Also the weekend I fell in love with Milwaukee!

The Library Newsroom Project got some Japanese press! It was so cool to sit down with these folks and chat about libraries and newsrooms and how they are the same and different in our respective countries.

"In a sequel to her influential 'Library as Infrastructure', contributing writer Shannon Mattern delves into the organizing force of libraries at a time when public knowledge is under attack." placesjournal.org/article/extr... @shannonmattern.bsky.social

Library newsroom? I like it.

"As this model shows its limits, 2026 will push us back toward the physical and tangible in the spaces we work, the ways we engage, and the products we create." www.niemanlab.org/2025/12/jour... by @terryparrisjr.bsky.social

This is my preferred future.

Part 2 of my Library Newsroom series is out. It starts in 2019, when I launched the Open Newsroom in Brooklyn libraries and tried a simple idea: put journalism where trust already lives. Libraries. I wrote about what we did and how it changed me.

"The library is not meant to be a node in the just-in-time-economy that puts a rights-restricted copy of 'Abundance' in our AirPods. It’s meant to be an accessible portal to our government, the place we go to access shared knowledge and to make meaning with others." — @shannonmattern.bsky.social

Part 2 of my Library Newsroom series is out. It starts in 2019, when I launched the Open Newsroom in Brooklyn libraries and tried a simple idea: put journalism where trust already lives. Libraries. I wrote about what we did and how it changed me.

Stories from our blocks & hallways don’t always meet an editor’s definition of news. Yet information still moves through stoops, bakeries, bodegas, parks, church basements. We turn those exchanges into a shared public record, a place where neighbors make sense of things together

Newsrooms in public libraries. I LOVE IT. 📚

"There is no Substack or interactive website... We want people to hold it, touch it + seek it out... That physicality gives the work its value, adding presence to information, relationships + the neighborhood itself. This is active engagement with your neighborhood + your neighbors."

My @jskstanford.bsky.social year at Stanford centers on one question: What grows when you build a community newsroom inside a public library? I've been testing it in Brooklyn neighborhood. It's works. We can do this in the 16,000+ library buildings in the U.S. Seriously. medium.com/jsk-class-of...

Each month, we meet in person and make something you can hold. It is printed and shared. It is slow by design. The main complaint is: “I can’t find the Sunset Park Sun.” I tell people to go to the library and ask for it. Walk the neighborhood; it's there. Finding it is, in a way, finding each other

A promising approach!

this is the way.

i love this idea so much

I love this idea so much

What if we thought of journalism as community service? @terryparrisjr.bsky.social is doing exactly that with his project to set up journalism practices in local libraries. This is exactly the experimentation we need to increase civic information and public accountability.

My @jskstanford.bsky.social year at Stanford centers on one question: What grows when you build a community newsroom inside a public library? I've been testing it in Brooklyn neighborhood. It's works. We can do this in the 16,000+ library buildings in the U.S. Seriously. medium.com/jsk-class-of...

As a librarian working in a newsroom, this is super cool!

Love the Library Newsroom Project by my old partner in journalism crime @terryparrisjr.bsky.social www.librarynewsroom.com This is the way.

Libraries are the best, and I love projects that get them and more community members involved in reporting and sharing the news that people need most. Proud my students in the engagement journalism program at CUNY helped plant the sees for the Sunset Park Sun!

Exciting to see our work in the lead image!

The anger and despair can feel all-consuming, but I'm hoping that this can be a source of encouragement — a reminder that we can support and defend these local institutions and their broader networks of solidarity

"But we also lend ourselves to the library — committing our attention, our time, our presence at board meetings, our tax dollars and donations — enlarging the commons and participating in the political project of making an informed society." 💕

Honored that the Library Newsroom, and the work we're doing in Sunset Park and beyond, was featured in such an important piece of work. Thank you @shannonmattern.bsky.social!

Here’s a nicely reported piece from Ellie Brown about how public libraries are under growing political and financial threat—especially under the 2nd Trump admin—but remain essential, deeply trusted community institutions. She also highlights the Library Newsroom Project! medium.com/advanced-rep...

"Blanche has no experience working in libraries or archives, according to his public profile. Now he will be running the largest one in the world." Experience: No record on file www.npr.org/2025/05/12/n...

