Did you know July is International Zine Month? And that there’s a special day of the year designated for celebrating zine libraries?? In 2023, Zine Library Day is Saturday July 22nd: make plans to have a fun event or just enjoy the traditional vegan donut (or treat of your choice!).
IZM2023PosterThanks to Alex Wrekk for maintaining International Zine Month and to Mr. Chompy from Zineville for this year’s idea-packed flyer!
The Zine Pavilion will be back at the American Library Association (ALA) conference in Chicago from June 23-26, 2023. If you’re attending the ALA conference, please be sure to stop by the Zine Pavilion to see hundreds of zines on display, enter our raffle to potentially win zines for your library, or talk with the dozens of zinesters who will be selling their zines!
Find the Zine Pavilion on the exhibit hall floor (also called the “Library Marketplace”). We‘ll be located at booth number 2444 (towards the back of the hall); see this interactive map of the exhibit hall. We have the same hours as the exhibit hall.
Event schedule (all events held at the Zine Pavilion unless otherwise noted):
ALA 2023 Chicago Collaborative Zine (Friday through Sunday)
Create a page for the annual ALA Conference zine! A table with supplies to express your conference feels, ideas, or anything that strikes your fancy will be set up at the Zine Pavilion. Return between noon and 2 pm on Monday to get your own copy of the final zine. The collaborative zine will also be posted on the Zine Pavilion Tumblr after the event.
Zine Swap (Friday 5:30-7 pm)
Bring a few copies of your zine to swap and share with other zine creators. Can’t make it the first evening? Don’t worry! An area to swap and share zines will remain up on the Zine Pavilion information table throughout the weekend.
Queer Zinester Meet-up (Friday 8:30pm)
Get to know other queer zinesters at an off-site meet-up with light refreshments. Non-alcoholic beverages will be available but you are welcome to bring some of your own!
Zines?? Students as Knowledge Creators (Saturday 11 am-noon)
Can zines be an acceptable form of a college student’s final project rather than a final research paper in higher education? YES! Community College Librarian and Professor of Information Literacy, Rosa Bernal, presents how she teaches her Information Studies course so students can be knowledge creators in the form of a zine. While students become experts in their chosen topics and experience making a zine in Canva, they also learn information literacy skills using the ACRL (Academic College and Research Libraries) Information Literacy framework and effectively using traditional and electronic library resources. Students also become acquainted with the history of zines, zine making, and their D.I.Y. purpose and see themselves as legitimate self-publishers by the end of the course.
Incarcerated People as Zinesters Panel (Saturday 1-2:30 pm)
Listen to a discussion about the Anthony Rayson Zine Collection and the place of zines by incarcerated people outside of libraries/archives between Anthony Rayson (South Chicago ABC Zine Distro), Derek Potts (DePaul University Special Collections), Rachel Jones (Interference Archive), Ai Miller (Strange Deer Press), Jeremy Hammond (Midwest Books to Prisoners) and Andrea Kszystyniak (Omaha Zine Fest Co-Founder and Organizer). There will be free zines selected from the Anthony Rayson Collection to take with you!
Zines from Creation to the Stacks (Sunday 10-11 am)
Zine cataloging can be interesting, intimidating, and puzzling all at the same time. Join a small group discussion at the Zine Pavilion to share tips and tricks for describing DIY publications which can defy traditional standards. Zine cataloger Violet Fox and zinester and artist Kee Merriweather will be discussing the intricacies of zine cataloging from the perspective of a librarian and a zine creator.
Zines! Let Creativity Flow in Your School Library: No Grading Allowed (Sunday 1-2 pm)
In this workshop facilitated by Lisa Bishop, the goal is to unleash creativity in your school library and collaborate differently with your teaching colleagues. Learn the how-tos of making zines with your students in the school library and find zine festivals to exhibit and promote your students’ art, words, ideas and teach them to sell, barter, and more.
Episode 84 of Call Number, the American Libraries podcast, is focused on Chicago treasures in preparation of the upcoming 2023 American Library Association conference (June 22-27). Podcast host Diana Panuncial talks with Liz Mason, manager of Quimby’s Bookstore, a longstanding Chicago institution specializing in independent and small press books, comics, and zines. They discuss the city’s zine scene and how librarians can incorporate these publications into their collections and programming. The zine discussion starts at the 20:45 mark.
Interested in joining zinesters & library/archives workers from across the U.S. and beyond to talk about zine librarianship? Registration is now open for the 2023 Zine Librarians unConference, happening August 4-5 in San Francisco. Registration is free and capped at 100 in-person attendees; virtual options will be available.
Find more information and a registration link at the ZLuC 2023 page.
Every year, the zine librarian community gathers at the Zine Librarians unConference, which will be held this year in San Francisco on August 4th and 5th. And every year, the community crowdfunds money for travel grants for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color to attend ZLuC. If you’re a BIPOC library worker or zinester interested in attending ZLuC, please fill out our travel grant application. Previous awards have ranged from around $250 to around $750. The number of recipients and the amount distributed depends on how many donations received—if you’d like to contribute to the ZLuC BIPOC travel grant fund, send money via PayPal to julia.huddleston [at] gmail, or get in touch at that address to discuss other ways to donate.
