Introduction

Public and academic libraries have an obligation to provide library users with resources representing a diversity of voices, viewpoints, and experiences. However, their reliance on mainstream publishing sources to acquire materials means that historically marginalized groups of people are woefully underrepresented in library collections (Simpson, 2006; Wood, 2021). One way to ensure a diversity of viewpoints is to circumvent traditional publishing practices by incorporating a zine collection into a library’s holdings. This chapter will delineate several benefits in developing and maintaining a library zine collection. It will then articulate the challenges inherent in such a proposal, identifying issues related to the acquisition, cataloguing, and circulation of zines, along with crucial ethical considerations. Finally, it will introduce some potential solutions to these challenges.

Background and Current Context

The word zine is derived from “fanzine”, a portmanteau of “fan” and “magazine”. Zines are alternative, do-it-yourself, idiosyncratic publications that are created independently of mainstream or academic publishing houses by artists known as “zinesters”. Zines can come in a variety of shapes and sizes: as small as a postage stamp or as large as a ledger-sized sheet of paper; a lone piece of paper folded into a booklet or a box containing assorted hand-written and doodled ephemera (Knight, 2004). A zine may be a photocopied and stapled manifesto; it may be a glittered and glued collage; it may be a professionally printed literary collection.

Zines arose from a history of self-published and self-printed works. In the 16th century, chapbooks were an inexpensive way to distribute small volumes of literature to readers (Kauffman, 2018). They were sold directly to people via street vendors and were readily available to the poor and working classes (Richardson, 2014). In the 1920s and 1930s, zines emerged as a modern chapbook in the form of science fiction fan newsletters. They were later adopted by the 1970s punk music scene and the 1980s and 1990s Riot Grrrl feminist movement (Kauffman, 2018). A forum for diverse points of view, zines cover an array of topics including art, music, politics, social activism, and personal accounts (Gisonny & Freedman, 2006). Ultimately, zines resist written description. The best way to understand a zine is to hold it, to see it, and to physically interact with it.

Zines in Library Collections

Central to the field of librarianship are the core values of democracy and diversity (ALA, 2019). Librarians are bound by a professional duty to make accessible to their communities a wide spectrum of ideas, experiences, and a diversity of voices. Zines provide uniquely unfiltered access to historically underrepresented communities and social movements (Kauffman, 2018). Zine creators’ voices are the embodiment of democracy, unfettered by mass media, publisher influence, or academic preconceptions about what is considered to be acceptable forms of knowledge (Fox et al., 2018; Knight, 2004). Zines are created out of passion, not the pursuit of profit (Kauffman, 2018; Knight, 2004). Including zines alongside traditionally published work provides library users and researchers with valuable primary source material from underrepresented voices (Berthoud, 2018; Gisonny & Freedman, 2006). Indeed, Jenna Freedman, the zine librarian at Barnard College in New York, hopes that in the future her zine collection’s academic merit will be a draw for prospective students and faculty alike (Gisonny & Freedman, 2006).

The field of zine librarianship has garnered increased interest in the past 16 years. The Zine Librarians Interest Group (ZLIG) developed their website in 2007 as a place to share information about zine collections (About the Zine Librarians Interest Group, n.d.). In 2009, they began offering a series of (un)Conferences for zine librarians and zine creators to gather, work together, and exchange knowledge. At the 2014 (un)Conference, ZLIG began development of the Zine Librarians Code of Ethics, an evolving document on the foundations of zine collecting (Berthoud et al., 2015). The ZLIG invites zine library enthusiasts of all backgrounds to contribute content to their website and blog, fostering an open and welcoming space for the zine librarian community.

Zines are a valuable tool for programming and community outreach. Sourcing zines allows librarians to make personal connections with diverse and historically marginalized demographics. In library programs, when attendees interact with zines—in all their material and tactile uniquity—they are then inspired to make their own creations (Piepmeier, 2008). Libraries are positioned to encourage their patrons to transcend the boundaries as consumers of media and become the creators of media (Piepmeier, 2008). Public and academic library makerspaces can provide zinesters with the technology and materials to generate new works which may then be included in the zine collection, empowering community members to contribute to the library in a more personal and meaningful way (Gisonny & Freedman, 2006), and thereby further democratizing library services.