Gun violence is preventable. Journalists can make a difference. The Survivor Connection is a new service intended to help those reporting on gun violence take a more informed approach by centering the survivor community.

Just finished my MLIS at Pratt (on May 20). I’m officially a librarian now (!). Didn’t expect the Open Newsroom I launched in 2019 would lead here: LIS theory, oral history, youth civic work, neighborhood bulletins—even some urban planning. Grateful for the ideas, approaches & people I met.

Streetsblog's social media team, led by Engagement Editor Emily Lipstein, received the Deadline Club's award for digital video reporting on Thursday night! buff.ly/IG9d2qD

Three things: 1. Excited to spend time thinking about how journalism and libraries can come together in deeper ways (beyond just tabling). 2. IMO this is especially timely, given the threats facing both journalism and libraries. 3. I really need a new headshot. So grateful for this opportunity!

lol. she thinks it's a town lending library?

We had another fun — and productive — evening in Sunset Park! We talked assignments, field guides, design, reporting. We laughed, ate dinner, and planned June’s issue. More to come. Thanks for swinging by, @shannonmattern.bsky.social!

What do these 16 journalists working on some of the biggest issues in media have in common? They’re all part of the 2026 JSK Journalism Fellowship. 👏👏 Please help us welcome them to Stanford! buff.ly/8efUD6V

I'm so grateful and so excited and can't wait to meet everyone! More to come, and more to say about what I’ll be thinking about over the next year. But yes, it will involve libraries, something I’ve been thinking about for the last *five* years. jsk.stanford.edu/news/jsk-nam...

I have this dream of creating a puppet show based on our community district needs assessment reports here in NYC. Maybe this summer in Sunset Park? We need more puppet-forward journalism. shelterforce.org/2025/04/29/a...

Public space matters. In East Harlem, safe and welcoming places like community centers played a role in reducing violence. "Experts say the community centers and resident cooperation are just as crucial in driving down shootings as law enforcement is." gothamist.com/news/how-com...

NEW from PP: This 25-year-old DOGEr fire most of the CFPB -- including its ethics team. And he owns stocks likely to benefit from the agency's demise. www.propublica.org/article/doge... By Jake Pearson

A bit while ago, I found a '70s press release in the La Guardia & Wagner Archives—the official NYCHA archive—announcing winners of a tenant-led newsletter contest. I’ve been researching physical, community-led newsletters ever since. So this was awesome to read: www.bklynlibrary.org/blog/2025/04...

I started reading @jonathanhaidt.bsky.social a few years ago in my teen engagement class at @pratt.edu. Has been required reading since. www.afterbabel.com/p/school-pol...

Noticed a bunch of these ornate gold medallions slapped all over the Oval Office. We found em on Alibaba. “High-density Home Decoration Polyurethane Appliques Ornament PU Foam Veneer Accessories” from seller Guangzhou Homemax Decorative Material Limited. sherwood.news/power/shop-t...

If you want to talk about the journalism pipeline, it starts here. If you want to talk about how journalism can rebuild relationships with community, it starts here too. I’ve been lucky to work with Press Pass NYC on a few things, and I deeply respect the work they do. www.cjr.org/feature-2/st...

Further dismantling of our public institutions.

People are running around looking for compost bags...Some scientists have bought their own soap and cleaning supplies. A snapshot of the chaos at one NOAA lab as contracts for basic services expire. My latest: www.propublica.org/article/noaa...

2025 Deadline Club scholarship apps are open for undergrad & grad J students in the NYC area. Due April 28. Award is $2,500! I'm VP (Student Affairs) for the Deadline Club, NYC’s SPJ chapter, & helping run the program. Help spread the word. DM w/ Qs. Details: www.deadlineclub.org/2025-scholar...

Philadelphia journalists are invited to access this directory of local community experts who feel willing and prepared to share their stories. survivorconnection.org

Lesson 5: Community. The best defense against authoritarianism is solidarity. People who stick together cannot as easily be oppressed. “They want us to be so afraid. The only way to counter fear is with joy,” @keyachatterjee.bsky.social told us.

Interesting. www.newyorker.com/news/the-wee...