📚LibStack

🧠Librarians and Library Voices on Substack Shaping the Future of Scholarly Communication

Dec 03, 2024

📅 Cite as:

Coleman, Anita S. (2024-2026). LibStack: Librarians and library voices on Substack shaping the future of scholarly communication. Infophilia, a positive psychology of information, 2 (51).

Brief Version history: First created: December 2. Updated 12/17/24; 02/2025; 02/2026. (Full Details in Notes and Version History below.)

🌟 Introduction

A New Frontier in Scholarly Communication

I was motivated by an ALA Members Connect discussion on alternative forms of media and scholarly communication to start compiling a list of Substacks written by librarians and library faculty. Are there any I’ve missed? If so, please share them with me!

📚 Librarians / Library Voices on Substack

I’ve focused on librarian-specific Substacks and haven’t included writings about books, scholarly communication and publishing, AI in Education, journal publishing, or similar library-related topics.

📝 The List of Library Substacks

My list includes the publication title, author (tagged when possible, and the country), launch date, subscription cost details, and frequency when specified. The arrangement is chronological. If the publication hasn’t been updated in 2025, I note the last posting date. We have a total of 28 Substacks, but not all are active.

2021 - 2023

Infophilia, A Positive Psychology of Information by Anita Coleman. (USA) Launched January 2021, Free and Sept 2023 Paid. $6 monthly or $60 annually or $200 patron per year. Students and anyone who needs it can request complimentary access. Free subscribers get generous previews and occasional full posts. Frequency: Weekly (Saturdays). (Hiatus 2022 with freemium re-launch in 2023).
Chrissie Writes Newsletter by Chrissie Wright. (USA). Launched January 2023. Free. Paid $7 (monthly). Frequency: Monthly for free and Weekly (Fridays) for paid.
Ebla to E-books: The Preservation and Annihilation of Memory by Kathleen McCook. (USA) Launched: March 2021. Free.
The End(s) of Argument. by Mike Caulfield. (USA) Launched May 2021. Free.
Encyclopedia of Music Genres by George Eberhart. (USA). Launched November 2021. Free. Frequency: Last posting date: 21 November 2022. Author note: “The previous entry “Youth Crews,” was the last entry I have in the Encyclopedia of Music Genres. I will undoubtedly come across some new ones and write them up for this Substack newsletter, but they will be infrequent.”
Most Useful Information by Tim Berge. (USA) Launched January 2022. Free. Pledge. paid support requested. Frequency: Monthly.
Heterodoxy in the Stacks by Bridget Wipf and multiple authors. (USA) Launched: March 2022. Free.
Information Wants To Be Free: The Newsletter by Meredith Farkas (USA). Launched: November 2022. Information Wants to be Free blog has been in existence since 2004.
The Mindful Librarian by Katy O. (USA). Launched: January 2023. Free and Paid. Moved to Buttondown in February 2025.
Exploring the Information Ecology by Michael Ridley. Launched: April 2023. Free.
Engaging and Empowering School Librarians by Elizabeth Hutchinson. (UK) Launched: June 2023. Free. Frequency: Weekly.
Pondering Leadership by Lorene Kennard. (USA) Launched: July 2023. Free. Frequency: Weekly. Currently on hold and the author is thinking of picking it up again.
The AI School Librarians Newsletter by Elissa Malespina. (USA) Launched: July 2023. Free. Pledge, paid support, requested.
Library Development Newsletter by Amanda Johnson. (USA). Launched: July 2023. Free. This newsletter is from Library Development at the State Library of North Carolina sharing services and projects for their libraries and communities.
Wordwrangler Writes by Bill Trzeciak. (USA) Launched: November 2023. Free and Paid $ 5 monthly or $60 annually or $100 Founding member per year.
Craft MxLibrarian by Mx. Librarian. (USA). Launched November 2023. Free. Last post: October 2024.

