Wellington City Libraries
Wellington City Libraries are big supporters of Wellington's zine scene. They hold a large collection of zines, mainly purchased at our Wellington Zinefest markets.
Wellington City Libraries have lending zine collections at three of their branches: Newtown, Arapaki on Manners, and He Matapihi Molesworth Library.
Zines at the library are free to borrow, and are issued for three weeks, just like books. Nearly all the zines are written by local New Zealand authors and produced in New Zealand.
Following the 'Zine' tag on the WCL blog is a great way to check out zine news from the libraries.
They also host the Lucky Drop zine vending machine in their venues.
Submitting your Zine
It's easy to donate your zine to the WCL collection. All you need to do is hand it in to the staff at any of their branch libraries, and label it as a donation. It will then get sent to be processed - special zine stickers will be attached, and it will be added into their catalogue.
Once the zine has been processed, it will be available for lending from Newtown, Arapaki or He Matapihi branches.
Find out more about Wellington City Libraries:
National Library of New Zealand
The National Library, which is based in Wellington, collects all New Zealand published material - including zines. They work to keep a record of what has been produced in Aotearoa, look after them and
help people access and use our collective knowledge.
The National Library encourage you to share your zines with them through their submissions process. They've created a zine which explains why you should submit, and how to do so, which you can download here.
Submitting your Zine
The zine National Library have made covers this pretty well, so we'd recommend reading that first - download here. Submitting to the National Library involves filling out their "publication for
legal deposit” form, which you can find here, and either sending digital or physical copies to the library. At Wellington Zinefest markets we also sometimes have a deposit box, where you can submit your zines in person.
Find out more about the National Library of New Zealand:
Online Zine Libraries
Aside from those on our own Downloadable Zines page, there's a massive amount of zines hosted online which you can read, download and distribute for free.
Typically these are political zines, or quite old zines saved in archives. Many also invite you to share your own work with their collection.
DC Punk Archive Zine Library
The DC Punk Archive Zine Library is a virtual collection of zines about (and often by members of) the DC music scene and includes interviews, concert reviews, record reviews, and photos of DC punk artists.
Indigenous Action
This Arizona-based indigenous resistance movement was founded to provide strategic communications and direct action support for Indigenous community’s sacred lands defense. As part of this kaupapa, they have an archive of zines on indigenous activism available for free download.
No Borders
No Borders - Louisville's Radical Lending Library is a mobile, anarchist library in the US. Their site includes free downloadable zines on anarchist and social justice themes.
Internet Archive
Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more. They have a large collections of zines available, including collections from long-running zines like Maximum Rock'n'roll, media fanzines from as far back as the 1960s, UFO zines and much more.
Sherwood Forest Zine Library
A real-world zine library based in Austin, Sherwood Forest also features a massive online library of zines on a range of topics to print and download.
Quarantine Public Library
Quarantine Public Library have a large collection of small, single-page printable zines made by artists. The works published here are for anyone to freely download, print and assemble—to keep or give away.
Send Back My Stamps! Metal History Through Fanzines
A site featuring interviews and ephemera from fanzines produced in the early days of the (heavy/death/thrash/black etc.) metal underground.
Papercut Zine Library
Papercut Zine Library are based just outside of Boston. Alongside their in-person collection, Papercut hosts a large online library of zines on their website.
The FANAC Fan History Project
A site devoted to the preservation and distribution of information about science fiction and science fiction fandom. They have a remarkable collection of fanzines dating back to 1930.
Sprout Distro
Sprout Distro is an anarchist project who share zines as a way of contributing to the increased proliferation of anarchist projects and resistance. All their zines are available as PDFs for folks to download, print, and distribute themselves.
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress have archived the websites of a range of various online zines, which are available as part of their digital collection. This includes sources like Hyperallergic, Broken Pencil, The Feminist eZine and more.
Solidarity! Radical Library
Solidarity! are based in the US and have a searchable online zine archive of 800 zines. These works cover every topic from Globalization and the Industrial Prison Complex to first kisses.
P.O.C Zine Project
POCZP is a project making zines by people of color easy to find, distribute and share. They curate and produce events that center POC-authored publications, have established an archive, cultivates digital platforms that share POC zines and provides grants, tools and events for zinesters.
Queer Zine Archive Project
The Queer Zine Archive Project (QZAP) preserves a large amount and variety of zines on queer themes. Their searchable archives include a massive amount of queer zines to read and download.
Untorelli Press
Untorelli Press is an anarchist publishing project who "seek to propagate our textual diseases and contribute to the plague of anarchy." Their site includes downloadable zines and essays exploring anarchism and critical social movements.
The Freedom Archives
The Freedom Archives contains over 12,000 hours of audio and video recordings as well as zines and other print materials dating primarily from the late-1960s to the mid-90s. These collections chronicle the progressive history of the Bay Area, the United States, and international movements for liberation and social justice.
The Small Science Collective
A collaboration of artists, students, and scientists, the Small Science Collective produces small zines and web comics on topics from ants to galaxies. Read online or download the zines on their website.
textfiles.com
Textfiles’ mission is to archive ASCII text files before they disappear. It has several sites; this one is devoted to preserving zines and features a collection of E-Zines from 1995 onwards.
