Digitized or Born Digital Zine and Booklet Collections on the Open Internet
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Quarantine Public Library
Quarantine Public Library is a repository of books (one-page aka mini zines) made by artists. "The works published here are for anyone to freely download, print and assemble—to keep or give away." -
Printed Matter Digital Downloadsespecially great for contemporary protest zines and pamphlets and the 1980s NYC literary journal The Portable Lower East Side.
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Sherwood Forest Zine Library (Austin, TX)from website: Check out our collection of hundreds of free downloadable pdfs and links to online readable zines!
***PLEASE NOTE - These zines are all focused on Black issues, protests/activism guides, law enforcement, abolishing policing, etc. -
HIV Doula WorkDigital downloads of zines or pamphlets published by What Would an HIV Doula Do?, "a community of people joined in response to the ongoing AIDS Crisis. We understand a doula as someone who holds space during times of transition." Includes Covid era pamphlets as well.
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Exile Books "Zine Pool"digitized or born digital zines submitted to Exile Books (Miami, Florida)
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Queer Zine Archive Project (QZAP)he Queer Zine Archive Project (QZAP) was first launched in November 2003 in an effort to preserve queer zines and make them available to other queers, researchers, historians, punks, and anyone else who has an interest DIY publishing and underground queer communities. from the website.
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Barnard Zines with Online LinksClick on the title and then look for online link in upper right area. Some of these zines have been digitized so that you can get the original booklet version of the zine by printing out double sided and then folding and/or staping. Others are scanned as PDF files or other formats. They can be printed out in most cases, but not in the original booklet form.
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Berea College Library Digitized ZinesAn online, full-text sampling of the zine collection housed in Berea College's Hutchins Library. Zines digitized as PDF files.
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Zines on the Internet ArchiveThis is a collection of uncensored, digitized zines, mainly from the late 20th Century. Searchable by title, subject, topic, date published, creator, and more.
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Punk Planet Archive (on Internet Archive)Punk Planet was a 16,000 print run punk zine, based in Chicago, Illinois, from 1994-1007. It focused most of its energy on looking at punk subculture rather than punk as simply a music genre. In addition to covering music, Punk Planet also covered visual arts and a wide variety of progressive issues — including media criticism, feminism, and labor issues. (from website)
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Solidarity! Revolutionary Center and Radical LibraryLocated in Lawrence, Kansas the mission of Solidarity! Revolutionary Center and Radical Library is to organize as a non-hierarchical collective for the purpose of sharing and distributing information. The collection is compiled of Zines (personal, non-copy written, non-traditionally peer reviewed articles, journals, and art) that were specifically purchased, donated, traded, or created for the Solidarity! Collection. These works cover every topic from Globalization and the Industrial Prison Complex to first kisses. from the website.
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Student Zines at SUNY College at New Paltz12 student-made zines about life during the Covid-19 Pandemic
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MORUS Zine LibraryThe Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space Zine Library was created to support the museum’s mission of preserving and promoting the history of grassroots activism in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
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Project Nia Digitized PublicationsLaunched in 2009, Project NIA is an advocacy, organizing, popular education, research, and capacity-building center with the long-term goal of ending youth incarceration. This is a collection of over 50 zine publications, either "born digital" or digitized
Some Comments on Digitization
It's wonderful that many historical zines and related publications have been digitized and made widely available. There are a couple points to make about this, however:
(1) Not all zinesters are ok with having their zines digitized and uploaded on the Open Internet. Similarly, some zinesters are not supportive of zines being collected by authoritative institutions like libraries, colleges and universities, and museums. Each of the collections listed in this guide has its own policies and guidelines for digitizing. Institutions or projects should remove material online or in print if the creator/zinester requests the removal.
(2) When zines are digitized, they usually lose their original formatting. Software such as issuu can be used to create a booklet with pages that can be virtually turned. Usually, though, zine pages are just scanned and the zine is turned into a PDF file of single-column pages. (Booklets have two columns.) This is the trade off for being able to view the publication in the digital format.
(3) Mini zines are zines made on one piece of 8.5 x 11 paper. The form of this zine is compromised when viewed on the Internet. Half of it will be upside down! However, anyone can download and print such a zine. The trick is to know how to fold and cut it. Here's an example of a mini zine: Random Things I See on the Streets of Bushwick, Brooklyn That Kinda Make Sense? by Daniel Fishel, from the Quarantine Public Library: The only issue with this zine is having enough color ink to print it!
Born Digital DIY (not just zines)
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Digitally Native Art Book Publishing Project (NADA Art Fair)Printed Matter (NYC) and Exile Books (Miami) commissioned four new online projects by publishers Anteism Books, Hyperlink Press, TXTBooks, and artist Federico Pérez Villoro. These complex projects explore different possibilities of digitally native publishing through interactive websites, e-publications, games, and online archives. (from NADA website)
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REVout Digital Fashion Zine from Sudan"REVout is here to celebrate the country’s young talents who are forging its fledgling fashion industry, fighting for women’s rights under the constant threat of repression and starting a revolution of their own."