#PLA2022 inspired me in many ways. Hello… uh, Portland? There’s a reason they say “Keep Portland Weird” and I absorbed as much of it as I could. The food was incredible and the PLA folk, well…the bee’s knees. I had many engrossing conversations with strangers from my tribe and enjoyed everyone’s hair, glasses, and general uniqueness. Powell’s books blew my mind. Every room. Every floor. What a knockout!
In addition to the richness of the people and the landscape (and book stores), most inspiring were the PLA programs focused on collections. From guidelines to removing bias and barriers from the nonfiction section, to handling First Amendment audits and requests for reconsideration, the selection of programs were relevant. They arm us with practical tips tools to support intellectual freedom and inclusiveness.
As a youth programmer, I am always looking for ways to support youngsters’ intellectual freedom and freedom of expression while empowering them at the same time. I found just what I was looking for when stumbling into Microcosm Publishing on the first day of the conference.
Zines
Having some experience with zines myself (I’ve made them and I’ve presented library programs about making them), I knew how much I’d enjoy looking at the titles and picking up a few that they were selling. I learned how easy it would be to start a zine collection at my branch! I’d found out that thousands of their titles were available through an existing vendor of my library. The people at Microcosm were amazing and helpful answering the many questions I had,too. If that wasn’t awesome enough, I then learned about the Oakland Library presenting a How-To on starting a zine library.
How to Zine at Your Library
While Oakland Public Library’s presentation was just 20 minutes long, it packed a punch of valuable information. OPL staff covered everything from creative cataloging to increasing your zine library through community donations. There were also great programming ideas, like a Zine Club and inspiring staff through in-house zine making programs.
Zines Go Hand-in-Hand with Public Libraries
Another thing that struck me was how well the concept meshes with intellectual freedom and freedom of expression. It seemed to be one of the conference’s stronger themes. Sharing the knowledge about zines and zine making in our libraries supports our democratic values of intellectual freedom and expression. How empowering to self-publish and amplify your voice. That’s how Martin Luther rolled. He was an O.Z. (original zinester). I’m thrilled to become a steward of such a collection, and to be a witness to budding zinesters in my community!
In the end, I was excited to take this information home and begin this project. I also had a chance to visit the Central Library’s Zine Library and it was amazing!
If you need more convincing of how awesome a zine library would be in your collection, or would like a brief history about zines, check out these sites:
(Image credit: Stephanie Stoner except as indicated)
Please note that as a guest post, the views expressed here do not represent the official position of ALA or ALSC.
Guest conference blogger Stephanie L. Stoner (she/her/hers) is a Youth Services Librarian. She was most looking forward to springing back into the mix of like-minded professionals from around the country- bringing home fresh ideas and and soaking up inspiration at PLA! She was also thrilled to have the opportunity to hear Kal Penn speak! As a children’s librarian, she is partial to baby animals of all kinds; her favorite – next to baby humans – are baby galagos (bush babies).
#PLA2022 Conference Bloggers offered great overviews during the conference. Today we offer five more posts from the Public Library Association gathering in Portland last week. (This is post 1 of 5.) To see more posts, just search the ALSC Blog using the keyword #PLA2022.