The Library Commons: An Imagination and an Invocation - Jennie Rose Halperin on Vimeo

"Commons can take many forms, like gardens and cooperatives, but also neighborhood associations, consensus based community organizations, and more. In libraries, they may take the form of community cataloging projects, civic engagement projects in conversation with artists, community archives, or open and direct dialogue on topics that concern the community. Commons can be ephemeral or permanent, a long term project or a moment of transcendence.

As professionals concerned with the free and open dissemination of knowledge, librarians could represent the commons in their communities, but more often than not fall into the neoliberal paradigm of the managerial business class and free-market values. This talk will introduce librarians to modern commons theory and present alternatives, from Undercommons to worker power to decolonization, and outline alternative paths of resistance for knowledge workers striving to envision the world as it could be, not as it is."