• E-mail: library@angrylists.com

• Live chat: See /special/webchat

• Wiki: bookshelf.theanarchistlibrary.org

theanarchistlibrary.org is (despite its name) an archive focusing on anarchism and anarchist texts.

Within the scope of our use of the term “anarchism” we have been quite broad, but broad does not mean infinite, and basically shrinks down to a set of ideas against the State and capital. This immediately rules out the so-called “anarcho-capitalism”, “anarcho-nationalism” and similar crap.

What is so special about this site?

The library provides a high quality online web browser version of the text along with various other formats, like PDFs, plain text, HTML, EPUB, and XeLaTeX. We actively encourage the DIY printing and the distribution of the texts, so there is no need to ask us for permission to use the texts.

The site provides a way for distributors and friends to change the layout of the PDFs and to create collections of an arbitrary number of texts (1 or more). See the bookbuilder page.

The site also provides an advanced search engine.

All these features come with some responsibility for the people who want to contribute to the library. We ask that uploaders contribute a logical representation of the text, with headings, emphasis, quotation blocks, etc. marked up appropriately. The site provides some tools (inside the web interface) to make this process easy, but some attention and some care is still required. Please be sure to read the manual if you plan to join the project for the mid- to long-term.

I have a text I’d like to see in the library. May I submit it?

Yes, you may! You don’t need an account. Just click Add to Library and read the instructions.

I uploaded something, but you censored me!

When we choose not to publish something, it is usually because the content is not anarchist. There are also a few other reasons why your text may not have been published, including but not limited to, it being in an incorrect format like an image of PDF file, original work for an unknown previously unpublished author (the library is not a self-publishing website), and finally a common reason is due to the poor text formatting submitted by the user. Please take due diligence to fix your footnotes, headers, and spacing. Consult the manual for AMUSE markup.

When submitting a text, you are welcome to leave an email address for contact, but it is not necessary. It is recommended to leave a contact if the content and formatting of the text are in question, so that librarians can email with any questions or recommendations for formatting changes. You can also contact the library project over Internet Relay Chat (IRC) if you would like to say hello and make a case for the publishing of a particular text. On the IRC, if you ask a question, please be patient as people are not always around.

What about my zine?

If you want to publish your zine here, keep in mind that we can’t accept PDFs or raw scans. The texts here are processed to produce various formats, including but not limited to PDF.

Even if inserting images in the text is fully supported, this archive may not be the best solution for graphically heavy texts.

If you think your text only makes sense alongside specific layout (like cut and paste zine), it is best to publish it elsewhere.

What about my scans?

Texts that have been scanned are welcome, but you have to use optical character recognition (OCR) and then follow the library markup to format them. Broken, unreadable texts are rejected. We prefer quality over quantity and are happy to help guide you in formatting your work.

Hey, you started without me. Can I join you?

Sure, you can join the crew. We have a mailing list (library@angrylists.com) and a IRC channel.

What about support for other languages?

It’s a reality. There are already projects in: anarhisticka-biblioteka.net, Spanish, French, Dutch, Danish, Russian, Italian, Macedonian, German, Swedish, Polish, Finnish, Turkish, Korean, Greek, South East Asia, Esperanto, Portuguese, and Chinese.

If you are interested in creating a new language project, please read this documentation first, and then please contact us.

Of note, at the bottom of the translation documentation we have listed another project anarchistlibraries.net which can also help host your project if you so choose. You can check out their project at the website: anarchistlibraries.net

Tell us about your technology.

All the various components use free software and the code is freely available at https://amusewiki.org.

Why don’t you do X

Perhaps because we haven’t got around to it. Perhaps we have other reasons for not doing X. If you want X to happen at the Anarchist Library, feel free to log onto the IRC channel and talk to us about how X will rock our world, and how to make X happen. We are probably open to do it.