ZINE COLLECTION

The City Library has almost 2,000 zines in its collection. Since the collection’s founding in 1997, the library has hosted events celebrating zines, a tradition that grew into the launch of Alt Press Fest in 2008. The collection was started by Julie Bartel and has been maintained by librarians like Brooke Young, Rachel Getts, and Pablo Abarca. The collection aims to provide a space for alternative press that otherwise would be undermined by more popular mainstream media sources. This brings different narratives and information access to communities. 

SUBMIT A ZINE

If you would like to submit a zine for consideration to the library’s collection, bring a copy of your zine to any of the locations that house the Zine Library:

• Main Library
• Day-Riverside Branch
• Marmalade Branch
• Sweet Branch
• Sprague Branch

Submit your zine to a librarian. At the Main Library, submit your zine via the Level 2 donation box.

HISTORY OF ZINES

What is a zine, you say? Well, it's usually an 8½ x 11-inch sheet folded into a little pocket booklet, or sometimes it’s a fully illustrated comic with the look and feel of a commercially published book. So, the format of a zine can vary. The main thing about a zine is that it is usually done by one person or small group, and they are self-publishing information that is either for a small niche community or touching on alternative topics and opinions. Some zines continue a DIY feel or aesthetic look, but really any published work can be a zine as long as the creator intends it to be. 

Historically, zines have been used as a platform by marginalized communities, cultures, sexuality, and alternative forms of arts, to share information. Zines — short for “magazines” — have appeared in various forms since 1517. Modern zines first appeared in the 1920s and have evolved through the decades. In today’s zine era, communities that revolve around music, art, and culture are expressed through alternative forms of press, hence the name Alt Press Fest. 

_{SOURCE: Cornell University Library, 8/10/2023, Zines: 101 History and Culture}