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Zines for Fun, Fighting the Power, and Self-Documentation

Zine workshop from May 2020, led by Jenna Freedman & Vanessa Thill BC '13

Quaranzines

Barnard Zine Library staff are collecting COVID-19 themed zines made by womxn, nonbinary people, and all members of the Barnard community. We will gladly buy two copies of your zine via PayPal.* We can provide a postal address (the zine librarian's home) or can print black and white pdfs on 8.5x11 paper. Email zines@barnard.edu to connect with us. As of May 5, we have 30 zines in CLIO, some of them with download links and another 10 in progress.

photo of a black & white cat with the CUTEST NOSE lying on a banner that says, "Zinesters in Residence."

*Up to $8 per zine, price is up to you and typically reflects printing and postage costs and your labor. Higher end zines are out of scope.

Getting Started

Welcome to the Barnard Zine Library!

The Barnard Zine Library is part of the Barnard Library and Academic Information Services (BLAIS) in the Milstein Center for Teaching and Learning at Barnard College, Columbia University. The zines are described in the library catalog we share with Columbia University Libraries (CUL), CLIO.

Barnard's zines are created by womxn and non-binary people, a collection emphasis on zines by womxn of color and a new (2019) effort to acquire more zines by transwomen. 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, gender, parenting, queer community, riot grrrl, sexual assault, trans feminisms, and other topics.

There are two zine collections: circulating stacks and special collections.

Circulating zines are located on the 2nd floor of the Milstein Center and can be borrowed by Barnard and Columbia students and members of the BorrowDirect and MaRLI networks and are also available via interlibrary loan. Barnumbia loans are semester long and renewable 99 times.

The zine library is open the same hours as the Milstein Center, and can be checked out during Circulation & Help Desk hours.