Zines are niche, handmade, hyper-local booklets created by community members for community members. Omaha Public Library is excited to reintroduce this collection at Benson Branch, opens a new window and W. Dale Clark Main Library, opens a new window!
Zines do not check out in the same way as many other library materials. Patrons are encouraged to read zines at the library, take them home, share with others, and return them to any of OPL’s 12 locations so that everyone may enjoy them. Zines will not appear on a patron’s library account. Due to their unique borrowing terms, zines were not immediately available after OPL reopened its doors in September 2020 following a six-month closure because of the pandemic.
"When libraries reopened last fall we just didn't have enough information about COVID transmission to confidently return the zines to a browsing collection," said OPL’s Readers & Writers Librarian Erin Duerr. "Now that there's more information about the lack of transmission from surfaces, we're ready to return zines to the shelves."
OPL's zine collection was developed with support from the Rowdy Boys Collective, opens a new window and built with donations from the ALA Zine Pavilion, opens a new window and vendors from Omaha Zine Fest, opens a new window. The collection is built primarily of donated zines and originally launched in September 2019.
Zine donations may be dropped off at any OPL location and will be considered for inclusion in the OPL collection. If you have a zine you’d like the library to consider purchasing, please complete this form.
For more information, read Zine Library Q&A, opens a new window or contact Duerr at 402.444.4800 or erduerr@omahalibrary.org, opens a new window.
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