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
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.
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. :)
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.
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.
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 TH-cam, 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.
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
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 🤔
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.
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.❤
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.
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: th-cam.com/video/syii9DKnb2M/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=DavidMitchell%27sSoapbox
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 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 TH-cam.
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!
This is just the most serendipitous encounter with the TH-cam 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.
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!
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.
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
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.
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💖
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 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
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'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~
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
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!
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!
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. 😍
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
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
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
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 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'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.
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 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 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
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
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.
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.
Man that last bit made me wish someone would make a TV show that takes place in this anarchist, Socialist (etc) society. The banter there was aestheticly pleasing
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
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
Flawless presentation! These ideas should be the foundation for all campaigns of prefiguration... There are just so many avenues available for a practitioner to curate their collaborations toward library economics it seems to be a route accessible to all by beginning small, easily adapted and scaled.. This will be our future.
Is 'Library Economy' a term you coined in this video?? Because it rolls off the tongue really well. I want to start talking about this concept using this label because it fits so well
I'm imagining my friend being able to go to the car library and work on cars with the other people so people can rent safe vehicles for travel. I like walkable cities but long distance land travel by car is a valuable human experience, the modern refinement of a long journey by horse with good friends
Something that I hate about libraries nowadays is that just as most other "public" spaces, not all people are allowed to stay. In winter, I see homeless folks freeze in the cold while the library is right next to them, mostly empty, with chairs to rest, radiators to warm yourself with and books to help escape a tiresome life.
Yea, there were several times I got chewed out for letting homeless people dry their clothes by other guests and I basically just gave them the "well, you can go dry your half naked butt in the blizzard if you think it's that easy." Not exactly unfortunately but that sort of "excuse me? What did you just say? Energy"
Because is a library, not a homeless shelter. If you have homeless, you need shelters, not open public spaces for them, and make them unwelcoming or unsafe to the public. No offense, but nobody wants to go to a public place that stinks like a skunk, or puts your safety at risk by having it to share space with mentally ill people and alcoholics/drug addicts.
@@davidgreen5994You are aware of what the word "public space" means right? The way you said it makes it sound like homeless people aren't part of society just because they are poor and "smell bad"
@@hurricanemeridian8712public showers and bathroom facilities would help, but it doesn't take away the fact that yes, it makes places more dangerous. Not every homeless person is an addict or violent, and I wouldn't want to treat them as such, but you don't go running through the jungle or swimming in the swamp just because "not all" creatures there will kill you. Honestly though, minus the whole drug part, I wonder how much such a threat would be reducued by just having stability i.e. plenty of food and a safe place to rest. That's supposedly helped heaps of people get off the street.
This is an absolute brilliant idea ! I do go through an app that allows you to borrow/rent stuff in your neighborhood but this is so much better. I will suggest that to my city council : it should help many to have access to what they sometimes need and can't afford, and furthermore, it should create a few jobs that could get some locals out of financial scarcity. Thank you so much for sharing these ideas.
And suddenly TH-cam recommended this amazing video to me. Never heard of this or the related channels but I subscribed right away! You explain these concepts very clearly and also have humorous skits in between that help with the imagination. Besides that, I've been looking for alternatives to capitalism, and this video is exactly what helps me imagining such a utopia, instead of just focusing on the negatives of the current system. Thank you for this!
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 💖
Loved those skits, the cruise one in particular had me snickering. The subject of libraries of enduring things versus dispensaries of consumables reminded me of seed libraries, which operate a bit like dispensaries, since you can't exactly give seeds back after planting them, but you can donate seeds after what you planted grows. Doing something like this with other consumables might bring back incetives to make consumables to last, or at least shift the angle of that incentive from "making it last longer means I can sell more" to "making it last longer means the window of access to it will be extended" So, for example, pickling food and making cured meats will again be for more than just taste, but also for preservation. Instead of just having community kitchens where food goes straight from being made to being eaten, you can also have "food libraries" where anybody can donate their pickled veggies, canned fruits, and so on, and then when leaner times inevitably come, specific fresh goods are less available or out of season, or somebody simply has a hankering for beef jerky, that will be available. I suppose this little imgining only applies to perishable consumables and not things like, say, bandages or soap, but the basic seed library mechanism would still broadly apply: the place where you go to pick up some soap is also the place you go to to drop off the soap you just made. Another point I want to add that I got thinking about in the last skit: personally, I not only like cooking and making more than I'll eat myself, but I take pride in it and, yeah I'll make your common stuff like macaroni, but in case anybody's getting a flickering of the idea that community kitchens will only serve "boring" food, I have a particular love for making "interesting" food, like if somebody wants some shakshuka and I have the materials to make it, I'm 100% down to do that. Shakshuka example in particular is actually taken from a real-world local place I went to where the cost of food was pay-what-you-can, and I was surprised to see shakshuka was on the menu. Places like this not only can exist, but they already do, concept proven.
