Library Guides: Book Arts: Zines

What is a zine?

Zines, short for magazines, are self-published books or pamphlets. They have a DIY nature and can take many forms, though they are typically either folded from a single sheet or stapled to make them easier and faster to copy and distribute. Though zines can be about anything, they have historically leaned to personal narratives, original writing and poetry, fan culture, and radical, anti-establishment organizing.

Browse Zine Collections

Nadine Robbert Vorhoff Collection
The Nadine Robbert Vorhoff Collection complements the manuscript collections of the Newcomb Archives. These books are non-circulating and may be used in the Newcomb Institute reading room. Duplicate copies of some titles may be available from the Howard-Tilton Memorial Library.The zine collection covers topics such as feminism, LGBTQ+ issues, herbalism, health and self-care, and New Orleans subcultures, among others.
TUSC Rare Science Fiction Collection
Containing magazines, fanzines, first editions, and anthologies, the Rare science fiction collection provides am entry into science fiction writing in the 20th century. Rare Books is also home to the complete archive of Cheap Street Press, who self-published works of some of the foremost science fiction writers of the 20th century.
Barnard Zine Library
Barnard's zines are created by women and transfeminine people, with a collection emphasis on zines by BIPOC women/transfeminine and by transwomen of all races and ethnicities. We collect zines on feminism and femme identity by people of all genders. The zines are personal and political publications on activism, anarchism, body image, third wave feminism, gender, parenting, queer community, riot grrrl, sexual assault, trans experience, and other topics.
Project Nia zine library
Launched in 2009, Project NIA is an advocacy, organizing, popular education, research, and capacity-building center with the long-term goal of ending youth incarceration.
Sherwood Forest Virtual Zine Library
The Sherwood Forest Zine Library is a fully functioning independent media library focusing on zines and DIY culture. The majority of our collection has been donated via collectors or the zine artists themselves.We host a variety of independent media from self published books and magazines to small run or independent publishings and newspapers.
Queer Zine Archive Project
The mission of the Queer Zine Archive Project (QZAP) is to establish a "living history" archive of past and present queer zines and to encourage current and emerging zine publishers to continue to create. In curating such a unique aspect of culture, we value a collectivist approach that respects the diversity of experiences that fall under the heading "queer."

Journals and Magazines

Zines : an international journal on amateur and DIY media
ZINES is an international peer journal dedicated to studies of amateur and do-it-yourself media of any kind, from fanzines to webzines, perzines to science zines, artzines to poezines, etc.

Books About Zines

Zines

Zines are the maverick inhabitants of publishing's Wild West, where the obsessional, the idiosyncratic and the wilfully obscure roam free across pages unbounded by the constraints of mainstream agendas. This book offers a highly-visual analysis of this phenomenon, assembled with expert fanaticism by the team of Pop theorists who created Highflyers and Scrawl. It showcases a huge, international range of current zines, put into context by historical examples from the hoardings of die-hard collectors.

Ari Marcopoulos: Zines

Ari Marcopoulos is an inveterate maker of zines. This project collects in one volume for the first time a selection of zines by Marcopoulos, many never before released, providing a unique insight and overview into an essential part of this influential artist's daily practice.