Episode 48 of Unladylike podcast (“How to Zine It Yourself”) features the zinesters Isabel Ann Castro and Natasha I Hernandez of St. Sucia Zine, as well as Jenna Freedman of the Barnard Zine Library.

Cristen and Caroline share their thoughts on having a zine collection at a library: “That was an inspiring thing about being at the library and being surrounded by what basically looked like pieces of copier stapled together, but being in a ‘real library’ and around the corner from literally the classics, Jenna’s telling the world by having this collection that these zines are just as valuable as all those other books and all those other ways of knowing.”

The perennial question: “are zines going mainstream??” is asked in a new article from alternative news publication OK Whatever. Journalist Jessie Schiewe’s article, “Zines Are Popping Up in Public Libraries Across the U.S.,” provides perspectives from professor of media and culture Stephen Duncombe as well as librarians Agatha Burstein (Olympia Timberland Library), Jenna Freedman (Barnard College), Tim Devin (Somerville Public Library), and Ziba Perez Zehdar (Long Beach Public Library).

For those who have been curious about the status of the ZAPP (Zine Archive and Publishing Project) collection at the Seattle Public Library, this status report published in the Seattle Review of Books features photos and information about where things stand now: https://seattlereviewofbooks.com/notes/2019/02/05/it-s-been-a-long-long-time.

Derek Potts, zine librarian at DePaul University’s Special Collections and Archives, was featured in this Chicago Magazine article, “Why Anthony Rayson, Anarchist Grandpa, Sends Zines to Prison.”

Zines have long been a way for marginalized communities to record their stories and organize. Zine libraries are making sure those histories aren’t forgotten.

“How Zine Libraries Are Highlighting Marginalized Voices” is an excellent BuzzFeed article by Rosie Knight features zine librarians Jenna Freedman, Alana LaBeaf, Dawn Wing, zinester Zahra Swanzy, and art historian Marissa Del Toro discussing the power of zines.

Michigan State University has an extensive collection of zines, and many of them are on display on the new punk exhibit in MSU Libraries Special Collections. Exhibit curator Joshua Barton describes the zeitgeist of punk zines and highlights the uniqueness of the collection in this article from the Lansing City Pulse.

Ingrid, one of the folks who helps run the Salford Zine Library in England, has a great post up about zine librarianship. She discusses issues that come in a zine library and the approaches the volunteer staff take in addressing those issues, which are informed by but can be different than those in traditional libraries.

In this post Ingrid touches on digitization, cataloging, and the broad concern about respecting and seeking out zinesters’ consent in having very personal material available within a public space. Looking forward to reading more of Ingrid’s thoughts as the SZL volunteers thoughtfully contend with these important considerations.

Librarian Kate Kitchens’s most recent zine is “Librarian field notes : a zine on queer outreach ideas, reflection, and a perfect cat named Trout.” She wrote about the zine in ALA’s Intersections blog in January 2018. Kate describes the zine as “a guide for librarians who want to provide services to support their queer patrons but don’t know where to start or find it too daunting of a task,” as well as “for librarians who are seeking to better understand queer communities and their unique needs.”

You can view the zine online or contact Kate to get a printable version!

Volume 43, Special Issue 2 (April 2018) of Art Libraries Journal is dedicated entirely to zine library collections in the United Kingdom. The issue’s articles include:

• What we do, is (still) secret? Collection, care and accessibility of zines in UK collections / Siobhan Britton
• Developing and raising awareness of the zine collections at the British Library / Debbie Cox
• Gathering the margins: the London College of Communication Library Zine Collection / Ruth Collingwood, Leila Kassir
• Developing the Stuart Hall Library Zines Collection at Iniva / Stephanie Moran
• Zines at the Wellcome Library: an interview with Nicola Cook and Loesja Vigour / Nicola Cook, Loesja Vigour
• Everyone has something worthwhile to say: an introduction to Salford Zine Library / Steve Carlton, Ingrid Francis
• UK and Ireland Zine Librarians: doing it ourselves / Holly Callaghan

The latest episode of library podcast Circulating Ideas is an interview with Matthew Murray, Visiting Library Fellow at the University of Nevada Las Vegas and one of the long-time organizers of the Zine Pavilion. The first fifteen minutes of the episode are dedicated to discussing zines and zines in libraries. He also shares info about his own zine, Two-Fisted Library Stories! In the rest of the episode Matthew talks about his other pop-culture-inspired interests, including maker projects, comics, and podcasts, as well as the podcast he co-hosts, Book Club for Masochists.

Take some time to learn about all the cool stuff that Matthew makes happen!

The fourth episode of Read and Distribute, the zine-related podcast run by Canada’s Broken Pencil magazine, featured Marta Chudolinska, Learning Zone Librarian at the Ontario College of Art and Design University. Listen to hear more about Marta’s work in maintaining the OCAD zine library, along with members of the student organization OCAD U Zine Collective. The zine library recently celebrated their tenth anniversary!

Our fellow zine librarians across the pond, UK and Ireland Zine Librarians (website, Facebook, Twitter), have a great guest post up from one of the founders of the newly formed Edinburgh Zine Library. Lindsay talks about reaching out to the public library in Edinburgh to start a collection and some of the challenges their collective encountered along the way. It’s well worth a read for those who are starting (or growing) zine collections of their own! Check it out at https://uizl.wordpress.com/2017/10/30/edinburgh-zine-library-opening/.