Defining Your Criteria
Shelter & Security: Construction, tool repair, basic defensive tactics. Start with subjects that directly protect life and health. If you can’t survive the first months, advanced metallurgy or philosophy is moot.
Skill Impact and Transferability: Highly Transferable Skills: Basic Mechanics: Understanding levers, pulleys, gears aids many repairs.
Resource Efficiency: Low Input, High Output: Solar cooking vs. complex biofuel refining: If you have limited materials, pick knowledge that yields big returns with minimal input. Choose subjects that fit your local conditions and resource availability.
Longevity of Usefulness: Perennial Value: Seed saving, soil improvement: Ongoing food supply skills pay dividends year after year.
Basic math, literacy techniques: Foundational intellectual tools endure. Knowledge that remains relevant across changing conditions ranks high.
Tools for Decision-Making
A Simple Scoring System: Assign points based on criteria: Survival Impact (Scale 1-10)
Transferability (1-10) Add scores to rank topics. Focus first on highest-scoring subjects.
Checklists and Flowcharts: Create a flowchart: “If I cannot secure food, read this guide first. If I have stable crops, move to advanced soil chemistry.” Such logic guides your educational journey.
Seasonal and Environmental Factors: If you live in a harsh winter climate, prioritize insulation, fire-making, and winter gardening techniques. In arid zones, emphasize water conservation methods.
Prioritizing Knowledge: Long-Term Evolution of Priorities
As Stability Grows: When you have reliable food and shelter, focus more on knowledge for improving quality of life—cooking variety, low-tech refrigeration, simple medical surgeries.
As Resources Appear: If you find a supply of metal scrap, metallurgy jumps in priority. If solar panels are abundant, focus on electrical engineering next.
Defining Your Library’s Purpose
Before diving into what to collect, consider the purpose of your library. Are you focusing on survival basics —food preservation, medical procedures, shelter construction—or aiming for a broader vision that includes science, engineering, agriculture, history, and culture? Defining your scope prevents your library from becoming an unfocused data dump.
Your library can be physical (books, printouts) or digital (PDFs, offline archives).
Physical: Pros: Tangible, no electricity required, easy reading.
Cons: Heavy, bulky, vulnerable to fire, moisture, pests.
Digital: Pros: Compact, store thousands of documents on a single drive, easily searchable, can be backed up.
Cons: Requires electricity and hardware (laptops, tablets), risk of data corruption or device failure.
Hybrid Approach: Keep a core set of printed, indispensable guides (medical handbook, seed-saving manual) and store less-critical or bulkier knowledge digitally.
Ensuring Comprehension Across Generations
Language Simplification: Use plain language in summaries, minimal jargon. Include a dictionary or glossary that defines technical terms. If multiple languages exist, store guides in the most common language(s) you anticipate surviving.
Visual Guides: Pictograms, diagrams, step-by-step drawings reduce reliance on literacy. A simple illustration of a seed, soil, and watering can conveys gardening basics without words.
Basic Instruction on Interpreting Formats: If you store digital data, include a “How to Open These Files” text and a diagram showing what device parts look like and how to power them. If using symbolic codes or knots (quipu), have a key or legend in a more universal format (pictorial or very simple text).
Make selection criteria visible
Choose a small set of candidate resources and compare their relevance, reliability, accessibility, maintenance burden, and the questions they answer. Record why each was included, deferred, or rejected. A familiar or impressive resource is not automatically the best fit for the community’s needs.
Invite intended users to identify missing subjects and barriers to access. Keep essential practical resources easy to find while preserving room for culture, history, and learning. Review priorities when conditions or users change. Do not confuse urgency with certainty: a highly consequential topic may require stronger evidence and more careful review. Retain the selection record so later curators can understand and revise earlier decisions.