Zines from the Borough

Zines from the Borough:Teaching with the Brooklyn College Library Zine Collection

Today’s Workshop/Discussion• Global view: What is a Zine?• Local view: a bit about the Brooklyn College Library Zine Collection• Application: Opportunities for Teaching and Exploration with Zines (discussion and time to look at materials)

What is a Zine?In Short, Zines Are: • Intentional print publications People make zines because they want to cut, paste, fold and stamp (zines are not blogs!) • Typically created on a photocopier • Distributed by hand, through the mail, or at events

What is a Zine?Zines are also: • Self-Published, Do-It-Yourself materials No special equipment or permissions are needed to publish: All you need is a pen, some paper, and access to a photocopier to create a zine • Labors of love, usually sold for a few dollars to cover printing costs • Inclusive media: they welcome others to create their own work and to get involved

What is inside a Zine?In terms of content, zines can be Zines “…can be about toasters, food, awritten about any topic that you favorite television show, thriftcan think of (and perhaps more stores, anarchism, candy, bunnies, sexuoften, about topics that you alhaven’t ever thought about). abuse, architecture, war, gingerbread men, activism, retirementOften zinesters begin publishing homes, comics, eating disorders, Barbiebecause they feel that topics that dolls-you name it. There are personalare important to them are being zines, music zines, and sportoverlooked or ignored in the zines, zines about politics and zinesmainstream media. about pop culture.” -Julie Bartel, From A to Zine: Building a Winning Zine Collection in Your Library

What’s NOT a Zine?

Zines at Brooklyn College

The Brooklyn College Library Zine CollectionOur collection primarily consists of:• Print zines. This is a print zine collection, and thus no e-zines or online materials are accepted as part of the collection at this time.• Zines that are connected to Brooklyn, support the interests of the students at Brooklyn College, or would support the curriculum of Brooklyn College.• Zines made by Brooklyn College students or alumni–any zine made by our students or alumni will be accepted into the collection (regardless of where it was created or any connections to Brooklyn).• Zines about zines, zine-making and zine culture.

What has been collected (so far)• Zines from Brooklyn • Brooklyn! And many more (we have more than 400 zines waiting to be cataloged right now)• Zines made by graduates of Brooklyn College • A number of zines by Vikki Law: Don’t Leave Your Friends Behind, Tenacious: a Zine of Art & Writings by Women in Prison • S.P.A.W.N. and Guava Shakti/Ripe Guava, zines made at Brooklyn College before Zohra Saed and Robert Booras founded Upset Press • Homos in Herstory and Twinks for Sale by Elvis Bakaitis• Zines by current Brooklyn College Students • Wittgenstein, a zine made by the students who were in Ramsey Scott’s English class

Student Involvement in the CollectionMy hope is that this collection can becomenot merely a repository but a living archive ofstudent life at Brooklyn College, and that itwill inspire students to make and share theirown zines.I hope to collect the work of Brooklyn Collegestudents and to share it on our shelvesalongside all of the other work in the library.My goal is for the zine collection to be usedby students, but further, that they will alsoshape it to reflect their ownhistories, interests and experiences. Also: opportunities for Internships and other Special Projects

Teaching with ZinesA few ideas: • Classes could come to the library to view the collection and to do research (about alternative publications, media, art history, book history, the history of Brooklyn, etc.) • Zines as portfolio projects—to showcase class work at the end of a semester, etc. • Zine-making workshops • Zine Readings, zine-maker visits, etc. • Information Literacy through zines? • Brooklyn, as seen through zines and self-publishing

Other Ideas for Teaching with the Zine Collection?

What to Watch For • The grand opening of the Browsing Collection • Any Brooklyn zines: please send them to us & tell zinester friends about our collection • News, updates and more information at the Zines @ Brooklyn College website

http://brooklyncollegezines.commons.gc.cuny.edu/More information about the collection as well as special projects to come! Prof. Alycia Sellie Library Department asellie@brooklyn.cuny.edu

Zines from the Borough

by Alycia on Dec 20, 2011

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Zines from the Borough — Presentation Transcript