CORE BOOKS

Alternative Literature: a Practical Guide for Librarians
By Chris Atton, published by Gower Publishing Company; 1996.
ISBN: 0566066597
This book provides solid argument for maintaining a balanced collection of alternative materials and serves as an aide in selecting and acquiring quality alternative press materials, it also includes a detailed bibliography which will serve as a fantastic reference for zine librarians.

Alternative Materials in Libraries
By James P. Danky ed, published by Scare Crow Press; 1982.
ISBN: 0810815087
Examines the relationship between librarians and the producers of materials for libraries such as book and periodical publishers. A moving political read which holds to the belief that librarians have the power to affect their communities by using alternative materials in their collections. A most cherished book for any librarian with a bent toward making a difference.

From A to Zine: Building a Winning Zine Collection in Your Library
By Julie Bartel, Published by the American Library Association; August, 2004.
ISBN: 0-838908861
A guide specifically for zine collection development in the library. Thorough in dealing with zine purchasing, zine history, zine cataloging, and promoting. The author shares her experiences with beginning a zine collection at the Salt Lake City Public Library. A must have resource for librarians who are interested in beginning a zine or alternative press collection.

Thinking Outside the Book : Alternatives for Today's Teen Library Collections
By C. Allen Nichols, published by Libraries Unlimited; Feburuary 28, 2004.
ISBN: 1-59158059-5
Written with young adult services in mind, particularly collection development. This book provides new ways to promote library services to this age group. A particularly helpful resource for the young adult’s librarian interested in beginning a zine or small magazine collection. Includes a bibliography of collection development resources.

Notes from the Underground: Zines & the Politics of Alternative Culture
By Stephen Duncombe, published by Verso; October, 1997.
ISBN: 1-85984-158-9
A thorough academic but enjoyable examination of zines and their impact on pop-culture as a political/social instrument for change. Looks at the pros and cons of the impact zines have had on society. Provides thorough examination of zine history and their relevance in contemporary society.

Zines! :Incendiary Interviews with Independent Publishers, Vol. 1&2
By Vivian Vale, published by V/Search Publications; June, 1996.
ISBN: 0-9650469-0-7
Includes reviews of independent publications which build on the topic and subtopics of self-publishing. This volume is authoritative and used as a textbook in many Universities as an aide in illuminating underground publishing culture. The second volume is a comprehensive guidebook to the Zine Movement, and includes zine history and a how to guide for self-publishing.

ZINE FILM/MEDIA CLIPS

A Hundred Dollars and a T-Shirt: A Documentary About Zines in the Northwest US.
A film showcasing zine publishers, readers, and an overall introduction to the zine itself. This is a great tool for public libraries that have a zine interest.

CORE ANTHOLOGIES

The Book of Zines: Readings from the Fringe
By Chip Rowe. Published by Henry Holt & Company; June, 1997.
ISBN: 978-0805050837
A collection of zines from a wide variety of underground publishers, this book contains excellent writings on pop culture and is very inexpensive.

Factsheet 5 Zine Reader
By Seth Friedman. Published by Three Rivers Press; 1st ed. June 24, 1997.
ISBN: 0-60980-001-9
An anthology of zine articles selected by Seth Friedman, then –editor of well-known “zine bible”. Contains a brief but informative history of zines and is a good introductory reader for any librarian wanting to get a handle on the world of zines.

From Girls to Grrlz: A History of Women’s Comics from Teens to Zines
By Trina Robins. Published by DIANE; October, 2004.
ISBN: 0811821994
A compilation of 20th century women’s comics chronicling women’s comic artists, authors, and their charactacters from the bombshells of the 40s to the punk rock grrlz of the present.

Out Your Backdoor: A Zine Anthology
By Jeff Potter. Published by Out Your Backdoor Press, March 15, 2001.
ISBN: 1892590360
A compilation of issues 1-8of the zine “Out your back door” includes a variety of authors who write of personal tales, involving travel, and adventure. An excellent resource which conveys the DIY culture of zinester mentality.

The World of Zines: A Guide to the Independent Magazine Revolution
By Mike Gunderloy. Published by Penguin; October, 1992.
ISBN: 014016720X
An anthology of some of the best zines to have appeared in Factsheet Five.

The Zine yearbook vol. 8
By Jen Angel, ed. Published by Penguin; August, 2004.
ISBN: 1-932360-36-0
An annually published anthology of zines, includes the best of underground publishing; includes stories, art, and articles.

Zines
By Liz Farrelly. Published by Booth-Clibborn Editions; October, 2001.
ISBN: 1-86154-224-0
Compiled by team of “Pop theorists”, this book includes a national and international range of current zines put into historical context of the zine movement. Heavy with zine illustrations as well as writings, a bit more pricey than the others but worth it.

CORE ARTICLES

*article is hyperlinked

Access to Zines
By C.Goldberg. Whole Earth Review; Summer 91, Issue 71, p. 104.

Offers sound advice on how to gain access to zines. Written by Mike Gunderloy, authoritative author of review zine- Factsheet Five.

