In a May 6th article in Programming Librarian, San Diego County Library librarian Laura Mendez discusses a zine workshop held during the library’s art festival: read all about it at “Zine Machine: A DIY Magazine Primer“. Check out the workshop program model and Laura’s slideshow seminar on “Teen Zines: Unleashing Creativity” and get inspired to create your own program!
Author Archives: Violet
ZLuC 2019 registration now open
Registration for the 2019 Zine Librarians unConference is now open! You can sign up here: https://forms.gle/LWkFC1VNKYRQ91T46.
ZLuC 2019 is taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from July 19-20, 2019. As always, ZLuC is free to attend and all are welcome! For more information about the event, check out the ZLuC page and be sure to be a part of the conversation on the Zine Librarians Yahoo email list.
Authenticity and institutions
London-based zine librarian Holly Casio writes about being a resident at Asia Art Archive, and shares thoughts on the ethics of zine librarianship as performed by large organizations flirting with DIY culture. Holly also talks about being inspired by artists and activists authentically engaging with libraries and archives.
Zine libraries featured on Unladylike podcast
Episode 48 of Unladylike podcast (“How to Zine It Yourself”) features the zinesters Isabel Ann Castro and Natasha I Hernandez of St. Sucia Zine, as well as Jenna Freedman of the Barnard Zine Library.
Cristen and Caroline share their thoughts on having a zine collection at a library: “That was an inspiring thing about being at the library and being surrounded by what basically looked like pieces of copier stapled together, but being in a ‘real library’ and around the corner from literally the classics, Jenna’s telling the world by having this collection that these zines are just as valuable as all those other books and all those other ways of knowing.”
Zines in libraries: “are zines going mainstream??”
The perennial question: “are zines going mainstream??” is asked in a new article from alternative news publication OK Whatever. Journalist Jessie Schiewe’s article, “Zines Are Popping Up in Public Libraries Across the U.S.,” provides perspectives from professor of media and culture Stephen Duncombe as well as librarians Agatha Burstein (Olympia Timberland Library), Jenna Freedman (Barnard College), Tim Devin (Somerville Public Library), and Ziba Perez Zehdar (Long Beach Public Library).
Donate to the 2019 ZLuC POC travel grant
We’re now accepting monetary donations for the travel grant to support the attendance of People of Color at this year’s Zine Librarians unConference, happening in Salt Lake City, Friday July 19th and Saturday July 20th. You can send funds via PayPal to juliahuddleston [at] gmail, or email for alternate arrangements. The “donate” button on the sidebar of this site will also send donations to the correct account.
This year’s ZLuC POC travel grant selection committee is Joshua Barton, Christina Benson, Jolie Braun, Rose Chou, and Juli Huddleston. Stay tuned for the application form!
Report on the ZAPP collection at the Seattle Public Library
For those who have been curious about the status of the ZAPP (Zine Archive and Publishing Project) collection at the Seattle Public Library, this status report published in the Seattle Review of Books features photos and information about where things stand now:Â https://seattlereviewofbooks.com/notes/2019/02/05/it-s-been-a-long-long-time.
Dates announced for ZLuC 2019
The 2019Â Zine Librarians unConference will be held in downtown Salt Lake City on Friday July 19th and Saturday July 20th. Stay tuned for more information about registration and very affordable dorm rooms.
DePaul zine archives highlighted
Derek Potts, zine librarian at DePaul University’s Special Collections and Archives, was featured in this Chicago Magazine article, “Why Anthony Rayson, Anarchist Grandpa, Sends Zines to Prison.”
How Zine Libraries Are Highlighting Marginalized Voices
Zines have long been a way for marginalized communities to record their stories and organize. Zine libraries are making sure those histories aren’t forgotten.
“How Zine Libraries Are Highlighting Marginalized Voices” is an excellent BuzzFeed article by Rosie Knight features zine librarians Jenna Freedman, Alana LaBeaf, Dawn Wing, zinester Zahra Swanzy, and art historian Marissa Del Toro discussing the power of zines.
Zine Union Catalog: investigations and explorations
Master of Arts in Liberal Studies in Digital Humanities at the CUNY Graduate Center, and as part of their studies they’ve been able to work on various projects around the Zine Union Catalog. There are thorny metadata issues involved in collocating such disparate metadata as are found in catalogs that describe zines, and their investigations of the problems and potential solutions are getting us closer to the idea of a shared zine catalog. Read more about the project they just wrapped up this semester in their latest blog post: “Doing Things with Novels: Final Project (aka Catalogers as Authors, Metadata as Annotation or how Jenna and Lauren used ZineCat to write a paper using catalog records).” We’re all grateful for the time and effort Lauren and Jenna have given to this effort!
ZLuC 2019 will be held in Salt Lake City!
Michigan State punk exhibit highlights zine collection
Michigan State University has an extensive collection of zines, and many of them are on display on the new punk exhibit in MSU Libraries Special Collections. Exhibit curator Joshua Barton describes the zeitgeist of punk zines and highlights the uniqueness of the collection in this article from the Lansing City Pulse.
Accepting proposals to host ZLuC 2019
We’re now looking for proposals to host the 2019 Zine Librarians unConference! Find the proposal submission form here: https://goo.gl/forms/RdJKOqJpuvZVKPq62.
Please note the shorter submission period this year: the proposal submission deadline is Friday November 30th.
For more information about hosting ZLuC, explore the websites of previous ZLuCs and view the newly created ZLuC Organizers Toolkit. The ZLuC 2019 site selection committee (Elizabeth Bastyr, Elissah Becknell, Jolie Braun, Violet Fox, and Sharon McKellar) is excited to see your proposal!
ZLuC Organizers Toolkit
The ZLuC Organizers Toolkit is now available! The document is intended to be a living document, so feel free to add or edit information.