Librariness

Free
Available online soon

Next up, we want to tell you about a collection of t-shirts adorned with bright blue and yellow stacks of chevrons, made by the New York based team behind librariness.com.

The icons are cleverly designed so when the chevrons point down they are the outline of a book and invite us to ‘Ask a Librarian’, then they point up as arrows that encourage us to ‘Follow Me to the Library’.

The librariness concept was put together by UNION, an interdisciplinary consortium convened to generate a projected story of rejuvenation for New York public libraries, all 207 branches spread across the city. The libraries’ services are in high demand but fraught with a funding crisis…so UNION crafted fundamental systemic changes that would move libraries from the margins of civic life to its centre.

Libraries are no longer just about books, their vision brings libraries to the core of many social functions, a centre for social services, public safety and education. They envision libraries in partnership with other key institutions such as MoMA and the New Museum as the site for innovative architectural challenges. They foresee Librarians at Large: library staff out in the city bringing knowledge to people out-of-hours and beyond library walls. Be part of UNION’s inspiring vision to bring libraries back to life, wear the t-shirt and help spread the word of circulation, mobility and most of all 'librariness'.