Over on the Zines & GLAM Discord, Laura Chenault always does a great job of keeping up with new blog posts, videos, and other resources about zines. One new video she highlighted caught my attention, Zine Signs by Deaf zinester Emmett. Emmett demonstrates ASL (American Sign Language) signs for zine-related terms such as comic, copy, make, collage, festival, pay, and more. Watch the video (remember you can adjust the playback speed if you need to see it done more slowly) and practice these signs for your next zine event!
Category Archives: programming
Zine library crawl in Boston
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:
- Boston Public Library*
- Framingham Public Library
- Harvard University’s Schlessinger Library
- MassArt Morton R. Godine Library
- School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University’s W. Van Alan Clark Jr. Library
- Somerville Public Library (all locations)
- Watertown Free Public Library
*BPL participating branches include:
Zinemaking resources at the Tiny Zine Swap Shop
Excited to stumble upon the website Tiny Zine Swap Shop, which is designed to help library workers introduce zinemaking to young people. Created by Scottish library worker Fi Johnston, the Tiny Zine Swap Shop has resources focused on the joy of making one-page zines, including a template, workshop, brief histories of zines, inspiration ideas, ideas for curriculum, and more.
See Fi give a presentation about the site at Tiny Zine Swap Shop titled “The Benefits of Zinemaking on Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing.” That presentation was part of a June 2024 “Zine Webinar Morning” sponsored by the Academic and Research Libraries Group Scotland, which includes presentations such as:
- Penny Robertson discussed City of Glasgow College Library’s successful bid for funding with the Europe Challenge for their project where library staff and co-created zines with students.
- Bridget McCall outlined the ongoing project at the University of Dundee to create a collaborative guide to small-press and zine creation and discovery.
- Zines in academic spaces: the Glasgow School of Art Library: Assistant Librarians Charlotte Dunn and Jenna Meek discussed the importance of zines within academic spaces – not only as outputs but as authentic sources that can be used to diversify academic research.
- Zines Subject Headings project at the GSA Library, using the Homosaurus and the Zine Subject Thesaurus.
The video is a great way to see what’s happening in the Scottish zine librarian scene!
Bring Your Baby Zine Club
Love this idea for bring your baby zine club, hosted by the West Norwood Library in London. A new parent and zine librarian will be hosting. Would be excited to see this in other libraries!
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.”
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.
IZLuC2020 Schedule and Registration are now LIVE!
Please join us October 30-November 2 (start and end dates vary by timezone)! Three days of amazing programming and unconference time for library workers interested in zines and zinesters interested in libraries to hobnob and learn together!
http://zinelibraries.info/wiki/zluc2020/
Click on the individual days for schedules and to register.
This quokka says SEE YOU AT THE UNCONFERENCE!
IZLD2020
July 21st is International Zine Library Day! As a way of celebrating, we’ve planned virtual and multimodal events that span the globe and create a way for zine librarians to meet up from around the world. Three programming blocks run from UTC 20:00 to UTC 04:00 with all kinds of events, from workshops to panels to readings (and, of course, more). and if you’re missing strolling past the tables at a zine fair, check out our two tabling sessions, where you can drop in and see what our tabling zinesters and librarians have on showcase. There are also two ways to participate asynchronously if you can’t make it to the live event- you can submit to our cookzine compilation or participate in a snail mail zine swap. Before you join us, please make sure to review our Community Care Expectations. Don’t forget to tag your social media with #IZLD2020. We hope to see you there!