It's interesting to hear you bring up the pay-what-you-can food place as this video brought up the concept in my mind also. I'm about to take your comment to launch my own train of thought, and won't address anything else you said, so sorry about that! Anyway, what I wanted to say was that I worked in one of these kinds of places, as a sub-manager, for below minimum wage. It was fantastic, and so hard. The lowest paying, hardest working job I've ever had. It was worth it. But I, and the rest of the people who made up the core crew of the place, whether paid or unpaid, had been burning the candle from both ends for a long time. In the end, it permanently closed down, for many, many reasons. And honestly, I wasn't upset at the time as it was a relief to have the responsibility taken from me. The problem (well, one of the problems..) I saw there, was that this space was meant to be for the community, by the community. Yet, it had become for the community, by about 10 people who were constantly overworked. Before Covid, it hadn't been too bad, with many international travelers and students able to sustain the space, with their constant influx of fresh energy and idealism. Covid brought an end to that, and what struck me was that none of the local people participated in this space. They were not interested in participating, other than eating the food without adequate compensation, whether monetarily or otherwise. I guess I bring this all up because I love the videos from these channels, they are a beautiful, refreshing and life-sustaining change to the doom and gloom most of the other content I consume here is about. But I also recognize that such imaginative concepts have great challenges to overcome in their journey to manifestation. And it takes the sustained will of a number of people to be successful. Ultimately, I haven't thought about the food place I used to work at for a while now, I had no energy by the end for it anymore. But this video, and your own comment, brings it back to me and makes me wonder what went wrong? What could have been done different? What lessons are there to be learnt, and applied to a similar future endeavor? Because as hard as that work was, it was also extremely rewarding, and I'd love to find the solution to the problems we faced, to find a middle ground, where the core crew don't burn out and where the wider community might show more active interest.
@@kirbyweller2870 This reminds me of the now maybe famous post about grocery carts (will you put it away yourself, or leave it to somebody else, knowing there's no consequence to you for just letting somebody else do it?) and my own little benchmark test of a society's readiness for anarchism based on whether it would, on a whole, "win" the prisoner's dilemma. Basically, a key midpoint between here and the idealized structure of society is a cultural shift away from "it's somebody else's problem" mentality, which I think, ironically, gets reinforced by a present culture of "this is your responsibility in particular," for example with highly specialized workplaces. When you're The Guy Who ___, then everybody else may reasonably expect that, whenever whatever it is needs done, you'll be the one to do it. No need to pick up your trash, there's somebody else who does that, that sort of thing. I think this sort of thing gets alluded to in maybe somewhat fanciful language in videos like this when people say something like "you can be a librarian in the morning, a cook in the afternoon, a software designer at night," which, maybe optimistically, could help reinforce the idea of just doing stuff because you can, since it lessens the sense of "well, it's somebody else's job to do that" when people have less rigidly defined roles. Can maybe think of it in terms of a game like D&D or some other team-based game, where it's conventional to have rigidly defined roles like The Healer, but then, what if everybody could do some degree of healing? Then it wouldn't be so bad if the person who usually does healing goes down, isn't here today, whatever the case, since it isn't that person's sole responsibility anymore. Maybe that person finds playing The Healer to be really rewarding and is really good at it, but I think most people get burnt out eventually doing the same thing nonstop with no breaks. I like cooking, but some days I'm just not up for it (chronic illness, bla bla), so it's good to not be The Cook and instead just be a person who cooks, that way, when I can, it's cool, and when I can't, it's still cool. Now I can tie all this back to my original post with food preservation, since having stuff ready-to-eat and already prepared lets the people making it arrange the labor of making stuff more easily, since if you make, idk, 50 servings worth of something, but it lasts for many months, then you don't have to worry so much about only feeding 5 servings-worth of it today. Not to mention that making food en masse is generally easier than making it a few servings at a time, so even if there was a Jerky Guy, they'd only need to do that once every so often and be free to do other stuff in the meanwhile. Healer makes 50 potions one day, gets to play damage dealer for a while now.
