Librarian visit to the La fanzinothèque genevoise

Swiss librarian Guillaume Pasquier’s blog, Biblog, is subtitled “a digital librarian’s notebook” and features interesting stories about libraries and books. A recent post, Dans les magasins, des mag-… euh, des fanzines, shares his discovery of ” the richness of the fanzine universe.” Guillaume invites librarians in the Geneva area to a January 2025 group visit to the Geneva fanzine library (La fanzinothèque genevoise). I hope there will be a followup post with highlights from the tour!screenshot of the linked blog post, with the French title "Dans les magasins, des mag-… euh, des fanzines"

Zines and incarcerated women

Really enjoyed “Transformative Collections,” a news story about a collaboration between students/faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago and incarcerated women at the Cook County Department of Corrections. The UIC Library had an integral part in supporting the RESTORE zine, part of the Rehabilitation and Engagement Supporting Therapeutic Outcomes of Renewal and Empowerment project.

Zine Zone at the New Jersey Library Association conference

I enjoyed reading about the “Zine Zone” at the New Jersey Library Association conference in May. Librarians at NJLA set up a space for attendees to learn what zines are, read zines, and get ideas on how to incorporate zines and zine-making into your own library programming. They also made a collaborative conference zine. Turns out they’ve got an NJLA Zine Zone Instagram account, too!

screenshot of the Instagram account of the Zine Zone of the New Jersey Library Association

If you’re passionate about zines in libraries, consider following the example of the NJLA Zine Zone and the Zine Pavilion to create a space at library events to connect with other zine folks and share info.

New survey on relationships between librarians and zinesters

If you’re a zinester or a librarian, consider taking this interesting new survey: Imagining Relationships Between Zine Creators and Zine Librarians. It’s part of a research project by Al Cassada at the University of Alabama considering the best ways for zine librarians to build relationships with zine creators. Participants from non-U.S. areas are welcome to take the survey; however, it’s only available in English. The survey takes about 15 minutes and will be open until November 1st. I’m looking forward to seeing the results!

PhD thesis on zines, health info and libraries

One of our zine librarian colleagues from England, Lilith Cooper. has shared their recently published PhD thesis titled The zINe-Between: A Creative Practice Exploration of Health, Liminality, Lived Experience and the Zines in Wellcome Collection. The abstract describes its scope:

Wellcome Collection, a museum and library in London, UK, has intentionally collected zines around health, medicine and the human condition since 2016. The outcome of a Collaborative Doctoral Award with Wellcome Collection, this creative practice thesis explores some of these 1000+ zines, alongside selected zines outside the collection, grouped around three themes: zines made in, from or about beds; zines which involve becoming disabled; and zines created during the COVID-19 pandemic. This exploration moves between physical and digital zines, feeling out both their distinct qualities and the space between them as a route into contemporary zine (re)production, cultures and communities.

This project is composed of two interwoven parts: a collection of original zines created over its duration and an accompanying critical thesis. Through a creative methodology which brings together zine making, autoethnographic and phenomenological approaches to zines, and semi-structured interviews with librarians at Wellcome, I argue that the concept of liminality offers a productive framework for examining material, cultural and political aspects of contemporary zines’ content, production and communities of practice. In turn, the thesis contributes to a reconceptualisation of liminality, beyond the carefully managed processes of transition described in ethnographic accounts, as ongoing, affective, embodied, messy, and non-linear.

Both drawing on and extending interdisciplinary theories of liminality, the thesis focuses on zines made from and about spaces (sickbeds), experiences (becoming disabled) and times (the COVID-19 pandemic) that are in-between, transitional, or transformative. Whilst narrative approaches and approaches that prioritise the usefulness of lived experience to medicine, research or policy often treat liminality as a period of chaos, nonsense or absence, these zines made of and from the in-between offer insight into these periods of liminality in experiences of health, illness and disability. They hold space for the episodic, fragmented and non-linear, engage in affective sense-making, (re)produce third-space knowledges and prioritise the uses of lived experience for peers.

Within the original set of zines created alongside this thesis are zines which directly addresses the concerns of chapters, zines which involve and document wider practices of reproduction, distribution, and collection, as well as those which challenge or disrupt conventions of academic research. Zine making, as a practice-based research method, offers a generative approach to both an archival collection which is proximal, intimate, living, and liminal, and to archival objects which are visual-material-textual, records of practices and processes, and traces of communities of practice as much as products. Produced from the liminal positionality of doctoral research, these zines echo the ways that the zines in Wellcome Collection document and inhabit liminal experiences, spaces and times.

