Skip to Main Content

Dissecting a Zine Corpus

This research guide accompanies Barnard Zine Library curator Jenna Freedman's lightning talk at zines ASSEMBLE 2022

Yo

photo of a sweet brown/gray and black tabby lying on the table in front of a laptop computer

I'm a middle aged, middle class, white ciswoman who generally vibes with anarchist ideals, living and working on the Lenape land now known as NYC.

I'm the curator of the Barnard Zine Library, which I founded in 2003.

This is my cat, Farfel. He is a blobdamn angel even if he isn't the best work-from-home aid I ever encountered. Except that he is the best work-from-home aid I ever encountered.

@zinelib on Instagram and Twitter

@BarnardZineLibrary

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 reflect the Barnard College student population. We have zines by women, nonbinary people, and trans men, with a collection emphasis on zines by women of color and a newer effort to acquire more zines by trans women. 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. Our zines are at the lower end of the production level scale and typically cost $10 or less, with most of them in the $1-$5 range.

Follow the zine library on Instagram @barnardzinelibrary photo of a bear in sunglasses, a crown, and pleather jacket holding scissors and "a rly cool zine"

We have a zine club that makes a compilation zine every semester. The zine club been led by BIPOC and other students continuously since 2010.