'A community involvement and collaboration case study; the forgotten zine archive' presentation by Mick O Dwyer & Tom Maher at #ASL2015 'The inside out library: collaboration, inspiration, transformation' delivered Feb 26th 2015

1. A community involvement and
collaboration case study
The Forgotten Zine Archive
Mick O’Dwyer & Tom Maher

2. What you’ll learn today
★ What a zine is
★ What the Forgotten Zine
Archive is
★ Why libraries should care
about alternative
publications
★ Details of our community
collaboration projects
★ Future plans for the archive

3. Who we are and where we’re based

4. When did this all start?
★ Founded by Ciarán Walsh in 2004
around 1200 zines
★ Moved to Seomra Spraoi - 2005
★ Venice Biennale - 2005
★ Glucksman Gallery - 2006
★ Back to Seomra Spraoi - 2007
~the mystery years~
★ Capstone project - 2013

5. What is a zine?
★ “... non-commercial, non-professional,
small-circulation magazines
which their creators produced
published and distributed
themselves.”
★ Typically on countercultural
topics, but not limited to them

6. What is a zine?
★ Early pamphleting, 18th century
★ Sci-fi fanzines, 1930s
★ Beatnik poetry, 1950s
★ Counterculture and hippy movement,
1960s
★ Punk, 1970s
★ Xeroxing, 1980s
★ Riot Grrrl, 1990s
★ Zines today!

7. My Tender Gender All Mixed Up In A Blender

8. Corner Store

9. Dig

10. Why should academic & special
librarians care?
★ Powerful collaboration and outreach tool
for communities and institutions
★ Demonstrable scholarly interest in zines
as primary source historical documents
and design case studies
★ As vendors conglomerate and collections
homogenise the need for alternative
voices grows ever greater - after all,
those most represented by repositories
are those most remembered by society.

11. Why should academic & special
librarians care?
★ “... any collection of information
materials preserved through the
generations will inevitably
influence how we interpret the
past. Conversely, the absence of
information material silences
historical voices, which are then
lost to history.”

12. Anchor Archive Zine Library

13. Brooklyn College Library

14. Archiv der Jugendkulturen

15. Dublin Zine
Collective
★ Sister Projects - Dublin
Zine Collection
★ Provide a space and
materials for people to
hang-out and make zines
★ We offer a not-for-profit
printing service
★ Organise zine making
workshops, zine fairs,
film screenings etc

16. Zine-making workshop

17. Exhibitions and
Zine Fairs
★ Organised an exhibition of
the Forgotten Zine Archive
★ Collaborated with local
zinesters to run the Dublin
Zine Fair
★ Showcased an array of
talented independent artists
★ Highlighted material that is
unknown or underrepresented
in traditional libraries

18. Radical librarianship
★ We have taken part in several
community based events run by anti-
establishment countercultures
★ Serve the information needs of
marginalised social groups
★ Held pop-up archives at the
Anarchist Book Fair, ‘Punx for
Palestine’ festival, and the
‘Festival for Choice
★ Radical Reference: Answers for those
who question authority

19. Generating awareness
★ Published articles in the academic journals
Brio and Archive Journal
★ Created and distributed our own zine -
LibroPunk
★ Won awards for poster presentations at
the 2014 iConference in Berlin, and NPDI
SHINE 2014
★ Blog posts on Libfocus, radio interviews on
Dublin City FM and features in Totally
Dublin magazine
★ Greatest success has been with social
media - Facebook and Twitter

20. Zine of the day:
Dishwasher by Pete Jordan

21. Zine of the day:
It’s a disgrace, Joe by Fuchsia Macaree

23. Collaborating with zine libraries and librarians

24. Future plans
★ Ideally, become THE
repository for zines
in Ireland
★ Monthly pop-up
archives in café’s
around Dublin
★ Independents Day
2015, the Anarchist
Book Fair, Lady and
Trans* Fest

25. Promotion Conclusion

26. So long, and thanks for all the fish!