A ragtag team of renegade librarians sits in a room on the second floor of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, 621 W. Belmont Ave., discussing plans to bring people between their shelves to make as much noise as possible. Needless to say, this isn’t your typical library.

Nell Taylor started the Chicago Underground Library in 2006 in the apartment she shared with her boyfriend. Since then, the library has been housed in four different locations. It moved from the basement of a coffee shop to AREA Chicago’s Orientation Center, and later to an unnamed art gallery space before finally settling in its current location above St. Peter’s on Jan. 16.

“It’s the curse of being an organization with zero funding,” Taylor said, in reference to the Underground Library’s many moves.

The library houses an extensive collection of obscure local media, most of which was donated. The archives include a wide variety of independently published zines.

“We’re very much not a zine library,” Taylor said. “People tend to think we are. But we’re a whole new kind of thing. Because when all you have are zine libraries and mainstream libraries, then there’s this whole huge, massive area that gets completely ignored … We want the little stuff, and we want the big stuff too, but we need the middle to connect it.”

Dave Rader volunteers at the Underground Library twice a week and is in charge of cataloging. He said he believes the library’s work is important because of its deviation from traditional collections.

“We include those who might not be included by a regular library,” Rader said, noting the importance of giving voice to previously unheard perspectives.

Fellow volunteer Thuy Ngo said she believes that much of the city’s history is made up of such unheard voices.

“With history, usually the loudest or most well-established [people] are the ones that are heard,” Ngo said. “We want to focus on the written words that are not as heard, the ones that are set aside or deemed not significant enough. Because what makes a city are a lot of little small events, and when you discount those small events, you’re only getting a small portion of the personality and the vibrancy of what makes a place a place or a community.”

Library volunteer and Programming Director Stephanie Acosta expressed hope that as the archives grow, the library will be able to show the social implications of the work it collects.

“As our collection grows and more people give us more, it’ll become more and more detailed,” Acosta said. “And you’ll be able to not just map literary movements, but also social change movements, which I think are much more readily represented in independent and small press.”

However, Taylor said archiving is only part of the Underground Library’s mission. One ofher main goals in starting the library was to provide local artists with a place to discover new historical or social perspectives, find inspiration for new works, and meet people with whom they could collaborate.

“If it’s not being used, there’s no point in having it here,” Taylor said. “And collaboration is the best way to [put it to use].”

The library accomplishes this collaboration through various outreach programs, including the Loud Library event held on Feb. 24. Loud Library featured recorded city noises from local group Chicago Phonography, along with “free louds,” which involved attendees making sounds with various utensils hung from the library’s chandeliers.

“The Chicago Underground Library is unedited, and we pretty much accept any print media regardless of condition or whether or not other libraries deem the item relevant,” Ngo said. “With Loud Library, we’re kind of extending the idea in the sense that we’re accepting any sound into the environment and we’re not going to shush you.”

More Loud Library events, along with potential partnerships with educational programs and park districts, are planned for the future. However, the library’s volunteer staff is busy planning its first-ever Ilitarod to be held in March. They hope to teach people about the library as well as engage them physically and mentally.

“There will be some outdoor events and competitive sledding while reading,” Acosta said, noting that the event’s name is a play on the title of the Alaskan Iditarod dogsled race. “And then we’ll go back to the [Chicago Underground Library] for something warm.”