Research Guides: Zines: Exploring Zine Collections

Looking for zines in library collections

Try searching in our library catalog, The Library Search, in other library catalogs, or in WorldCat using the following keywords:

Alternative Press
Artists' Books
Fan Magazines
Fanzines
Little Magazines
Self-Publishing
Underground Press
Zines

Arcade

Arcade is the catalog of the New York Art Resources Consortium (NYARC). Arcade unites the collections of the Frick Art Reference Library and the libraries of the Brooklyn Museum and The Museum of Modern Art.

Search Artists’ Books in Arcade to explore the zines at the Brooklyn Museum and MoMA.

Notable Zine Collections

It can often be difficult to find zines in libraries. And every zine collection is different. Many libraries keep zines in their archives but may not have cataloged their holdings. More zine collections are being cataloged, however. The following are some of the most expansive, historically important, and prominent national zine collections.

ABC No Rio
The ABC No Rio Zine Library contains over 12,000 publications. Their collection includes independent, underground, and marginal publications on subjects such as music, culture, politics, personal experience, and travel, with a focus on zines addressing political and social issues.
Barnard College Library
The Barnard Zine Library largely collects zines on feminism and femme identity by people of all genders. They also maintain one of the best zine websites. Offering an exhaustive account of zine history, zine collections, and zine culture, a visit to their website is a must for any research into zines.
Bowling Green State University Browne Popular Culture Library
Bowling Green State University has a large zine collection. Many zines have been cataloged and can be searched by title or by subject under "fanzines." Their website also offers a lot of useful information about zine history and culture.
DePaul University Zine Collection
The DePaul Zine Collection grew out of collecting efforts during the Underground Press Conference held at DePaul University in 1994. This collection consists of zines published primarily within the Midwest.
Duke University Bingham Center Zine Collections
The Bingham Center Zine Collections include over 4,000 zines created by women, girls, and women-identified people, spanning back to the 1970s, with a majority dating from 1990-2005. Around 2,600 of these are recorded in a searchable database.
New York Public Library
The New York Public library collects a wide variety of zines. You can find them in their catalog by searching by title or these subjects: zines, fanzines, underground press, and little magazines.
New York State Library
The New York State Library Factsheet Five Collection of zines was gathered by Mike Gunderloy, former editor of Factsheet Five. It comprises over 10,000 zines, over 6,000 of which have been cataloged thus far. Search “zines” or "factsheet five" in their catalog or visit the collection.
NYU Fales Library & Special Collections
The Fales Library has an array of rare and historically important zines from the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, in both their Downtown Collection, which documents the arts scene that evolved in SoHo and the Lower East Side during the 1970s through the early 90s, and in their Riot Grrrl Collection.
University of Iowa Zine and Amateur Press Collections
The University of Iowa Zine and Amateur Press Collections include zines relating to avant garde, underground, and popular music, fanzines and fan fiction, apazines, science fiction fanzines, Star Trek zines, Star Wars zines, and Riot Grrrl zines. Also, zines from the Zine Machine, a vending machine full of zines.

Zines at Temple

The Contemporary Culture Collection
There are a couple collections of zines in the Contemporary Culture Collection. The Contemporary Culture Collection provides dramatically different perspectives on contemporary issues and its holdings are often the first (and sometimes the only) source of information on sensitive issues. It is also a basic source for primary research in social, political, economic, and cultural history as well as constituting an autobiography of the vanguard organizations and individuals who produced them.
Fanzines in the Paskow Science Fiction Collection
For those interested in the science fiction fanzine roots of the zine, the Special Collections Research Center at Temple maintains a Fanzine Collection. A collection of traditional science fiction and fantasy fanzines dating back to the 1930s, many of these titles are listed online.

Temple University

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