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.
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!
This page has moved! It’s here now.
Yet another “zines are back, baby!” headline, this time from news/opinion site Salon. ;)Â Despite that, it’s a decent article, featuring the Arlington Public Library’s “Quaranzine” and the use of the hashtag #quaranzine on social media. Check out the article: Self-published zines are back as artists respond to our reality in quarantine by Ashlie D. Stevens.
During International Zine Month 2020, zine librarians will host an online, international event, following by a longer, more intensive zine librarians shindig later in 2020. We would like to set some guidelines (code of conduct, safer/braver spaces policy, open to other ways to identify these guidelines). The coordination working group will propose something to the rest of the organizers, based on the most useful elements from other codes/policies/guidelines.
From https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CBwordcloud.png
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We’re planning a super rad 24-hour event on Tuesday July 21st to celebrate International Zine Month/Zine Library Day. Hope to see some of y’all there! More details coming very soon.
Zine librarian and librarian Gina Murrell wrote a story for Library Journal called Libraries Collect COVID-19 Stories in Quaranzines on June 1st. She talks about how zines have allowed creators to process the difficult thoughts and emotions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. Find the article at libraryjournal.com/?detailStory=Libraries-Collect-COVID-19-Stories-Quaranzines.
This From Indie to Institution article in The Harvard Crimson by Elyse D. Pham describes the differing environments of the zine collections of the Papercut Zine Library and Harvard’s Schlesinger Library. Though the institutions are less than a mile apart in Cambridge, Massachusetts, their differing focus is clear, with preservation and research access being key at Schlesinger while Papercut establishes a more reader-friendly vibe. The article is a short but excellent description of the wide range of what a zine library can be!
CMLE (the Central Minnesota Library Exchange) is a regional multitype library system which supports collaboration between public, academic, school, and special libraries. Their Reading with Libraries podcast explores a specific genre each episode and features guest hosts who help give recommendations for great reading materials.
Episode 409 focuses on zines and features long-time zine librarian Violet Fox (me!). During the show we discuss zinelibraries.info, the Zine Librarians unConference, and the Zine Pavilion, as well as some recent young adult and middle grade fiction that includes zine making as a significant part of the storyline.
Queer Zine Library, a London-based roaming DIY queer zine library, announced their new online catalog which describes about 25% of their collection of over 400 zines. They’re using LibraryThing to catalog their zines, with LibraryThing’s TinyCat as a front end to enable advanced searching on the collection.
Volunteer catalogers at the Queer Zine Library shared their thoughts and experiences in a blog post that’s well worth reading. They’ve also published their cataloging manual online which gives guidelines for choices made in cataloging zines.