Zine talk presented on the 31st October 2013 at the ALIA National Library & Information Technicians Symposium 2013 held at the National Library of Australia.

1. Cataloguers – adventurers of the library
world!
Elaine Bulluss
&
Debbie Cox

2. Zines: what are they and a
potted zine history

3. What is a zine?
• Name abbreviation of maga{zine}
• Underground publications
• Small i.e. Usually less than 20 pages
• Usually self-published
• Non-commercial
• Monograph or serial
• Be:
– About anything
– Made by anything

4. Zines
“Zines may assume a recognisably magazine
derived format (evidencing their etymological
origins) or be something else print-based
entirely. Zines may be sequential, an ongoing
series, or a one off creation”.
Eloise Peace (Zine creator)

8. Zinesters
• Can be anybody who:
– Creates and/or collects zines
– And/or runs zine distros
• Uncensored creators

9. Eurovision Song Contest Zines

10. Zine distros and events

12. Quick Zine History
• Gutenberg Press 1450: pamphlets, chapbooks
and tracts = zines??
• 1920’s to 1960’s golden age of the Fanzine
• 1970’s alternative music scene, mainly Punk
• 1990’s Riot Grrl movement
• Late 1990’s death and rebirth
• 21st Century: Bio-zines, Perzines and lots more

13. Fanzines

14. Punk/Queer zine Political zine

15. Perzine Art zines

16. Other notable things about zines
• Social networks very important
• Zine making is a culture
• Content ranges from literary to trashy
• Production values range from professional to
basic
• Can aim to provoke
• Most zinesters are under 30

20. How zines are treated at the
National Library

21. Collecting
The NLA:
• Does not rely on Legal Deposit to collect zines
• Collects a representative range of zines
• Has acquired several formed collections of
zines

22. Collecting

23. Cataloguing
• Each zine is catalogued individually with a full
record
• Zines often lack many of the most basic
publication details i.e. Enumeration,
pagination, statements of responsibilities etc.
• Our cataloguer’s judgement is exercised
regularly

24. Internet resources

25. Internet resources

26. Internet resources and events

28. “Goldfish acid”

29. “1:25pm, City park, under tree. Raining”

30. In-house tools

31. Cataloguing Zines - Other issues
• Privacy
• Preservation
• End processing

33. Preservation

34. No Staples Please!

35. End processing

36. The Fringe Publishing Blog
• National Library Blog
• Communicating to Zinesters
• Advertising zines and other fringe material in
our collection

38. “Cyäegha”

40. Zine reading

41. Questions?