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Zine Reading Room: Fall 2025

Posted 12:45 p.m. Monday, Dec. 22, 2025

Alt text: Five HIS 110 students talking to each other at a table in a zine-based literacy instruction session. Zine creation materials are on the table.

New Space, New Connections

By Mike Olson

The Murphy Library Zine Reading Room (ZRR) has had a transformative fall semester, marked by a physical move, expanded partnerships across campus, and continued engagement with regional and national zine communities. What started as a modest collection has grown into a dynamic space for DIY information discovery and critical engagement with alternative publishing.

A Bigger Home for DIY Publishing

Alt text: Doorway of the Zine Reading Room. Inside the room, bookshelves and tables are filled with a large zine collection.

Over the summer, the ZRR relocated to Murphy 120, offering significantly more space for the growing collection. The new location maintains regular hours throughout the semester, welcoming students, faculty, and community members to browse, engage, and explore a collaborative collection where alternative publishing traditions meet contemporary campus life.

Regional and National Connections

Alt text: Print fair promotional poster that reads "Staple + Stitch" and an image of the Zine Reading Room bookshelves. Text on the bottom left of the image in black reads "Zine Librarianship in the Undercommons: Memory, Labor, and Resistance"
  • Staple & Stitch Art Book + Print Fair: Moderating the panel "Zine Librarianship in the Undercommons: Memory, Labor, and Resistance," exploring institutional tensions and possibilities within academic zine collections.
  • Zine Librarians UnConference: Engaging with colleagues navigating similar work of building zine collections in library contexts.
  • Association of College and Research Libraries Image Resources Discussion Group: Presenting on zines as critical visual literacy tools, highlighting student agency and scholarly remix practices.

These events reinforce the ZRR's dual identity: rooted in campus teaching and learning while maintaining vital connections to zine communities beyond institutional walls.

Teaching with Zines Across the Curriculum

Fall 2025 brought expanded faculty partnerships, with zine-based information literacy instruction woven into courses across disciplines:

History 110 with Dr. Ariel Beaujot integrated hands-on zine making, connecting historical inquiry with contemporary publishing practices.

Alt text: HIS 110 students in Dr. Ariel Beaujot's classroom creating zines at their tables.

Environmental Studies 351 & 314 with Dr. Margot Higgins explored food justice and transportation justice using zines as primary sources, and through zine creation, allowing students to synthesize research and advocacy in accessible formats.

Alt text: Various zines created by ENV 314 & 351 students. Text on the eight zines read,

RGS 205 with Dr. Melina Packer incorporated zines into gender and sexuality studies coursework.

ART 318 Professor Zach Stensen’s students in the intermediate and advanced print courses revived Fledgling, the student arts and literature zine, continuing a campus publishing tradition (view previous issues in the library catalog).

Alt text: Student arts and literature zine, "The Fledging". Title in white text with an image of a girl feeding a young doe.

ART 102 Lecturer Natalia Rocafuerte brought foundational art students into dialogue with zine aesthetics and DIY production.

These partnerships demonstrate how zines function as pedagogical tools that encourage student voice, creative risk-taking, and engagement with alternative knowledge production.

Bring Your Classroom to the ZRR

Faculty across disciplines are using zines to spark student engagement and critical thinking. The ZRR offers instructional sessions that can be customized to your course needs, including:

  • What are zines? A short presentation covering definitions, history, and cultural significance.
  • Why zines matter in academia: Connections to the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education, exploring how zines intersect with concepts like authority, inquiry, and information creation.
  • Hands-on activities: Pair/share exploration with zines from the collection, plus guided use of the Zine Library Guide for both research and creation.

Interested in requesting the ZRR for your class? Contact Mike Olson at molson3@uwlax.edu.

Growing the Collection

The ZRR collection continued to expand through multiple channels this semester, reflecting its commitment to amplifying diverse voices:

Alt text: Two zines: "Talk the Talk: LGBTQIA+ slang and code by Lexi Rogness" and "Intersectionality within fatness by Alex Morris"
  • Student zines: Supporting campus creators including work from Pride Center initiatives and individual student projects
  • Faculty contributions: Adding works including anarchist recreation zines that connect activism with outdoor culture
  • Community acquisitions: Building relationships with Madison Infoshop and other regional distributors to bring radical publishing into the academic library
Alt text: Two zines from local artists Tiana Traffas, and her daughter, Luna: "My Ritual" and "Sew a 'lil guy!".

This multi-channel approach ensures the collection reflects both campus creativity and broader movements in independent publishing, with particular attention to marginalized perspectives often absent from mainstream collections.

Contribute to the Collection

Alt text: Inside the Zine Reading Room: bookshelves and tables are filled with a large zine collection.

Everyone—students, faculty, and community members—is welcome to donate zines to the ZRR. The collection grows through grassroots collection building via zine fest tabling, mail trades, and direct relationships with creators. 

The ZRR bridges academia and the zine community by bringing works found at regional zine fests into campus access, amplifying voices often missing in traditional publishing while supporting experiential learning and fostering campus-community connections.

Mail your zines to: Mike Olson, Murphy Library 120, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse 1725 State St La Crosse, WI 54601

Zine on!


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