Burning Librarian Cocktail Party!

First of all, there’s a BM camp called HUSHVILLE, ‘an oasis of quiet’ that doesn’t allow amps. Second of all, they’re hosting a LIBRARIAN COCKTAIL PARTY at Burning Man! My life just got 179% better.

This guy will be there, in fun fur and pigtails.

The Evolution of Useful Things

Thanks to Emily in Toronto, we have a lovely new member of the 2009 Collection. Like Origin of the Species, The Evolution of Useful Things follows an evolutionary theme, but focuses on the development of everyday objects like forks and paperclips. I’m not sure if this sounds boring to a normal person, but it sounds really interesting to me.

Natural Selection

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent. but the ones most responsive to change”

This quote could apply as easily to Burning Man and the Burning Library as it does to the theory of natural selection. 

As a complement to Burning Man 2009’s Evolution theme, Alex from Toronto has added Charles Darwin’s The Origin of the Species to the collection. In addition, he is also contributing Noam Chomsky’s What Uncle Sam Really Wants and Thomas S. Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. As always, you can check out the full collection on LibraryThing.

The most exciting news of all is that Alex himself will be joining us at Burning Man! So keep an eye out for this Natural Librarian as he strolls the sandy streets of Black Rock City.

Smokin Hot Buttons!

We are so excited about the new Burning Library buttons. Each button features a different image of fire or smoke. The buttons were made as little thank-you gifts for anyone who donates items to the library.

 

Buttons!

FaceBook for Book Nerds!

Today, the Burning Library was thrilled to receive the first three donations of 2009.

Thanks to Jenn in Halifax, we are excited to add Douglas Coupland’s Miss Wyoming, DBC Pierre’s Ludmila’s Broken English, and Jane Austen’s Persuasion to the collection. You can follow the growing catalogue by checking out our LibraryThing account.

The Burning Library on LibraryThing

LibraryThing makes it easy to catalogue your library collection, and compare it to someone else’s. It’s a bit like Facebook for book nerds, with less advertising and more references to Tolkien. If you already have a LibraryThing account, add us as a friend! Our username is ‘burninglibrary’.

The Free Mending Library: What You Reap is What You Sew

The Free Mending Library

One the fifteenth of each month, Michael Swaine runs a free mending library out of his custom built sewing cart in San Francisco.

The free mending library started out with a sewing machine and a cardboard sign. It evolved into a pushcart complete with umbrella and other goodies. He’s currently works the Tenderloin neighbourhood of San Francisco, where he offers free clothes mending from his portable sewing station.

60% of the work involves things like hemming; the rest of it tends to be patching or mending tears. Swaine saves the extra fabric from alterations and uses it for patches. In exchange for his services, Swaine gets to meet people and hear their stories, get a glimpse of their lives. His work also promotes the possibilities of mending in the face of throwaway consumer culture.

This project has a lot in common with The Burning Library.  It’s free, involves a pedestrian-friendly cart, and it started out with just a cardboard sign. Plus, it’s pretty amazingly fantastic. The Mending Library centres as much on human exchange as it does on library services.

For more details, check out Cast On’s podcast interview with Michael Swaine or the Twisted Thread video on his work in San Francisco and London.

Show Your Love

If you love the Burning Library, then check out The Burning Library page on Facebook.

Become a fan and help spread the word!

Burning Library Book Drive 2009!

 

Book Drive!

It’s a muggy twenty degrees in Halifax – summer is here and the Burning Library is back!

I’m not sure which is my favourite part -watching the eclectic collection grow, or being at the festival and interacting with library patrons. Both are pretty fantastic.

From now until August 25th, the Burning Library Book Drive is in YOUR city. Well, it is if you live in Halifax or Toronto. And if you don’t live in either of these lovely cities, you can still take part – you can always mail us your donations, or email us with suggestions, and we’ll do our best to get a hold of them!

Luis Soriano, Alfa and Beto

Biblioburro crossing a stream

I first came across the Biblioburro when I saw a picture of Luis Soriano and his donkey on the cover of Alberto Maguel’s The Library at Night. I was excited and enthusiastic and inspired, and I still am whenever I come across mention of this fantastic library.

Teacher, librarian, and restauranteur, Soriano cruises around rural northern Colombia on the weekends with his own grassroots bookmobile. With the help of donkeys Alfa and Beta, he brings books to the bookless.

There have been several articles published about the Biblioburro, notably in The New York Times, The Washington Post and La Nacion. It has also been featured on Juan Gossain’s radio show, and is in the process of expanding into a custom-built library as the collection grows. I was excited to discover that the interwebs have footage of the Biblioburro and Soriano in action. Check it out on YouTube – it will make you clutch at your heart and go “Awwwwwwww!”

The best thing is that Soriano’s not the only one doing this. Take a look at the Biblioburro blog for more.

Libraries on wheels…and in boats…and on burros….

For me, the library experience has always been about public space. The Burning Library was originally conceived as an experiment in library space, an inquiry into what makes a library a library. Can you just bring a bunch of books to the desert and call it a library? Do you need shelves? Do you need carpeting? What makes a library feel like a library?

Somewhere along the line, the emphasis shifted to the Burning Library as a mobile library. Maybe it was the logistics of getting items from Halifax to Toronto, acquiring more items in Toronto, bringing the resulting collection by plane to San Fransisco, and finally by van to Black Rock City. We had bookshelves in San Fransisco that had to be abandoned because there simply wasn’t room in the van. The library became, like so much of the Burning Man experience, a logistical challenge. Simply getting the (amazingly generous) donations was victory number one. Transporting them to Burning Man was victory number two. And putting material into the hands of fellow burners was victory number three.

On the day we left BM, I found myself walking through what remained of the city, makeshift bookshelves in hand. The city was already melting back into the sand as revelers slowly collapsed their tents and pulled rebar out of the ground. I pounced on anyone who didn’t look too busy, proffering the remaining books. I felt like a host offering guests a plate of those spiral cream cheese pita things. I wanted people to help themselves, but I didn’t want them to feel pressured if they weren’t interested. It was a delicate balance to strike, but I pulled it off.

People who didn’t want any books were still pleased with the interaction, and pleased about the project. Out of a week of extreme and awe-inspiring experiences, I will never forget how wonderful it felt to be walking around and distributing books. The two women sitting in the back of a truck who were intrigued and excited about Sonia Edworthy’s haircut zine. The Indo-Canadian-American newlywed couple who took Desmond Morris’ Catwatching because of their new kitten. Best of all, the man who took the Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone so happy to get their hands on a book before. As I walked around, I realized that I wanted to be doing this all the time, not just once a year.

Since then, I have been researching the many different forms of mobile libraries. I have been making not-so-secret plans for an urban mobile library service – one that does not need an engine to run. This blog was started as a means of tracking the Burning Library project as it developed, and the next stage of the library will involve a transubstantiation into an experimental mobile library. So, for the next little while, I will be using the blog to explore some of the rich variety of mobile libraries that exist. Enjoy!