Public Library / Memory of the World

Public Library / Memory of the World is a network of interconnected shadow libraries, each maintained locally and independently from the others. It is modelled after the concept of the public library, extended to the digital realm: with books ready to be shared, meticulously cataloged, everyone is a librarian. When everyone is librarian, library is everywhere.

Public Library / Memory of the World was initiated in 2012 upon the invitation of Kiberpipa to curate their biannual HAIP festival in Ljubljana. Conceived at a moment where public libraries came under threat of austerity measures and where the networked infrastructures of sharing came under an increased threat of closing, it was aimed at strengthening and connecting those infrastructures and provoking debates that addressed the imposed and implicit territorial, socio-economic and legal barriers to the universal access to knowledge. Since this initial outing, Public Library continued to be developed and presented a.o. in dedicated exhibitions at Württembergischer Kunstverein in Stuttgart, Galerija Nova under What, How and For Whom/WHW in Zagreb, Galerija SULUV under Kuda.org in Novi Sad, in collective exhibitions Dear Art at the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova in Ljubljana and Really Useful Knowledge in the Museum Reina Sofia in Madrid, in hackathons at Impakt festival in Utrecht, in Post-Digital Publishing workshop at Transmediale in Berlin, in Archive/Anarchive/Public Library workshop at Kuda.org in Novi Sad, in the residencies at Constant in Brussels, Calafou in Barcelona, MayDay Rooms in London and Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart. (2019)

Essays, statements and interviews

• Voja Antonić, "Our Beloved Bookscanner", Memory of the World, 28 Oct 2012. (English)

• HAIP 2012: Public Library / Javna knjižnica, Ljubljana, 28-30 Nov 2012. Video recordings of talks held at Kiberpipa. (English)

• Tribuna: "HAIP festival & Tribuna: Hack-Act-Interact-Progress", Ljubljana: Student Organisation of the University of Ljubljana, Dec 2012, 8 pp. A section in the student monthly, based on the HAIP 2012: Public Library / Javna knjižnica festival. Texts by Kaja Kraner, Tina Dolinšek, and interviews with Marcell Mars and Dušan Barok. (Slovenian)

• Alessandro Ludovico, "Marcell Mars, Interview", Neural 44: "Post-Digital Print", Bari, Jan 2013, pp 6-8. (English)

• An Archive/Live Archive/UnArchive and Public Library, Novi Sad, 15-16 Jul 2013. Video recordings of talks held at kuda and CK13 Youth Center. (English)

• Marcell Mars, "Public Library", in Really Useful Knowledge, Barcelona: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MACBA), 2014, pp 163-168; repr. as Marcell Mars, Manar Zarroug, Tomislav Medak, "Public Library (An Essay)", Memory of the World blog, 27 Oct 2014; repr. in Javna knjižnica / Public Library, eds. Tomislav Medak, Marcell Mars, and WHW, Zagreb: WHW & Multimedia Institute, 2015, pp 75-85; reposted on Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft: Open-Media-Studies-Blog, 17 Dec 2018. On the idea of public library. (English)
  • "Javna knjižnica (Esej)", trans. Una Bauer, in Javna knjižnica / Public Library, eds. Tomislav Medak, Marcell Mars, and WHW, Zagreb: WHW & Multimedia Institute, 2015, pp 7-17. (Croatian)

• Marcell Mars, "Why and How to Be(come) an Amateur Librarian", Memory of the World blog, 28 Oct 2014. (English)

• Marcell Mars, Klemo Vladimir, "Download & How to: Calibre & let's share books", Memory of the World, 28 Oct 2014. (English)

• Public Library: Rethinking the Infrastructures of Knowledge Production, Stuttgart, 30 Oct-23 Nov 2014. Video recordings from the conference held at Württembergsicher Kunstverein (WKV) & Akademie Schloss Solitude.

• Tomislav Medak, Dubravka Sekulic, with An Mertens, Book Scanning & Post-Processing Manual Based on Public Library Overhead Scanner, Zagreb: Public Library & Multimedia Institute, [Dec 2014], 22 pp.

