Pima County----Wide---- Seed Libraries

Written By Jeanette Hart-Mann
SeedBroadcast partnered up with the Pima County Seed Libraries at Joel D. Valdez, Main Library on Jacome Plaza, in Tucson, AZ, to share the seed library with passerby's, while packaging seeds, and meeting some of the folks responsible for making this seed library possible.

SeedBroadcast on Jacome Plaza
Librarians join us at the van to package seeds, and discuss seeds, seed libraries, and critical mass.
Librarian, Justine Hernandez helps people make seed balls: using clay, water, and seeds

The Pima County Seed Libraries is now in its second year and operates out of all the 27 branch locations of the Pima County Library System. Seeds are catalogued just like books, allowing patrons of the seed library to get online in their homes or local library branch and select open pollinated seeds via interlibrary loan to be sent to their nearest home library for pick up.

Seeds are cataloged along with all other library materials.

Librarian, Justine Hernandez talks about how the Pima Seed Library was started and how it functions today. 

The seed library is supported through not only the infustructure of the library system, but also the Pima county seed saving community at large. Seed savers bring extra seeds to the library to share. These include native plants, flowers, and vegetables. Some of these generous folks stopped by to visit with SeedBroadcast and share Seed Stories. Charles Bufe, a local gardening aficionado, brought several different types of tomato starts to share....a great seed story in the planting.

Charles Bufe's Zacatiran tomato plants.

We also learned that Tucson has a very broad reaching community garden network. Several of these gardeners showed up to find out more about the SeedBroadcast Seed Story Broadcasting Station and share what is growing in Tucson. This network also extends into the Public School system, which has several gardening projects implementing hands-on educational programs and gardening clubs.

Card catalog housing the seeds, and a wealth of information about growing, saving, and sharing seeds.....and some really awesome librarians!

Thank you Pima County Seed Library and all the folks we met for a wonderful day of Seed Story Broadcasting!
Jeanette Hart-Mann

Jeanette Hart-Mann is a farmer, artist, activist and teacher committed to the transformative potential of traditional ecological knowledge, embodied land-based practices, creative engagement and more-than-human-relationships. Her current research is focused on agroecology, environmental justice, and eco-social storytelling. Her practice is iterative, emergent and interdisciplinary. She weaves farming, wild crafting, and ecological restoration with video, sculpture, photography, installation, fiber arts, and writing. Hart-Mann is Co-Founder and Co-Director of SeedBroadcast (seedbroadcast.org) an artist collective committed to uplifting the culture in agri-Culture through creative public engagement, Seed Stories and seed sharing. She is also lead farmer, seed steward, and shepherdess at HawkMoth Farm where she is designing and implementing experimental climate-resilient polycultures through integrative plant, animal, soil, and human habitation while producing food for local communities.  Hart-Mann is Co-Director of RAVEL at The University of New Mexico and Associate Professor of Art & Ecology. RAVEL is a field-based Art & Ecology program supporting the intersection of place-based research through art making, community-engagement and professional practice. She received her BFA, summa cum laude and University Honors, summa cum laude at The University of New Mexico and her MFA in Visual Arts from Vermont College of Fine Arts. 

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