Cataloging Zines

1
Cataloging Zines

• Jayne Ahrens
• LIBR155/Fall 2003
• Serials Management Issue

2
What are zines?

• The Book of Zines defines zines (pronounced
  "zeens,") as cut-and-paste, self-published
  magazines reproduced at Kinko's or on the sly at
  work and distributed through mail order, small
  magazine shops, record stores and word of mouth.
• According to Urbandictinary.com a zine is a
  crudely-made magazine often dedicated to the
  thoughts and musings of its creator, and
  sometimes devoted to a particular art form or
  celebrity (fanzine).
• Short for magazine.
• Alternative Press. Desktop publications.
  Underground Press.

3
A very Brief Incomplete History of Zines

• 1436 Printing press is invented.
• Late 1700s Popular magazines come on the scene.
• 1930 The first zine is published, The Comet, a
  science fiction zine composed mostly of articles
  on science.
• 1940s 50s Fanzines (mostly sci-fi).
• 1960s Underground publications Comiczines.
• 1970s Punk zines music zines.
• 1990s With the proliferation of self-serve copy
  marts, the zine scene takes off with pop zines,
  personal zines, hobby zines, feminist zines, gay
  zines, travel zines, sex zines, collector zines,
  fetish zines, etcyou get the idea.
• A little later The personal computer making zine
  creation easier, slicker and quicker spawns a
  desktop publishing revolution and the Internet
  spawns the e-zine.
• The Present Librarians scratch their collective
  head trying to figure out how to catalog zines.

4
Cataloging Zines

• Zines cover a wide spectrum of formats, styles
  and levels of organization. Some are very well
  organized making them easy to catalog like the
  RottenBoat zine.
• On this zine theres a date of publication, a
  zine number and a consistent title.
• This publication would not pose much of a problem
  to catalogers.

5
Not Always Easy...

• Attrition is epidemic in the culture of zinedom.
  Zines can come into existence with one or two
  issues and then disappear. Also titles may change
  and publication is often sporadic. These are some
  of things that make cataloging zines a difficult
  endeavor.
• Heres a zine that ran for three issues with a
  sporadic publication schedule. The issue number
  is pretty clear but can you tell what its title
  is? Nope, not ROAR. Its called thirteen zine.

6
Cataloging Considerations

• Physical description
• Title
• Author
• Publisher
• Year place of publication
• Subject heading

7
Cataloging a Zine

• Science-Fiction Five-Yearly is a very well
  organized zine that started in 1951and has been
  published every five years since. At right is
  cover art from November 1966, Issue 4.
• Physical description 8.5 by 11, 1 mm thick, 38
  pages.
• (Next issue due out 2006.)

8
Table of Contents

• Title It gives us a lot of information about
  this zine.
• Author
• Publisher
• Year Place of publication
• SCIENCE FICTION FIVE-YEARLY is published twice
  every decade for the Fantasy Amateur Press
  Association and sundry other obscure reasons by
  the underground remnants of the once-mighty
  Quandrical Press. The editor is Lee Hoffman, Good
  Humored and Condescending BNF Emeritus. Hot air
  herein is through the courtesy of the Fort Mudge
  Steam Calliope Company and opinions expressed
  herein are not necessarily. Issue 4. 1966.
• Be alert for the next issue of SFFY, due on or
  about 1971.
• Lee Hoffman -- basement - 54 East 7th Street -
  New York, N. Y. , 10003

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Subject Heading

• This is the hard part for the cataloger. What
  subject heading should zines be put under?
  Obviously theres not a Library of Congress
  heading for zines.
• Library catalogs use some of the following
  subject headings when cataloging zines.
• Fanzines
• Underground press publications
• Non-LC heading of Zines
• These can be cuttered further by subject
  subdivision, geographical area, etc. Some zines
  could be cataloged under literature headings
  (Popular literature--United States, etc.).

10
Zine Subject Thesaurus Subject headings are used
to locate zines on specific topics. Subject
headings can be combined to search for zines that
deal with multiple topics or subtopics.

• Abortion Abuse
• Activism Adolescence
• Addiction Aesthetics
• African Americans Agnosticism
• AIDS/HIV Alternative
• Analysis Anarchism
• Animals Anti-Nuclear
• Anti-Pornography Anti-Racism
• Anti-Semitism Anti-Smoking
• Anti-War Art
• Asian Americans Atheism
• Biotechnology Cars
• Censorship Children
• Computers Conspiracy
• Control Cooperation
• Crime Criticism
• Culture Disabilities
• Discrimination Drugs
• Economics Education

• Energy Environment Family Farms
• Fashion Fat Feminism Fiction
• Film Food Freedom Gay Men
• Globalization Government Grrrl Power Health
  Care
• History Homeless Housing Internet
• Labor Latino Law Liberation
• Lesbians Life Style Marxism Media
• Medicine Men Money Music
• Native Americans Oppression Poetry
• Policy Politics Pollution
• Pop Culture Pornography Privacy Protest
• Prostitution Prison Privacy Radio
• Religion Research Revenge Rights
• Rural Satire Sexuality Smoking
• Socialism Speech Spirituality Sports
• Surveillance Technology Television Theater
• Theology Theory Urban Weapons
• Welfare Women Work Youth

11
Libraries with Zine Collections

• Several libraries are beginning to collect and
  preserve zines, including the New York State
  Library, Washington State University Library, and
  the San Francisco Public Library.
• New York State Library has a collection of zines
  that occupies 300 cubic feet of shelf space and
  includes roughly 15,000 titles. Its the biggest
  and most comprehensive collection of its kind in
  the world.
• Zines are located in special collections
  departments in the libraries.
• Book Arts and Special Collections Center
• Little Magazine Collection
• Rare Books and Special Collections
• Popular Culture Library
• Zines are usually non-circulating and must be
  used in the library but they may be photocopied.
• There are also many small private libraries that
  have zine collections.

12

• Minneapolis Community Technical College Library
  has a collection of about 2,500 zines. This
  collection was compiled by Chris Dodge, librarian
  at Utne Reader and the college circulation
  supervisor, John Daniels. The school accepts
  zines for their collection at
• Minneapolis College
• Library Zine Collection
• 1501 Hennepin Avenue
• Minneapolis, MN 55403
• The schools zine catalog can be accessed and
  searched by keyword, title, author or subject at
  http//www.minneapolis.edu/library/zines/

13
Bibliography Resources

• Chepesiuk, Ron. The Zine Scene Libraries
  Preserve the Latest Trend in Publishing.
  American Libraries. February, 1997 p. 68-70.
• Dodge, Chris. "Media junkie review. Utne Reader.
  November/December 1998
• Gunderloy, Mike, and Janice Cari Goldberg. The
  World of Zines A Guide to the Independent
  Magazine Revolution. New York Penguin Books,
  1992.
• Rowe, Chip. The Book of Zines - Readings from the
  Fringe. 2003. Henry Holt Co., Inc.
  http//www.zinebook.com/
• Eland, Thomas. Alternative Material. September
  15, 2003. Minneapolis Community Technical
  College. http//www.mctc.mnscu.edu/Library/pages/a
  lternative.htm
• New York State Library. October 23, 2003.
  http//www.nysl.nysed.gov/
• Urban On-line Dictionary. November 13, 2003.
  http//www.urbandictionary.com/