The Zine Librarians unConference will be held in person this year! This year’s ZLuC will be held in San Francisco, California on Friday August 4 and Saturday August 5. There may be additional events (like tours of zine stores/zine libraries or a zinester reading) held on Sunday August 6, too, so consider keeping your schedule free that day as well.
If you’d like to support the travel needs of one or more zine librarians to attend ZLuC, please consider donating to the ZLuC BIPOC Travel Grant. The travel grant is a no-strings attached yearly tradition that has allowed several zine librarians of color to attend ZLuC without worrying about finances. Send donations via Paypal to juliahuddleston [at] gmail [dot] com (specify “ZLuC Travel Grant” in the comments). If you’d prefer to contribute without using Paypal, please email that address to coordinate an alternate method of payment. Thanks for considering!
This event was originally scheduled for October 2022 but was rescheduled due to a strike.
Spineless Wonders is a network of artists, writers, academics and librarians, creating and researching small press publications including artists books, based in the Slade School of Fine Art at University College London (UCL). On Friday February 10, they’ll be hosting an all-day event titled Spineless Wonders: The Zine, Type And Script, consisting of in-person and virtual sessions. An online panel discussion titled “Zines: In/Out: The Institutional Dilemma: Zine Libraries and Collections” will happen at 1:30 pm London time:
As institutions, libraries and archives follow sets of rules for access, development, and description of their collections. Increasingly, libraries and archives are collecting zines – do-it-yourself, short-run publications created and distributed outside mainstream channels. This panel is made up of library and archive workers who have developed and organised zine collections in a range of institutions. The session will have four short presentations followed by discussion and will consider the ethics, challenges, and joys of zines in library and archive settings.
The chair is Kirsty Fife (researcher into digital information and curating, Manchester Metropolitan University) and speakers will be Holly Casio (Queer Zine Library), Kyle Gibbens (Queer Zine Library), Nicola Cook (Wellcome Library), and Tavian Hunter (Stuart Hall Library at Iniva). There will also be an online tour of the Manchester Poetry Library.
Spineless Wonders is a network of artists, writers, academics and librarians, creating and researching small press publications including artists books, based in the Slade School of Fine Art at University College London (UCL). On Friday October 21, they’ll be hosting an all-day event titled Zines: Reading, Preserving, Making, consisting of in-person and virtual sessions. An online panel discussion titled “Zines: In/Out: The Institutional Dilemma: Zine Libraries and Collections” will happen at 11:45 am London time:
As institutions, libraries and archives follow sets of rules for access, development, and description of their collections. Increasingly, libraries and archives are collecting zines – do-it-yourself, short-run publications created and distributed outside mainstream channels. This panel is made up of library and archive workers who have developed and organised zine collections in a range of institutions. The session will have four short presentations followed by discussion and will consider the ethics, challenges, and joys of zines in library and archive settings.
The chair is Kirsty Fife (researcher into digital information and curating, MMU) and speakers will be Holly Casio (Queer Zine Library), Kyle Gibbens (Queer Zine Library), Nicola Cook (Wellcome Library), and Tavian Hunter (Stuart Hall Library at Iniva). There will also be an online tour of the Manchester Poetry Library and Gloria Kiconco’s exhibition ‘Queering the Form’.
This year’s Phoenix Zine Fest is happening Saturday and Sunday September 9-10. The panels will be held on Zoom, including a session titled “Zine Libraries: Communities Archived,” happening Saturday September 9th at 4 pm Arizona time. For more information and the Zoom link, visit phxzinefest.org.
Zines ASSEMBLE is a one-day online symposium on Friday 9th September 2022, with formal and informal talks, presentations and sharing, hosted by folks at the Wellcome Collection in London. The following day Saturday 10th September 2022 will include in-person and online zine making at the Wellcome Collection. Find a full program and lots more info at zinejam.com/zines-assemble.
The ZINE & LIBRARIES CONFERENCE is a two-day virtual conference happening Thursday July 7th and Friday July 8th that will gather together librarians, zine artists and educators to learn about all things zines! Presenters will go over zine history, cataloging, starting a collection as well as provide tools, resources and tips on how to successfully integrate zines into libraries and instruction.
For more information about the schedule and free registration, check out the Zines & Librarians Conference 2022 page. Note that all times listed are in the U.S. Pacific time zone!
The Zine Pavilion makes its triumphant return to the annual American Library Association conference Friday June 24 through Monday June 27, 2022. This year’s ALA will be in sunny Washington, D.C., so look for the Zine Pavilion on the exhibit floor at booth 3009 in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. Find more info about what the Zine Pavilion is, and all the up-to-the-minute details at the twitter account @zinepavilion.
Zine librarians and zinesters will come together on Wednesday January 26 as part of a Zineklatsch hosted by the Archiv der Jugendkulturen in Berlin. The online/Zoom event will be held at 4-8 pm Central European Time (that’s 10 am-2 pm U.S. Eastern time). The folks from the archive and Schikkimikki zine distro & library will be sharing info about what they’ve been up to in the past two Covid years. Find more details and a Zoom link at the Archiv der Jugenkulturen site.
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.
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!
