Zine Authors' Attitudes about Inclusion in Public and Academic Library Collections

Devon Cahill

ET

Hays, A. (2018). Zine Authors’ Attitudes about Inclusion in Public and Academic Library Collections: A Survey-Based Study. Library Quarterly, 88(1), 60–78. https://doi-org.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/10.1086/694869

Summary

This article addresses the growing presence of zine collections in public and academic libraries but considers how the zine authors themselves feel about the phenomenon. As the author notes, “at least 113 public and academic libraries across the United States currently have zine collections…” but there is not any current research on how zine authors feel about this trend.

 

The author defines a zine as, “...handmade paper publications with small print runs, are sold at or slightly above cost, and are intentionally nonprofessional.” Because the publication is decentralized and they are not usually published for profit, there is no standard format for a zine and authors are sometimes hard to track down. The author then quickly traces the origins of the zine to the science fiction authors of 1930s to the punk zines of the 1970s to the riot grrrl zines of the 1990s to make the case that zines are inherently counter-cultural and serve as a valuable archive for these underground movements and philosophies. This is where the connection between zines and libraries takes shape.

 

So what did the authors feel about their, by design, ephemeral and underground works finding their place in libraries? Not surprisingly, a seemingly large percentage (29%) were strongly against having their real names be included in the archive. Though the author does concede that around 30% of respondents wrote their zines using a pseudonym. Of the remaining 70%, almost all were happy to have their real name in the catalog. A large percentage (66%) felt that they would be uncomfortable discovering there work had been digitized and made available to download without their permission, but 71% said they would be excited if they were asked.

 

In conclusion, the author notes that “zine authors favor access over privacy” and would generally be happy to be included in a collection. However, being asked for permission was a key factor in this acceptance.

 

Evaluation

Having been involved in the punk scene and a zine creator myself, I can corroborate the concerns of the authors here. When writing these, I certainly would never have considered that they could have an impact beyond the community they were intended for. So, it might be a little unnerving to discover one of these works available for download in a collection somewhere. At the same time, the ideal of equity in access has always been central to punk politics so the notion that you could produce something that anyone could access digitally is quite appealing.

 

In terms of collections, I can imagine the headache that the pseudonyms would cause catalogers and archivists, especially armed with the knowledge that most zine authors would be disappointed to find their zine digitized and available to download without their consent. Personally, since zines are non-profit by nature, open access through an archive would just be the logical extension of this aesthetic.