Ask a Librarian
Orange Room Zine Cart
Check out the Main Library's Zine Cart in the Orange Room.
What is a zine?
Zines (Pronounced "ZEEN" and short for "fanzine" or "magazine") are:
- Self-published works with a limited print run, usually focused on sharing one’s lived experiences.
- Incorporate DIY culture, since creators typically make the work by hand, then reproduce it with a photocopier.
- A popular medium for subcultural groups, activists, and political organizers, especially among punk and feminist groups.
There’s no right or wrong way to make a zine. It can be about everything and anything, and created with any and every type of material – your only limit is your imagination!
Zine Genres
Zines can be about anything! Some popular genres include:
- Fanzines- related to franchises and/or fandoms, such as science fiction shows or comic books
- Political- containing information about political organizing, activism, and/or social justice
- Literary- collections of poems, fiction writing, and essays
- Art- usually containing multiple forms of visual media, including photographs, paintings, collages, comics, etc.
- Educational- plain language explanations, often about taboo or political topics
From left to right: RAIX/Zine Reproductive Justice en la Frontera; A Gut Feeling; Radical Cheerleaders of Santa Cruz
- RAIX/Zine Reproductive Justice en la Frontera, Vol. 1, Issue 2By RGV activists working with the Texas Freedom Education Fund + La Frontera Fund. "An interactive introduction to reproductive justice with a borderlands lense, and includes original art and poetry by Rio Grande Valley artivists."
- A Gut FeelingBy Andrew Yang. A comic-based zine that explains symbiosis and gastrointestinal bacteria in plain language.
- Radical Cheerleaders of Santa Cruz (Cheerbook)By California Radical Cheerleaders. This cheerbook contains protest cheers and poems about a wide-range of LGBTQIA topics, including the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS, marriage equality, and police brutality.
Where can I find zines around campus?
- Main Library's Orange RoomThere’s a zine cart in the Orange Room filled with all sorts of arts and crafts materials that anyone can use to make their own zines. Some of the materials available are paper (construction, origami, magazine, printer, etc), stamps, markers, colored pencils, stencils, stickers, and more. There’s also a "Take a zine, Leave a zine" community box!
- Ricker Library of Architecture & ArtThis page in Ricker's Artists' Books and Zines library guide highlights Ricker's zine collection. An excerpt from this page is on the second tab of this guide!
- Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center (UCIMC)The Radical Librarians and Anarchist Archivists Collective curates this library located on the main floor of UCIMC.
Zines by Teaching, Learning, and Academic Support:
- Example 1: Researching with ZinesOur zine about zines! This zine accompanies the Library's "Researching with Zines" workshop. It talks about zine structure, history, and use in research.
- Example 2: Study Skills for Neurodiverse LearnersThis zine accompanies the Library workshop of the same name. It includes strength-based study tips and resources that center neurodivergent experiences.