Welcome to the Sparrows' Nest Library and Archive

Based in Nottingham (UK), we look after tens of thousands of books, journals, pamphlets, zines, leaflets, posters and other items documenting the anarchist movement in the UK and beyond, as well as local radical history. Browse our catalogue, access digitised records in our free Digital Library and get in touch to arrange a visit.
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This month we a very happy to add a large stash of documents to our Digital Library, notably a heap of issues of Direct Action from the 1980s, then produced by the Direct Action Movement (DAM).

A fellow archivist kindly loaning us an excellent A3 scanner has made it possible to digitise proper newspapers (i.e. stuff larger than A4!). This is something we have dabbled in before, but back then we did not have access to kit that made this practical (we then used a DIY concoction that was way too phaffy to be viable).

As there are so many papers awaiting digitisation, most of which cannot be found anywhere online, getting our own A3 scanner is now very high on our list! Should you be able to assist us with this in any way, please consider a donation.

Please note that as we were playing around with the scanner settings, we accidentally generated huge files. We always try to find a balance between quality and file size, and tend to err on the side of quality (technology continues to develop fast and what crashes a browser today may be unnoticeable in a couple of years). However 100+MB files are a bit excessive, so we did compress large files and are now offering both versions below. Please note that most of the compressed files do not feature OCR. However, now that we (kinda) know what we are doing with the scanner and some new software, future A3 scans should come in reasonable sizes and feature OCR.

This & that…

Anarchist Lancaster Bomber #?? (1993)

Big Flame #01 (1975)

Revolutionary Socialism #02 - The Journal of Big Flame (1978)

Bristol Musicians' Co-Operative: Unpopular Music (1978)

Bristol Musicians' Co-Operative: Unpopular Music's Supplement (1978)

Bristol Musicians' Co-Operative: Co-Operative Music (1979)

Bristol Musicians' Co-Operative: And Music (1980)

The Crisis in the Czechoslovak Communist Party - A discussion between a Czechoslovak Communist, Ken Coates and Chris Farley (1970)

NOLS National Organisation of Labour Students South West Region: Working Women and the Struggle for Socialism

Horner, Arthur: Coal & the Nation - A Square Deal for Miners (1943)

Libertarian Communist/ Libertarian Struggle/ Anarchist Worker

Libertarian Communist #04 (including supplement "Spain 1936") original file / compressed file

Libertarian Communist #05 INCOMPLETE REPRINT original file / compressed file

Libertarian Communist #07 original file / compressed file

Libertarian Communist #?? (including supplement "Russia 1917") original file / compressed file

Libertarian Communist #?? (including supplement "France 1968") original file / compressed file

Libertarian Communist #?? (including supplement "Socialism and Democracy") original file / compressed file

Libertarian Struggle #03 original file / compressed file

Libertarian Struggle #04 original file / compressed file

Libertarian Struggle #05 original file / compressed file

Libertarian Struggle #08 original file / compressed file

Libertarian Struggle #10 original file / compressed file

Libertarian Struggle #11 original file / compressed file

Libertarian Struggle #12 original file / compressed file

Libertarian Struggle #13 original file / compressed file

Libertarian Struggle #23 original file / compressed file

Libertarian Struggle #24 original file / compressed file

Libertarian Struggle #25 original file / compressed file

Libertarian Struggle #26 original file / compressed file

Anarchist Worker #30 (formerly Libertarian Struggle) original file / compressed file

Anarchist Worker #SpecialFeature (formerly Libertarian Struggle) original file / compressed file

Direct Action (published by DAM)

Direct Action (DAM) #19 original file / compressed file

Direct Action (DAM) #20 original file / compressed file

Direct Action (DAM) #22 original file / compressed file

Direct Action (DAM) #23 original file / compressed file

Direct Action (DAM) #26 original file / compressed file

Direct Action (DAM) #27 original file / compressed file

Direct Action (DAM) #28 original file / compressed file

Direct Action (DAM) #29 original file / compressed file

Direct Action (DAM) #32 original file / compressed file

Direct Action (DAM) #33 original file / compressed file

Direct Action (DAM) #35 original file / compressed file

Direct Action (DAM) #36 original file / compressed file

Direct Action (DAM) #39 original file / compressed file

Direct Action (DAM) #40 original file / compressed file

Direct Action (DAM) #41 original file / compressed file

Direct Action (DAM) #42 original file / compressed file

Direct Action (DAM) #43 original file / compressed file

Direct Action (DAM) #44 original file / compressed file

Direct Action (DAM) #45 original file / compressed file

Direct Action (DAM) #49 original file / compressed file

Direct Action (DAM) #50 original file / compressed file

Direct Action (DAM) #51 original file / compressed file

Direct Action (DAM) #54 original file / compressed file

Direct Action (DAM) #56 original file / compressed file

Direct Action (DAM) #58 original file / compressed file

Direct Action (DAM) #60 original file / compressed file

Direct Action (DAM) #62 original file / compressed file

Direct Action (DAM) #62-63 original file / compressed file

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