@@anadice9489 Well yeah, I think the mentality of strict role responsibilities played a huge part in the core crew burnout. Essentially the space was meant to create a dynamic that broke that mentality and allowed for a fluidity between roles and role players. But not only did the community largely stick to the role of consumer, the core crew also largely stuck to the role of provider, even in the face of complete burnout. I was always struck by how despite the patrons knowing that the space was run by volunteers, and relied on that, very few new faces would volunteer, even when I was the only one working and was very visibly struggling. However, equally as striking was how when I'd come to breaking point and start telling patrons that the reason they'd had to wait so long was because I was the only person serving for the whole place, or when I'd make an announcement on the floor that I desperately needed help, patrons actually would help! Suddenly there would be more than enough help. In hindsight, we were all under a spell of sorts, trapped in our ways of thinking and doing. I would subconsciously assume I had to do all the work as it was my role and the patrons assumed they didn't need to work, as that was their. Only at the point of complete breakdown would this mentality be forced to shift. If I were able to change anything about how I functioned it would be to actively confront this habitual way of thinking and regularly prompt patrons to play an active role, as I believe they were often willing, but just not aware of the need and the possibility. Also, I like this idea of the preserving of food allowing for ease of labor arrangement and compensating for times of higher demand or lower availability. I mean essentially these are some of the main reasons why we have always preserved foods, so it makes sense. Many forms of preserved foods also are so healthy for us, with great beneficial microbes for our guts, especially foods preserved via fermentation. One issue I can see with this method though, is space, as storing the preserves may be difficult in places where space is at a premium.
@@kirbyweller2870 Big agree on the under a spell thing, I think most people are kind of locked into operating according to convention, and it can be hard to even consider the idea of doing something like ust getting up and helping somebody when "that's not my job". Just kind of wondering, but I wonder if some, or even most, people have a sort of social anxiety with regard to acting out of order, so to speak, in public. That pervasive awareness that people will notice you doing the different thing and be paying attention to you, even when the attention is positive, I can say that personally I have some anxiety in this context and have had to actively try to get mysef out of the walflower role. The space thing reminds me, I think inter-community cooperation is important, granted that some communities are bound to be better suited for this or that. The vegetables getting pickled, for example, are going to have to come from somewhere, and not everywhere is a good spot to grow things, but if some places can produce enough surplus, then that can carry over into prosperity for connected communities.
Ever since I read Federico Campagna's Technic and Magic I've been looking for an actualization of the high-order ideas in the book. I feel like this channel is just that.
Loving this one! That sinking ship sketch was some pristine satire. However I have to disagree with the idea that the internet was "corrupted" somehow. Remember, the internet is a technology that was originally developed by and for the military industrial complex, and then released to the public. It's not surprising that it's development trended towards domination from early on. Despite this, I still think we could adapt at least some aspects of the tech and create our own liberated versions of it, like mesh networks or the Fediverse, or even something like VRChat. We'd have to innovate quite a bit and reimagine a lot of the basics if we want a truly liberating technology, though. Edit: One more criticism I'd add is that the idea of a library of things seems to me a bit too centralized. We all know how much is lost when huge, historic libraries are burned down, so we should avoid replicating that aspect as much as possible. I understand that these libraries would be pretty local and well-networked, but I think we can go even further with decentralization. A kind of affinity group model adapted to the library of things is probably the most resilient, yet also the least rigid. It would be flexible and dynamic, and it would avoid the weaknesses of concentration. I'll add a bit of a personal touch here as well. On thing I really love about the United States is the sheer abundance of public libraries. My childhood was defined in large part by the time I spent at the local library. I lived in a small town and still had a library nearby. I live in Turkey nowadays and there aren't nearly as many libraries here (it's also much harder to find books in English, which is largely a nationalism issue). Thankfully my university has a pretty big library with plenty of English books, and I'm already taking full advantage of it.