For librarians who teach information literacy, zines provide a hands-on lesson in communicating personal and educational information. Drawing from the inspiration provided by the zine collection, students can create zines of their own as a medium for organizing content. Student-generated zines are a gratifying alternative to traditional written papers as tools for assessment (Farmer, 2023). Including zines as a legitimate record of information in education reinforces their value as primary source material for scholarly pursuits. In Teaching to Transgress, bell hooks (1994) writes, “…education can only be liberatory when everyone claims knowledge as a field in which we all labor” (p. 14). The representation of a diversity of voices inherent in a zine collection serves to democratize and promote greater equity in the field of education.

A zine collection is a valuable addition to a library’s holdings. It serves to not only diversify a library’s materials by representing a wide array of traditionally underrepresented voices, but also functions as a teaching tool and as inspiration to spark the creativity of a library’s patrons. However, while the argument in favour of a zine collection presents numerous benefits to a public or academic library, incorporating zines as library materials introduces several issues which must be considered.

Challenges

Incorporating zines into a public or academic library’s collection creates several challenges. Zines are heterogeneous and homegrown, and their treatment as a library material often falls outside of a system’s typical workflows. The extra time and labour involved in acquiring and maintaining a zine collection may deter libraries from their inclusion, despite the value and diversity they bring to a library’s holdings (Bartel, 2004).

Approval, Policy, and Acquisition

One of the first hurdles in building a zine collection may be encountered when obtaining administrative approval. Zine librarianship is inherently political. It rejects the pursuit of neutrality in libraries by highlighting and celebrating the historically underrepresented voices and viewpoints represented in zines. Zine librarians seek to foster personal connections with zine creators, to support these artists creatively and financially, and to promote social justice and equity in library work (Fox et al., 2018). This focus on social justice and the rejection of neutrality may be met with administrative resistance when proposing the introduction of a zine collection to a library’s holdings, as many library systems pride themselves on being champions of neutrality.

Prospective zine librarians should look critically at their library’s collection development policy. Often, these policies include verbiage that—whether intentionally or not—excludes many non-mainstream publications. For example, a policy’s selection criteria may include: public demand, reputation or significance of the author, authority and standards of the publisher, and recommendations by critics or reviewers. If the public does not already have access to and awareness of alternative publications, they are unlikely to demand their inclusion. Reliance on the reputation of the author, the standards of the publisher, and recommendations by reviewers inherently excludes many zine creators and can contribute to a collection-wide lack of diversity in voices and viewpoints (Bartel, 2004). There is little consideration in traditional library collection policies for the inclusion of independently-published works or materials in alternative formats, which leads to the exclusion of zine creators on multiple fronts.

The consideration of ethics must be observed when acquiring zines. Zines exist outside the traditional model of bookselling, and thus purchasing a zine collection requires a commitment to human connection and care. Zinesters may be wary of selling their work to library institutions that partake in the classic capitalistic publishing model (DeVoe, 2022), and forming meaningful relationships with zine creators is essential to mitigating that hesitation. It is not unusual for a zine creator to pose questions about who will use the zine and how much of the zinester’s personal information will be disclosed to borrowers, and librarians must be prepared to answer those questions (Berthoud et al., 2015). Zines are an ephemeral art form, raising possible tensions between the intentions of their creators and the librarians who wish to preserve or circulate them. In other words, zinesters must retain the right to be forgotten, an ethic that is at odds with the cultural preservation paradigm intrinsic to library and information structures.

A highlight of the zine medium is that they are independently published, but this feature also makes it difficult for a library system to purchase them using traditional acquisition methods such as established vendors. Instead, libraries must acquire zines through multiple in-person and online sources, requiring additional paid staff time. Zines are not covered in publisher announcements or standard review sources, which makes them difficult to identify as potential items for inclusion in a collection (Gisonny & Freedman, 2006). As well, zines differ from a library’s usual serial content, which is published with regularity on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis. When produced at inconsistent intervals, it becomes challenging for librarians to create a routinized claim cycle or to track purchases and identify gaps (Berthoud, 2018).

It can be difficult to find space in a library’s already tight acquisitions budget to purchase zines (Abel, 2022). In addition to this consideration, as innovations in colour printing and photocopying contribute to higher-quality zines, they also mean a rise in zine pricing. In the Riot Grrrl era of the 1980s and 1990s, zines were printed as cheaply as possible, and could therefore be traded rather than sold (Pace University, 2023). In 2006, the average zine purchase price was $1 to $2 USD (Freedman, 2006), where zines are now priced at $5 to $10 USD each (Camper, 2023). Furthermore, zine creators may be unable to take credit card payments or conform to other library vendor requirements (DeVoe, 2022) leading to complex acquisition challenges that library systems may unfortunately opt to avoid altogether.

