What are the opening hours?

Monday 11am - 8pm Tuesday 11am - 8pm Wednesday 11am - 8pm Thursday 11am - 8pm Friday 11am - 8pm Saturday 11am - 5pm Sunday 11am - 5pm

Durland Alternatives Library

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United States
Ithaca, NY
Durland Alternatives Library

Resources for social change since 1974. A project of the Center for Transformative Action. Also the home of Prisoner Express!

The Alternatives Library is a small community non-profit library that serves the Ithaca, Cornell, and Tompkins County communities. We work to provide literary resources and library services to these communities, with a particular focus on alternative, educational, and liberatory viewpoints, with an overall mission to provide resources for social change. Here at the library, we work towards providing the community access to resources for liberatory work.

01/29/2026

Hot off the press: “Abolish I.C.E.: Resources for Solidarity and Abolition.” Thanks to Rad Rabbit Distro and Baedger Oaks for sharing this zine with our community! 🖤

01/27/2026

Staff Pick: Don’t Talk About Politics: How to Change 21st-Century Minds, by Sarah Stein Lubrano (Bloomsbury, 2025)

“In a world where politics keeps getting more irrational, dishonest, violent and chaotic, it’s getting much harder to reach people with words alone. So people who really care about democracy must ask: how can we stop arguing and do the deep work to build stronger foundations for political life, and a better world for us all?”

Recommended for anyone who is angry, frustrated, and confused about why the world isn’t making sense right now, Lubrano offers a jumping off point for how to move forward in our everyday lives. As one example, a strong takeaway I had was that we need to really actively use, treasure, and defend our public libraries (as social infrastructure) to prevent the unthinkable from happening.

Thanks to our board member Peter for donating this to our collection!

- Jen (Library Operations Coordinator)

Chapter 1: Don’t Enter the ‘Market’ for Ideas
Chapter 2: Don’t Debate It
Chapter 3: Act First, Think Later
Chapter 4: Think with Your Friends
Chapter 5: Take Back Twitter (and Other Infrastructure)
Chapter 6: Fight Social Atrophy
Chapter 7: Loving and Leaving the Liberal Ideal (or, To My Fellow Lovers of Ideas)

📚 Read it for free by borrowing it from your local library 💕 or ask your favorite independent bookstore if they have or can get a copy for you. You can also buy online through Bookshop.org and select your indie bookstore to benefit from the purchase. 📚 Autumn Leaves Used Books Buffalo Street Books Odyssey Bookstore Protagonist Books & Coffee

10/29/2025

Join Durland Alternatives Library & Prisoner Express for a showing of Smoke Signals & a session of Prisoner Express volunteering. First-time volunteers welcome!

Registration requested but not required: https://luma.com/1hmggd6e

Movie runtime is 1 hour 29 minutes. Screenplay by Sherman Alexie, based on Alexie’s short-story collection The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.

10/28/2025

Join Yazmin & Jen in repurposing book pages to bring some fun fall pumpkins to life! Materials provided. Free and open to all ages. Registration requested but not required. 🎃✨
Register here: https://luma.com/em0ktxeq

10/02/2025

UPDATE: This event is postponed. We will repost once we have a new date & time. Thank you for understanding! 🎃

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On Tuesday, October 7 join us at the Durland Alternatives Library to make a fun book-page pumpkin! Free. Materials provided. Registration requested. Register at https://luma.com/9jrayi3s or link in bio 🎃📚

09/14/2025

So many great connections made at Ithaca is Books this weekend! 📚 🖤 ✨ Thank you to our students who staffed the booth 🙌 and to and for letting us be a part of such a special event.

08/21/2025

So much gratitude to Mary, Tracy, Helen, and Miriam as well as our remote workers and drop-in volunteers for your work with Durland Alternatives Library and Prisoner Express this summer. From writing letters & sending books to prisoners to shelving books and helping grow our collection, this crew kept us going! 💌📚🧡

07/21/2025

Join us this evening from 6-8 for a special gathering at Durland Alternatives Library! Songs, zines, snacks & more! 🎶 📖💕☀️

06/19/2025

Durland Alternatives Library is closed today in honor of Juneteenth.

On June 19, 1865, word reached the enslaved in Galveston, Texas that their emancipation had been made formal, though it had been so since January 1, 1863.

Here’s to freedom, resilience, and yes the ONGOING pursuit of justice.

06/16/2025

Happy Pride this month & always! Check out our book selection here at Durland Alternatives Library & of course all the events still happening in Ithaca 🌈 organized by

06/07/2025

🚨 Special Saturday Hours for Reunion Weekend! TODAY Saturday, June 7: Stop in for tea, coffee, make a button, learn about Prisoner Express, browse our collection, or just relax in our welcoming space. 130 Anabel Taylor Hall 9 AM - 1 PM 🪴 📚 🌈

05/20/2025

New hours this week: Monday through Friday 11 am - 5 pm. We hope to have expanded summer hours for you coming soon! Until then stop in, relax, have some tea, and browse our collection focused on social justice, ecology, and spirituality ☀️ 🌱

We still have some seeds left in our Seed Library too!

Address

130 Anabel Taylor Hall
Ithaca, NY
14850

Opening Hours

Monday	11am - 8pm
Tuesday	11am - 8pm
Wednesday	11am - 8pm
Thursday	11am - 8pm
Friday	11am - 8pm
Saturday	11am - 5pm
Sunday	11am - 5pm

Telephone

+16072556486

Website

http://www.alternativeslibrary.org/

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