Thank you very much for this. I just found it, but today, I just send my city rep a message about starting a Lawn Mower Library. I was shot down, but introducing this idea to my city is only the first step! Much Love, FTF
I've been thinking of contacting my local municipality for some months regarding starting a library of things. Watching this was the final nail in the coffin and I sent them an e-mail. Thank you for the inspiration!
Wow! What a cool idea! It makes sense. My mom is a retired librarian. Libraries and librarians are awesome!!! Great video. Awesome information and skits!
As another Anarcho-Communist Andrew; I truly thank you, I am an old hermit who's reach is limited to the dozen people I work with at the restaurant, maybe another dozen I interact with when I run errands, and my cat. And all that in a small town on the mid-atlantic coast (us). So it makes me very happy to see young people with (or without) a platform making the case for a cooperative system. I F'n LOVE IT
This is kinda how I use thrift shops, only without the monetary element. Instead of buy, use, donate back, it's just borrow, use, return. Or not return, but donate something else.
This idea reminds me in many ways of the Star Trek future and the Federation’s economy, my best frame of reference for this kind of system, and based on what you’ve educated me on and my foreknowledge from that Star Trek basis, I’m definitely on board
I think I might have a bit of a furniture library, warehouse spaces with stuff, I would let tenants take and use or leave furniture there, and sometimes swap out for good when they leave. The real problem was how many people misused and destroyed the things. Also, thinks like furniture and tools wear over time, and can not be cheaply reproduced like books. Art, tools, and furniture are not always replaceable, somethings are unique to there time, like a hand written book, not a printed one.
Wow where was this? I think for this system to work on a larger scale you might have a library card system, if you borrowed it and just trashed it, you have compensate for it. Wear and tear is of course inevitable, having a staff that can repair and service the stuff would probably be neccessary
Thanks you for the imaginings. The boat metaphor is such a great illustration. And the library economy imagining scene gave me a much needed break. I believe in Ubuntu, but I believe this would be am excellent way of getting there. Peace and Blessings.
It's hard sometimes to watch your videos, because it's so hard to hope. It's so hard to believe that there's a possibility for a world beyond capitalism, racism, statism, ecocide, and all the other many problems we face. Hoping reminds me of how bad things are, and makes me want a better world so bad. It's less painful to believe that a better world is impossible, than to know that it was possible all along but that we just never built it.
Thanks for this video, I was actually thinking about this for a medieval sci-fi (post-cyberpunk utopia). I was thinking of a faction that has exactly the same thing you mentioned for Library Economies
Coming from a middle class background the value of private property is so engrained in me that it‘s sometimes hard for me to imagine things working differently. It‘s good to connect the idea of a more equal society with something that already exists. What Andrew describes does happen within families and friend groups already to an extent. Helping each other out, sharing resources for free… It can be great and often is but the problem that arises with atomized social structures is the clear ending point that attitude has. Here’s a new idea for a video: „Rethinking nepotism“
Have you heard of "Dunbar's Number"? I propose we have web-like cities, with a library as the central hub and keep city sizes to around 150, in accordance with Dunbar's Number. We could use current metropolises as shipping hubs for automated import/export between communities using drones :)
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
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 TH-cam. 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.
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. :)
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.
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.
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 TH-cam, 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.
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?
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 🤔
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.
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.❤
Glad you mentioned Mali as a prominent library 👏🏿🖤
Of course! I think it's one of their best accomplishments
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.
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: th-cam.com/video/syii9DKnb2M/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=DavidMitchell%27sSoapbox
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 🎷🐛
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 TH-cam.
Medicine should not be a privilege. For crying out loud why do we let people get away with charging for lifesaving treatments😢
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!
This is just the most serendipitous encounter with the TH-cam 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.
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!
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 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 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.
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💖
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 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 always, I share the heck outta this. It's rare that anyone actually gives us ways out of this hellscape. Positive action.
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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'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~
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
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!
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!
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. 😍
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
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!
The outro bit is genuinely incredibly inspiring. Such an unassuming example of a possible interaction but so incredibly refreshing. Thank you.
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
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 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
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.
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
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.
