A zine is most commonly a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images. More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published unique work of minority interest, usually reproduced via photocopier. – University of Texas at Austin Library
Although zines defy definitive categorization, certain elements set zines apart from other printed publications. Zines tend to be handmade paper publications with small print runs, are sold at or slightly above cost, and are intentionally nonprofessional. Authors write, edit,and publish the material themselves, which makes the material unique and personal to the author. This also means zines are complicated ephemeral materials for library collections—their authors are often hard to track down, issues come out irregularly, they often contain no bibliographic information, and they come in various paper sizes. Almost nothing about zines makes them easy for librarians to codify, yet dedicated zine collections are on the rise in libraries and archives across the United States.
Hays, A. (2018). Zine Authors’ Attitudes about Inclusion in Public and Academic Library Collections: A Survey-Based Study. LibraryQuarterly, 88(1), 60–78. https://doi.org/10.1086/694869
Zines are a popular DIY print format, but mainly only visually accessible. The Nashville Feminist Collective’s Zine Accessibility Workshop project draws on the methods of multi-modal critical design, collective image description, and collective access to reorient the zine genre (and in some cases, to reinvent it).
Here is the workshop handout on how to transcribe and convert zine’s into different formats to broaden their accessibility.
Projects example: Esoteric Zine (December 3, 2016)