2024

Hybrid Horizons by Carl Iaconna. (USA). Launched: February 2024. Free.
Smart Libraries, Smarter Librarians by Laura. Launched: April 2024. Free. 8 total essays. Seven in 2024. Only one in 2025. None in 2026.
CollaborAItion by Reed Hepler. (USA) Launched: May 2024. Free and Paid get the same: $8 monthly or $80 annual or $240 Founding member per year.
Ask a Librarian by Adrienne. Launched: May 2024. Free. Pledge your support: Yearly $80/year Monthly $8/month; Founding $150/year.
Info Literal by David Lemmons. (USA) Launched: August 2024. Free. Frequency: Biweekly.
Memory Work by Thomas Padilla. (USA) Launched: November 2024. Free and Paid. $8 monthly or $80 annual or $ 90 Founding member per year. Free subscribers get public posts.
The Philosopher’s Study by Christopher Fleming. (USA) Launched: December 2024. Free and Paid: $ 8 monthly or $80 annual or $240 Founding member per year. Free subscribers get occasional full posts.

2025

Intentional Arrangement by Jessica Talisman. (USA). Launched: May 2025. $7.99/ month; $70/year; Founding member $125/year. Free get occasional public posts.
Smarter News Literacy in an AI World by Cathy Collins, Ed.D. (USA). Launched May 2025. Free.
Aaron Tay’s Musings about Librarianship. (Singapore) Launched: June 2025. Free. (Aaron started blogging on Blogger.com in 2009 and moved that archive to Substack).
Cataloger in the Loop by Casey Mullin. (USA) Launched: September 2025. Free.
Card Catalog for Life by Hana Lee Goldin, MLIS. (USA) Launched: December 2025. Free and Paid. Frequency: Weekly.

🔍Search Challenges on Substack

Substack features a staff picks directory, 29 broad browse categories (topics) such as Culture, Education, Technology, U.S. Politics, Health Politics, Humor, Art and Illustrations etc. and a keywords search for posts, publications, and authors. For example, you can use search terms like "libraries" “information literacy” using the basic Substack search. However, since library-related topics often overlap with other terms and categories, the results can sometimes feel overwhelming—or, as those familiar with information retrieval would put it, lacking in precision and relevance. Additionally, traditional library search techniques, such as Boolean operators or controlled vocabulary, don't appear to apply here, as the platform is optimized for SEO-based retrieval. Given that Substack is designed to simplify online writing for newcomers, enabling more people to access alternative forms of media and reach larger audiences, it's understandable that its search functions are relatively basic (more on all this later). They also reflect the broader trend of adapting to the ever evolving and globally interconnected information ecosystems of the Internet/WWW.

Substack has been adding and expanding these Topics and over a hundred categories are expected to be added soon.

💡 Why This Curated List Matters

I was genuinely shocked when I saw some librarians dismissing Substack (on ALA Connect) not understanding how it differs from Twitter or why it matters for our field. Writing, after all, is deeply connected to reading—and Substack offers a powerful ad-free platform for librarians to engage, reflect, collaborate, and share in ways that traditional outlets don’t. Take, for example, the librarian with disabilities who is using Substack to write fiction—this is exactly the kind of diverse, creative expression that Substack fosters. Or the retired associate editor of American Libraries who created the equivalent of a print encyclopedia.

Is Substack perfect? No. But as of now it’s an ad-free platform that currently boasts over 4 million paid subscriptions—and if we as part of the educated middle class, want to shape the Creator Economy, Purpose Economy, and Passion Economy—empowering human potential and equipping our global knowledge societies and digital cultures with the kind of values we hold dear, such as intellectual freedom—we must tap into the promises it holds and stave off the perils!

Substack is more known for its politics (news), technology, and literary writings, but the platform also offers librarians a unique space to claim their niche and make their information technology and information sciences expertise and relevance more visible in public intellectual spaces in these times of disinformation. More than any other professional group, librarians are vested in literacy, from reading literacy and writing literacy to information literacy. Information literacy includes AI literacy, Antiracism Information Literacy, Digital Literacy / Citizenship, Media literacy, News Literacy, and is growing as a discipline. Furthermore, with new features like Substack Notes (it’s their social media), which offer a more interactive, casual way to share quick thoughts and engage with a community, Substack is becoming a richer space for connection and impact. This curated list is here to help librarians support and encourage each other, while also offering a focused, manageable way to tap into this exciting frontier of authentic and scholarly communication, creativity, personal storytelling, and public scholarship.

Substack democratizes the patronage models of the Tamil Sanghams (legendary assemblies of Tamil poets and scholars in Madurai, South India) and the more familiar European Renaissance literary salons, and access to knowledge. Curious? Check out the short history I’ve shared on my About Infophilia page (towards the end in the Alternative Forms of Scholarly Communication section).

