Zines

Summary: Instructions for original catalogers working with zines.




These procedures are being completed on an ongoing basis as of July 2019.

Routing zines for cataloging

  • Zines purchased on ZINMO and on recurring funds (i.e. from Quimby's and Booklyn) are received by Acquisitions and placed on the Zine Librarian's shelf in the Acquisitions closet in TS.

  • The Zine Librarian retrieves zines from the Acquisitions closet in TS and sorts for distribution to catalogers. As of April 2024, Mike Erickson handles mono zines and Joshua Barton handles prospective serials and serial adds.

  • If other Special Collections cataloging streams include materials that might be zines (e.g. SPGAY), consult with the Zine Librarian on whether zine cataloging practice may be applicable. This will never result in materials being re-routed to different locations, but the Zine Librarian may wish to add genre headings and/or summary notes to identify the materials as zines.

Back to top 


Step 2

  • Substep a

  • Substep b
  • Substep c

Back to top


Assigning sublocations for zines

  • Assign sublocations based on your best judgment according to the table below
  • Zines consisting of more than one genre (e.g. a DIY guide to railcar hopping for queer punks) should be assigned to sublocations based on whichever genre is the most prominent or most salient to prospective research interest, based on cataloger's judgment.
  • For zines that are comics, see guidance and exceptions in Comics Classification procedures.
  • Be sensitive to placement of any zines that include an identity-focused aspect. For example, autobiographical accounts of trauma should never be placed in SPPOP.
SPC SublocationPrimary genre or topic of zine
SPAFR: African American
  • African American identity
  • Black Lives Matter
SPCMC: Comic Art
SPGAY: LGBTQ+
  • Queer zines
SPLAT: Latinx
  • Latinx identity
SPPOP: Popular Culture
  • Celebrities
  • Movies
  • Music: punk, hardcore, indie, etc.
  • Video games
SPRAD: Radicalism
  • Activism (i.e. any kind of vigorous campaigning for political or social change)
  • Anarchism
  • Political and social movement history or criticism
SPRAR: Rare
  • Artists' books
  • Literature: stories, poetry, etc.
  • Perzines: diaries, memoir, testimony, survival accounts, etc.
  • Zines not appropriate to any other sublocation

Back to top


Zines as coursework by MSU students

    • Zines created by MSU students in the context of coursework or as an assignment will occasionally be donated to the library.
    • In addition to regular subject and genre analysis, include the following for any such zines:
610 20 Michigan State University $x Students.
655 _0 College students' writings.
655 _7 Zines. $2 lcgft

Back to top


Policies

Zine cataloging is handled by assigned individuals in original cataloging. Items outside of zine cataloging workflows that are or resemble zines should be forwarded to the Head of Cataloging.

ContactJoshua Barton
TeamCMS
UpdatedApril 2024
CreatedJuly 2019