing. I would love to customise a flip phone and use that instead 😢
Thankyou for sharing such a lovely world, I'm going to start doing what I can to contribute to a world like this
Thank you for making this! It is wonderful to hear you describe such an attainable utopia! It seems so close in our collective imagination we could all just reach out and take it - and then share it, obviously
Library Socialism! Woo!
The thing is, true socialism just doesn't work in application...that's why no country practices true socialism, not even the Nordic countries that people like you always point to (and such a model really only works for them, being countries with small populations and demographics that are homogenous). Capitalism is truly the only way that works on a global scale
@@tevarinvagabond1192brain dead take consider China has more ppl that the US and Cuba has endured militarily and economic war from the US for over 70 years
@@tevarinvagabond1192oh also the Nordic countries are not socialist a majority of the economy is controlled by the private sector also Walmart Amazon ect already have planned economics the size of countries so saying we can’t plan is stupid when we already do we did it back in the day by hand now we can do it with super computers also where is the success of Nigeria as a capitalist country Iraq of chille of Uganda of anywhere not Western Europe and he US and Canada where?
@@onetomeplz5825 China is not socialist, it's a Communist nation using fascist/national takeover and consolation of the economy. So no, your take is braindead
@@onetomeplz5825maybe they should try to not be commies and they wouldnt suck as much 😮
I live in a pretty rural area with not a lot of resources for public funded institutions like libraries. And yet my local library has a seed library every spring, a tool library, a sports equipment library, a 3 D printer and scanner, soundproofed recording spaces, video and camera equipment, robotics kits for kids, etc and they offer free sewing classes, cooking classes, crochet classes, art classes, etc. My friend is currently learning how to do her first sewing project thanks to a free library class. There is a local toy library for borrowing any toy your child may like. The town council has library of any winter sports gear you may like (skis, snowshoes, sleds, etc).
It's truly amazing the free and accessible resources hiding in plain sight when you go looking. I wish there was more promotion of the free economy already available out there. But I guess local businesses that would otherwise sell those items wouldn't love that 🙄
So as a library lover I LOVE this concept and video but also the skits in the middle and at the end are so funny and good and I like them so much
that last skit was just adorable. i’m still working on my determination and hope, so i can only dream of that world… it was seriously wonderful to sit in on. i want to make this happen.
I have a vacuum but I only use it when I need it, a car but it sits most of the day, the idea is that stuff should not just sit there waiting for someone to use it, but be used more by more people
I’m passionate about sustainable fashion, and an idea this video sparked in my head is that in a library economy that is both local and international is that seasons of clothes could be shipped between the hemispheres during alternating seasons. For example, when it’s summer in Australia, we wouldn’t need our winter clothes, and we can instead send them to another country in the Northern Hemisphere. Conversely, they can send us their summer clothes. It might also be a really great form of cultural exchange. Basically other countries sharing their cultural dress with us freely as opposed to the fashion industry appropriating it for profit.
Great video! Really made me think 💖
When I was growing up, I'd hear from family constant microaggressions and prejudice against Indigenous Australians. My Nanna would always claim they'd steal her belongings, but as I grew, completely in disagreement with their viewpoints, I came to understand that the nomadic Indigenous people had a library mindset of the land and its ever generating provisions thanks to their careful consideration and use of orally passed down knowledge. They didn't see it as stealing, they saw it as a righteous distribution of resources.
A lot of greedy and possessive people are against the library economy, because it doesn't divide their "earnt" possessions from the vast array of resources available to everyone. I believe in a system of distribution as well as heirloom. If you're intent on passing it down to your descendants (while you're still alive), then it shall be your private property. But if it's yours just to gain capital, then you must loan it. Of course people have a right to personal effects, but greed is an ugly sin that ought to be vanquished from our planet, and things without use to yourself should be passed to someone who will make use out of it. Imagine the projects, the buildings, the agricultural centres and so on, that could be. If only we weren't so possessive of items without ongoing purpose to ourselves.
Equity and equality for all over advancement of elite individuals.
Edit: this is the first video I've watched, and I immediately subscribed by the end. Wonderful work
I've been thinking about this ever since I saw your thumbnail and title - it's such an interesting idea to increase collaboration and decrease waste
The amount of work that companies put into developing DRM software that limits access to digital creations (like ebooks) really puts the lie to the idea that capitalism is an efficient way to distribute resources (or an efficient way to organize priorities of what people labor on). Like the idea that libraries have ebooks that could be shared with anyone for free but instead are forced to use act as if there a scarcity is infuriating. The internet could have been so beautiful and liberating but instead we're stuck with walled gardens, manipulative & adversarial technology and everything requiring a subscription to access
libraries are the best!! i go to my local library after school to do my homework and it's sooo great. They have free computers, movies, and even a tax service!! i live in a pretty small town so it's not very big, but it's still really great!
GO TO YOUR LOCAL LIBRARIES PEOPLE!!!!
you give me hope. thank you.
Just to add to the recommendations...
The episode SrslyWrong did w Andrewism was really good
The trilogy on Library Socialism was great
But the trilogy on Social Ecology was fr*cking amazing.
Cannot recommend people check it out more strongly.
Great video, dude. :)
Does anyone else listen to Andrewism's videos and just start tearing up from the sheer beauty of imagining these kinds of future landscapes? Politics can be a lot like poetry, in the sense of its potential to bring out the best in humanity. The right kind of politics, that is. And I found that in anarchy