cataloging

Hi Long Haul,

This is a question we spent some time discussing at the Zine Libraries (un)Conference last spring in Seattle. Of the five we considered for a shared catalog, and given your constraints, <!--break-->I do think LibraryThing could be a good way to go, though I appreciate your concern. LibraryThing's librarian is a zine advocate. Having a member library to work with might help her efforts to make LT more zine friendly. She should also be able to respond appropriately to your content concerns.

Almost any solution will cost a little dough, so if you'd rather spend it on software than labor, you could look into Athaeneum. I believe it's more or less an adapted version of FileMaker Pro (which kicks MS Access's ass). Email the folks at QZAP to get their take on it. I do not recommend Microsoft Access.

A potentially free option would be a hosted WordPress or Blogger blog. Ms. Valerie Park is a zine distro that uses the latter.

If you can wait until they offer hosting, I recommend Omeka. It's an images/archives friendly catalog that I think is a little more 21st century and possibly more out of the box friendly than some of the other tools out there. The Barnard Center for Research on Women recently implemented Omeka for their print ephemera collection. They did have to pay a developer a couple hundred bucks (not sure of exact cost) to help them with their install.

You might want to join the Zine Librarians list to discuss this further, and you're welcome to contact me directly.

Jenna, Barnard Library Zine Librarian

Irene,

Apologies for taking so long to respond, but our website has been down since shortly after you submitted your question.

Do you know of any good articles about cataloguing zines?
Basically do a search in the Library Literature database on {zine* and catalog*} and see what you come up with. If you are in library school, your university provides access. If you are an undergrad you might not have access. In that case, I suggest doing the same search in a multidisciplinary database like ProQuest or Academic Search. <!--break-->

There is also a nice little zine bibliography in Zine Librarian Zine #3. It's toward the end of the zine. btw, if you're going to cite ZLZ3, you might like to consult Cite This Zine on how to do so. There is an article on cataloging zines in ZLZ3, but you should note that zine cataloging to some extent is being made as we (zine librarians) go along. I wrote about how we catalog zines at the Barnard College Library zine collection in Radical Cataloging: Essays at the Front. Let me know if you want me to email you the pre-print. The Union Catalog discussion at the Zine Librarians Conference might also be of interest.

Do you know of any notable zine collections? Any major zine collections I should know about in the New York Metropolitan area?

In NYC:
ABC No Rio
Barnard College Library
New York Public Library
Pratt Institute

Also, note the American spelling of catalog and cataloging when doing your research. (Don't feel bad, The New York Times uses the British spelling, too.)

To visit the Barnard Zine Collection, give me (Jenna) a holler at zines@barnard.edu.

Hey Amanda, Your message to the Zine Librarians list is in my inbox. I've been meaning to respond!

This is something we've struggled with in Radical Reference, too. Right now we're just free tagging, but I think some of us feel that as librarians, we should be using a thesaurus.

We considered using the Sandy Berman & friends' thesaurus from the Hennepin County Public Library in Minnesota, but it stopped in 2002, so there's a lot of ground to make up. Plus it's not necessarily in a form that is yet easy to handle.

Another thesaurus we've discussed is that of the Alternative Press Index. They continue to update it and a couple of years ago agreed to sell us access to it, for a very reasonable price. The main thing that stopped us was not having the local energy or expertise to turn whatever they would export (I think from InDesign?) into something we could use.

Finally, and I know it's a stretch sometimes, I've been using LCSH at Barnard and keeping track of the subject headings I apply on a published spreadsheet. I would be glad to make that a shared document if you wanted to collaborate. I could also imagine this being the basis for a blend of LCSH and your own zine-onomy. When no heading seems appropriate or the one that exists doesn't really serve, you could note that on the sheet, cross-reference it, and make a new heading that does work for you. Does that make sense?

And one more thing--there's a library school project zine thesaurus on the Zine Librarians group file page. I assume Courtney would be happy for you to use it. I have another one by a different library school student in my files. I will email it to you separately and to anyone else who asks.

If I didn't interpret your question correctly, or if you have follow up, please don't hesitate to post again!