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2025-06-03T14:47:36Z

Split history section.

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{{Short description|Defunct anarchist internet archive (1992–2002)}}
{{Infobox website
|name = Spunk Library
|logo = Spunk Library logo.png
|logo_size = 250px
|screenshot =
|caption =
|url = http://www.spunk.org/
|commercial =
|type = [[Archive]]
|language =
|registration =
|owner = Spunk Collective
|author = Ian Heavens, [[Chuck Munson]]
|launch_date = 1992
|current_status =
|revenue =
}}
The '''Spunk Library''' (also known as '''Spunk Press''') was an [[anarchism|anarchist]] Internet archive. The name "spunk" was chosen for the term's meaning in [[Swedish language|Swedish]] ("anything we want it to mean"), [[American English]] ("courage or spirit"), and [[Australian English|Australian]] ("an attractive person"), summarized by the website as "nondescript, energetic, courageous and attractive".<ref>
{{cite web
|url=http://www.spunk.org/name.html
|title=Spunk Library - the name
|publisher=www.spunk.org
|access-date=2008-04-25
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071117220147/http://www.spunk.org/name.html  |archive-date = 2007-11-17}}
</ref>

==History==
According to anarchist [[librarian]] [[Chuck Munson]], the library was begun as Spunk Press in 1992.<ref name=alas>"[http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=2008spain-interviews-chuck Alasbarricadas interviews Infoshop founder, Chuck Munson] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080223164754/http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=2008spain-interviews-chuck |date=2008-02-23 }}", Infoshop.org, 2008-02-20.</ref> The founding contributors – Ian Heavens, Jack Jansen, Andrew Flood, Iain McKay and ''[[Practical Anarchy]]'' editors Munson and Mikael Cardell – originally met via an online [[Internet forum|forum]], namely Jansen's Anarchy Discussion [[Electronic mailing list|email list]]. The Library was run by an editorial collective during the 1990s.<ref>
{{cite web
|url=http://www.spunk.org/manifest.html
|title=Spunk Library - Manifesto
|publisher=www.spunk.org
|access-date=2008-04-25
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071118011354/http://www.spunk.org/manifest.html  |archive-date = 2007-11-18}}
</ref> It was not intended to replace print [[publishing]], but rather served a [[shop window]] promoting anarchist book publishers, newspapers and journals.<ref name=am>{{cite book |last=Atton |first=Chris |title=Alternative Media |url=https://archive.org/details/alternativemedia0000atto |url-access=registration |publisher=Sage |location=Thousand Oaks |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-7619-6771-2 }}</ref>

By 1995, it was already the largest anarchist archive of published material catalogued on computer networks, though it faced a media assault accusing it of collaborating with [[terrorists]] such as the [[Red Army Faction]], of providing instructions for [[bomb|bomb-]]making and of coordinating the “disruption of schools, looting of shops and attacks on multinational firms.”<ref>
{{cite journal
|url=http://www.greenleft.org.au/1995/190/11856
|title='Netwars': Politics and the Internet
|journal=Green Left
|access-date=2008-04-25
|date=1995-06-07
|last=Wehling
|first=Jason
}}
</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Owens |first=Lynn |author2=L. Kendall Palmer |date=December 2003 |title=Making the News: Anarchist Counter-Public Relations on the World Wide Web |journal=Critical Studies in Media Communication |volume=20 |issue=4 |pages=335–361 |doi=10.1080/0739318032000142007 |citeseerx=10.1.1.530.1176 |s2cid=7783718 }}</ref> The Library remained largely inactive during the first decade of the 2000's, with the [[home page]] last being updated in March 2002.<ref>
{{cite web
|url=http://www.spunk.org/index.html
|title=Most recent Internet Archive snapshot of Spunk Library, 2008-05-02
|publisher=www.spunk.org
|access-date=2010-07-09
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080502142724/http://www.spunk.org/index.html |archive-date = 2008-05-02}}
</ref>

The ''Rough Guide to the Internet'' described the Library as being "organized neatly and with reassuring authority".<ref name=am/> [[Chris Atton]], writing in ''Alternative Media'' (2002) hailed the site as an "advertisement for socially responsible anarchism with a significant [[intellectual]] [[wiktionary:pedigree|pedigree]]", remarking that "[i]n a world where anarchism is still largely derided or maligned by the mass media, that is an important function" and drawing a comparison to [[Infoshop.org]].<ref name=am/>

==See also==
* [[Alternative Media Project]]
*[[Libcom.org]], an online space that acts in part as a library and archive predominantly in english.
*[[Anarchy Archives]], an online research center on the history and theory of anarchism founded in 1995
*[[List of anarchist periodicals]]

== References ==
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
*[http://www.spunk.org/manifest.html Spunk library manifesto]

{{Anarchism}}

[[Category:Anarchist websites]]
[[Category:Internet properties established in 1992]]
[[Category:Online archives]]

Spunk Library - Revision history

imported>Grnrchst: Split history section.