- IZLD Kickoff: Zine Recipe Zine Share (UTC 20:00)
(UTC+2) Tue 10:00 pm – Berlin
(UTC+1) Tue 9:00 pm – Edinburgh
(UTC-4) Tue 4:00 pm – New York
(UTC-5) Tue 3:00 pm – Chicago
(UTC-7) Tue 1:00 pm – Los Angeles
(UTC+10) Tue 6:00 am – Sydney - Panel discussion: Zines and Borderlands with Luisa MartÃnez (UTC 21:00)
(UTC+2) Tue 11:00 pm – Berlin
(UTC+1) Tue 10:00 pm – Edinburgh
(UTC-4) Tue 5:00 pm – New York
(UTC-5) Tue 4:00 pm – Chicago
(UTC-7) Tue 2:00 pm – Los Angeles
(UTC+10) Tue 7:00 am – Sydney - Workshop: Teach With Zines (UTC 21:30)
(UTC+2) Tue 11:30 pm – Berlin
(UTC+1) Tue 10:30 pm – Edinburgh
(UTC-4) Tue 5:30 pm – New York
(UTC-5) Tue 4:30 pm – Chicago
(UTC-7) Tue 2:30 pm – Los Angeles
(UTC+10) Tue 7:30 am – Sydney - ~tabling~ (UTC 22:00)
(UTC+2) Tue 12:00 am – Berlin
(UTC+1) Tue 11:00 pm – Edinburgh
(UTC-4) Tue 6:00 pm – New York
(UTC-5) Tue 5:00 pm – Chicago
(UTC-7) Tue 3:00 pm – Los Angeles
(UTC+10) Tue 8:00 am – Sydney - Zinester Pet Show and Tell (UTC 23:00)
(UTC+2) Tue 1:00 am – Berlin
(UTC+1) Tue 12:00 am – Edinburgh
(UTC-4) Tue 7:00 pm – New York
(UTC-5) Tue 6:00 pm – Chicago
(UTC-7) Tue 4:00 pm – Los Angeles
(UTC+10) Tue 9:00 am – Sydney - Infosession: Zinewiki.com (UTC 23:30)
(UTC+2) Tue 1:30 am – Berlin
(UTC+1) Tue 12:30 am – Edinburgh
(UTC-4) Tue 7:30 pm – New York
(UTC-5) Tue 6:30 pm – Chicago
(UTC-7) Tue 4:30 pm – Los Angeles
(UTC+10) Tue 9:30 am – Sydney - Make a One Page Mini Zine Workshop (UTC 00:00) (NOTE: registration requires a code because of bots- enter zines4eva to register)
(UTC+2) Tue 2:00 am – Berlin
(UTC+1) Tue 1:00 am – Edinburgh
(UTC-4) Tue 8:00 pm – New York
(UTC-5) Tue 7:00 pm – Chicago
(UTC-7) Tue 5:00 pm – Los Angeles
(UTC+10) Tue 10:00 am – Sydney - Queer Zine Archive Project Tour,
plus Q&A with co-founder Chris Wilde (UTC 00:30)Â (NOTE: registration requires a code because of bots- enter zines4eva to register)
(UTC+2) Tue 2:30 am – Berlin
(UTC+1) Tue 1:30 am – Edinburgh
(UTC-4) Tue 8:30 pm – New York
(UTC-5) Tue 7:30 pm – Chicago
(UTC-7) Tue 5:30 pm – Los Angeles
(UTC+10) Tue 10:30 am – Sydney - ~tabling~ (UTC 01:00)
(UTC+2) Tue 3:00 am – Berlin
(UTC+1) Tue 2:00 am – Edinburgh
(UTC-4) Tue 9:00 pm – New York
(UTC-5) Tue 8:00 pm – Chicago
(UTC-7) Tue 6:00 pm – Los Angeles
(UTC+10) Tue 11:00 am – Sydney - Panel: Zine Libraries and Zine Librarianship (UTC 02:00)
(UTC+2) Tue 4:00 am – Berlin
(UTC+1) Tue 3:00 am – Edinburgh
(UTC-4) Tue 10:00 pm – New York
(UTC-5) Tue 9:00 pm – Chicago
(UTC-7) Tue 7:00 pm – Los Angeles
(UTC+10) Tue 12:00 pm – Sydney - Zine reading: AUS creators (UTC 03:00)
(UTC+2) Tue 5:00 am – Berlin
(UTC+1) Tue 4:00 am – Edinburgh
(UTC-4) Tue 11:00 pm – New York
(UTC-5) Tue 10:00 pm – Chicago
(UTC-7) Tue 8:00 pm – Los Angeles
(UTC+10) Tue 1:00 pm – Sydney - Zine library talk with John Stevens, State Library of Victoria, AU (UTC 03:30)(UTC+2) Tue 5:30 am – Berlin
(UTC+1) Tue 4:30 am – Edinburgh
(UTC-4) Tue 11:30 pm – New York
(UTC-5) Tue 10:30 pm – Chicago
(UTC-7) Tue 8:30 pm – Los Angeles
(UTC+10) Tue 1:30 pm – Sydney
SAVE THE DATE!
Zinester Rights & Permissions Bingo
At last weekend’s ZL(u)C we played Zinester Rights And Permissions Bingo based on Jenna’s list with much laughter good cheer. If you would like to download the cards (30) for playing at your own institution, a PDF is available here. These are intended to be printed on Tabloid (11×17″) but would probably fit on A3 also.
Zine workshops in the library
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!