The ZLuC 2026 location committee decided that we need to recognize that many in our community likely have anxiety around travel in the current political climate in the US.Exciting to see this invitation to attend and present at Zine Archives Montreal 2025 from Louis Rastelli, Programming Coordinator (archives@arcmtl.org).
On Our Shelves, On Our Terms
Zine Archives Montreal 2025
November 12–14, 2025
Part of the Expozine International Independent Publishing Festival and Fair, November 11-16
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
INVITATION / Call for proposals (deadline Sept. 30)
The ARCMTL archive centre and Expozine are happy to inform you of the upcoming conference on zine archives and libraries, Zine Archives Montreal 2025, with this year’s theme: On Our Shelves, On Our Terms.
The conference will take place during the week of Expozine 2025, from November 11 to 16, when all of Montreal is abuzz with zine energy ahead of the Expozine fair, North America’s largest zine and small press fair with over 240 participating publishers and self-publishing artists and writers.
Activities will include visits to several archive centres and libraries with zine collections in Montreal on November 12, and two days of presentations, discussions and activities on November 13 and 14. Special guests from varied zine archives and libraries from outside Montreal, along with local actors will discuss issues and challenges related to this very specialized field.
All programming will be free and open to the general public, whose interest in zines in general has been growing in recent years. The programming team would also be delighted to hear your suggestions, ideas and proposals for activities, visits to institutions, topics or ideas for themes for discussion, round tables or workshops. We also invite participants to prepare a short video of their own zine library or archive, which will be shown during the conference.
Preliminary programming will feature topics such as:
Please email us with any further ideas, proposals or questions before September 30, 2025, and feel free to forward this message to other potential partners and guests that may be interested in taking part.
Detailed programming will be announced publicly by October 15, 2025.
Lastly, NOTE that ARCMTL can assist with funding requests for travel to Montreal, for example, by providing an official letter of invitation.
It’s time to register for the 2025 Zine Librarians unConference! ZLuC 2025 will be held entirely online Saturday November 8 and Sunday November 9. Registration will be open until November 1st. The cost of attending is free to those with no professional development funds, and a sliding scale for those who have institutional support to attend.
If you’d like to propose a session, the deadline is Friday September 26th. ZLuC is always a great time and this year will include presenters and attendees from around the world. Find all the information and links to register at the ZLuC 2025 webpage.
ZLuC 2025: Registration is now open!
Are you an archivist who makes zines? Does your repository or library have a zine? SAA (the Society of American Archivists) will have a zine table at their annual conference in Anaheim in August 2025 and they’re inviting attendees to bring 10–15 copies of their zine to hand out.
The organizers of the Zine Librarians unConference 2025 are looking for presentation speakers! Are you interested in sharing your ideas? Let the organizers know more about what you’d like to see at the ZLuC 2025 programming interest form.
This year’s ZLuC will be entirely online and free to all, with programming happening Saturday November 8 and Sunday November 9.
July is International Zine Month! Back in 2009, zinester Alex Wrekk started International Zine Month, and we’ve all joined in since then. Thanks to Alex for creating this gorgeous poster giving us something to celebrate each day of #IZM2025. Note that July 21st is Zine Library Day—the traditional way to celebrate is visiting your favorite in person or online zine collection (and bringing a delicious treat to your favorite zine librarian!).
IZM2025-posterBig thanks to everyone who attended the American Library Association annual conference and visited the Zine Pavilion! If you contributed to the Zine Pavilion 2025 Collaborative Zine, you can print out a copy for yourself (use “print on the short side” or “booklet” settings). We had so many contributions that we had to split them into two parts!
Download both issues on the Zine Pavilion itch.io account.
ZinePavilionCollaborativeZine_Part1 ZinePavilionCollaborativeZine_Part2The organizers of the Zine Pavilion are busy getting ready for the 2025 Zine Pavilion at the American Library Association conference in Philadelphia. The hours of the Zine Pavilion are the same as the ALA exhibit hall hours:
If you’re attending ALA, please come visit us! We’ll have hundreds of zines on display and zinesters from the Philly area will be selling their zines.
location of the Zine Pavilion on the ALA exhibit hall floor— booth number 1862
We’ll also have multiple events happening at the Zine Pavilion! Those events include:
Very cool to see this Greater Boston Zine Library Crawl happen in April 2025! The Zine Crawl Passport has a list of locations; by visiting the libraries, participants can win zine making supplies and physical zines.
Participating public and academic libraries include:
*BPL participating branches include:
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!
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.
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.
Attendees at ZLuC 2024. Photo credit: Weiwei Lin
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 ZLuC 2024 program illustrated by Childish Books
For those of you attending the ALA Annual Conference in San Diego, there are some great events planned at the Zine Pavilion:
Find the Zine Pavilion on the exhibit hall floor at booth 2742. The Zine Pavilion is open the same hours at the exhibit hall (aka the “Library Marketplace”):
We’re looking forward to seeing everyone there!
click for an expandable map of the exhibit hall floor
Every year, the zine libraries community raises money to help a person of color attend the Zine Librarians unConference (ZLuC). This year’s ZLuC will be held Sunday August 3rd and 4th in New York City. This grant is intended to help with associated travel and/or family care costs. No receipts are requested or required: we just give you money to attend!
If you are Black, Indigenous, and/or a POC and would like to apply for the ZLuC 2024 BIPOC Travel Grant, please fill out this application. Applications will be accepted until May 1st. All applicants will be contacted by the week of May 13th.
Would you be willing to support the grant to ensure BIPOC attendees are supported? If so, please consider donating! 100% of donations go directly to grant recipients.
Be sure to mention “ZLUC” in the notes! To arrange an alternate form of payment, please email violetfox @ gmail. com.
Here’s an interesting event taking place on Saturday March 23rd at the University of North Texas (near Dallas/Fort Worth):
From Artists’ Books to Zines is a new initiative from UNT Special Collections in conjunction with our Biennial Artists’ Book Competition to provide students and other attendees interested in the book arts field an opportunity to connect with other artists and creators working in the medium, foster engaging scholarship and discussion related to the field, explore and promote the reemergence of zines and their connections to the book arts field, and to honor and celebrate the participants and winners of the 2023-2024 Artists’ Book Competition cycle.
During From Artists’ Books to Zines, attendees will have the opportunity to listen to curated panels related to the book arts featuring UNT and TWU faculty, community organizers, and artists, hear a keynote presentation with recognized book artist Candace Hicks, view a pop-up exhibition of 2023-2024 Artists’ Book Competition entries, take part in a collaborative zine workshop, attend the official opening of UNT Special Collection’s new browsable zine library, and attend the reception for the Artists’ Book Competition where winners and honorable mentions will be recognized and announced. The symposium will be free to attend and food and refreshments will be provided throughout the day, but registration will be required due to space constraints.