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 closing segment was amazing. It sounded like a real conversation and really put the finishing touch on this video.
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 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
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
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.
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.
Man that last bit made me wish someone would make a TV show that takes place in this anarchist, Socialist (etc) society. The banter there was aestheticly pleasing
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
We have a few community-organized libraries of things in Chicago. I’m a big fan of the Chicago tool library as someone who builds a lot of furniture!
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.
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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.
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 ⭐️
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.
I always get excited seeing a new video by you, you make anarchism make sense and are probably the best video essayist out there
I love this idea! And the concept of an irreducible minimum. It's like a UBI for the Internet of things that are necessary.
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.
The cruise ship clip hits hard due to recent events...
Indeed, the CEO of Royal Dreams attitude is giving gov budget 2023.
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)
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
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
Flawless presentation! These ideas should be the foundation for all campaigns of prefiguration... There are just so many avenues available for a practitioner to curate their collaborations toward library economics it seems to be a route accessible to all by beginning small, easily adapted and scaled.. This will be our future.
Commenting to F the algorithm! Your stuff should be way higher in everybody’s feeds!
Thank you for sharing!
Is 'Library Economy' a term you coined in this video?? Because it rolls off the tongue really well. I want to start talking about this concept using this label because it fits so well
that skit was a great way of showing the finality of the argument of property being the owner's.
I'm imagining my friend being able to go to the car library and work on cars with the other people so people can rent safe vehicles for travel. I like walkable cities but long distance land travel by car is a valuable human experience, the modern refinement of a long journey by horse with good friends
Something that I hate about libraries nowadays is that just as most other "public" spaces, not all people are allowed to stay. In winter, I see homeless folks freeze in the cold while the library is right next to them, mostly empty, with chairs to rest, radiators to warm yourself with and books to help escape a tiresome life.
Yea, there were several times I got chewed out for letting homeless people dry their clothes by other guests and I basically just gave them the "well, you can go dry your half naked butt in the blizzard if you think it's that easy." Not exactly unfortunately but that sort of "excuse me? What did you just say? Energy"
Because is a library, not a homeless shelter. If you have homeless, you need shelters, not open public spaces for them, and make them unwelcoming or unsafe to the public. No offense, but nobody wants to go to a public place that stinks like a skunk, or puts your safety at risk by having it to share space with mentally ill people and alcoholics/drug addicts.
@@davidgreen5994You are aware of what the word "public space" means right?
The way you said it makes it sound like homeless people aren't part of society just because they are poor and "smell bad"
Also btw public showers/baths would help with that just saying
@@hurricanemeridian8712public showers and bathroom facilities would help, but it doesn't take away the fact that yes, it makes places more dangerous. Not every homeless person is an addict or violent, and I wouldn't want to treat them as such, but you don't go running through the jungle or swimming in the swamp just because "not all" creatures there will kill you.
Honestly though, minus the whole drug part, I wonder how much such a threat would be reducued by just having stability i.e. plenty of food and a safe place to rest. That's supposedly helped heaps of people get off the street.
This is an absolute brilliant idea ! I do go through an app that allows you to borrow/rent stuff in your neighborhood but this is so much better. I will suggest that to my city council : it should help many to have access to what they sometimes need and can't afford, and furthermore, it should create a few jobs that could get some locals out of financial scarcity. Thank you so much for sharing these ideas.
And suddenly TH-cam recommended this amazing video to me. Never heard of this or the related channels but I subscribed right away! You explain these concepts very clearly and also have humorous skits in between that help with the imagination. Besides that, I've been looking for alternatives to capitalism, and this video is exactly what helps me imagining such a utopia, instead of just focusing on the negatives of the current system. Thank you for this!
Welcome aboard!
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 💖
Loved those skits, the cruise one in particular had me snickering.
The subject of libraries of enduring things versus dispensaries of consumables reminded me of seed libraries, which operate a bit like dispensaries, since you can't exactly give seeds back after planting them, but you can donate seeds after what you planted grows. Doing something like this with other consumables might bring back incetives to make consumables to last, or at least shift the angle of that incentive from "making it last longer means I can sell more" to "making it last longer means the window of access to it will be extended"
So, for example, pickling food and making cured meats will again be for more than just taste, but also for preservation. Instead of just having community kitchens where food goes straight from being made to being eaten, you can also have "food libraries" where anybody can donate their pickled veggies, canned fruits, and so on, and then when leaner times inevitably come, specific fresh goods are less available or out of season, or somebody simply has a hankering for beef jerky, that will be available.
