Abstract
Zines are short, non-commercial and often self-published works with a long history in the academic library, and a much longer history in the world. Rooted in a do-it-yourself ethos, zines have historically been used for communication and community building for various subculture groups. Some may be shared with small runs, while others are created for personal use and reflection (Duncombe, 1997). Because they are outside of traditional publishing, zines offer creative opportunities for participatory engagement.
In library spaces, zines offer personal perspectives when included in archives, and can be effective ways to communicate information and facilitate access to polarized or hard-to-find resources. They have also played a role in information literacy instruction and education more broadly. Learners who create zines as part of their learning experience may feel increased personal investment, better understand their part in an information ecosystem, and can better engage with concepts through participatory learning (Yang, 2010; Eller and Plottel, 2022). Of particular note for this proposal, scholars have shown that zines can encourage meaningful reflection during the learning experience (Vong, 2016). Reflection allows learners to connect their real world experiences with new information and skills, a particularly valuable element of information literacy instruction (Bruce, 2004). Zine making workshops have also been shown to foster connection and collaboration between participants and provide a space supportive of experimentation and creative thought (Brown, 2024).
This wildcard proposal offers a two-part zine workshop for LILAC delegates. At the first workshop near the beginning of the conference, participants will learn about opportunities to use zines as part of their information literacy instruction practice. Most of the workshop will be active: delegates will add information into their own zine based on prompts during that workshop. Using a semi-structured template, they will write things they are looking forward to learning about at the conference, areas they would like to improve in their information literacy practice, and/or other goals for the next few days in the first pages of their zine. The central pages will be space for structured notes about new ideas related to their goals. While working at tables as small groups, delegates will also share their thoughts with others at their table. For the second session, scheduled near the end of the conference, delegates would come back together to reflect and share, while adding to their final zine pages based on this reflection. If participants are willing to share, scans or pictures of the completed zines could be made more widely available through a hosted webpage.
By participating in these paired sessions, delegates will engage more deeply with this already meaningful conference, have additional opportunities to connect with other delegates, and will learn about and consider ways to incorporate zines as creative tools for learning and learning reflection in their own information literacy practice.
References
Brown, A. (2024). Zine-making and critical reflection: Portals of shared discovery. In E. Piazzoli & F. Dalziel, Performative Language Learning with Refugees and Migrants. Routledge.
Bruce, C. (2002). Information Literacy as a Catalyst for Educational Change: A Background Paper. White Paper prepared for UNESCO, the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, and the National Forum on Information Literacy, for use at the Information Literacy Meeting of Experts, Prague, The Czech Republic. https://arizona.aws.openrepository.com/handle/10150/106385
Duncombe, S. (1997). Notes from underground: Zines and the politics of alternative culture. Verso.
Eller, S. L. & Plottel, T. (2022). Soviet Counterculture, Poison Girls, and Glue Sticks Teaching Information Literacy with Do-It- Yourself Zines. In S. Higgins & N.-Y. Tran, Embracing Change: Alternatives to Traditional Research Writing Assignments. Association of College & Research Libraries.
Vong, S. (2016). Reporting or Reconstructing? The Zine as a Medium for Reflecting on Research Experiences. Communications in Information Literacy, 10(1), 62–80.
Yang, A. (2010). Engaging Participatory Literacy through Science Zines. The American Biology Teacher, 72(9), 573–577.
