Skip to Main Content

Zines in Academe: Can We Bring More Joy to the Practice of Research and Scholarship?

With Zines in Academe, zine librarian Jenna Freedman invites participants to explore alternatives or supplements to the research paper. Together we will discuss questions like "Do writing and grading have to be arduous?" "How do non-traditional..."

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 women and non-binary people, with a collection emphasis on zines by BIPOC women and transwomen of all races and ethnicities. 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. A small percentage of our zines have links to online versions or related resources.

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.

photo of two walls of zine stacks

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


What topics are of interest to you? Let's look them up in CLIO. A search will always begin with < zines >. Examples:

You can also explore by genre, e.g., personal zines, political zines, minicomics.