librarypunk

This week we’re joined by Mariame to talk about zines in NYC in the 80s, DIY, youth culture, organizing, middle age, yelling at clouds, and building models of the world we might want to live in. Support needed: https://www.mightycause.com/story/Rebuild25 REBUILD provides free therapy for justice-involved and formerly incarcerated people of color. Media mentioned Black Zine Fair https://blackzinefair.org/ Black Zine Fair - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Zine_Fair Bad Seed #1 Miriam Linna Zine Juvenile Delinquent Fanzine Kicks Norton Cramps | eBay  Parterre Box opera zine about + archive - https://parterre.com/about/ Sojourners for Justice Press https://sojourners4justice.press/ Black Zine Fair https://blackzinefair.org/ Black Zine Fair - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Zine_Fair The City In Our Hands https://urbanomnibus.net/2026/04/the-city-in-our-hands/  Transcript: https://pastecode.io/s/g1q7f3d8  Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/qWPTurTnkT

We have Katie Freeway on to talk about self-publishing comics and music, algorithms, baseball, the importance of creativity, handshakemogging, SEO, Resident Evil, if cats are kinda gay, transsexualism, and more!   Buy Katie’s album: https://anti-spectacular.bandcamp.com/album/i-am-this-flesh  Patreon for I Don’t Sleep Well and other comics: https://patreon.com/hausofdecline  https://bsky.app/profile/hausofdecline.bsky.social https://www.instagram.com/hausofdecline/ Media mentioned Beetlemoses comics https://www.instagram.com/beetlemoses/?hl=en  Nick Vost comics https://www.instagram.com/nick.vost/?hl=en Henry Darger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Darger  Gerard Donelan comics https://www.instagram.com/donelancartoons/ Bad Gays podcast https://badgayspod.com/  Doc and Raider comics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doc_and_Raider  Transcript: https://pastecode.dev/s/ukla4gan  Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/qWPTurTnkT

We’re joined by Dan again to talk about Carnegie libraries, which expanded into a larger discussion of consensus, hegemony, and the future of philanthropy/public funding. We also introduce Maoist Dusty Rhodes. Media mentioned Stevenson, S. (2010). The Political Economy of Andrew Carnegie’s Library Philanthropy, with a Reflection on its Relevance to the Philanthropic Work of Bill Gates. Library & Information History, 26(4), 237–257. https://doi.org/10.1179/175834910X12816060984359  Giesbrecht, H. (2025). Sense and Social Control in Vancouver's Carnegie Free Library, 1901–1910. Urban History Review 53(2), 111-129. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/970361 . Levine, M. (2016). Andrew Carnegie and Bill Gates: Philanthropy and oligarchy, then and now. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 86(1), 1–9. https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fort0000150  WEB Du Bois anecdote about Carnegie: https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/flashbks/black/mcgillbh.htm (decades later, the Foundation refused to publish some Du Bois work on Reconstruction. Du Bois is an interesting foil to Carnegie, with his pitches for a People’s University—which Andrew Douglas and Shannon Mattern both write about).  Raber, D. (2003). Librarians as organic intellectuals: a Gramscian approach to blind spots and tunnel vision. The Library Quarterly, 73(1), 33-53. (More of a riff but provocative and the most explicit engagement with Gramsci on libraries theoretically).  Muskism https://www.harpercollins.com/products/muskism-quinn-slobodianben-tarnoff?variant=43838135402530  Other Dan Greene recommendations Black, A., & Pepper, S. (2012). From civic place to digital space: the design of public libraries in Britain from past to present. Library trends, 61(2), 440-470. Harvey, C., Maclean, M., Gordon, J., & Shaw, E. (2011). Andrew Carnegie and the foundations of contemporary entrepreneurial philanthropy. Business History, 53(3), 425-450. Oehlerts (1991) Books and Blueprints: Building America's Public Libraries. (More about architecture but some business stuff) Mattern (2018) “Fugitive libraries.” Places Journal. (Shannon has a bunch of good stuff) Transcript: https://pastecode.io/s/6p8i4fby  Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/qWPTurTnkT

We’re doing a movie night, where the National Archives and the city of Philly stock footage are main characters. We also pitch our own Hallmark movie directed by Bruce LaBruce about mismanagement set at the Mütter Museum.  Transcript: https://pastecode.io/s/q6fbce2p  Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/qWPTurTnkT

We’re talking about that bad article on critical confabulations in archives. We talk about history as a process, the archive, gaps in our knowledge, language as a conveyor of reality, and The Watermelon Woman.  Media mentioned THE ARTICLE: Critical Confabulation: Can LLMs Hallucinate for Social Good? https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.07722 Guillaume Cabanac, “How a Tortured Conference Becomes a Series: An Analysis of Conference Manipulations” IEEE Xplore  https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11363742  Research repository ArXiv will ban authors for a year if they let AI do all the work, TechCrunch  https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/16/research-repository-arxiv-will-ban-authors-for-a-year-if-they-let-ai-do-all-the-work/  The Watermelon Woman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Watermelon_Woman  Keith Haring Unfinished Painting: https://mymodernmet.com/artificial-intelligence-finishes-keith-harings-unfinished-painting/ Patrick Wyman, Lost Worlds https://www.harpercollins.com/products/lost-worlds-patrick-wyman?variant=43084775817250  Predatory States: Operation Condor and Covert War in Latin America, Patrice McSherry https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/predatory-states-9780742568709/  Dorothea series on patron privacy https://ischool.wisc.edu/continuing-education/tech-crash-course-data-information-privacy/  Transcript: https://pastecode.io/s/3oy0sgqw  Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/qWPTurTnkT