10,000 Zines and Counting: A library's quest to save the history of Fandom!

          

       Ward, Tyler

         Robertson, A. (2015, September 4). 10,000 zines and counting: a library’s quest to save the history of fandom | The Verge.  from http://www.theverge.com/2015/9/4/9257455/university-iowa-fanzine-fan-culture-preservation-project  Retrieved September 13, 2015,

      Summary: This blog posts details the Special Collection of the University of Iowa and their current project: saving fanzines. First question, what is a fanzine? A fanzine is a magazine usually for a specific fandom (Superman, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, you get the picture), but a fanzine is done usually by the community, and by amateurs. A modern online example would be TORN (TheOneRing.net) a fandom website that is 100% dedicated to keeping the Tolkien fandom updated on goings on in publishing, cinema, or other related Tolkien news. This tracks some of the earliest cases of "fandom" and how the communities developed

     Evaluation: Fanzines are important and show the different ways that users of information can collaborate on a single project. It's certainly interesting historically because we can see how fandoms have changed through the century and how communities developed and interacted with information. It's also interesting because it shows how the average user can be a creator!