Although zines, a rich and democratic form of self-expression that range from scholarly treatises on diverse issues to wildly creative artworks, have been around for a long time, few libraries have yet begun collecting and preserving them. Our collection development policy provides both contemporary and future researchers a unique insight into today's feminist culture. Barnard's zines are written by women with an emphasis on zines by women of color. A woman's gender is self-defined. We also collect zines on feminism and femme identity by people of all genders. The zines are personal and political publications on activism, anarchism, body image, third wave feminism, gender, parenting, queer community, riot grrrl, sexual assault, and other topics. Zines to which current Barnard students have contributed will be acquired even if they do not entirely meet the preceding guidelines.

We have one collection in the stacks (between current newspapers and current periodicals) that readers can check out and otherwise use as they like. We have a second range of zines, designated as "Rare" in CLIO, that is housed in the Barnard Archives, and is meant to be a preservation/research collection. In it we've got a second copy of each of the stacks zines and also single copies of several others. "Rare" zines should be handled with care, per the same rules that apply to other special collections materials. (Provide ID, use only under supervision, no photocopying, no drinks, pencils only, etc.) We currently hold over 1700 zine issues, in part thanks to large donations of rare and wonderful zines from zinemaker/collectors Sara Jaffe, Yumi Lee, Lauren Jade Martin, and Celia Perez. The San Francisco Public Library and Chris Dodge often donate zines, as well. We recently purchased Randall Tinear's collection, and he threw in his collection of Ben Is Dead for free.