*Countering Marginalization: Incorporating Zines into the Library
By Jason Kucsma. Counterpoise, Vol. 5, No. 2

Argues for the inclusion of zines and underground press materials in libraries. Focuses on importance of libraries forming strong relationships with independent publishers.

Pushing the Boundaries: Zines and Libraries

By Chris Dodge. Wilson Library Bulletin; May 1995, Vol. 69, Issue 9, p. 26-30.

*Scratching the Surface: Zines in Libraries

By Annie Knight. San Jose State University, School of Library and Information Science, USA, May 2004.

Examines library collection development policies in regards to the treatment of zines and looks at the various ways in which libraries have attemped to solve the zine related problems of: cataloguing, acquisitions, and patron access. Knight also examines the impacts of zine collections on their communities.

*Street Libraries: Infoshops & Alternative Reading Rooms
By Chris Dodge. American Libraries v. 29, no.5, May, 1998.p.62-63.

This article broadly defines and summarizes the purpose and history behind info shops. Dodge presents the benefits and problems of alternative information centers and explains how librarians might apply some of their practices. Also provides a link to more information on homemade libraries

*Unearthing the Underground: a Comparative Study of Zines in Libraries

By Kate Paris. Dissertation for the MA in Information Services Management at London Metropolitan University, August 2004.

Looks at zine library collections across the United States and their staff. She compares and contrasts the initiation and development of such collections and touches on the various themes and sub themes behind these collections. Examines how libraries have tackled the challenge of organizing zine collections.

*Your Zine Toolkit: A DIY Collection:
You will want to check out this article by Jenna Freedman, packed with everything you would want to know as a novice zine librarian with links to boot!

*ZAPPed; A Seattle Literary Center is Going Underground, Collecting ‘Zines’ as a Sign of our Times
By Brangien Davis. Seattle Times, Washington: April 28, 2003.

Highlights the challanges of housing more than 7,000 zines: zine cataloging, collecting, storing for public retrieval. ZAPP house also teaches workshops on zine making and creating and small press publising.

*Zines in Public Libraries: Considerations and Suggestions
By Cheryl Zobel. Counterpoise, April 1999, 5-10.
Zobel lists the benefits of having a zine collection in the public library and contrasts these benefits with problems that might arise from having a zine collection in your library. She offers suggestions as to how to implement a zine collection whilst making sure the library who takes this step is fully informed.

Zines in Libraries: A Culture Preserved
By Julie Herrada and Billie Aul. Serials Review, Summer 1995, Vol. 10, p. 79-88.
Discusses the difficulties when attempting to organize zines into a classification scheme, gives realistic advise and reasons to face this challenge and develop a zine collection.
Pushing the Boundaries: Zines and Libraries. Librarian, Chris Dodge makes arguments for libraries to collect zines based on the facts that they cover topics relevant to young adults that are not covered by any other media.

Zines and the Library
By Richard A. Stoddart and Teresa Kiser. ALA/LRTS vol. 48, No. 3, July 2004, p. 191-198.
Article highlights the collecting, cataloging, and archiving challenges that libraries face in approaching zine collections. Looks to the few libraries who have met these challenges to inspire other librarians to solve the problem creatively.

*The Zine Scene: Libraries Preserve the Latest Trend in Publishing
By Ron Chepesiuk. American Libraries, February 1997, p.68-70.

Overview focusing on several libraries which collect zines, including special collections at San Francisco Public Library, Washington State University, DePaul University, Michigan State University, and the New York State Library.

CORE WEBSITES

Chris Dodge: Street Librarian
Chris Dodge’s street librarian page provides links to a comprehensive zine directory, an annotated list of articles and books about zines, links to zine blogs and chat groups, collectives, distros, and info shops. Any one interested in underground publishing, alternative librarians, and alternative libraries will find the articles on this site up to date and excellent.

Grrrl Zine Network
This website provides links to guides, papers, thesis’s, dissertations, and journal and newspapers articles on zines; including a link to articles concerning zines in libraries. Also included are links to zine resources, and interviews of zine publishers.

How Does one use the Dublin Core Metadada Format to Encode a Collection of Zines
An inquiry page project that thouroughly investigates and seeks to answer the question, how to catalog zines? Includes several links to zines.

How to Start a Zine Library in Ten Easy Steps: A Mini-guide for Public Librarians
by Miriam DesHarnais, this article outlines essential important steps for any librarian to consider when starting a zine collection. Short, consise, and helpful.

Library Card: The Baltimore County Public LIbrary Zine Collection
A zine which chronicals BCPL's collection from the beginning, with information on cataloging zines, collection development, etc.

Owen Thomas’s Bibliography: More Matter with Less Art
Own Thomas’s webpage is deceivingly simple. He has created an A-Z directory of zine publishers, as well as a directory with links to zine reviews and zine review zines. Other zine related articles can be found under the heading “zine pages” this also includes related articles and links. There is also a link to posts in att.zines.

Zine Librarians
This list is welcome to all who are interested and active zine archivists. It is a think tank for zine librarianship on relevant important topics such as collection, preservation, cataloging, classification, programming, etc.

