Library rises up, puts anarchism info online

The Special Collections Library, which since 1911 systematically has been collecting and cataloging for its Labadie Collection pamphlets regarding or urging anarchism, is making more than 220 of them available and searchable online.

Anarchism materials are available at www.hti.umich.edu/I/labadie. Images courtesy Special Collections Library.

The materials currently digitized are part of a larger collection of items, ranging from books, films, letters and photos to posters, flyers, buttons, audio recordings, newspapers and magazines.

"With increasing interest in research on anarchism at all levels—from scholars to social justice activists—these texts will be accessible to users worldwide, thereby expanding our collective knowledge and understanding about this important, but often misconstrued, element of political philosophy," says Julie Herrada, a senior associate librarian in the Special Collections Library.

Pamphlets were selected for the project by call number order, rather than by level of intellectual or historical significance, in the latest effort by the library to make the material more easily accessible.

Items first were cataloged by local subject heading and call number in 1982 with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Later the pamphlets were added to the online catalog Mirlyn.

"It is our intention to eventually digitize the remainder of the pamphlets as time and resources permit," Herrada says. The pamphlets can be viewed at www.hti.umich.edu/l/labadie.