Why join the AnarBib network

What you gain

A complete ILS, gratis, no market counterpart. Public catalogue, reader records, loans, returns, reservations, on-site consultations, wishlists, overdues, renewals, labels, statistics, email communications. The tool covers the complete chain of a circulating library. No functionality is withheld in a premium version because there is no premium version.

Cataloguing adapted to militant collections. Classic ILSs cannot properly describe a flyer, a self-published brochure, a zine, a campaign folder, a vanished militant periodical. AnarBib offers specialised fields by type of material and allows cataloguing what other tools treat as "miscellaneous".

Real documentary cooperation. The libraries of the network exchange records: what you catalogue becomes reusable by others, and conversely. You save time on works already described elsewhere. A light inter-library loan is under construction. Imports from libertarian partners (other libraries, publishers, archives) are in opening.

A multilingual interface. Available in Brazilian Portuguese, French, Castilian, English, Italian, German. Your readers choose their language at login. Other languages can be added on request, the translation work being shared in the network.

A preserved technical autonomy. You can choose an instance hosted by the network, or install AnarBib on your own infrastructure. You keep your data, your collection, your rules, your visual identity. If one day you leave the network, you take everything with you.

What you give

A short charter to sign. Ten sober articles that set the minimal framework of cooperation: local sovereignty, refusal of data commodification, gratuity, free code, languages. Readable in five minutes. Read the charter.

An orientation to cooperate. Not an obligation, an orientation. We expect that your records be shareable, that you respond as far as possible to other libraries' requests, that you signal what isn't working. No one penalises you for not contributing enough. But the network only lives if everyone does a little.

Some setup time. Cataloguing an existing collection takes time, whatever the tool. AnarBib makes the task easier (ISBN imports, adapted forms, double interface level simple/complete) but does not do the work for you. Allow a few weeks for the first steps, several months for the retroconversion of an existing collection.

What stays yours

Your collection. Your acquisitions, your weeding, your editorial choices. No one tells you what to put on the shelves.

Your rules. Loan durations, number of reservations, welcome arrangements, restriction conditions. You configure everything locally.

Your readers. Their data stays in your instance. No other library, no network coordinator, no maintainer can access it.

Your visual identity. Colours, fonts, images, welcome message, logo. The theme system allows each library to have its own appearance without touching the code.

Your rhythm. You join when you want. You leave when you want. You contribute only if you can. The network adapts to the real temporalities of a militant library, which are not those of a commercial software project.

What you should not expect

Let's be honest:

AnarBib is not a finished product. The project is in active construction. Some parts are stabilised (public catalogue, reader accounts, dashboard), others in consolidation (advanced cataloguing, imports), others in preparation (inter-library loans, multi-site federation). See the progress.

There is no 24/7 commercial support. There are comrades who maintain the project on their own time, and a network that helps each other out. Critical bug fixes are quick; further evolutions slower.

Full self-hosting is not trivial. If you want to run everything on your own server, you need at least one comrade technically at ease. The instance hosted by the network is the recommended option for most libraries.

How to join

1. Read the charter. Read the charter
2. Choose your formula.
   • Instance hosted by the network — recommended to start. No technical skill required.
   • Autonomous installation — for technically equipped libraries. Step-by-step guide provided.
3. Fill in the joining request. Go to the Join page
4. Present your library to the network, briefly. Already-member libraries welcome by consensus. See the welcoming practices
5. Get started. Configuration, first cataloguing, opening to readers.

Allow on average two to four weeks between the request and the effective opening to the public, depending on your availability and the size of the initial collection.