I suppose this little imgining only applies to perishable consumables and not things like, say, bandages or soap, but the basic seed library mechanism would still broadly apply: the place where you go to pick up some soap is also the place you go to to drop off the soap you just made.
Another point I want to add that I got thinking about in the last skit: personally, I not only like cooking and making more than I'll eat myself, but I take pride in it and, yeah I'll make your common stuff like macaroni, but in case anybody's getting a flickering of the idea that community kitchens will only serve "boring" food, I have a particular love for making "interesting" food, like if somebody wants some shakshuka and I have the materials to make it, I'm 100% down to do that. Shakshuka example in particular is actually taken from a real-world local place I went to where the cost of food was pay-what-you-can, and I was surprised to see shakshuka was on the menu. Places like this not only can exist, but they already do, concept proven.
It's interesting to hear you bring up the pay-what-you-can food place as this video brought up the concept in my mind also. I'm about to take your comment to launch my own train of thought, and won't address anything else you said, so sorry about that!
Anyway, what I wanted to say was that I worked in one of these kinds of places, as a sub-manager, for below minimum wage. It was fantastic, and so hard. The lowest paying, hardest working job I've ever had. It was worth it. But I, and the rest of the people who made up the core crew of the place, whether paid or unpaid, had been burning the candle from both ends for a long time. In the end, it permanently closed down, for many, many reasons. And honestly, I wasn't upset at the time as it was a relief to have the responsibility taken from me.
The problem (well, one of the problems..) I saw there, was that this space was meant to be for the community, by the community. Yet, it had become for the community, by about 10 people who were constantly overworked. Before Covid, it hadn't been too bad, with many international travelers and students able to sustain the space, with their constant influx of fresh energy and idealism. Covid brought an end to that, and what struck me was that none of the local people participated in this space. They were not interested in participating, other than eating the food without adequate compensation, whether monetarily or otherwise.
I guess I bring this all up because I love the videos from these channels, they are a beautiful, refreshing and life-sustaining change to the doom and gloom most of the other content I consume here is about. But I also recognize that such imaginative concepts have great challenges to overcome in their journey to manifestation. And it takes the sustained will of a number of people to be successful.
Ultimately, I haven't thought about the food place I used to work at for a while now, I had no energy by the end for it anymore. But this video, and your own comment, brings it back to me and makes me wonder what went wrong? What could have been done different? What lessons are there to be learnt, and applied to a similar future endeavor? Because as hard as that work was, it was also extremely rewarding, and I'd love to find the solution to the problems we faced, to find a middle ground, where the core crew don't burn out and where the wider community might show more active interest.
@@kirbyweller2870 This reminds me of the now maybe famous post about grocery carts (will you put it away yourself, or leave it to somebody else, knowing there's no consequence to you for just letting somebody else do it?) and my own little benchmark test of a society's readiness for anarchism based on whether it would, on a whole, "win" the prisoner's dilemma. Basically, a key midpoint between here and the idealized structure of society is a cultural shift away from "it's somebody else's problem" mentality, which I think, ironically, gets reinforced by a present culture of "this is your responsibility in particular," for example with highly specialized workplaces. When you're The Guy Who ___, then everybody else may reasonably expect that, whenever whatever it is needs done, you'll be the one to do it. No need to pick up your trash, there's somebody else who does that, that sort of thing. I think this sort of thing gets alluded to in maybe somewhat fanciful language in videos like this when people say something like "you can be a librarian in the morning, a cook in the afternoon, a software designer at night," which, maybe optimistically, could help reinforce the idea of just doing stuff because you can, since it lessens the sense of "well, it's somebody else's job to do that" when people have less rigidly defined roles.
Can maybe think of it in terms of a game like D&D or some other team-based game, where it's conventional to have rigidly defined roles like The Healer, but then, what if everybody could do some degree of healing? Then it wouldn't be so bad if the person who usually does healing goes down, isn't here today, whatever the case, since it isn't that person's sole responsibility anymore. Maybe that person finds playing The Healer to be really rewarding and is really good at it, but I think most people get burnt out eventually doing the same thing nonstop with no breaks.