Cataloguing, Access, and Use

Zines, in all their quirks and idiosyncrasies, present several challenges as they do not conform to the limitations of standard cataloguing practices. Indeed, the zine librarian community is largely comprised of reference and instruction librarians because zines often prove too problematic for cataloguers to classify using standard schemes (Fox et al., 2018). As opposed to traditionally-published works, zines do not arrive at the library with existing catalogue records or metadata already provided by the vendor. Without an existing bibliographic record, the work of cataloguing a zine collection is far greater than with mainstream publications. Furthermore, due to the personal nature of zines, the potential harm of the bias and discrimination in traditional metadata standards is thrown into sharp relief (Fox et al., 2018). Traditional descriptive practices are rooted in white supremacy, and standard subject headings—such as the Library of Congress Subject Headings (2022)—contain outdated and harmful terminology. This problem becomes even more apparent when attempting to classify works created predominately by marginalized people. To truly assign subject headings to a zine, the cataloguer must spend time reading and understanding the zine’s content, which can prove to be a time-consuming undertaking (Kauffman, 2018). However, it is a great disservice to both zinesters and library users to bypass this important work, thus impeding discoverability by broadly classifying all zines under merely the subject heading “Zine” (Camper, 2023).

Zines are often published without the standard information provided in authority records; an author may write under several names, or none at all (Berthoud, 2018). The challenge of making zines discoverable while protecting the privacy and confidentiality of zinesters is a sensitive issue (Berthoud et al., 2015). Where possible, a cataloguer should defer to the wishes of the zine’s author when creating authority records (Berthoud et al., 2015), as ethical considerations are especially important to maintaining good relations with the zine community. Zine creators must reserve the right to request that their works be removed from the collection at any time and must have authority over the amount of personal identifying information that can be discovered by users through an online catalogue (Hays, 2018; Kauffman, 2018).

In the context of this chapter, use is defined as the reproduction or quotation from zines in other sources, such as journal articles and academic papers. In addition to proper citation practices, respect must also be shown to zine creators’ intentions for how the zine should be used and distributed. Wherever possible, zinesters should be consulted to ensure that context and content are preserved when reproducing and quoting zines, particularly in published works (Berthoud et al., 2015). As zine creators may not wish to have their legal names tied to their works, it is also essential that citations adhere to zinesters’ specifications for attribution (Hays, 2018). This level of consultation is important to ingeminate in academic contexts, where reproduction and quotation of traditionally-published materials are exempt from copyright limitations under fair dealing or insubstantial copying.

Furthermore, a consideration for a newly established zine collection is that there may at first be negligible borrower demand for the materials (Bartel, 2004). This concern places an onus on the librarian to not only make the zine collection discoverable, but to generate user interest in the value and legitimacy of zines as relevant cultural artifacts.

Circulation and Preservation

The challenges of circulation and preservation are often at odds with one another. If zines are included in circulating library materials, attention must be paid to how they are then maintained to be used by future generations. When zines are kept in the general stacks, they may need to be stored in protective coverings. This act of preservation can then compromise the integrity, intention, and materiality of the zine. Moreover, the digitization of zines for preservation or distribution purposes is contrary to the preference of a majority of zine creators (Hays, 2018). A zinester may intend for the ephemerality and materiality of their work to be preserved, and digitization for posterity goes directly against these wishes. It is critical to remember that public and academic libraries are not archives, and therefore a zine collection, like the rest of a library’s holdings, should have the ability to circulate (Pérez, 2022), particularly when circulation is desired by the zine’s creator. Placing barriers in the way of readers wishing to access zines is antithetical to the culture of sharing and gift economy prevalent in the zine community (Piepmeier, 2008).

Often, the inconsistent format of zines makes them difficult to shelve with standard materials, and irregular publishing schedules may mean they sit on the shelves longer than traditional serial publications (Gisonny & Freedman, 2006) thereby exposing them to greater risk of damage through extended use. Zines may be delivered in special envelopes which include elaborate artwork (Piepmeier, 2008). They may also include extra detritus such as buttons, stickers, condoms, or even human hair (Gisonny & Freedman, 2006; Piepmeier, 2008). Zine librarians must determine if such additions will be included with circulating zines or if they will be stored separately for posterity. To aid librarians in addressing the various challenges inherent with zine collections, the existing literature provides valuable guidance.