🚀 Moving Forward: A Call to Build the Directory

Here's to building a vibrant Substack directory of library voices. Thank you for your contributions and support.

Notes (changes made)

February 7, 2026

Updated and added new substacks by Amanda Johnson, Mike Caulfield, Cathy Collins, Katy O, Laura, Chrissie Wright, Mx Librarian, and Meredith Farkas. Some school librarians were ahead of public and academic librarians in their embrace of Substack. I will write more about all this as promised. In the meantime, I highlight two essays by Kelly Jensen about Substack. The first is her review of Substacks to which I’m indebted for my school library insights and additions of Chrissie school librarian, Mx Librarian children’s librarian, and the Mindful Librarian all of which I missed adding in 2025. The reasons Kelly left the platform are worth a read too and so that’s the second reference: 1) Jensen, K. (2024, September 16). Improve your social media life. School Library Journal. https://www.slj.com/story/improve-your-social-media-life-substack-librarians-libraries 2) Jensen, K. (2025, January 31). Well sourced has moved. Well Sourced. https://wellsourced.substack.com/p/well-sourced-has-moved

January 25 and 29, 2026

I added 4 new Substacks; only two of them, however, were launched on Substack in 2025 (Goldin and Tay). In February 2025, one substack moved to Buttondown: Well Sourced by kelly jensen. (USA) Launched: June / July 2023. Free and Paid $7 monthly or $80 annually or $150 founding member per year. Moved to Buttondown in Feb. 2025. Added Jessica Talisman, Intentional Arrangement who saw 01/25 post and reached out.

January 18, 2025

Title change: We’re now listed in Rebecca Wisent’s Substack Directory of Directories and when I saw her most recent list with CollabStack, NeuroStack, etc, I want to brand us as LibStack. As a LibStacker there’s a sense of light-hearted creative play which I feel overall reflects the range of our writings from casual and creative to scholarly and thought-provoking. I also considered InfoStack and InfoSciStack but preferred LibStack. So a title change is coming unless I hear different from you all:

LibStack: A Directory of Librarians / Library Voices on Substack.

Librarians, LIS faculty, students, library workers are all covered here.

Dec. 17, 2024

When I shared this work on the ALA Members list, Kathleen McCook pointed out that what I am doing here is related to two movements she experienced as a young librarian — the underground press and alternative free press — and recommended a reading. That reading solidified, for me, the connections of Substack to the Fifth Estate. I too encourage reading Laurie Charnigo "Prisoners of Microfilm: Freeing Voices of Dissent in the Underground Newspaper Collection" in Progressive Librarian (2012). Her Fifth Estate Rising section about the underground press in the Vietnam era is a fun read, if nothing else.

Substack, as part of the Fifth Estate (alternative viewpoints and media history that may not align with mainstream society), reflects the rise of independent media that has often emerged around the world, in response to the concentration of power in traditional (legacy media) institutions. Substack continues this tradition. In fact in the 2006 Kurtz v. Phoenix Newspapers case, blogging was recognized as a form of media capable of challenging traditional power structures, much like the underground press fought to provide alternative narratives. Today, platforms like Substack create new spaces for expression, highlighting independent responses to ongoing challenges such as rising inequality, the erosion of trust in institutions, and the influence of the military-industrial-academic complex (MIAC). Whether this revolution will be fair, equitable to writers and readers, and sustainable, remains to be seen.

Dip into a short history of how readers and writers connected —Tamil Sanghams, European literary salons — towards the very end here to understand how they connect. Substack enlarges these to a digital global audience.

Coleman, Anita. (2023, October 20). From Infomorphs to Connectomics: Connectome literacy for citizens and librarians. Infophilia, a positive psychology of information, 1 (6).

Posted first in Notes 11/21/24.

Version History

Feb, 14, 2025 update is a title change for this article whose previous title was “Librarians / Library Voices on Substack: Exploring the frontiers of scholarly communication.”

01/26/2026 update: Added Substacks that had been established in 2024 or earlier but failed to surface in my 2025 searches. These additions are: Ask a Librarian, Smart Libraries and Smarter Librarians, and Hybrid Horizons. In February 2025 Well Sourced from Kelly Jensen moved to Buttondown.

01/29/2026 update: Added 4 substacks

02/07/2026 update: Added 8 substacks, one of which the Mindful Librarian also moved to Buttondown last Feb (2025), updated others.

Infophilia: A Positive Psychology of Information

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