#fictional archives

Submit your favourite library/ies and archive/s here!

Submissions are open until 11:00am GMT on 2nd December (so you have just over three weeks to get them in).

Rules:

You can submit as many as you like.

Any library with over 3 entries will go through automatically. Anything with less may have to go through preliminaries, depending on how many entries there are in total.

I especially encourage propaganda! Please give me propaganda! But positive stuff, please. Lift your entry up, don't put down the others.

I will try my best to seed the libraries by number of entries. I've never run a tournament before, so we'll see how well that part goes.

Timeline:

Submissions: 10/11-02/12

Polls open: 03/12 (hopefully - if there's not enough submissions I'll extend that part)

I'm planning to do two polls a day for the first round, and have them last a day. And then we'll see.

Restrictions:

You can submit any library or archive that's fictional! Including things that aren't traditional libraries or archives but are counted as such in the media (can't think of any rn but I'm sure there are some. Star Trek comes to mind maybe? Honestly I'm half asleep rn)

Not librarians. If this goes well I'll do a tournament for them later

Published media, not OCs (can be webcomics, a book you've published, etc, but not 'just' like a fanfiction or OCs you've only written about on here. They're less likely to stand a chance anyway, tbh)

LOCATION: Undisclosed Containment Interview Room – Facility G-11, Sub-Level 3 SUBJECT: Agent [REDACTED] INTERVIEWER: Internal Affairs, Delta Green Division (VELUM) DATE: October 17th TIME: 04:38 AM

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

Agent sits slouched. Shadows under his eyes. He stares at the flickering light in the ceiling like it’s blinking in Morse code. Then he speaks.

AGENT: Forget the Monocle Man. That was the opening act. That was the warm-up.

You want to know how deep it goes?

Let me ask you something simple. What color is Chartreuse?

Because I swear—when I was a kid, it was red. Like crimson. I remember my aunt’s dress. She called it her “Chartreuse silk.” But now? Chartreuse is neon green. Always was.

Except… not for me. And not for a lot of people.

And it’s not just color.

“Mirror, mirror on the wall”? Never existed. It’s “Magic mirror.” Check the film.

“Luke, I am your father”? Wrong. It’s “No, I am your father.”

Pikachu never had a black-tipped tail.

C-3PO had a silver leg.

Curious George? Never had a tail.

People laugh it off. Mandela Effect. Shared memory glitch. But what if I told you… it’s not a glitch? What if it’s the point?

In 2018, we found a basement in Chicago. Old VHS rental shop. Sign still read “Be Kind, Rewind.”

In the back, behind a false wall, were shelves of alternate edits. Movies just slightly… off. E.T. never says “Phone home.” The Flintstones had two Ts. Then one. Then two again. A journal on the desk labeled: “Test Patterns. Cultural Anchors. Control Points.”

And scribbled in the margins — a glyph. The same one as before. A spiral. Three cuts.

We found it again last week — etched in the condensation of a grocery store freezer. Barely there. Like it was sweating through time.

But here’s the thing:

Every time we find one of these anomalies... they vanish the moment we try to document them.

The records blur. The videos glitch. And people start arguing online: "It was always that way." "You just remember wrong." "Stop being weird."

They weaponize consensus. And once everyone agrees… the past is gone.

INTERVIEWER (VELUM): You're claiming memory has been deliberately altered?

AGENT: No. I’m saying memory is the battleground.

You shift enough small things—logos, quotes, children’s books— you soften the edges of what people know.

And then?

Then you change the big stuff.

INTERVIEWER: Such as?

AGENT: History. Maps. Entire wars.

And someday... maybe even you.

Because here’s the question I want you to ask:

If I said, “Febreze always had two Es,” would you check the bottle?

Or would you just believe me?

END TRANSCRIPT

DISCLAIMER: This file is part of an interactive narrative experience. It contains fictional elements, presented for storytelling and entertainment. Any resemblance to real persons, places, brands, or experiences is purely coincidental. Seriously. It’s just a game.

I expected Coco to be a very charming and beautiful film that I would really enjoy, and it was!

What I didn’t expect is that it would be a meditation on the importance of record-keeping, ethical archives, and proper attribution.  But it was, that, too!  And it was that in a really careful and aware way that surprised me a little. 

(Keep in mind that I am a mere librarian and certainly not an expert on archives in any way, so there’s probably a lot more to be said about this from an expert point of view.)

But let’s think about this for a moment. The central injustice in the film that must be corrected isn’t the conflict between Miguel and his family (they work it out).  Instead, it’s a crisis of misattribution. Hector is a genius songwriter, but his work has been inaccurately attributed to Ernesto de la Cruz. Interestingly, De la Cruz has also murdered him, which was obviously a bad thing to do, but the crisis that we face in the film stems much more directly from the plagiarism than it does from the murder.  Because his work has been stolen by someone else, Hector has been forgotten, abandoned.  The film sets up a mythology that makes it clear that being forgotten after death is itself a kind of death (the ultimate death, really), which means that when de la Cruz takes his work in that way, and uses it to make himself rich in the afterlife... that is, itself, almost a second murder.  

A brilliant colleague of mine once said: “Information has value because people have value.” Remembering Hector for his work is important, because Hector is important. 

