College of Fine Arts and Communication Liaison Librarian, Open Licenses Librarian
What is a Zine?
A zine - derived from magazine - is an independently- or self-published booklet, often created by a single person. Zines are customarily created by physically cutting and gluing text and images together onto a master flat for photocopying, but it is also common to produce the master by typing and formatting pages on a computer. The end product is usually folded and stapled. Zines can be printed and bound in any manner. Offset printing is a relatively common alternative to photocopying, though there is some controversy among zine writers as to whether professionally printed products may be defined as zines. -- From ZineWiki
Adding Your Zine to the Zine Collection
If you would like to donate your zines to the Zine Collection or have your zine digitized and added to the Artists' Books Collection Online Exhibition, please contact Tara Spies Smith at ts20@txstate.edu
More about Zines - What they are and History
"The early twentieth century was littered with journals and gazettes created by artists to serve as soapboxes for their quirky ideas. Futurist, Dadaist, and Surrealist art provocateurs wrote dissonant poetry, composed asymmetric typography, pasted expressive collages, and printed it all in crudely produced publications. Each movement, in its own way, proffered the Modernist notion that art was a total experience. These art and culture periodicals, or “zines,” were weapons of cultural warfare, attacking convention." - AVANT-GARDE ZINES IDEA NO41: Magazines as laboratory for artistic experiment from 100 Ideas that Changed Graphic Desig
Read more on Credo Reference
“AVANT-GARDE ZINES.” 2012. In 100 Ideas That Changed Graphic Design, by Steven Heller and Veronique Vienne, 1st ed. Laurence King.
https://search.credoreference.com/articles/Qm9va0FydGljbGU6MzczMTQwOA==?aid=103130.
How do I access the Zines at Alkek?
The Alkek Library Zine Collection is on the 3rd floor by the Graphic Novel Collection.
You can browse the covers of the Zine Collection on the 3rd Floor next to the Graphic Novel Collection.
To access the actual zines take a picture of the zine cover and call number of the zine you want to access and read OR you can write down the title and the call number. Bring either or both of these options to the desk on the Main, 2nd floor and show them the picture or title and call number of the zine(s) you want to see. If someone is available, you will be directed to the Special Collections & Archives reading room to view/read/access the zine(s). If no one is available to show you the Zine(s), the desk staff will show you how to make a request to see the zine at a near future time.
You can also look the title of the zine up in the library catalog and use the link to request to see it in the Special Collections & Archives Reading Room. If you aren't sure how to do that, please go the desk on the 2nd, main floor and ask someone to help you see the zine or make the request to see it.
You can browse a list of zines in the library catalog. From the Library Catalog homepage, choose Location on the left-hand side limiters and click "more" to see all locations and then choose:
Texas State University Artists' Books Collection Digital Exhibit
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Texas State University Artists' Books Collection Digital ExhibitTexas State University Artists' Books Collection Digital Exhibit including Zines from the Alkek Library Zine Collection.
Zines Mind Map - Terminology of Zines
How Do I Find Zines at Alkek?
The Alkek Library Zine Collection is on the 3rd floor by the Graphic Novel Collection.
The What's a Zine and How Do I Find Them at Alkek? zine pictured below can be printed, folded, and cut to make a zine and to give you more information about how to find zines in the library's collection. This zine has directions of how to make the zine, where to buy zines, as well as more info that you can also find on this Zines Research Guide.
Find this zine already folded and free for you to take at the table with the typewriter near the Graphic Novel Collection on the 3rd floor.