Salt Lake City Library
Salt Lake City Public Library is an excellent web resource. Their zine library has become a beacon for many zine collectors affiliated with public libraries under the guidance of librarian Julie Bartel, author of From A-Zine, Building a Winning Zine Collection. This Site includes links to review zines, zine libraries, and Distros world wide, as well as helpful general zine information.


Zine World: A Readers guide to the Underground Press
Zine World is completely run by a volunteer staff which impressively reviews all forms of media (excluding music) that is not produced corporately. Their in-depth website provides helpful links to distros, infoshops, zine libraries, zine-related events and other review zines.

Zine Book
Chip Rowe’s self described resource guide to zines, e-zines, and zine culture. This site provides an annotated directory to zine libraries, archives, galleries, distros, info shops, publishers, reviews, books and articles about zines, legal issues, internet zine discussion groups, online catalogs, and more!

WHAT, HOW, WHY- an explanation

This resouce was first compiled by Virginia Allison October 26, 2005 for Dr. Jeff Weddle’s Collection Development Class at The University of Alabama

Introduction
As a fledgling library student I became interested in the validity of zines as quality material worthy of attention and collection in a library setting.

Zines are self published magazines created out of a desire to share information rather than make a profit. They capture the best of contemporary American popular culture; they are artifacts of undocumented America. Zines providing a unique method for resistance, self expression and creative innovation.

The purpose of this bibliography is to provide a concise resource that will equip the novice zine collector with the most direct and helpful zine websites and resources available.

This bibliography is limited in scope and designed to aid in zine acquisition. There are some sources that include information on e-zines by default; the focus of this bibliography is designed to be informant of print zines only. There are dozens of zine websites, and articles varying in quality available in many formats; the sources chosen will aide in the building and defending of a zine collection for your library.

The sources included are on the subject of zine collecting, zine creators, and zine content. Printed and bound zine anthologies are also included as they are a great introduction to the broad span and personality of the zine“scene.” The Websites cited offer particularly helpful information as to the process of zine acquisition and provide links to thousands of reviews and zine distributors. These core authoritative resources are well organized, and will aide in building a solid zine collection whether it be for a public or private collection. All websites are active as of 3/9/07.

Methodology & Maintenance
My initial search for zine collection resources began online using Academic databases such as Academic Search Premier, and Proquest; I used a variety of search terms: zines and libraries, zines and underground publishing, zines and small press. I spent a considerable amount of time chasing down retrieved citations, examining them for their validity pertaining to the topic of this bibliography. I found several fantastic declarations in support of zine collections as well as articles that point to the most authoritative manner by which to collect and organize zines. I also found reviews of libraries and institutions that have begun the challenging work of zine collecting.

I expanded my search to include resources not indexed in Academic databases. I selected articles from bibliographies that specifically involved zine collections in libraries or articles that supported zine collections, these sources are included in the bibliography.

The bibliography also provides access to “distros” (zine distributors), info shops, and onsite opportunities to purchase zines. These links also include zine reviews and zine review zines that are helpful aids in building a zine collection. I chose these websites because they provide the most useful information and links concerning the aspects of zine acquisition. Paring these sites down was a daunting task as the internet is full of zine websites. Although some of the links overlap from site to site, I found that these websites covered the most ground concerning collection development of quality zines and zine related content. It should be noted that these websites will prove to be invaluable resources not only for their site content but for the hyperlinks included within the sites. I found this to be the most economical way to build my bibliography.

The Books I’ve included deal with the impact zines have in our society, specifically how they may do so in a library collection, as well as books that deal with library collection issues pertinent to zine acquisition. They are listed chronologically. The anthologies I’ve included are based on published online reviews. I chose those that cover the broad and best interests of the zine world, including compiled interviews, stories, and illustrations, thus assuring quality, interesting reading that showcases a quality sample of selections from excellent zines. Additional resources found in this bibliography include a film and mailing list are included as they are relevant and helpful tools keeping in line with the purpose of this bibliography.

This bibliography is a work in progress and is certainly not comprehensive. If you have any suggestions or additions to include, please contact me at: Virginia_allison@yahoo.com

Conclusion
Zines are valid and unique artifacts of culture. Zines perpetuate social, political, and economic awareness in that they provide multiple viewpoints that exist in the world that are overlooked by traditional commercially produced media.

This collection development project was born out of my personal intrigue concerning the existence of zines in librares. My bibliography while innocent in its humble beginnings soon capsized into a monolithic two month project… As the zine world is covered by academia, media, and the prolific youth; finding and narrowing down my sources proved to be an arduous task. I found my self returning to my sources with an iron will, a heavy finger on the delete button, feverishly chanting the purpose of this document as I selected, deselected, and selected some more.

The resulting list is a product of hours of searching; discerning and narrowing of citations based on my criteria. It is not an exhaustive tool but is intended to serve as a primary source for the novice zine collector, or librarian interested in knowing how to go about creating a zine collection, how others have approached this task and exactly what zines and the zine culture is made of. May all who use this tool find it a helpful aide for the greater purpose, and forgive me for any blunders and/or excluded sources… I have already added many very important suggestions and am open to yours!

With gratitude,

Virginia Allison, October 26, 2005.