Hi everyone, I'm Sam and I am a library assistant (no MLIS) at the Seattle Theosophical Library <https://www.librarything.com/profile/TS-Library>. It's affiliated with the Seattle lodge of the Theosophical Society in America, and is located in a building in Capitol Hill about 100 years old! My supervisor and I would like to start a zine library focusing on zines (probably with an emphasis on local ones) that fit the spiritual and religious themes of the main library. I have never worked in a library before and I don't believe we have an MLIS librarian on staff (it's a mostly volunteer-run library). But some people suggested that I should check out zinelibraries.info for help, which is how I found this mailing list. I would be especially interested in learning from libraries that specialize in religion, spirituality, divination, etc. about how zines are classified and catalogued. Thanks, Sam _______________________________________________ ZineLibrarians mailing list ZineLibrarians@lists.zinelibraries.info http://lists.zinelibraries.info/listinfo.cgi/zinelibrarians-zinelibraries.info

Welcome, Sam! I don't recall if we've seen other religion collections in this group, but I'm excited to see yours grow! I wonder if you could consult with a Seattle local, especially folks at SPL, for support on getting started. Here's an article from 15 years ago <https://www.libraryjournal.com/story/your-zine-tool-kit-a-diy-collection> on starting a zine collection. Most of the links are surely dead, but I think the main ideas you want to think about are still similar: - getting your bosses onboard - what kind of zines you'll collect - cataloging zines - how you're going to shelve the zines - budget Newer topics I'd include if I were writing my proposal <https://zines.barnard.edu/collection-proposal> now - creator rights and privacy - digitization ethics - takedown requests (making it clear you'll remove creators names and even their zines if they ask you to) - and otherwise aligning yourselves with the Zine Librarians Code of Ethics <www.zinelibraries.info/code-of-ethics/> Also, here's a link to a book chapter I wrote that's a little more current, and sort of turned into a zine <https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1aCD5tUF6RcAZsElavFNbbRDIjcUSSnICiRhh334j1lk/edit?usp=sharing> . Are witchy zines in scope? I feel like that would be a fruitful place to start collecting. I think there are Tarot and astrology zines out there, too. Warmly, Jenna On Fri, Aug 29, 2025 at 4:53 PM Sam Lamb <sam.michel.lamb@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi everyone, > > I'm Sam and I am a library assistant (no MLIS) at the Seattle > Theosophical Library <https://www.librarything.com/profile/TS-Library>. > It's affiliated with the Seattle lodge of the Theosophical Society in > America, and is located in a building in Capitol Hill about 100 years old! > > My supervisor and I would like to start a zine library focusing on zines > (probably with an emphasis on local ones) that fit the spiritual and > religious themes of the main library. I have never worked in a library > before and I don't believe we have an MLIS librarian on staff (it's a > mostly volunteer-run library). But some people suggested that I should > check out zinelibraries.info for help, which is how I found this mailing > list. > > I would be especially interested in learning from libraries that > specialize in religion, spirituality, divination, etc. about how zines are > classified and catalogued. > > Thanks, > > Sam > _______________________________________________ > ZineLibrarians mailing list > ZineLibrarians@lists.zinelibraries.info > > http://lists.zinelibraries.info/listinfo.cgi/zinelibrarians-zinelibraries.info > -- Jenna Freedman | she, her Director of the Barnard Zine Library make an appointment <https://barnard.libcal.com/appointments/jenna-freedman> | https://is.gd/jennacalendar https://linktr.ee/barnardzinelibrary Fridays are dedicated cataloging days. I will respond to messages I receive on Fridays the following week. I am Jewish and have never experienced antisemitism at Barnard College or Columbia University. _______________________________________________ ZineLibrarians mailing list ZineLibrarians@lists.zinelibraries.info http://lists.zinelibraries.info/listinfo.cgi/zinelibrarians-zinelibraries.info