Re-imagining collection spaces:zines in institutional

and community spaces

Jessie Lymn University of Technology, Sydney

AERI 2009

• Early-stages of PhD research project• Working with subcultural communities– Zine makers, consumers, collectors– Site of resistance, non-conformance

• Opportunity for interdisciplinary research– Information and archive studies– Cultural studies

Zines?

A problem of definition

• More than the material object– I use ‘zine’ as something more akin to a roughly

held culture of literary productions and consumption, rather than a set object or a specific style of writing (Ware, 2004)

Public collections

• Public space– Not necessarily accessible

• Two major Australian zine collections – State Library of Victoria collection– Octapod collection, Newcastle

State Library of Victoria zine collection

State Library of Victoria

• Rare printed section– Approx 5,000 titles– Archival preservation standards

• Collected since 2000• Sourced by standing order with bookshops– Polyester Books– Sticky Institute

• Close connection with local zine community

The Octapod zine collection

Octapod collection, Newcastle

• Developed as part of National Young Writers Festival in 1998

• Grew from the festival and local zine collection• Nationally significant collection • Estimated 3000+ zines• Current stocktaking project• Connection with national zine community,

little with local community

Reflections

• Both motivated by zine makers and consumers• Differences in– Preservation standards– Accessibility– Long term sustainability

• Institutional collection vs community space– Octapod site for production (zine workshops) and

consumption (browsing collection)

Future directions

• Exploring the idea of memory collection spaces as sites of production, consumption and collection

• Moving away from institutional collections• Focus on community spaces

• Infoshops, zine libraries, art spaces• Domestic space as a third space of collection

• Bringing the self into research

Bartel, J. 2004, From A to Zine: Building a winning zine collection in your library, ALA Editions, Chicago.

Leventhal, A. 2007, 'Imperfect Bound: Zines, Materiality, and the question of Preserving Ephemera', Canadian Association for the Study of Book Culture, Saskatoon, Saskatchwan

Ware, I. 2004, 'An Introduction to Zines and their Definition', New Media Poetics, vol. 3.