A community involvement and

collaboration case study

The Forgotten Zine Archive

Mick O’Dwyer & Tom Maher

What you’ll learn today

★ What a zine is

★ What the Forgotten Zine

Archive is

★ Why libraries should care

about alternative

publications

★ Details of our community

collaboration projects

★ Future plans for the archive

Who we are and where we’re based

When did this all start?

★ Founded by Ciarán Walsh in 2004

around 1200 zines

★ Moved to Seomra Spraoi - 2005

★ Venice Biennale - 2005

★ Glucksman Gallery - 2006

★ Back to Seomra Spraoi - 2007

~the mystery years~

★ Capstone project - 2013

What is a zine?

★ “... non-commercial, non-professional,

small-circulation magazines

which their creators produced

published and distributed

themselves.”

★ Typically on countercultural

topics, but not limited to them

What is a zine?

★ Early pamphleting, 18th century

★ Sci-fi fanzines, 1930s

★ Beatnik poetry, 1950s

★ Counterculture and hippy movement,

1960s

★ Punk, 1970s

★ Xeroxing, 1980s

★ Riot Grrrl, 1990s

★ Zines today!

My Tender Gender All Mixed Up In A Blender

Corner Store

Dig

Why should academic & special

librarians care?

★ Powerful collaboration and outreach tool

for communities and institutions

★ Demonstrable scholarly interest in zines

as primary source historical documents

and design case studies

★ As vendors conglomerate and collections

homogenise the need for alternative

voices grows ever greater - after all,

those most represented by repositories

are those most remembered by society.

Why should academic & special

librarians care?

★ “... any collection of information

materials preserved through the

generations will inevitably

influence how we interpret the

past. Conversely, the absence of

information material silences

historical voices, which are then

lost to history.”

Anchor Archive Zine Library

Brooklyn College Library

Archiv der Jugendkulturen

Dublin Zine

Collective

★ Sister Projects - Dublin

Zine Collection

★ Provide a space and

materials for people to

hang-out and make zines

★ We offer a not-for-profit

printing service

★ Organise zine making

workshops, zine fairs,

film screenings etc

Zine-making workshop

Exhibitions and

Zine Fairs

★ Organised an exhibition of

the Forgotten Zine Archive

★ Collaborated with local

zinesters to run the Dublin

Zine Fair

★ Showcased an array of

talented independent artists

★ Highlighted material that is

unknown or underrepresented

in traditional libraries

Radical librarianship

★ We have taken part in several

community based events run by anti-

establishment countercultures

★ Serve the information needs of

marginalised social groups

★ Held pop-up archives at the

Anarchist Book Fair, ‘Punx for

Palestine’ festival, and the

‘Festival for Choice

★ Radical Reference: Answers for those

who question authority

Generating awareness

★ Published articles in the academic journals

Brio and Archive Journal

★ Created and distributed our own zine -

LibroPunk

★ Won awards for poster presentations at

the 2014 iConference in Berlin, and NPDI

SHINE 2014

★ Blog posts on Libfocus, radio interviews on

Dublin City FM and features in Totally

Dublin magazine

★ Greatest success has been with social

media - Facebook and Twitter

Zine of the day:

Dishwasher by Pete Jordan

Zine of the day:

It’s a disgrace, Joe by Fuchsia Macaree

Collaborating with zine libraries and librarians

Future plans

★ Ideally, become THE

repository for zines

in Ireland

★ Monthly pop-up

archives in café’s

around Dublin

★ Independents Day

2015, the Anarchist

Book Fair, Lady and

Trans* Fest

Promotion Conclusion

So long, and thanks for all the fish!