I live in a tiny town in the mountains. We are a town of readers and thinkers, and have our own very small collection in a volunteer library. We're proud to say we keep no records for the FBI to peruse. We'd like to add as many zines and other materials "beyond what is reviewed in Library Journal" as we can. Unfortunately, we have no budget and depend upon donations. Do you have suggestions for finding back issues of zines or other material at low cost? Can you suggest a short list of zines we should save our pennies to purchase?
We happen to have just answered another zine question.
That's GREAT that you have a zine library in your tiny mountain town. I suggest that you join the Zine Librarians discussion list. There are often freebies offered there. I'll send you a bunch of zines from work tomorrow. Remind me by sending an e-mail to my library address.
You can ask for zine donations on zinegeeks and zinesters, as well.
I don't have an idea of a core collection, and I don't really think it's appropriate to collect that way anyway, as there are so many zines out there crying out for a home in a library. It's best to spread out what gets archived. However, I'll recommend a couple of distros where you can buy zines: Microcosm and Pander. There are sites that list others, including Zine Street.
One way people often collect economically is to send a $3.85 priority mail envelope to an individual or distro to fill with discard zines. Get their approval first. You might make that offer when you solicit zines on the various yahoo lists.
Best of luck. Write again with more questions. Or call me at Barnard. 212.854.4615.