Seed Libraries

Perhaps reflecting the change in seasons, I continue to fascinated with all things plant and library related. The annual TRY Library Staff Conference held yesterday included the poster "Growing Toronto's Seed Library" by Brendan Louis Paul Behrmann, Katie Berger, Jacob Kearey Moreland. As Behrmann, Berger and Moreland explain in their abstract, seed libraries operate by allowing people to "sign out" seeds, which they then return by harvesting the new seeds produced from the plants grown.

The image included at left is from the Main Street Neighbourhood Village Seed Library in Vancouver, and even a quick internet search reveals that there are a growing number of seed library projects across North America. Although at the national level here in Canada there is the not-for-profit Seeds of Diversity, the bulk of seed libraries are local very small scale grassroots entities.  

Behrmann, Berger and Moreland argue for greater inclusion of seed libraries into mainstream library systems. They identify many benefits to seed libraries:

The mission of local seed libraries is to bring seed saving and sharing into the mainstream; to offer an accessible alternative to genetically modified corporate seeds, to encourage exchange of seed saving and history; encourage people to take an active part in producing food, nurture biological and cultural diversity, provide a platform for seed/food/environmental education while building community. They are a novel and innovative tool for spreading food literacy, food democracy, and achieving food sovereignty.

One example of possible collaboration between seed libraries and mainstream libraries is happening in Markham. As of April 20, 2013, the Milliken Mills Branch now hosts Markham Grows Seed Library. This initiative is not only offering seeds for borrowing but also a series of workshops. 

For further reading on seed libraries, I recommend: Share Seeds to Save Seeds: The seed library movement from roots to bloom, originally published in Heirloom Gardener Magazine Fall 2012.

Cataloguing Flash-Mobs and Garden Tool Libraries

There are some really exciting projects underway at the Weston Family Library at the Toronto Botanical Garden (TBG).

This weekend the library is hosting a cataloging "flash mob" to add records to their new online library catalogue. Zach Osbourne, the TBG librarian explained in a recent post (which also includes the great photo included here on the left) for the TBG library blog, “News from the Stacks” that the inspiration for the project came from an initiative at The Center for Cartoon Studies' Shulz Library in 2011. Unlike the Schulz Library flash mob, which focused on adding new barcodes to the entire collection, the TBG cataloguing project requires the expertise of library technicians and librarians.

The TBG Library is also in the early stages of developing a garden tool collection. As Osbourne explains in the same blog post:

The Library would make available a wide range of garden tools for loan to TBG members. Each garden tool will also include directions for use, cleaning instructions, and proper storing tips. Garden tools will be stored and on display in the library for members to browse and see, but they will also have individual catalogue records in the new catalogue system (so that they can be retrieved, indexed, and be included in search results).

 The recent emergence of the Parkdale Tool Library (which I wrote about here and here) and the proposed TBG garden tool library suggests that tool libraries are the major trend in small volunteer grassroots community/cultural based libraries for 2013.

Illegal Locker Library

The image below is a screenshot from a discussion in the Yahoo! Answers forum. Although the discussion is five years old, the screenshot of the discussion is currently circulating on tumblr via The Phoenix's Nest. The popularity of the post reflects that the concept of an "illegal library locker" has strong cultural cache. 

Stichwort's Object of the Month

Below is a board game created in 1975 by the Danish group Femø, which has organized women-only summer retreats for forty-one years. The game is the first "Object of the Month" to be featured on the Stichwort website. Founded in 1983, Stichwort is an archives of "women's and lesbians' movement" in Vienna, Austria. The term "stichwort" translates to "keyword" and reflects the archives' mandate to "illuminate the diversity of feminist concepts and actions." 

Tool Library Update

The Toronto Tool Library, which I wrote about in an earlier blog post, has officially opened! BlogTO's Sarah Ratchford wrote a great story about the Tool Library that includes some pretty incredible photographs (including the one below). I am guessing that the letter/number combination written on the bills of those hardhats are their call numbers (how cute)!