The LPL Rolls Out a New Zine Library
Image published in Zine and Do It by April Welsh -https://zinefestpt.wordpress.com/2015/08/10/zine-and-do-it/
On the second floor of the Lewiston Public Library, tucked away between audio/video materials and the 900s, LPL patrons will now find something new. The newest addition to the collection is a small assortment of zines.
Zines have been around for quite some time, starting in the 1930s as fan fiction to accompany Science Fiction tales which were being published in the pulps.The Comet is widely accepted as the first of this kind. Science Fiction fanzines would continue in this fashion through the sixties and seventies. The popularity of Star Trek was heightened through zine culture, as after the first season, Spockanalia was founded. Writers for the zine were also pivotal in commencingthe save-the-show campaign which began when the network announced that Season 2 might be cancelled due to low ratings.
During the 1970s, zines found another scene, Punk Rock, to take root in. Artists and promoters used zines as advertisements and means to announce shows and albums, and fans used the medium to talk about bands they liked and the scenes in different cities across the globe. Later in the nineties, Riot Grrrl zines would take shape. Riot Grrrl zines represented counterculture groups in the Pacific Northwest United States who were speaking about feminism in politics and the music industry. The scene grew in response to all female punk and alternative rock groups like Bratmobile and Bikini Kill.
Zines on display in the Zine Atheneum.
Artists and Artists Books
The late nineties and 2000s led to a number of Artist Zines and Artists Books. Suddenly, artists were able to use the internet to sell their wares, and they were looking for any means in which to do so. Sites like Etsy and Society 6 propelled zine makers into popularity again, but it was becoming less about a punk ethos.
As Heidy Berthoud says “Zines are alternative, do-it-yourself (DIY) publications created outside the parameters of academic and commercial publishing.Their lack of reliable conventions with regard to frequency, authorship, and content presents special challenges to [libraries].” Zines represent the under-represented and serve as direct source material to peoples that live on the fringe of the mainstream.
We are pleased to offer our new collection of zines to the patrons of the Lewiston Public Library.
The collection includes zines donated from all over the United States representing a number of different minority and under-represented communities,including but not limited to feminists, LGBTQ, POC and people addicted to drugs and alcohol. We hope that the zine collection will both inform and inspire and look forward to zine making events as outlets for self expression in the coming year.
