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Special Collections Library Instruction

This guide accompanies a guest lecture in Jessica Hochman's reference & instruction class at Pratt Institute, spring 2025.

Follow Along

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Welcome: 5 minutes

Be where you're at.

 

What This Is

My plan is to run through a guide I used in a class this week to demo a more-or-less typical zine instruction session.

photo of a cat by a cat scratcher next to a zine with the title "Cat Body Language: A Beginner's Guide by Jesse Irwin"

Read and Discuss: 30 Minutes

Show and Share

Zines A557 

 All slay

Zines A767g 2011 

 Lady gardens : the boons

Zines B3535sex 2015 

 A Little History of... Turn-of-the-Century Sexologists!

Zines C35856w 2021 

 When we see us

Zines C58du 2014

Danger Unheard : Deafness and the Police

Zines D685d 2016 

 D.I.Y doula self-care for before, during, + after your abortion / a zine by The Doula Project

Zines H397d 2022

 Dangerously Inspired Yodels. A Meta Hybrid Academic Perzine About DIY Feminism

Zines L38r 2021

 Resurrecting Ruby : A Modern Retelling

Zines L473i 2025

 In Them We All Exist : Reflections and Resources on Black Lesbian Herstory in the Archives

Zines M3736b 2022

 Butler's Warning : Our Health in a Changing Climate
Zines N584n Slander

Zines N588sh 2018
A Zine About Sci-Hub

Zines N937h 2024 (stacks copy checked out, use pdf)

 Happy Birthday, Jimmy! James Baldwin, Zionism, Palestine, and Information Suppression at New York Public Library

Zines S24m 2021 

 Most Unwanted Zine

 

risographic printed quotation, "By offering an alternative to mainstream late-capitalist modes of operation, zines enact a public pedagogy of hope." - Alison PiepmeierDiscuss

In twos and threes discuss for a few minutes:

  • What moves you/or not about the zines?
  • Contextualize the zine with the readings

 

 

 

 

 

Risograph print by Suze Myers BC '16  

Zines Are

zine excerpt: WHAT IS A ZINE ! "FOR ME AZINE IS NOT JUST A SELF-MADE AND SELF-, PUBLISHED BOOKLET BUT IT IS ALSO SITUATED WITHIN DIY CULTURE. THIS MEANS IT IS NON-PROFIT, NON-COMMERCIAL, LOW-BUDGET, AND NON -COM- PETITIVE. TOPICS AND STYLES CAN VARY BUT IT'S IMPORTANT THAT ZINES REMAIN ACCESSIBLE, BOTH TO READERS (EVERYONE CAN AFFORD TO BUY OR I TRADE THEM AND TO WRITERS (EVERYONE CAN MAKE THEM). ZINES DONT EXIST AS LITTLE PAPER ISLANDS BUT THEY ARE CONNECTED AND BLOSSOM WITHIN A MUTUALLY SUPPORTIVE ZINE COMMUNITY."

Nijsten, Nina. Scissors & Chainsaws No. 2 : Diary Comic Zine Made in July 2020 During International Zine Month. Gent, Belgium: Nina Nijsten, 2020.

On the Zine Spectrum from Zines 101 by Lea Cooper, PhD. <--they have a Ph.D in zines!