Zine protesting cuts to Birmingham libraries

There have been several articles about the new Brum Library Zine, a collaborative effort to protest severe funding cuts proposed to the Birmingham Library system in England. A different author was paired up with each of the 35 neighborhood libraries and each wrote a piece inspired by that library and the people it serves. In The Guardian: Jonathan Coe and Kit de Waal among 35 writers of ‘protest zine’ defending threatened Birmingham libraries. At the BBC: Writers create protest magazine over library cuts.

This seems like a great idea to copy to support your local library system!

Dreams of Zines: zine libraries in Louisiana

I loved the article “Dreams of Zines” by librarian/archivist Sophie Ziegler in the Louisiana-focused magazine 64 Parishes. They quote Louisiana State University student Adrienne Lewis: “When I visit a new place, I always try to find where the zines are. Every time I find zines, I find my people.”

The second half of the article discusses zine collections in archives and special collections around Louisiana and highlights library outreach efforts oriented around zines. Well worth a read!

screenshot of the article "Dreams of Zines" featuring a photo of a hand holding a black and white minizine

New zine collection in Colorado Springs

screenshot of an article titled "Kraemer Family Library launches zine collection" and illustrated with a photo of a spinning rack full of zines

The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs has a new zine collection, as announced in the article Kraemer Family Library Launches Zine Collection. The collection resulted from a project by UCCS librarian Liz Brown through the Radical Librarian Institute, organized by the California Rare Book School. The Radical Librarian Institute also funded $250 grants to student zinesters from diverse backgrounds (read about that in the announcement The Kraemer Family Library is Building a Zine Collection and We Want You!).flyer with information about a $250 honorarium for 10 students who attended a zine workshop and created zines for the librarayThe UCCS student newspaper also wrote about the new zine collection in the article “Library Zine Collection Brings UCCS Student’s Passions and Creativity to the Forefront” by Livi Davis.

Making Zines at the Library

bold graphic with the title of the zine "Making Zines at the Library"This fun graphic is the bold cover of a new zine by Low of YOLOW Zines, a zine creator in Minneapolis. This free 14-page zine is filled with information about resources available to those who want to create zines at the Hennepin County Libraries. It also includes interviews with zinesters and librarians. Find “Making Zines at the Library” in full color on Canva, and find the resources linked at this Google doc (bit.ly/HCLIBzineresources).

Unethical: Alfonso Vijil from Libros Latinos

I’m sharing this post by Charissa (Wasted Ink Distro) from Facebook to Latine folks selling zines and zine librarians and others buying zines. Zine librarians might want to avoid buying items from collectors anyway, but this one in particular…

Please be on the lookout for Alfonso Vijil from Libros Latinos at your zine fests. We’ve recently learned he’s been buying zines, specifically from BIPOC creators and then turns around and sells them for 3-5x the original cost to libraries without telling the zine maker or paying them the profit. He was at LA Zine Fest buying zines and was seen as recently as this past weekend at an event buying zines.

Continue reading

Zines in the Diverse Voices in Health & Medicine Collections

In 2022, the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM) Region 5 created a series of collection development toolkits as part of their Diverse Voices in Health & Medicine Collections project. One of those toolkits is the Zine Collection for Adults (pdf), featuring a bibliography of zines focused on a variety of health topics, including addiction and recovery, death and dying, the healthcare system, mental health, nutrition and fitness, and sexual and reproductive health.

If you’re looking for zines about health and medicine, this list could be a good place to start!

ZLuC 2024 wrap-up

The 2024 Zine Librarians unConference was a terrific success! Thanks so much to the ZLuC 2024 organizers: Jenna, Gina, and Lauren!! And thank you to our other volunteers and presenters who made it a welcoming, valuable event.

If you weren’t able to join us, check out the ZLuC 2024 wiki for information about presentations and other discussions. Our notes from the presentations are a little hit and miss, so feel free to reach out to presenters if you have questions or want to hear more about the cool stuff they’re doing.

group photo of about 100 people sitting in chairs in a large university conference room.

Attendees at ZLuC 2024. Photo credit: Weiwei Lin

ZLuC 2024 is here!

Zine librarians from across the U.S. and beyond will be joining the fun at the 16th Zine Librarians unConference, happening Saturday August 3rd and Sunday August 4th in New York City. Find all the details, including the schedule, at our ZLuC 2024 wiki. A huge thanks to the organizers and volunteers who make ZLuC happen!

Cover of the program for the Zine Librarians unConference which includes maps, tips, schedules, COVID policy, and more. Features a black and white drawing of a bodega front with a sign reading "fresh zines" and zines on display outside.

cover of the ZLuC 2024 program illustrated by Childish Books