Bibliomaniac Fantasy: Not a Library for Everyone
—12.09.2026
Limestone Books
Bibliomaniac Fantasy: Not a Library for Everyone is a 1-day hybrid event centered on the theme of alternative libraries, why we create them, and how we handle questions of accessibility. With various participants, we will explore the unique role of semi-public and independent libraries, how we respond to community needs, and try to provide alternative forms of access to knowledge which may be overlooked elsewhere. We warmly invite artists, researchers, and librarians who operate similar spaces to join us in person or online. Through a series of talks, participants will share their experiences with everyone.
This event is part of the Bibliomaniac Fantasy Festival, initiated by Limestone Books in 2024, Maastricht.
Participants:
Common Imprint / Sam Kim (DE)
Common Imprint’s reading room presents over 2000 independent publications from Asia, open by appointment every weekend. It aims to create a shared platform and laboratory for investigating publication-related disciplines from South-East and East Asia. The space will be for anyone who loved books and will host talks, events, workshops, and exhibitions relating to Asian publications in the field of fine art, photography, film, design and architecture.
The Romanian Library in the Netherlands / Maria Dicieanu (NL)
The Romanian Library in the Netherlands comes to the aid of all those who love reading in Romanian, as well as those who wish to stay in touch with their mother tongue through books.
At the end of 2019, in collaboration with the OBA (Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam), ROMPRO, the Romanians for Romanians Foundation, launched the first collection of books in Romanian hosted in a public institution in the Netherlands. The project was called The Romanian Library in the Netherlands (affectionally called “BiebRO” - a mashup of the Dutch “bieb” the familiar form for bibliotheek, and “RO” standing for Romanian).
Aside of the book collection, the project also involves book launches, meetings and workshops with Romanian authors and illustrators, reading sessions for children (online and offline) alongside exhibitions.
Hijra Library / Layla Sakhr (NL)
Hijra is much more than just a library. It’s a community space for us to meet each other, form new friendships and connections, learn new creative skills together, watch movies we’ve been wanting to see!
It’s a platform for us trans and queer people who have had to flee our lands and find new ways to build a life here where we can be ourselves.
Which is why the main intention behind it is to build a community through having books we can discuss together, creative workshops, film screenings, bookclubs, and many more!
This library and its events are for trans and queer: Non-EU immigrants / people living in the diaspora, asylum seekers and refugees!
Heavy Manners Library / Matthew James-Wilson (USA)
Heavy Manners is a lending library, gallery, and bookstore that seeks to provide a space for developing, sharing, and discussing artwork and creative practice.
Because formal art education is increasingly becoming cost prohibitive and inaccessible, Heavy Manners hopes to be an alternative resource. Our collection focuses on self and independently published books, zines, and other media. Additionally, the library works directly with artists and small publishers, to make overlooked, out of print, and hard to find media accessible. After signing up for one of our membership options, members receive a library card and are able to borrow books from the library. Visitors are welcome to browse or scan our collection during our open hours.
In tandem with the mission of the lending library, Heavy Manners also presents events and gallery shows in our exhibit space, theater, and classroom. With these programs, we hope to create opportunities for budding artists to share their work and established artists to experiment with new projects. We prioritize programming that provides educational opportunities for those in the community.
Rumah Attap Library & Collective / Au Sow Yee (MYS)
Founded by Amateur, In Between Cultura and Au Sow Yee in 2017, Rumah Attap Library & Collective is located in a row of restored c.1950s interconnected shophouses in Kampung Attap, Kuala Lumpur. Rumah Attap is both a physical library and an imagined space. On the one hand, it is a space for reading, discussion, publication, workshops and forums. Researchers, artists and the public are also able to exchange books and thoughts related to cultural studies, arts, literature, philosophy and social sciences. On the other, it is an imagined space where ideas and discourses intersect, ferment, spread, converge and mutate. We hope to build an open and critical alternative knowledge system through this library, creating a critical and "living coordinate" generated by public participation. Rumah Attap works towards charting a new intellectual map that connects geography, history, time, society, politics, culture and the arts.