Responses

Future zine librarians owe a significant debt to the work of pioneering zine librarians in the field. Jenna Freedman, Rhonda Kauffman, and Heidy Berthoud, among others, have put commendable amounts of consideration into the treatment and handling of zine collections. Zines are messy, tricky items, and many proposed solutions to their idiosyncrasies are also messy and tricky. Nonetheless, standards and ethics have been developed that will aid prospective zine librarians in wrangling their own collections.

Theory and Praxis

The Zine Librarians Code of Ethics (Berthoud et al., 2015) is a document written by a collective of zine librarians that addresses the need for a comprehensive guide rooted in a human-first approach to zine library collections. The authors draw from the groundwork of library and archival theory in combination with a strong adherence to queer theory and intersectional feminist pedagogy. Influenced by Michelle Caswell and Marika Cifor’s (2016) work on radical empathy in the archives, the Code calls for an ethics of care that centres the people behind the creation of the zines and prioritizes their permission for the use, distribution, and preservation of their work (Fox et al., 2018).

Best Practices in Zine Collections

It is recommended that a library’s collection development policy be updated in advance of curating a zine collection. Policies should include any limitations to zine acquisitions including size, format, and subject matter, the handling of duplicate titles, and weeding practices (Berthoud et al., 2015). Zinester and librarian Cathy Camper (2023) provides the following example of a policy amendment: “Zines are included in this collection as a reflection to the community’s creation and creative history, to broaden our collection of indie and small press publications, and to cover trending topics such as transgender health, local BIPOC culture, and DIY culture not covered by mainstream press” (p. 45). Updated policies may also provide direction for future zine purchases and deselection processes, and aid in defending any public challenges to the collection’s content.

The following methods for acquiring zines are listed in order of preference: direct purchase from the creator or publisher, purchase from alternative distributors or “distros” (such as Microcosm and Spy Kids), direct donations from the creator or publisher, and donations from third parties—with unauthorized copies and purchase from unauthorized third parties being the least desirable (Berthoud et al., 2015). It is common practice to acquire zines from multiple sources including: purchasing from local independent bookstores, scouring Etsy and other handmade marketplaces, attending zine conferences, and posting a “call for zines” on online discussion boards (Knight, 2004, p. 28). It is important wherever possible to inform zine sellers that their work is being purchased for a library as part of a collection that will be shared publicly (Berthoud, 2018).

Numerous recommendations have been made to librarians undertaking the work to catalogue a zine collection. An excellent source for detailed guidelines is Cutter & Paste: A DIY Guide for Catalogers Who Don’t Know About Zines and Zine Librarians Who Don’t Know About Cataloging by Jenna Freedman and Rhonda Kauffman (2013). Efforts should be made to describe records as fully as possible while also respecting the autonomy of zine creators who may not wish to disclose their personal information (Berthoud et al., 2015) or who have specifications about how their artwork should be classified. Ultimately, zine cataloguing practices—like all cataloguing practices—will evolve and change over time as standards improve and become more inclusive.

As it can be difficult to contact zine creators to obtain permission to use their work as part of an academic paper or journal article, it is wise to establish this consent when initially purchasing zines. Creating a simple form for zinesters to sign which authorizes researchers to quote or reproduce their work ensures that explicit permission for use is granted by the author (Berthoud et al., 2015). It is also recommended that, at the time of purchasing a zine, the creator be given contact information for the library should they wish to remove or edit their content in the future (Berthoud et al., 2015). Additionally, it would be prudent to provide instruction to students and faculty on the appropriate use of zines for research purposes.

Making zines available and discoverable alongside the traditionally published work in a library’s collection offers them credence as viable and valuable sources of information. A new zine collection can be promoted to library users through LibGuides, social media posts, and blog articles (Arcaro & Baitz, 2023). Another method for raising awareness of the zine collection is to incorporate zine creation into a library’s programming and makerspace offerings: by creating their own zines that can be included in the library’s collection, patrons will gain a new appreciation of and interest in the zine art form.

A combination of human-centred focus, empathy, flexibility, and creativity is essential for librarians who are building and maintaining a library’s zine collection. By drawing inspiration and guidance from maverick librarians with established and thriving zine libraries, it is desirable that more and more institutions will seek to diversify their collections by incorporating zines.

