New circulating zine collection at Kansas City Public Library

A blog post titled Representing More Voices and Connecting Patrons With a Second Zine Collection (Coming Soon) shares info about zines at the Kansas City Public Library. While they currently have a non-circulating collection in the Missouri Valley Special Collections which were collected by donations, the new circulating collection will be purchased from the creator. Anyone in the KCPL area can suggest a purchase just as they would for books by local authors.

 

New book: “Zines in Libraries”

A new book on zines in libraries, edited by Lauren DeVoe and Sara Duff, was published this month by ALA Editions. “Zines in Libraries: Selecting, Purchasing, and Processing” includes chapters on circulation, preservation, acquisitions, collection development, and more, including information specifically about zines in school libraries and the Zine Union Catalog. Some chapters have open access copies available; we’re collecting links to institutional repositories.cover of Zines in Libraries book

 

“How Zines Can Help You Document Social Justice Movements”

Cristina Favretto, Head of Special Collections at the University of Miami Libraries, gave a great presentation on the history of zines on October 21: “All You Need is Paper and Passion: How Zines Can Help You Document Social Justice Movements.” The presentation also had suggestions for building relevant and responsive zine collections.

The session recording and the slides are now available.screenshot of presentation with title screen "All you need is paper and passion"

Contemporary Collecting: DIY Publishing webinar

The Bibliographical Society of America hosted a webinar on July 28 about DIY Publishing. Miarosa Ciallella, a zinester and library worker, talks about zines as activism and zines as a way to resist technocracy. Ciallella talks about how we know that social media is oppressive and how zines are “micro-archives that reflect and reject dominant narratives of historical moments.” Ciallella argues that we should start mentally investing in DIY print culture as a way to document history. (The other half of the presentation, about real estate flyers from Real Estate Trailblazers, is also interesting, though not as relevant to this site!)

Find the full description of this presentation at: memberplanet.com/events/bsa/contemp-collecting-diy and the recording at youtube.com/watch?v=BqxLE0zh5Xo.

screenshot of a slide reading "Technology and zines" with points including algorithmic bias and zines as micro-archives of experience

Quaranzines in library collections

screenshot of the article written, along with a photo of a zine

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.

not a zine

I was disappointed that we didn’t get around to discussing this at the collection develpment session at the Zine Librarians (un)Conference: what are the factors that help you determine that a publication is not a zine?

Of course there are zines that meet one or more of the following criteria, but this list is a place to start. Please add yours in the comments.

  • has an ISBN or ISSN
  • has a masthead
  • not self-distributed
  • has a third person bio
  • not self-published (!)
  • motivated by desire for fame or fortune
  • makes a distinct profit
  • price ends in .95
  • has a spine
  • has any paid staff
  • reads like the author is auditioning for a book deal