ZineCat Blog

Zines in Libraries: Selecting, Purchasing, and Processing has just been published by ALA (American Library Association) with contributions by our very own ZineCat community. The book contains insights from Katrin Abel, Jeremy Brett, Ann (A’misa) Matsushima Chiu, Marta Chudolinska, Jenna Freedman, Joan Jocson-Singh, Mica Johnson, Lauren Kehoe, Joshua Lupkin, Meg Metcalf, and Ziba Perez. Order your copy today!

Many of the authors have also shared their chapters at ZineLibraries.info. The project managers of the Zine Union Catalog have also contributed their knowledge.

Read Jenna Freedman’s “The Barnard Zine Library: The Controlled and the Wild” to learn about the development of the Zine Library at Barnard. It details how this special library and archive came together and includes images of ephemera from the process. Freedman is also sure to give credit to those who have helped her assemble the library along the way and is transparent about what needs improvement or could have been done differently while also sharing future goals for the institution. With humor and grace, this chapter gives a thorough behind-the-scenes view of the Barnard Zine Library.

To learn more about what we do at ZineCat, check out the chapter “The Zine Union Catalog” by Lauren Kehoe. The history and many goals of ZineCat are outlined in this essay. Kehoe expands upon how the catalog works, its beginnings, and its projected impact on the study, research, and dissemination of zines. Acknowledging the inherent tension within cataloging and the work that still needs to be done, the chapter ends with an open call. Please feel free to reach out to us at zinecatproject@gmail.com if you want to get involved, know more about the Zine Union Catalog, or to simply share your thoughts! We deeply appreciate your feedback.

We are starting off the new year with some exciting news. ZineCat is proud to announce the addition of two new collections: Anchor Archive Zine Library and the OCAD U Zine Library. Look out for this new integration soon!

Many thanks to Anchor Archive and OCAD for joining our database!

Please reach out to zinecatproject@gmail.com if you have a zine archive you’d like to share too.

It has been over a year since our last post, so we thought it might be a good time to re-introduce readers to the Zine Union Catalog and our current staff.

We are a union catalog dedicated to zines. A union catalog is a resource where libraries can share cataloging and holdings information. The Zine Union Catalog (ZineCat) allows researchers to discover zine holdings by searching a single catalog and helps librarians copy catalog records to facilitate lending across libraries. ZineCat serves educators, researchers, librarians, archivists, and anyone in the general public with an interest in zines. Our goal is to welcome zine collections around the globe to upload and share their zines.

The Zine Union Catalog was first discussed by zine librarians at the first Zine Librarians unConference held in Seattle in 2009. Read more about the history of the project on the Zine Libraries website.

ZineCat is currently organized by:

Jenna Freedman – Project Co-Manager
Contact: zinelibe@gmail.com
Bio: Jenna Freedman is a zine maker and zine librarian. She founded and curates the Barnard Zine Library at Barnard College, where she also serves as the Associate Director of Communications and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Librarian. This project culminates her work at the CUNY Graduate Center. A product of public school education, Jenna earned her MLIS at the University of South Florida and her BA in theater at SUNY New Paltz. Jenna’s research and practice are primarily in the field of zine librarianship, a topic on which she writes and speaks frequently.

Lauren Kehoe – Project Co-Manager
Contact: @lsrklibrarian
Bio: Lauren Kehoe is the Accessibility and Accommodations Librarian at New York University. She received her undergraduate degree in Dramatic Literature from NYU in 2003, her MLIS from Pratt Institute in 2009, and her MA in Digital Humanities from the CUNY Graduate Center in 2020. Lauren is interested in supporting researchers and scholars in the library through proven and new methods of engaging with information.

Eric Goldhagen Freedman – Project Developer
Contact: @ericgoldhagen
Bio: Eric Goldhagen Freedman is a technologist, media producer, and EMT. After 20 years of managing Openflows Community Technology Cooperative he has recently started to work independently, supporting Non Profit Organizations, NGOs and advocacy groups use of technology. In the 1990s he initiated a project at ABC No Rio, a community-arts center in Manhattan that grew into a free public-access computer center for the neighborhood. Eric also teaches and gives presentations on the history and practice of Open Source/Free Software and software licenses at various conferences and academic institutions.

Jennifer Chen-su Huang – Outreach & Documentation Coordinator
Contact: @hepoosclouds
Bio: Jennifer Chen-su Huang is an artist and writer whose process-driven works interweave elements of craft tradition, language, history, and memoir. She graduated with her MFA in Fiber and Material Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and received her BA from the University of California, Berkeley in 2013. Jennifer is currently an editor for the Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of World Textiles and a graduate student at NYU where she is examining textile traditions through the lens of Performance Studies.

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This weekend our focus was the public interface, which was pretty much nonexistent on our development platform. Also, as it turns out, the live zinecat is a little dead.