Infoshop

Among our various groups we have a fantastic library and a ton of writers. A community-accessible infoshop is a natural fit for the south side of the library (the three small rooms parallel to sudo room). Beyond a well-organized library, solicitation of zines from Oakland and beyond, and comfy chairs for reading, the Omni Infoshop/ZineLab could include a participatory twist with the following features:

• a printing and documentation station for zine-making (ZineLab),
• a public terminal for adding to OaklandWiki and designing layouts,
• a bookscanner for digitizing and preserving publications.
• a table with art supplies for analog and collaborative sketching and brainstorming.

Tasks

If this idea manifests, these are some of the tasks that would need to be completed in order to begin operations:

• decide where printing station should go and what equipment we need,
• organize existing library in appropriate categories (research how other infoshops organize their library shelves),
• solicit donations of awesome zines,
• set up public terminal inset in one of the shelves or against the slice of wallspace as you walk in,
• solicit donation or raise funds for a bookscanner,
• volunteer scheduling system so we can keep the ZineLab open at all times,
• set up classes for training on how to use the equipment to make books and zines,
• set up a Gittip for weekly donations to fund maintenance of the bookscanner, zine-making materials, and all extra toward the Omni (dynamic rent).