Introduction
The New York Public Library houses a historic zine collection, and continues to acquire current zines. The Library collects zines broadly focused on New York City and by New York City creators.
What are zines?
Zines are easier to describe than define. They’re “do it yourself”, handmade magazines that come in all different shapes, sizes and formats.Many are handwritten, photocopied and stapled, while some may be magazine-like publications and professionally printed. They are a unique form of personal self expression, made for love rather than profit and can cover just about any subject you can think.
A subset of the collection is housed in the DeWitt Wallace Periodical Room at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building with current periodicals in Room 108. Zines stored in the Library's on-site stacks or off-site storage facility are served in the Rose Main Reading Room at the Stephen A. Schwarzman, in Room 315.
To access the zines in the collection users need a free, New York Public Library card.
Get a NYPL Card
Sign up to get a NYPL card here: https://www.nypl.org/library-card
City residents and those working or attending school within the five boroughs will need to pick their card up at any one of our 92 locations in Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island.
New York State residents who live or attend school outside New York City may receive their card by mail.