I like cooking, but some days I'm just not up for it (chronic illness, bla bla), so it's good to not be The Cook and instead just be a person who cooks, that way, when I can, it's cool, and when I can't, it's still cool.
Now I can tie all this back to my original post with food preservation, since having stuff ready-to-eat and already prepared lets the people making it arrange the labor of making stuff more easily, since if you make, idk, 50 servings worth of something, but it lasts for many months, then you don't have to worry so much about only feeding 5 servings-worth of it today. Not to mention that making food en masse is generally easier than making it a few servings at a time, so even if there was a Jerky Guy, they'd only need to do that once every so often and be free to do other stuff in the meanwhile. Healer makes 50 potions one day, gets to play damage dealer for a while now.
@@anadice9489 Well yeah, I think the mentality of strict role responsibilities played a huge part in the core crew burnout. Essentially the space was meant to create a dynamic that broke that mentality and allowed for a fluidity between roles and role players. But not only did the community largely stick to the role of consumer, the core crew also largely stuck to the role of provider, even in the face of complete burnout.
I was always struck by how despite the patrons knowing that the space was run by volunteers, and relied on that, very few new faces would volunteer, even when I was the only one working and was very visibly struggling. However, equally as striking was how when I'd come to breaking point and start telling patrons that the reason they'd had to wait so long was because I was the only person serving for the whole place, or when I'd make an announcement on the floor that I desperately needed help, patrons actually would help! Suddenly there would be more than enough help.
In hindsight, we were all under a spell of sorts, trapped in our ways of thinking and doing. I would subconsciously assume I had to do all the work as it was my role and the patrons assumed they didn't need to work, as that was their. Only at the point of complete breakdown would this mentality be forced to shift. If I were able to change anything about how I functioned it would be to actively confront this habitual way of thinking and regularly prompt patrons to play an active role, as I believe they were often willing, but just not aware of the need and the possibility.
Also, I like this idea of the preserving of food allowing for ease of labor arrangement and compensating for times of higher demand or lower availability. I mean essentially these are some of the main reasons why we have always preserved foods, so it makes sense. Many forms of preserved foods also are so healthy for us, with great beneficial microbes for our guts, especially foods preserved via fermentation.
One issue I can see with this method though, is space, as storing the preserves may be difficult in places where space is at a premium.
@@kirbyweller2870 Big agree on the under a spell thing, I think most people are kind of locked into operating according to convention, and it can be hard to even consider the idea of doing something like ust getting up and helping somebody when "that's not my job".
Just kind of wondering, but I wonder if some, or even most, people have a sort of social anxiety with regard to acting out of order, so to speak, in public. That pervasive awareness that people will notice you doing the different thing and be paying attention to you, even when the attention is positive, I can say that personally I have some anxiety in this context and have had to actively try to get mysef out of the walflower role.
The space thing reminds me, I think inter-community cooperation is important, granted that some communities are bound to be better suited for this or that. The vegetables getting pickled, for example, are going to have to come from somewhere, and not everywhere is a good spot to grow things, but if some places can produce enough surplus, then that can carry over into prosperity for connected communities.
Ever since I read Federico Campagna's Technic and Magic I've been looking for an actualization of the high-order ideas in the book. I feel like this channel is just that.
Loving this one! That sinking ship sketch was some pristine satire. However I have to disagree with the idea that the internet was "corrupted" somehow. Remember, the internet is a technology that was originally developed by and for the military industrial complex, and then released to the public. It's not surprising that it's development trended towards domination from early on. Despite this, I still think we could adapt at least some aspects of the tech and create our own liberated versions of it, like mesh networks or the Fediverse, or even something like VRChat. We'd have to innovate quite a bit and reimagine a lot of the basics if we want a truly liberating technology, though.
Edit: One more criticism I'd add is that the idea of a library of things seems to me a bit too centralized. We all know how much is lost when huge, historic libraries are burned down, so we should avoid replicating that aspect as much as possible. I understand that these libraries would be pretty local and well-networked, but I think we can go even further with decentralization. A kind of affinity group model adapted to the library of things is probably the most resilient, yet also the least rigid. It would be flexible and dynamic, and it would avoid the weaknesses of concentration.
