Catalog

A zine that highlights the lives of incarcerated library workers through their own writing and illustrations. Jarrod “Deuce” Williams, Knight, and George Coles-El, Mesro the Human Sun tell stories about their work that illuminate the similarities–and the differences–between information access inside and outside the walls. Visit the Library Futures website to download a PDF of this publication formatted as a zine.

Controlled Chaos is part of the work of the Library Futures Research Network and was made possible by a generous grant from the Richard Lounsbery Foundation.

As local news sources collapse due to corporate consolidation and the ever-changing nature of the media environment, how can access to vital local information survive? Library Futures and News Futures, two organizations dedicated to serving their communities with library and news resources in our increasingly digital future, wanted to figure out how librarians and journalists could work together to ensure the future of digital local news and to make it equitably available to the community it serves.

Library Futures intern Thomas Alexander interviewed eleven librarians and journalists over three months in the spring of 2025 to learn both what they saw as the obstacles to the future of local news and what opportunities partnerships between librarians and journalists could create to preserve and expand the availability of local news in the digital age.

Alexander presents key takeaways and themes that emerged from these interviews, discusses projects that could serve as models for library/newsroom collaboration, and outlines next steps for libraries and journalists interested in working together to serve their communities with local news production, access, and preservation.

Library Futures is the vanguard nonprofit organization uncovering and confronting the fundamental policy issues that threaten libraries in the digital age.

News Futures is a community of journalists, organizers, and civic allies working together in a “do-ocracy” to build a future for news that is service-oriented, participatory, and reparative.

What do our reading choices say about us–not just what we read, but how we do it? In My Consumer Autobiography, A.J. Boston examines that question by interweaving a log of the books he reads over the course of a year with observations about how he reads them–in print or in ebook form, and whether those titles are purchased, borrowed, or licensed.

My Consumer Autobiography is part of the work of the Library Futures Research Network and was made possible by a generous grant from the Richard Lounsbery Foundation.

Amanda Levendowski and Intellectual Property and Information Policy (iPIP) Clinic produced “Know Your Rights: Radical Digital Lending for Libraries.” In an increasingly digital environment that grows increasingly confusing, this zine helps librarians understand the ins and outs and the promises and potential perils of digital collecting and lending in libraries from a legalistic framework. To download the print format of this zine, visit Library Futures website.

Know Your Rights is part of the work of the Library Futures Research Network and was made possible by a generous grant from the Richard Lounsbery Foundation.