Self-Reliance Library Overview

Self-Reliance Library at PAFA, Philadelphia - Temporary Services

The Self-Reliance Library is an autonomous reading and creating library. It is a collection of older books and reference materials that Temporary Services has found inspiring while doing our own projects and living our lives, as well as new books we are just starting to spend time with. The Self-Reliance Library contains recently published titles that are still available as well as out of print books that you can find in public libraries or on the secondary market. It includes a few of our own publications as well.

The collection is designed to provoke the reader, encourage a deeper relationship with our shared natural and human environment, solve creative problems, or suggest imaginative directions for a range of creative practices. Most of these books have strong visuals and an accessibly designed approach to sharing knowledge.

The descriptions of these titles were written by Temporary Services except where otherwise quoted from a book’s authors or editors. Copies of the books in this guide are exhibited publicly at exhibitions and events that include the Self-Reliance Library.

The Self-Reliance Library consists of over 80 books about visionary architecture, desperate or wildly imaginative mobility, miniature buildings and nomadic living, self-publishing and design, skill sharing, everyday repair solutions, running a music venue, spaces for parenthood, toys and design for children, ecologically sound living, foraging, blueprints for fantasy worlds and alternate realities, pranks and mischief, technologies used in prisons and other restrictive or impoverished settings, survivalism, weapons for self-defense or recreation, and creative approaches to living radically.

We present the books from the Library with banners we have made from plastic bags, furniture we have made specifically for the library, and items we have made that were inspired by the books.