But there’s more to it than that.  The film makes a distinction between public memory and private memory.  Tributes from fans are nice to have, but what really matters -- the thing that lets spirits visit the living -- is the family ofrenda.  A major part of Miguel’s journey in the film is to realize why the ofrenda is important and what it means to be part of a family that is committed to remembering the dead.  But what is remembered is also really, really important.  Hector makes this distinction between his songs “for the world” and the song “Remember Me,” the one that became so famous, which he had really written for Coco alone.  And looking back after all the plot twists have been revealed, it becomes very clear why he doesn’t want Miguel to play it for the crowd and why he winces at its popularity.  It’s an intimate family memory that’s been made public and stripped of the personal meaning it has for him.  It’s not just (at least from an audience perspective!) that it’s emblematic of the tension for him between “playing for the world” and staying close to his family. It’s the perfect encapsulation of the way that information (works of art, documents of all kinds) change their meanings in different contexts, and the importance of intimate documents in that intimate context versus in public.

WHICH IS WHY the ending of the movie was so moving for me. Coco has everything she needs to create the necessary archive that will commemorate her father’s work, and with the help of her family, she does -- but she creates it  right there in the village, where Hector’s family lived, not away in some big city university or more official archive. Although his music is internationally famous, the people who really need to remember him are those who are intimately connected to him, and whose memories of him have been distorted and have faded. (Imelda is an interesting figure in this respect. (I love her though))  And what we’re left with, aside from that beautiful wall of letters and song lyrics, is the recognition that records must be preserved within the community in which they originated. Indeed, I’d argue that the film is an argument that the people connected to someone are those who are best equipped to organize, present, and interpret their records. 

(I do wonder whether they consulted a professional archivist about preservation techniques, though.  Those papers are pretty old! I wouldn’t want them to fall apart!)

Propaganda:

Sazed's Copperminds, Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson:

Copper bracers called copperminds that contain many, many forbidden books. They are accessible only to Sazed, a scholar specialising in religion and also a member of the Skaa rebellion.

‼️MAJOR SPOILERS‼️

At the end of the trilogy, the world is literally about the end, and Sazed becomes a god and uses the knowledge in his copperminds to fix/remake the world.

ART's archives, The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells:

"My onboard archives are extensive. Why haven't you sought access to them?" Of course a research vessel would brag about its research library. Why wouldn't it?

Sunai, The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Cando:

He contains a living AI god referred to as an Archive. He is a relic who can interface with other archives and falls in love with a cute boy when he normally runs away from all attempts at intimacy and keeps being like oh? I...like him?

Merlin's Library, The Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne:

None

The Scholomance Library, A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik:

The library inside the Scholomance is so cool. It’s open to a void above, and is the safest place inside the entire school. The sections are mostly in the same place every time. But the shelves can stretch out and fill up with more books

The Thunderhead, Arc of a Scythe by Neal Shusterman:

Propaganda:

Downing Hill Public Library, Hello from the Hallowoods by William A Wellman:

It’s the largest collection of secret and occult texts on the planet and also a school teaching those of covenant blood (aka their ancestors made a pact with Indescribable gods) to become witches. Their motivations are shady and unknown, but they seem to believe all forbidden books should be under their control and have no qualms about working with some very evil individuals to gain those books. You can check out a spell book of dark magic pretty easily but if you don’t bring it back in time, they will send a horrible raven-amalgamation called the Omen after you.

Mrs Phelps' library, Matilda by Roald Dahl:

Matilda's safe place

Bag End library, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien:

Not the largest collection, but in possession of THE primary sources regarding the Fellowship of the Ring and the adventure to the Lonely Mountain, as well as several other historical texts and translations that may otherwise have been lost to time without the care and keeping of Bilbo, Frodo, and Sam.

The Black Archives, Doctor Who:

Contains so much alien stuff! And you have to have your memory wiped after every shift so I imagine it messes you up a bit

SCP-4001 "Alexandria Eternal", SCP Foundation

Its books contain the entire true events of all humans dead and alive, its space loops around on itself, the decoration fits the current times at all times, there are about 120 Billion books!

Propaganda

The Library, Clue/Cluedo:

Easily in the top 10 places to get mysteriously murdered.

Magical Library (aka The Library of Legends), Smile PreCure! (aka Glitter Force):

when I was a kid I used to push my books about on the shelf to try and get it. tree library. I want to live there

The City of Books, Umineko When They Cry:

Each book contains a different world inside of it and is practically endless

The Incorruptible Republic of the Immortal Library of the Grand Architect (aka The Incorruptible Library), Girl Genius:

So it's an autonomous government under Paris, dedicated to protecting and giving access to books, who are willing to lend out any book to anybody. Their collection holds a lot of dangerous/important relics. The librarians are incredibly dedicated to their ideals and will fight to defend them. They are a powerful organisation and opposed to the main antagonist of the comic, who uses mind control ("to read what you want, you have to be free!"). They also have giant cats. The cats are giant and they protect the library and accompany librarians on detached missions. Enough said. Very cool library

Propaganda

Scarlet Hollow Town Hall/Library, Scarlet Hollow:

-has a stupid creepy ass mural depicting the murder the town did to the local coal baron in the 1800's

-literally haunted

-dilf librarian

-dilf librarian's house is a part of the same building

-has a cat

-dogs are allowed

-makes you repent for your family's sins

-the town mayor is a dog and they host him in the library every month on "mayor jimmy day"

The Arcanaeum, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim:

Urag gro-Shub is BAE. And it’s a very pretty library.

The Archive (with the recipe book), Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood:

None

The School Library, Clannad (visual novel):

you meet the sad girl with science autism in there

Kiersau Abbey Library, Pentiment:

You know how libraries these days are places for more than just books? This was one of these 500 years before it was cool. Here you can find old heretical texts, hot nun goss, secret passages, gay sex, delicious symbolism that represents the crumbling of an oppressive religious institution and increased education for the masses... what more could you ask for?

UPDATE: Minecraft Uncensored library has been disqualified for the reason of not being fictional.