What: The ZINE & LIBRARIES CONFERENCE is a two-day virtual conference that will gather together librarians, zine artists and educators to learn about all things zines! Presenters will go over zine history, cataloging, starting a collection as well as provide tools, resources and tips on how to successfully integrate zines into libraries and instruction.
Who: Anyone interested in zines, libraries, zine librarianship and organizing zine events!
Where: This is a virtual conference, with nine separate virtual sessions, each 50 minutes long. All sessions will be hosted virtually through Zoom. Closed captioning will be provided. Please register down below.
When: July 7th-8th, 2022 (Thursday and Friday), 2pm-6pm EST
How to register for the conference:
Here is the link to register for sessions: 2022 Zines & Libraries Registration
You will receive a confirmation email for your registration asking if you need any accommodations, as well as a calendar reminder. You can register for any or all of the sessions. You will be registering based on when the session starts.
Schedule (Click here to register for sessions)
Thursday July 7th, 2022
2:00-2:50pm EST
DiverZineties – Promoting Diversity and Self-discovery Through Making Zines with Cathy Camper
The U.S. census states the fastest growing ethnicity in the country is “multiracial.” But how can educators and librarians foster self- exploration and diversity when faced with so many personal histories of the students they serve? Making zines provides a forum for educators and students to collaborate, create, discuss and share their own stories and experiences as part of a diverse community.
This presentation includes a short history of zines, examples of different kinds of zines (including personal, political, artistic and collaborative), tips for how to make a master-copy zine that can be successfully photocopied and distributed, and advice for how even the most artistically challenged creators can include art and graphics in their publications. Participants will get started using paste-up techniques to create their own zine, using paper, pens, clip art, scissors, glue sticks, and magazines. Participants will leave with plenty of enthusiasm and inspiration to both create their own zines and/or share zine making skills with teens to foster diversity.
Materials participants need: 8.5 x11 paper for zines (2-4 sheets per student), pencils and black pens, scissors, erasers, glue sticks, tape, clip art, old magazines and newspapers to cut up.
Cathy Camper is the author of the award-winning Lowriders in Space graphic novel series, Ten Ways to Hear Snow, Bugs Before Time, Lowriders to the Rescue and Arab Arab All Year Round (2022). She also writes zines, including Sugar Needle, and is a founding member of the Portland Women of Color zine collective. An Arab American and a graduate of VONA/Voices writing, Cathy is a librarian and lives in Portland, Oregon.
3:00-3:50pm EST
Brown Recluse Zine Distro session
Meet volunteers with Brown Recluse Zine Distro, a zine distro for Black, Indigenous, and people of color. Learn more about how the distro operates, serves non-white zinemakers, and our decisions to introduce a sliding scale institutional pricing system for libraries, museums, non-profits and other formal organizations.
Brown Recluse Zine Distro is a collectively run zine distro for BIPOC by BIPOC started in 2013, we are collective run and community supported. We distribute political educational materials that uplift and center QTBIPOC engaged in autonomous forms of resistance against the violence of capitalism, white supremacy, colonialism, patriarchy, and imperialism. We center Black zinemakers in our distro.
4:00-4:40pm EST
Meet & Greet: Zines and Networking
Bring your snack, a favorite beverage and your fabulous self. Get to know other zinesters and library staff in an informal setting.
5:00-5:50pm EST
Advocating for a Zine Collection with Maria Cunningham (Oregon Health and Science University)
Zines are an affordable and accessible medium for people to express their ideas and experiences. But how do we incorporate these unique, complex resources into our library collections? In this session, participants will understand the logistics and benefits of starting a zine collection and will learn how to advocate for, start, and promote a zine collection in their library.
Maria Cunningham (she/her) is the Director of Special Collections at Oregon Health & Sciences University (OHSU) in Portland, OR. She has started zine collections at several institutions, and is currently working on launching a health zine collection at OHSU. She curates the rare book collections, university archives, and often conducts presentations about zine history and zines in special collections.
6:00-6:50pm EST
Making Our Voices Heard: Representation in Wikipedia (and Zines) with Diana Park (Oregon State University)
Non-traditional publishing spaces can help to make marginalized voices and histories more visible. Like zine making, Wikipedia editing can be personal and rooted in the community. In this session, we’ll chat about representation, organizing, and the similarities found in these two mediums.
Diana Park (she/her) is a Science Librarian and Assistant Professor at Oregon State University. She has been involved with Wikipedia projects since 2018. She researches and writes about using Wikipedia in the classroom, representation in Wikipedia, and information literacy.
Friday July 8th, 2022
2:00-2:50pm EST
Issues in Zine Cataloging with Jenna Freedman (Barnard College)
Just because some zines are metadata poor is no excuse for describing them poorly. Let’s talk about whether and how to use resources like subject headings, genre and format terms, summaries, and MARC to make rich records. The discussion will be informed by critical thinking about racial, ethnic, gender, and other creator identities.
Jenna Freedman (she/her) is the Curator of the Barnard Zine Library at Barnard College in New York City. She makes an annual zine called Lower East Side Librarian and one-off zines on topics including jury duty, menstruation and menopause, and niche cataloging discussions on the library email list AUTOCAT. She is co-project lead on the development of a union catalog for zines, ZineCat.
3:00-3:50pm EST
Zines for Learning (about zines or other stuff) with Kelly McElroy (Oregon State University)
Whether or not you can incorporate content about zines into your teaching, mini-zines offer a hands-on activity you can use to engage learners, and for formative assessment. In this session, we will practice making a mini-zine, and you’ll be able to reflect on where you can incorporate this type of embodied learning into the teaching you already do.
Kelly McElroy (she/her) is the Student Engagement and Community Outreach Librarian and an Associate Professor at Oregon State University. Kelly loves to get people talking about things that matter, whether as a facilitator for Oregon Humanities’ Conversation Project or as an active member of her union, United Academics OSU. She has been making zines and teaching with zines for over a decade, and is one of the founding organizers of the Zine Pavilion at the American Library Association annual conferences.
4:00-4:40pm EST
Share your favorite zine with the group!
Bring your lunch, a favorite drink and a few zines! This will be an informal time to share about our favorite zines.
5:00-5:50pm EST
From Dilapidated Warehouse Spaces to College Campuses: The Transferable Skills of DIY Zine Fest Organizing with A’misa Chiu (Reed College)
Armed with little budget but lots of heart, many zinesters will utilize any space for a zine event, be it an alleyway, garage, vacant warehouse, parking lot, etc., so think of the possibilities of throwing your zine event in a library! Whether you have an established zine collection or not, let’s exchange stories on how to use zines to generate student interest for your library outreach and engagement events, as well as impress your colleagues with your scrappy event organizing skills!
Ann “A’misa” Matsushima Chiu (she/they) is the Social Sciences Librarian and lead organizer of the Reed Zine Library at Reed College in Portland, OR, who loves any excuse to throw a zine release party with student zinesters. A’misa has made comics and perzines under Eyeball Burp Press with zines covering motherhood, abortion and reproductive justice issues, activism and being Asian American since 2007. They have been organizing DIY zine fests and zine events for 15 years, and practices community-centered outreach and engagement in their zine librarianship.
Funding for the conference is through the John F. Helmer Professional Development Grant through the Orbis Cascade Alliance consortium, and organized by librarians Maria Cunningham (Oregon Health and Science University) and Ann “A’misa” Matsushima Chiu (Reed College).
Please email questions about registration or accommodations to Elizabeth Duell eduell@orbiscascade.org