I'll add a bit of a personal touch here as well. On thing I really love about the United States is the sheer abundance of public libraries. My childhood was defined in large part by the time I spent at the local library. I lived in a small town and still had a library nearby. I live in Turkey nowadays and there aren't nearly as many libraries here (it's also much harder to find books in English, which is largely a nationalism issue). Thankfully my university has a pretty big library with plenty of English books, and I'm already taking full advantage of it.
Thank you very much for this. I just found it, but today, I just send my city rep a message about starting a Lawn Mower Library. I was shot down, but introducing this idea to my city is only the first step! Much Love, FTF
I've been thinking of contacting my local municipality for some months regarding starting a library of things. Watching this was the final nail in the coffin and I sent them an e-mail. Thank you for the inspiration!
Sharing- One of the key components of postcapitalism (gifting, sharing, replication)
Your video was recommended to me by the algorithm. Hooray for getting through the cracks of capitalism.
Wow! What a cool idea! It makes sense. My mom is a retired librarian. Libraries and librarians are awesome!!! Great video. Awesome information and skits!
Look into permaculture. It's not just about farming.
As another Anarcho-Communist Andrew; I truly thank you, I am an old hermit who's reach is limited to the dozen people I work with at the restaurant, maybe another dozen I interact with when I run errands, and my cat. And all that in a small town on the mid-atlantic coast (us). So it makes me very happy to see young people with (or without) a platform making the case for a cooperative system. I F'n LOVE IT
This is kinda how I use thrift shops, only without the monetary element. Instead of buy, use, donate back, it's just borrow, use, return. Or not return, but donate something else.
This idea reminds me in many ways of the Star Trek future and the Federation’s economy, my best frame of reference for this kind of system, and based on what you’ve educated me on and my foreknowledge from that Star Trek basis, I’m definitely on board
I think I might have a bit of a furniture library, warehouse spaces with stuff, I would let tenants take and use or leave furniture there, and sometimes swap out for good when they leave. The real problem was how many people misused and destroyed the things. Also, thinks like furniture and tools wear over time, and can not be cheaply reproduced like books. Art, tools, and furniture are not always replaceable, somethings are unique to there time, like a hand written book, not a printed one.
Wow where was this? I think for this system to work on a larger scale you might have a library card system, if you borrowed it and just trashed it, you have compensate for it. Wear and tear is of course inevitable, having a staff that can repair and service the stuff would probably be neccessary
I'm the manager of a rural library, and this is so inspiring ❤
I really love the ending skit, what a beautiful glimpse into a possible future.
Thanks you for the imaginings. The boat metaphor is such a great illustration. And the library economy imagining scene gave me a much needed break. I believe in Ubuntu, but I believe this would be am excellent way of getting there. Peace and Blessings.
It's hard sometimes to watch your videos, because it's so hard to hope. It's so hard to believe that there's a possibility for a world beyond capitalism, racism, statism, ecocide, and all the other many problems we face. Hoping reminds me of how bad things are, and makes me want a better world so bad.
It's less painful to believe that a better world is impossible, than to know that it was possible all along but that we just never built it.
Thanks for this video, I was actually thinking about this for a medieval sci-fi (post-cyberpunk utopia). I was thinking of a faction that has exactly the same thing you mentioned for Library Economies
14:50 "That was a logical error on your part..." lol, this is great
Coming from a middle class background the value of private property is so engrained in me that it‘s sometimes hard for me to imagine things working differently. It‘s good to connect the idea of a more equal society with something that already exists.
What Andrew describes does happen within families and friend groups already to an extent. Helping each other out, sharing resources for free… It can be great and often is but the problem that arises with atomized social structures is the clear ending point that attitude has.
Here’s a new idea for a video: „Rethinking nepotism“
This idea is so beautiful I listened to it twice in a row. The sketch at the end put tears in my eyes.
Love seeing you collab w/ The Wrong Boys ♥️
It had to happen again, they're great!
Have you heard of "Dunbar's Number"? I propose we have web-like cities, with a library as the central hub and keep city sizes to around 150, in accordance with Dunbar's Number. We could use current metropolises as shipping hubs for automated import/export between communities using drones :)