Iron & Glass

Zines at the Library: A Q&A With Librarian Holly Wilson

In January 2020 the Libraries followed in the footsteps of zine collections in colleges and universities across the country like Barnard and RISD and started circulating the Zine Collection.  The zines are located on the first floor of the Brooklyn Campus Library in the reference area and circulate for seven days.  Holly Wilson, Research & Instruction Librarian and Associate Professor, and selector for the collection, took the time to answer some questions to provide a background for the collection and share with us some of her favorite items in the collection.

Holly Wilson, Research & Instruction Librarian and Associate Professor holding up Cats Hate Cops (Research and Destroy New York City, 2013).

When did Pratt start collecting zines?  What else do you know about the history of the collection?

According to Susan Thomas, my predecessor and fellow zine enthusiast, the Pratt zine collection began around 2003 as a project of the now-defunct Periodicals Committee. Susan Thomas has had a long time interest in zines as both art objects and as a means of communication, so she saw a need for the Libraries to start a collection. She knew they were being taught in various classes on campus so it made sense for a collection to start in support of that. 

At first, zines were selected from local indie bookstores (such as Spoonbill and Sugartown, Tower Records (RIP), St. Mark’s (RIP), etc.). When I started, I discovered a bag full of zines and found out they had been selected from a zine contest put on by Tokion Magazine in 2005. The entries were distributed to various local libraries, so Susan Thomas and former Reference Clerk Caley Cannon went to their offices to make selections for our collection. In addition to this, I have located some documentation listing zine titles and purchase locations that account for some of the collection. 

How long have you been the selector for the zine collection?

I’ve been working with the collection on and off since shortly after I started here in 2006. I have a long-standing personal interest in the format, so it was natural for me to get involved with the collection.  I came up in the punk music scene in Cleveland, Ohio and had several zinester friends. Most of the zines I knew were about music and/or politics. Since this was pre-internet, zines were important ways of discovering new music and finding out about events. 

How do you decide what zines to purchase?

A number of factors are considered when I look at adding zines to the collection. I want the collection to promote diverse perspectives and to reflect the creative and intellectual work that happens across the many disciplines at Pratt. Since Pratt is primarily an art and design school, I’m drawn to zines with artistic interest - sometimes that means that they are beautifully illustrated or have an interesting construction, other times it’s because they contain information helpful for artists, such as Paul Shortt’s How to Art Book Fair, a risograph zine that gives tips and pointers to zinesters interested in tabling at art fairs, including how they differ from zine fests. 

How to Art Book Fair, Paul Shortt. Shortt Editions, 2019.

I look for zines that relate to Brooklyn, Pratt, the curriculum, and am actively seeking zines from marginalized communities or that have a social justice focus. A really cool zine I recently got at the 2019 New York Art Book Fair is Related Tactics’ Shelf Life, which is a pocket-sized guide that assigns color coding for particular aspects of a book (written by or featuring white man, books written with the presumption that audience as able-bodies, etc.) and includes a sheet of stickers for each corresponding color. The stickers are removable, so they shouldn’t damage the books they get applied to.

Shelf Life, Related Tactics. Sming Sming Books, 2019.

I actively encourage donations of zines that are made by the Pratt community, either as coursework or as part of their own practice. I have also purchased zines specifically from Pratt alumnae.

What are some of your favorite zines in the collection and why?

Chihuahua and Pitbull by Ethan Clark is one zine that gets taken just about every time I show zines to a class. The content of the zine is sealed up in a bottle, so we don’t even know exactly what is inside. 

Chihuahua and Pitbull, Ethan Clark, 2000 to 2005.

Hi Misery, I Love You by Karla Henrick is a personal favorite because of its construction. It’s a small envelope made of paper with a red brick pattern. Within the envelope are several Polaroid-like images with brief poems on the verso. Just looking at it makes me smile.

Hi Misery, I Love You by Karla Henrick, c.2004.

For the Love of Bees by Caroline Paquita is a gorgeous little fold-out risograph zine that is a tribute to the wonder of the honeybee. The honeycomb pattern that is visible when unfolding the zine is wonderful.

For the Love of Bees by Caroline Paquita. Pegacorn Press, 2018.

TXTReader by TXT Books is a compilation of several zines produced throughout the year by TXT Books, which is a local publisher started by a group of Pratt alums. I believe they started producing these specifically for art and zine fairs to highlight the work of several authors at once.

TXTReader, TXT Books, 2018.

Crown by Areille Jennings is a mini-zine that showcases Black hairstyles with absolutely wonderful illustrations. This was purchased at a recent NYC Feminist Zine Fest at Barnard College.

Crown, Areille Jennings, 2019.

Why did you think it was important to circulate the zines in Pratt’s collection?

This is a big moment for the collection and something I’m really proud of and I’m deeply thankful to everyone who worked so hard to make this happen. Zines, by their nature, are renegade publications that can be challenging in a number of ways. They often contain content that may be sensitive or very personal so it is not optimal to make patrons read them in a public area. A great example of this is D.I.Y doula self-care for before, during, + after your abortion / a zine by The Doula Project. This zine is chock full of helpful information that a reader may want to read privately in a comfortable setting. Zines, at their core, are meant to be shared, so having them circulate seems imperative. In many cases, they would be difficult or even impossible to replace, but I trust that the patrons who are interested in checking them out will respect them enough to return them in good condition. 

D.I.Y doula self-care for before, during, + after your abortion, The Doula Project. Eberhardt Press, 2017.

There are a handful that won’t circulate because of their construction or size. The Gleaner Zine by Sherylynne Carriveau, for example, contains a lot of loose items that could be easily misplaced. Those items will still be easily accessible by asking for them at the reference desk and using them at the nearby tables. Images of these items’ covers are shelved with the zines so they can still be discovered via browsing.

The Gleaner Zine, Sherylynne Carriveau, 2003.

Anything else you would like to add?

In addition to cultivating the collection, the Libraries has hosted a number of zine-making workshops. We’ve been collecting withdrawn library materials with strong visual content for use in those workshops. Ideally, we would like to host at least one per semester. Also, I would be thrilled if students wanted to start a zine club and I would happily serve as faculty adviser, so please get in touch if you’re interested in that!

I’d like to acknowledge the work of Jenna Freedman, Zine Librarian Extraordinaire of Barnard College. Conversations with her helped me articulate the need for the collection to circulate and her experience with housing and maintaining a circulating collection was invaluable to us. Thank you also to Susan Thomas for being instrumental in starting the collection as well as for being open to answering questions. The collection would not exist without her.