• Javna knjižnica / Public Library, eds. Tomislav Medak, Marcell Mars, and WHW, Zagreb: WHW & Multimedia Institute, 2015, 144 pp. Texts by McKenzie Wark, Tomislav Medak, Marcell Mars, Manar Zarroug, and Paul Otlet. (English)/(Croatian)

• Marcell Mars, "Memory of the World", IZK Institute for Contemporary Art, Graz, 12 May 2016, 40 min. Video; invited talk as part of the annual 'Graz Architecture Lectures'. [1] (English)

• Tomislav Medak, Marcell Mars, "Amateur Librarian - A Course in Critical Pedagogy", in Mondothèque: A Radiated Book / Un livre irradiant / Een irradiërend boek, Brussels: Constant, Sep 2016, pp 48-56, PDF. Zotero. (English)
  • "Bibliothécaire amateur - un cours de pédagogie critique", in Mondothèque: A Radiated Book / Un livre irradiant / Een irradiërend boek, Brussels: Constant, Sep 2016, pp 57-65, PDF. (French)

• "Happy birthday, Ubu.com!", Custodians.online, 30 Nov 2016; posted on Nettime, 30 Nov 2016. (English)

• Guerrilla Open Access, ed. Memory of the World, Coventry: Post Office Press, Rope Press, and Memory of the World, 2018, 34 pp. Texts by Memory of the World, Christopher Kelty, Balázs Bodó, and Laurie Allen. (English)

• Neda Atanasoski, Kalindi Vora, "Sharing, Collaboration, and the Commons in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: The Appropriative Techniques of Technoliberal Capitalism", ch 2 in Atanasoski, Vora, Surrogate Humanity: Race, Robots, and the Politics of Technological Futures, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, Mar 2019, pp 54-86. On Public Library.

• Marcell Mars, Tomislav Medak, "System of a Takedown: Control and De-commodification in the Circuits of Academic Publishing", in Andrew Lison, et al., Archives, Lüneburg: meson.press, and University of Minnesota Press, Aug 2019, pp 47-68. (English)

• Tomislav Medak, Marcell Mars, "Public Library and the Return of the Repressed Memory of the World", in Stories and Threads: Perspectives on Art Archives, eds. Sara Buraya Boned, Jennifer Fitzgibbon, and Sezin Romi, L'Internationale, 2022, pp 74-89. [2] (English)

Events

• Memory of the World Timeline, 2011-2019. [3]

• HAIP 2012: Public Library / Javna knjižnica, conference and exhibition, Kiberpipa, Ljubljana, 28-30 November 2012. Video.

• An Archive/Live Archive/UnArchive and Public Library workshop, kuda and CK13 Youth Center, Novi Sad, 15-16 July 2013. Video.

• Hack the biblio, workshop, Calafou, Vallbona d´Anoia (Barcelona), 17-21 April 2014.

• Free Libraries for Every Soul, hackathon, Impakt Festival, Utrecht, 2-3 Nov 2014.

• Public Library: Rethinking the Infrastructures of Knowledge Production conference and exhibition, Württembergsicher Kunstverein (WKV) & Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, 30 Oct-23 Nov 2014. Program. Video. Photos.

• Javna knjižnica / Public Library conference and exhibition, Nova Gallery, Zagreb, May-Jun 2015. [4] [5] [6]

• Pravo na stanovanje, pravo na obrazovanje – javne borbe i javna knjižnica / Public Library/Javna knjižnica: digitalni arhivi, arhitektura i aktivizam, exhibition, workshop and discussion, Omladinski centar CK13 & Galerija SULUV, Novi Sad, 4-12 May 2017. Catalogue PDF.

• Paper Struggles / Public Library and the Property Form, exhibition and seminar, Raven Row, London, 9-11 Dec 2019. Organised by Post Office (Centre for Postdigital Cultures at Coventry University). Conceived by Marcell Mars and Tomislav Medak, following the invitation of Kaja Marczewska. Photos. FB event. [7] [8] [9]

• Paper Struggles; Public Library / Borbe s papirom; Javna knjižnica, exhibition, Gallery Nova, Zagreb, 16-24 Oct 2020. Organised by Marcell Mars and Tomislav Medak. Photos.

Links

• Website
• Library
• Twitter
• Kenneth Goldsmith, "Memory of the World / Public Library", in Goldsmith, Duchamp Is My Lawyer: The Polemics, Pragmatics, and Poetics of UbuWeb, New York: Columbia University Press, Jul 2020, pp 116-123.