Contributing to the AnarBib project

AnarBib is carried by a small number of comrades. The project will only succeed if more people get involved. Here are the ways one can help, ordered from the most demanding in time to the lightest.

Contributing code

AnarBib is written in JavaScript (React + Vite for the frontend) and SQL + TypeScript (Supabase for the backend). The code is public on Codeberg:

• Application — codeberg.org/anarbib/anarbib
• Site — codeberg.org/anarbib/pages

We don't ask for a particular level. We ask for rigour (clean commits, readable code, tests when relevant) and patience (the project has its own rhythm). The issues labelled "good first contribution" on the repository are open to anyone wanting to start.

If you don't know where to start, write to contato@anarbib.org saying what you can do — we'll point you somewhere.

Contributing translations

The AnarBib interface exists in ten languages (Brazilian Portuguese, French, Castilian, English, Italian, German, Catalan, Esperanto, Dutch and Greek). Not all are at the same level of quality. If you read and write one of these, you can help:

• proofread existing strings to catch misunderstandings and clumsiness;
• translate new strings as the project evolves;
• propose a new language (Basque, Swiss German, Polish, Turkish — all are welcome if someone carries the translation).

Translation files are in JSON, in the repository. If Git scares you, you can also receive a file by email, edit it in any editor, and send it back.

To propose a language or join the translation team: contato@anarbib.org.

Joining the Authorities Workshop

The Authorities Workshop is a collective documentary care project open to comrades who are not affiliated with any member library, but who wish to contribute to libertarian memory. It involves working on the authority records of the network: those precise and stabilised descriptions of persons, collectivities, and concepts to which all the cataloguing records of the AnarBib libraries refer.

No technical skill required. What is asked: attentive reading, sense of the collective, documentary patience. The work consists in creating, enriching, merging, sourcing, translating records — at one's own pace, without commitment, in dialogue with the libraries that use them.

The workshop is open since June 2026. Create a contributor account to access the proposals queue, or read the presentation page to learn more.

The Works Workshop

Since September 2026 the Workshop has a second queue: the works — titles per language, editions to attach, volumes to gather, over a thousand pre-translated titles to review. Same account, same consent. Read the presentation.

Contributing to documentation

The user manual exists but needs to be expanded, illustrated, translated. More generally, anything that helps libraries take hold of the tool is precious:

• tutorials by profile (reader, librarian, coordinator);
• screenshots and short videos;
• FAQ fed by the real questions received;
• autonomous installation guide for technically equipped libraries.

You don't need to be a technician to contribute here — clear writing counts as much as code.

Testing and reporting

If you have a library at home, or frequent a library of the network, you can:

• use AnarBib as a reader and report what doesn't work;
• test new features on the staging instance before they are deployed everywhere;
• describe your use cases, especially those that don't work — they are precious.

Feedback should be sent to the issues on Codeberg, or by email if you prefer.

Supporting politically

The project also lives by its visibility in militant circles. You can:

• talk about it in the spaces where you are (collectives, friendly libraries, bookshops, fanzines, militant media);
• mention it in your group's publications;
• invite a library you know to apply to the network.

No official communication is imposed — share with your own words.

Supporting financially

AnarBib is free software and sells nothing. But it runs on machines that have to be paid for. Here is the bill, as it stands :

• Supabase — database, API, files : about €27 a month ;
• project e-mail — Proton Mail and OVH : about €8 a month ;
• anarbib.org domain : about €1 a month.

Total : about €36 a month, or €430 a year. Figures taken from the actual invoices, updated August 2026.

Right now that money comes out of one person's pocket. That is not sustainable and, more to the point, it is not coherent : a common tool cannot rest on an individual effort. We are not asking for charity — we are proposing to share a cost that is already collective. Twenty people at €2 a month covers the whole thing.

A common fund has been opened with the CCLA (Centro de Cultura Libertária da Amazônia). Two channels are working :

• From Brazil — Pix : key 66.490.773/0001-01, the CCLA's CNPJ. Your banking app shows the association's name before you confirm ;
• Regular support — Liberapay : liberapay.com/AnarBib. Liberapay is a non-profit association, itself free software, and takes no cut whatsoever. On the European side, for want of a local legal structure, the account is for now in an individual's name. The collection itself, however, runs through Stripe, a US company: we say so rather than keep quiet about it. It is the most exposed link in the fund, and the reason we would sooner point you to the bank transfer below.

For a bank transfer in euros, write to contato@anarbib.org : the details are sent individually. They are not published on this page — an ordinary precaution for a militant project.

The accounts are kept in public : AnarBib Fund accounts. The annual report will be added there, and the supporting invoices can be requested at any time at the same address.

You can also support Codeberg directly, which hosts this project and many others (docs.codeberg.org/improving-codeberg/donate), and the libraries in the network, each of which has its own fund and its own needs. No contribution is too small.

One last thing

Contributing to a militant free software project also means accepting slow rhythms, sometimes long discussions, disagreements between comrades. It is not a professional environment; that does not make it a space without rules — here they are discussed rather than imposed. If you arrive with patience and goodwill, you will be well received.

To get in touch: contato@anarbib.org.