From our friend and zine scholar Kiyoshi Murakami in Japan comes a new series of posts titled “Zines, Archiving, and Activism—the Horizons Opened up by Their Interlocking Developments” published in the webzine AMeeT (Art Meets Technology). Part 1 of 3, “Essential Issues in Collection, Preservation, and Disclosure,” was published on May 10th discussing the tension of DIY publications being collected and processed by formal institutions (such as university archives). If you don’t read Japanese, check it out on Google Translate. We’ll post parts two and three here when they’re published!

Graham Stinnett, Archivist at the University of Connecticut Library, recently published the 49th episode of the podcast d’Archive. This 47-minute episode, titled “Liberated Zine Zone,” (archive) features an interview with metadata librarian Rhonda Kauffman. Rhonda talks about their first forays into creating zines and the zine collection (1994-2019) she donated to the UConn archives & special collections in 2019.

Long-time zinester and zine librarian Cathy Camper has written a new article for School Library Journal introducing zines to teachers and school librarians, “Zines: Cut-and-Paste Publishing by and for the People.” Sidebars also written by Camper include “9 Books about Zines for Teens and Tweens,” “9 Tips for Zine-Making Workshops,” “A Brief History of Zines,” and “Online Zine Resources from A to Z.” Delightful cut-and-paste style illustrations by Mark Todd accompany the cover story.

Three of the authors featured in the new book, Zines in Libraries: Selecting, Purchasing and Processing, were interviewed by the University of Illinois School of Information Sciences. Check out the interview (“iSchool alumni share their zine experiences in new publication“) and get inspired to read the book; many of the chapters are available to read in institutional repositories.

A four-minute video, “The Living Room Library,” was created as part of the LGBTQ+ filmmaking project, E.D.E.N. Digital 2021/22. The video shows what happened to the 4500 zines of the Salford Zine Library during COVID, ending up in boxes in a volunteer’s flat before being temporarily shifted to Salford University. It’s clear from the film what a labor of love zine collections can be.

The University of Illinois student paper, the Daily Illini, featured a story on zine making workshops: “Urbana Free Library introduces self-expression through zines” by Michelle Martinez. The article features library volunteers Carol Inskeep and Emily Guske talking about the power of self-expression in creating zines.

An article in the Williams College student newspaper by Aiden Pham, “Sawyer zine collection celebrates creativity, community,” discusses the zine collection at the college’s Sawyer Library. The collection was created in 2018 in response to “flyers with xenophobic, white supremacist, and anti-Semitic messages circulating in Sawyer library.” The story quotes zinester students and discusses the power of zines to introduce diverse voices into the library.

Laura Arenschield of the Ohio State News wrote an article sharing information about quaranzines at The Ohio State University Libraries: “Skeletor, poetry, hand-made art: Quaranzines tell COVID stories.” Jolie Braun, curator of modern literature and manuscripts for The Ohio State University Libraries, is interviewed about the origin of the collection and what the zines say about the experience of life during the COVID pandemic: “As soon as you open them, there’s going to be something that probably feels familiar or resonates with you, and that’s really powerful,” she said. “But I think it’s also equally interesting and significant that there are all these other zines that really show you other people’s experiences that are maybe very different from your own that you hadn’t really considered or thought about.” Read the full story at Ohio State News.

“Corvallis Zinesters, Local Zine Culture,” a new article in The Corvallis Advocate written by Emilie Ratcliff, explores multiple aspects of the local zine scene in Corvallis, Oregon. Most striking is the zine library at Mt. Caz, a Corvallis-based renegade community art space. The tree-shaped library is maintained by Christina Tran, who also runs zinemaking workshops at the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library. The article also highlights the work of Kelly McElroy, the Student Engagement and Community Outreach Librarian at Oregon State University, who talks about her work teaching classes with zines and helping facilitate zines made as class projects. Read the full article at The Corvallis Advocate.

New article from Liz Ohanesian, “Zine Collections Showcase and Amplify Diverse Voices Even in the Age of Social Media,” highlights the six branches of the Los Angeles Public Library that have zine collections. Librarians Ziba Perez, Angi Brzycki, and Daniel Tures share their thoughts about what zines add to LAPL.

An additional article is also available: “Want to Make a Zine? These Zine Makers Have Tips For Getting Started.”

Yet another “zines are back, baby!” headline, this time from news/opinion site Salon. ;)  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.