Conclusion

Zine collections in public and academic libraries are valuable primary source materials created by some of the most underrepresented voices in society. However, the maintenance of a zine collection is not without its challenges. The heterogeneity of zines makes them difficult to squeeze into a library system’s traditional acquisitions, cataloguing, and discoverability practices. Fortunately, the established community of zine librarians is robust and welcoming, focusing their work on an ethics of care and radical empathy for zine creators. There is a wealth of resources readily available for any burgeoning zine librarian looking to incorporate a zine collection into their library’s holdings.

Sources for Further Reading

Zine Librarians Interest Group. (n.d.). About the zine librarians interest group. https://www.zinelibraries.info/about/

The Zine Librarians Interest Group is an online community of zine enthusiasts who welcome everyone regardless of their professional qualifications. They manage an email list and organize an annual Zine Librarians (un)Conference, which is free to attend. In keeping with the grassroots, community-minded origins of zine creation, the (un)Conference crowd-sources money to support members’ travel costs and website domain expenses.

Bartel, J. (2004). From A to zine: Building a winning zine collection in your library. American Library Association.

This book provides a detailed explanation of the importance of zines and why libraries should collect them. It is an excellent entry point for anyone new to the world of zines and zine collections.

Barton, J., Fox, V., Malady, A., McElroy, K., Moyer, M., & Wenzel, S.G. (2015 June). Zines in libraries: Collecting, cataloging, community. [Pre-conference handout]. American Library Association 2015 Conference. https://www.zinelibraries.info/zine-pavilion/

This zine and workbook combination contains practical information for starting a library zine collection, including a section entitled “Pitching a Zine Collection to Your Boss”, useful resources for cataloguing, preservation, and outreach, and space to add notes.

Berthoud, H., Barton, J., Brett, J., Darms, L., Fox, V., Freedman, J., LaSuprema Hecker, J., Karabaic, L., Kauffman, R., McElroy, K., Miller, M., Moody, H., Vachon, J., Veitch, M., Williams, C., & Wooten, K. (2015, November). Zine librarians code of ethics. Zine Librarian Interest Group. https://www.zinelibraries.info/code-of-ethics/

The Zine Librarians Code of Ethics (available, as might be expected, in zine format) was written by a collective of experienced zine librarians. It provides a set of guidelines, considerations, and suggestions for zine collections in a library setting.

Freedman, J., & Kauffman, R. (2013). Cutter and paste: A DIY guide for catalogers who don’t know about zines and zine librarians who don’t know about cataloging. In Morrone, M. (Ed.), Informed agitation: Library and information skills in social justice movements and beyond (pp. 221-246). Library Juice Press. https://doi.org/10.7916/D8K35RQR

This is a comprehensive source for best practices in classifying and cataloguing zines in library collections, written by two of the foremost zine librarians. It includes detailed recommendations for MARC 21 bibliographic metadata, call numbers, and catalogue records.

Miller, M., (2013, April). xZINECOREx: An introduction. Zine Librarian Interest Group. https://www.zinelibraries.info/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Zinecore_Zine_Flats.pdf

This zine outlines the basics of xZINECOREx, a metadata standard similar to DublinCore which details the important metadata elements to include when cataloguing zines. These metadata then populate the shared Zine Union Catalog (www.zinecat.org) which contains the zine records from multiple institutions.

References

Abel, K. (2022). Zine collection development: Policy, selection, and promotion. In L. DeVoe, & S. Duff (Eds.). (2022). Zines in libraries. (pp. 19-32). American Library Association.

Zine Librarians Interest Group. (n.d.). About the zine librarians interest group. https://www.zinelibraries.info/about/

American Library Association [ALA]. (2019, January). Core Values of Librarianship. American Library Association. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/advocacy/intfreedom/corevalues

Arcaro, A., & Baitz, A. (2023). Zines in libraries. Booklist’s guide to graphic novels in libraries: 2023, 34-37.

Bartel, J. (2004). From A to zine: Building a winning zine collection in your library. American Library Association.

