[Zine Librarians] Feedback for Draft Zine Genre Thesaurus
Greetings everyone,
The Zine Thesaurus Management Collective, which manages and updates the Zine Subject Thesaurus, is creating a separate thesaurus of genre terms that can be used by the zine libraries community. Our goal is to establish a thesaurus of terms that describe what a zine is, rather than what a zine is about. Some examples of current zine genre thesaurus terms are:
Poetry zines (used to describe zines that primarily consist of poems/poetry; the zine subject thesaurus term “poetry” would be used for zines that are about poetry)
*
Fanzines (used to describe zines created by enthusiasts of a particular aspect of popular culture, with the narrower genre terms Fan art zines, Fan fiction zines, and Slash fiction zines)
*
Personal zines (used to describe autobiographical, true story, or diary-like zines, with multiple narrower terms used for more specific genres)
We are currently seeking community feedback on our draft genre thesaurus, which can be viewed in Protege, an open source tool for developing thesauri and ontologies. The deadline for feedback is Thursday, July 9, 2026.
To view the draft Genre Thesaurus and provide feedback:
Go to Protegehttps://webprotege.stanford.edu/ and log in with this account:
*
Username: GenreThesaurusFeedback
*
PW: feedback
*
You will see the Genre Thesaurus under the list of projects when you log in and can open it.
*
You can add comments directly to the terms or you can send comments and feedback by email to zinethesaurus@gmail.commailto:zinethesaurus@gmail.com with the subject line “Genre Thesaurus feedback.”
*
You are also welcome to create your own Protege account and then access the Genre Thesaurus at this urlhttps://webprotege.stanford.edu/#projects/7e58cf83-2dc6-4a40-a3a5-39c73c766c4f/edit/Classes.
*
If you have any questions about or difficulties accessing the Genre Thesaurus, email us at zinethesaurus@gmail.commailto:zinethesaurus@gmail.com.
We are interested in any thoughts on hierarchy/structure, additional terms to include, the phrasing of terms, and thoughts regarding future scope notes. Any thoughts on what would be useful in your own zine work (either when describing zines or searching for them) are especially appreciated.
Our draft genre thesaurus has two hierarchical levels, with narrower terms adding more specificity as needed. Some terms may have multiple broader terms, as necessary. We are thinking that an organization could choose to only use the higher level terms if that suits their collection, or they could use both levels. Each term also includes synonyms to indicate alternative spelling or terminology.
Our team arrived at this list after reviewing the current subject thesaurus for potential genre terms and editing these to better fit the aims of a genre vocabulary. We worked with members of ZineCat to add other genre terms that are used in a variety of zine libraries and collections. Terms related to zine format (i.e. size, materiality, etc.) are not currently included in the scope of this project, although we are interested in adding these in the future.
Thank you in advance for your feedback!
Indica
Indica Mattson (she/they)
Catalog/Metadata Librarian
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Yale University
indica.mattson@yale.edumailto:indica.mattson@yale.edu
+1 (203) 432-9395
ZineLibrarians mailing list
ZineLibrarians@lists.zinelibraries.info
http://lists.zinelibraries.info/listinfo.cgi/zinelibrarians-zinelibraries.info
Hi again everyone,
I just wanted to send a reminder that the deadline for Zine Genre Thesaurus feedback is July 9.
Thank you!
Indica
Indica Mattson (she/they)
Catalog/Metadata Librarian
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Yale University
indica.mattson@yale.edumailto:indica.mattson@yale.edu
+1 (203) 432-9395
From: Mattson, Indica indica.mattson@yale.edu
Sent: Friday, June 12, 2026 8:11 AM
To: zinelibrarians@lists.zinelibraries.info zinelibrarians@lists.zinelibraries.info
Subject: Feedback for Draft Zine Genre Thesaurus
Greetings everyone,
The Zine Thesaurus Management Collective, which manages and updates the Zine Subject Thesaurus, is creating a separate thesaurus of genre terms that can be used by the zine libraries community. Our goal is to establish a thesaurus of terms that describe what a zine is, rather than what a zine is about. Some examples of current zine genre thesaurus terms are:
Poetry zines (used to describe zines that primarily consist of poems/poetry; the zine subject thesaurus term “poetry” would be used for zines that are about poetry)
*
Fanzines (used to describe zines created by enthusiasts of a particular aspect of popular culture, with the narrower genre terms Fan art zines, Fan fiction zines, and Slash fiction zines)
*
Personal zines (used to describe autobiographical, true story, or diary-like zines, with multiple narrower terms used for more specific genres)
We are currently seeking community feedback on our draft genre thesaurus, which can be viewed in Protege, an open source tool for developing thesauri and ontologies. The deadline for feedback is Thursday, July 9, 2026.
To view the draft Genre Thesaurus and provide feedback:
Go to Protegehttps://webprotege.stanford.edu/ and log in with this account:
*
Username: GenreThesaurusFeedback
*
PW: feedback
*
You will see the Genre Thesaurus under the list of projects when you log in and can open it.
*
You can add comments directly to the terms or you can send comments and feedback by email to zinethesaurus@gmail.commailto:zinethesaurus@gmail.com with the subject line “Genre Thesaurus feedback.”
*
You are also welcome to create your own Protege account and then access the Genre Thesaurus at this urlhttps://webprotege.stanford.edu/#projects/7e58cf83-2dc6-4a40-a3a5-39c73c766c4f/edit/Classes.
*
If you have any questions about or difficulties accessing the Genre Thesaurus, email us at zinethesaurus@gmail.commailto:zinethesaurus@gmail.com.
We are interested in any thoughts on hierarchy/structure, additional terms to include, the phrasing of terms, and thoughts regarding future scope notes. Any thoughts on what would be useful in your own zine work (either when describing zines or searching for them) are especially appreciated.
Our draft genre thesaurus has two hierarchical levels, with narrower terms adding more specificity as needed. Some terms may have multiple broader terms, as necessary. We are thinking that an organization could choose to only use the higher level terms if that suits their collection, or they could use both levels. Each term also includes synonyms to indicate alternative spelling or terminology.
Our team arrived at this list after reviewing the current subject thesaurus for potential genre terms and editing these to better fit the aims of a genre vocabulary. We worked with members of ZineCat to add other genre terms that are used in a variety of zine libraries and collections. Terms related to zine format (i.e. size, materiality, etc.) are not currently included in the scope of this project, although we are interested in adding these in the future.
Thank you in advance for your feedback!
Indica
Indica Mattson (she/they)
Catalog/Metadata Librarian
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Yale University
indica.mattson@yale.edumailto:indica.mattson@yale.edu
+1 (203) 432-9395
ZineLibrarians mailing list
ZineLibrarians@lists.zinelibraries.info
http://lists.zinelibraries.info/listinfo.cgi/zinelibrarians-zinelibraries.info