theanarchistlibrary.org is (despite its name) an archive focusing on anarchism, anarchist texts, and texts of interest for anarchists.

Within the scope of our use of the term “anarchism” we have been quite broad, but broad does not mean infinite, and basically shrinks down to a set of ideas against the State and the capital. This immediately rules out the so-called “anarcho-capitalism”, “anarcho-nationalism” and similar crap.

What is so special about this site?

Often, you may find the texts hosted here on other sites that also aim to be digital libraries, and often the texts are taken from them (the source is always listed). But this library provides (together with the on-line version of each text) one or more high quality PDFs in various sizes and file formats, as well as its plain text sources, and an EPUB version for mobile platforms. We actively encourage the DIY printing and the distribution of the texts, so you have the “imposed” version for Letter paper (USA) and A4 (rest of the world): just print double side, fold and clip, and the booklet is ready.

The site provides a way for distributors and friends to change the layout of the PDFs and to create collections of an arbitrary number of texts (1 or more). See the bookbuilder page.

The site also provides an advanced search engine.

All these features come with some responsibility for the people who want to contribute to the library. We ask that uploaders contribute a logical representation of the text, with headings, emphasis, quotation blocks, etc. marked up appropriately. The site provides some tools (inside the web interface) to make this process easy, but some attention and some care is still required. Please be sure to read the manual if you plan to join the project for the mid- to long-term.

I have a text I’d like to see in the library. May I submit it?

Yes, you may! You don’t need an account. Just click Add to Library and read the instructions.

I uploaded something, but you censored me!

When we choose not to publish something, usually we contact the uploader, providing a explanation. Problematic texts are always discussed.

What about my zine?

If you want to publish your zine here, keep in mind that we can’t accept PDFs or raw scans. The texts here are processed to produce various formats, including but not limited to PDF.

Even if inserting images in the text is fully supported, this archive may not be the best solution for graphically heavy texts.

So, if you think your text makes sense only together with its specific layout, the place to publish it is zinelibrary, not the library.

What about my scans?

Texts freshly scanned are welcome, but you have to OCR and format them first. Broken, unreadable texts are rejected. We prefer quality over quantity. Work on your text and make it shine, don’t throw it up as shit on the grass.

Hey, you started without me. Can I join you?

Sure, you can join the crew. We have a mailing list (library@angrylists.com) and a IRC channel.

What about support for other languages?

It’s a reality. There are already projects in: anarhisticka-biblioteka.net, Spanish, French, Dutch, Danish, Russian, Italian, Macedonian, German, Swedish, Polish, Finnish, Turkish.

If you are interested in creating a new language project, please read this documentation first, and then please contact us.

Tell us about your technology.

All the various components use free software and the code is freely available at http://amusewiki.org.

Why don’t you do X

Perhaps because we haven’t got around to it. Perhaps we have other reasons for not doing X. If you want X to happen at the Anarchist Library, feel free to log onto the IRC channel and talk to us about how X will rock our world, and how to make X happen. We are probably open to do it.