Barton, J., Fox, V., Malady, A., McElroy, K., Moyer, M., & Wenzel, S.G. (2015 June). Zines in libraries: Collecting, cataloging, community. [Pre-conference handout]. American Library Association 2015 Conference. https://www.zinelibraries.info/zine-pavilion/

Berthoud, H. (2018). My life as a “like-minded misfit,” or, experiences in zine librarianship. Serials Review, 44(1), 4-12. https://doi.org/10.1080/00987913.2018.1434857

Berthoud, H., Barton, J., Brett, J., Darms, L., Fox, V., Freedman, J., LaSuprema Hecker, J., Karabaid, L., Kauffman, R., McElroy, K., Miller, M., Moody, H., Vachon, J., Veitch, M., Williams, C., & Wooten, K. (2015). Zine librarians code of ethics. Zine Librarian Interest Group. https://www.zinelibraries.info/code-of-ethics/

Camper, C. (2023). Zines! Cut-and-paste publishing by and for the people. School Library Journal, 69(3), 42-47. https://www.slj.com/story/zines-cut-and-paste-publishing-by-and-for-the-people-school-libraries-students#:~:text=Zines%20spotlight%20voices%2C%20opinions%2C%20and,these%20works%20at%20your%20library

Caswell, M., & Cifor, M. (2016). From human rights to feminist ethics: Radical empathy in the archives. Archivaria, 81, 23-43. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0mb9568h

DeVoe, L. (2022). Zines and acquisitions: Adventure and conundrum. In DeVoe, L., & Duff, S. (Eds.). (2022). Zines in libraries. (pp. 73-83). American Library Association.

Farmer, L. (2023). Using zines to promote information literacy. IASL Newsletter, 52(4), 6.

Fox, V., McElroy, K., Vachon, J., & Wooten, K. (2018). Each according to their ability: Zine librarians talking about their community. In Nicholson, K.P., & Seale, M. (Eds.). (2018). The politics of theory and the practice of critical librarianship. (pp. 211-223). Library Juice Press.

Freedman, J. (2006). A DIY collection. Library Journal, 131(11), 36-38. https://www.libraryjournal.com/story/your-zine-tool-kit-a-diy-collection

Freedman, J., & Kauffman, R. (2013). Cutter and paste: A DIY guide for catalogers who don’t know about zines and zine librarians who don’t know about cataloging. In M. Morrone (Ed.), Informed agitation: Library and information skills in social justice movements and beyond (pp. 221-246). Library Juice Press. https://doi.org/10.7916/D8K35RQR

Gisonny, K., & Freedman J. (2006). Zines in libraries: How, what and why? Collection Building, 25(1), 26-30. https://doi.org/10.1108/01604950610641610

Hays, A. (2018). Zine authors’ attitudes about inclusion in public and academic library collections: A survey-based study. Library Quarterly, 88(1), 60-78. https://doi.org/10.1086/694869

hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress. Routledge.

Kauffman, R. (2018). For the love of zines: On zines and librarianship. Technicalities, 38(1), 9-12. https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/120016/Technicalities-Continuities-Zines-Nov2017-LIBS14-0490453.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y

Knight, A. (2004). Scratching the surface: Zines in libraries. [Academic paper, San Jose State University]. Grrrl zine network. https://www.grrrlzines.net/writing/zinesinlibraries.pdf

Library of Congress. (2022). Library of congress subject headings. https://www.loc.gov/aba/publications/FreeLCSH/freelcsh.html

Miller, M., (2013). xZINECOREx: An introduction. Zine Librarian Interest Group. https://www.zinelibraries.info/tag/xzinecorex/

Pace University. (2023). Zines, pamphlets, artists’ publications, and chapbooks: The world of self-publishing and small press. https://libguides.pace.edu/zines/definition

Pérez, Z. (2022). Circulating zines. In L. DeVoe,  & S. Duff (Eds.). (2022). Zines in libraries. (pp. 119-126). American Library Association.

Piepmeier, A. (2008). Why zines matter: Materiality and the creation of embodied community. American Periodicals, 18(2), 213-238. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41219799

Richardson, R. (2014). Chapbooks. The British Library. https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/chapbooks

Simpson, S. (2006). Why have a comprehensive & representative collection? GLBT material selection and service in the public library. Progressive Librarian, 27, 44-51. http://www.progressivelibrariansguild.org/PL/PL27/044.pdf

Wood, C. (2021, May 1). Counting the collection: Diversity audits assess representation in library materials, but most examples focus on children’s books. One librarian shares her methods and challenges in tackling adult biographies. Library Journal, 146(5), 26-29. https://www.libraryjournal.com/story/Counting-the-Collection-Conducting-a-Diversity-Audit-of-Adult-Biographies