Zine librarian meetup at Virtual PZS 2021

The Portland Zine Symposium will be held online on Saturday July 24 and July 25, and along with workshops and talks, there will be a casual, drop-in session just for zine librarians. Kelsey Smith and Aggie Burstein will host the session, which will be Sunday July 25 from 3:30-4:30 pm on Sunday July 25.

Registration is free for all and all are welcome, but you must register in advance for each session during #VirtualPZS2021 that you want to attend in order to receive the Zoom links. Find the full schedule at portlandzinesymposium.org/virtualpzs.

an image of a grumpy-looking cat eating a watermelon along with the text "Zine Librarian Meetup with Kelsey Smith, 3:30-4:30 pm Sunday"

Fly Zine Archive at Minneapolis Institute of Art

A new exhibit titled “The Fly Zine Archive: A Chronicle of Punk, Queer, and Anarchist Counterculture” is opening at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA) on July 15, 2021. The exhibit will be open through April 2022. The archive consists of nearly 2,000 printed works – zines, comics, pamphlets and more – collected by activist Fly Orr and created by “punk, anarchist, feminist and LGBTQ+ artists.”

Read more about the Fly Zine Archive in this 2020 post from Ian Karp: “Rebel voice: Inside the Fly Zine Archive, a chronicle of punk, queer, and DIY counterculture” and explore more about the creation of the exhibit in this July 2021 article from the University of Minnesota student newspaper, “Recent UMN grad organizes new zine exhibition at Minneapolis Institute of Art.”

screenshot of exhibit webpage with collage artwork and text with details about the Fly Zine Archive exhibit

International Zine Month 2021

Welcome to International Zine Month 2021! IZM is a project created by Alex Wrekk, of Stolen Sharpie Revolution fame, as a way to celebrate many aspects of zines and the zinester community. Every year Alex creates a flyer which provides day-to-day events: find a printable copy and a text version of the info in the flyer at Alex’s IZM page.

Please note that July 21 is Zine Library Day! Plan something special in your library!

cut-and-paste style flyer featuring 31 days of things to do to celebrate zines in July 2021

Overthrow the 10-Page Paperarchy: Manifesto Zines

On Wednesday May 19th, zine librarians Ziba Perez and Jenna Freedman will be presenting a workshop titled “Overthrow the 10-Page Paperarchy: Manifesto Zines.” They’ll be modeling zine-making as a means of challenging the white patriarchy and exploring the capacity for zines to highlight skills beyond those recognized and valued by the academy.

The workshop is part of the Critical Pedagogy Symposium cosponsored by METRO and ACRLY/NY. Registration is free; find more info at mnylc.org/cps.

Lesson plan: “Radical Appropriation in Zine Making”

Missed this chapter when it first came out, but here’s a great lesson plan for undergraduates by librarian Emilee Mathews. She writes, “In this lesson plan, students critically engage the zine’s conceptual underpinnings and material production in order to reflect on their own nascent zine making practice. What meanings are created by appropriating another’s work, particularly that of another zinester, and does the meaning change when the student’s work is accessioned into the same archive in which they found it?”

Check out the open access chapter “Radical Appropriation in Zine Making,” one of the 17 available through ARLIS/NA’s “Fair Use in the Visual Arts: Lesson Plans for Librarians,” published in 2018.

Blog post about the Edinburgh Zine Library

Here’s a terrific blog post about the Edinburgh Zine Library! “For LGBT History Month, a guest blog post from Abi and Lili from the Edinburgh Zine Library” is a featured story on the Edinburgh Libraries blog. EZL is independent but is hosted by the public library (Central Library), making for a very cool relationship. Read about the inspiration behind the library’s creation and the projects that EZL has made happen during COVID-19 closures.

Environmental zines at the University of Nebraska

University of Nebraska at Omaha librarians Amy Schindler, Monica Maher, and Claire Du Laney collaborated with instructor Clare Maakestad and students in Introduction to Sociology sections to create zines on environmental topics. Read more about their project, including integration with UNO Libraries Archives and Special Collections, in “New Environmental Zines Combine Creativity and Research.”screenshot of article title including an image of eleven mini zines on environmental topics such as plastic bags and extreme weather

Using Zines in Library Instruction and Outreach interview

Long time zine librarian Ann Matsushima Chiu talks about her work using zines in library instruction in a new interview with Raymond Pun. Ann discusses her most frequently used workshops, including a Zines 101 session, teaching information literacy concepts, and the “Zine-in-a-Hurry” workshop, where participants collaborate on a zine which is completed in about an hour! Check out the interview at Infobase.

screenshot from interview page featuring a "coloring zine" on a table surrounded with lavender plants and a knitting project

Indigenous Zines and Academic Libraries

University of Alberta School of Library and Information Studies MLIS student Rynnelle Wiebe created an essay & illustrated zine titled “Indigenous Zines and Academic Libraries” as part of a fall 2020 course. The course, “Indigenous Library and Information Studies in a Canadian Context,” was created by instructors Kayla Lar-Son and Tanya Ball included research into Indigenous principles, practices, and Indigenous methodologies. A bibliography includes a selection of Indigenous-created zines and resources about zines and Indigenous librarianship. Find the zine at https://indigenouslis.ca/indigenous-zines-and-academic-libraries/.

cover of "Indigenous Zines & Academic Libraries" in black and white cut and paste style

Zine Grab ‘n Go Kit

It’s still COVID Times, so the hands-on, community-building aspects of zine making can be less than ideal. That’s why I love this Chicago Public Library grab and go kit for kids and tweens that talks about how to make a zine at home. The kit comes in a plastic bag and includes pages for collaging, a glue stick, and a copy of “How to Make a One-Page Zine” by Sarah Mirk (get a free copy at Sarah Mirk’s website). Patrons need to supply scissors, paper, and a writing instrument.

photo of a zine kit in a plastic bag with a piece of paper describing how to make a zine

Check out the video from zine librarian Alenka Figa sharing different types of zines and giving a tutorial about how to make a one-page zine out of a piece of scrap paper.

“How Zines Can Help You Document Social Justice Movements”

Cristina Favretto, Head of Special Collections at the University of Miami Libraries, gave a great presentation on the history of zines on October 21: “All You Need is Paper and Passion: How Zines Can Help You Document Social Justice Movements.” The presentation also had suggestions for building relevant and responsive zine collections.

The session recording and the slides are now available.screenshot of presentation with title screen "All you need is paper and passion"

IZLD 2020 recordings & notes available

International Zine Library Day 2020, held on July 21, was a great success! If you missed any of the content (there was a lot!), you can find notes from each of the sessions, as well as video recordings of many sessions, here: http://zinelibraries.info/wiki/izld-2020-online-event-notes-and-recordings. Congratulations to the organizers for such a fun-filled event!

Check back for more information about the Zine Librarians unConference, to be held later in 2020.