Minimal charter of the AnarBib network

Preamble

This charter is the common ground, and only the common ground, that makes possible the cooperation between anarchist militant libraries using AnarBib. It imposes neither a political line, nor a unique format, nor a central authority. It states what we hold as non-negotiable to remain a network, and leaves intact what belongs to the autonomy of each library.

Any library that joins AnarBib recognises this text. Any library may leave the network at any time, without justification, and keep its data.

Article 1 — On the spirit of the project

The AnarBib network recognises itself in the anarchist tradition, in its practices of self-management, mutual aid, and horizontality. It refuses institutional hierarchies, market relations, and any form of surveillance of readers.

This does not mean that all libraries of the network think the same thing. It means that they share these practices as a minimal framework of common work.

Article 2 — On local sovereignty

Each library of the network is fully sovereign over:

• its documentary collection and its acquisition choices;
• its internal rules (loan durations, welcome arrangements, etc.);
• its team, its organisation, its decision-making;
• its readers and the management of their data.

No other library, no network coordinator, no software maintainer can impose an internal choice on a member library.

Article 3 — On cooperation

To join the network is to accept to cooperate minimally. Concretely:

• share the bibliographic records produced locally, so that other libraries can reuse them;
• respond, as far as possible, to inter-library loan requests from other members;
• signal the difficulties encountered, the bugs, and the needs for evolution.

Cooperation is an orientation, not a contractual obligation. No one is penalised for not cooperating enough.

Article 4 — On readers' data

No library of the network may:

• sell, rent, or share for commercial purposes the data of its readers;
• transmit this data to a third party that is not another library of the network, and only within the strict framework of a loan or documentary exchange;
• retain data longer than necessary for the concrete management of the library.

Readers may, at any time, request the consultation, correction, or deletion of their data.

Article 5 — On gratuity

The use of AnarBib is gratis. No library, no maintainer, no group can condition access to the software on payment, subscription, or mandatory contribution.

Libraries may, if they wish, support the project financially through free donations. The project remains usable and functionally complete without any financial contribution.

Article 6 — On free software

The AnarBib source code is published under free licence. This means that:

• any person can read it, modify it, redistribute it;
• redistributed modifications must remain free;
• no functionality can be reserved for a "professional" or "paying" version.

Local modifications by a library remain its own; only public redistribution requires the return to free.

Article 7 — On languages

The AnarBib interface is multilingual. The reference language of the project is Brazilian Portuguese, in recognition of the library that carried the initiative. The other languages are also maintained. Any member library may request the addition of a language; the translation work is shared.

Article 8 — On entering and leaving the network

To enter the network, a library transmits a request to join, signs the present charter, and is welcomed by the other libraries of the network. The decision of admission belongs to the libraries already members, by consensus.

To leave the network, no procedure is required. The leaving library keeps its data, its instance, its tool. It only loses the technical links with the other libraries (exchanges, cross-imports, inter-library loans).

Article 9 — On the evolution of this charter

This charter is a living text. It evolves through discussion among member libraries, according to the practices of the network (consensus, horizontal decision-making). Any modification is versioned and public. No retroactive modification can disengage a member library without it having been able to debate it.

Article 10 — On what is not in this charter

Everything that is not explicitly in this charter belongs to local autonomy, network discussion, or practice. This charter is intentionally short. It does not claim to govern the entirety of possible situations. It sets the minimal framework that makes cooperation possible, and nothing more.