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The Little Maga/Zine Collection was created in the 1960s in response
to the flourishing San Francisco Renaissance. SFPL librarians began
collecting in earnest sometime around 1966. Despite a few obstacles –
the short life of many little magazines made it difficult to start and
maintain subscriptions, distribution was occasionally disorganized,
non-existent, or made only through friends or word of mouth; and the
sometime anti-establishment attitudes of writers and publishers often
precluded libraries from receiving little magazines – the collection of
40 titles was assembled and opened to the public in the old Main
Library’s Literature Department in 1967. Wild Dog,
Beatitude, Black Dialogue, Hollow
Orange, The Journal for the Protection of All Beings,
and Big Sky were among the first titles held by the Library.
By the early 1980s, the collection had grown to about 500 titles; it
was during this time that the development of the collection took a
downturn. The changing political scene, and San Francisco’s budget
situation, along with the fugitive nature of many little magazines,
contributed to a severe reduction in collecting. Subscriptions were cut,
magazines ceased publication, and the Library found itself holding a
stagnant collection, which was then boxed and stored in the closed
stacks. With little public use or knowledge of this resource the
collection lay dormant for most of the decade.
The Library continued to maintain some little magazine subscriptions;
those magazines were bound into volumes and are now part of the Magazine
& Newspaper Center, on the fifth floor of the Main Library.
In late 1988, the Little Maga/Zine Collection was inventoried and stored
in archival boxes. The inventory was completed just before the Loma Prieta
Earthquake in 1989, with improved conservation protecting the magazines
from damage. After the earthquake the collection was moved to the
Humanities Department, where a critical point in the development of the
collection was reached: in 1991 zines
made their first appearance in the collection. A Library produced flyer,
"A Call for Little Maga/Zines," was sent out to the community, asking zine
creators, readers, and collectors to donate their San Francisco zines to
the collection. The Library received an immediate and enthusiastic response
for an underutilized but significant collection. In the same year, the
publication of the first title catalog announced a reinvigorated collection.
In 1993, the collection was transferred to Special Collections (now known as
the Marjorie G. & Carl W. Stern Book Arts & Special Collections Center). The
Library received a gift of 250 little magazines, most of them representing
the work of the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets of the San Francisco Bay Area. Then in
1997, a gift of 240 zines was received from Factsheet Five
publisher Seth Friedman. Today the collection holds over 1,200 titles.
The Little Maga/Zine Collection represents the intellectual activity of the
people of San Francisco, from the twentieth century onward. An important tool
for understanding the literary, social, political, and cultural experience of
San Francisco, the Little Maga/Zine Collection tells the story of life in the
cool grey City by the Bay.
The collection continues to grow from gifts and donations, rather than
subscriptions: a "call" for zine creators, readers,
collectors (PDF) – anyone interested in the writing life of the San Francisco
Bay Area – to donate their little magazine or zine to the collection continues
as one of the main forms of outreach to the community. The focus remains on
San Francisco, with a lesser focus on the West Coast.
Donations to the Little Maga/Zine Collection may be made by visiting the Book
Arts & Special Collections Center, Sixth Floor, Main Library, Civic Center;
donations may also be mailed to the center. For more information call
415-557-4560 or e-mail us at bookarts@sfpl.org
The Little Maga/Zine Collection is open to the public: Tuesday through Thursday:
10-6; Friday: 12 Noon-6: Saturday: 10–6; Sunday: 12 Noon– 5. Closed Monday.
Further reading:
Anderson, Elliott, and Mary Kinzie. The Little Magazine in America: A
Modern Documentary History. Yonkers: Pushcart, 1978.
Chepesiuk, Ron, "The Zine Scene: Libraries Preserve the Latest Trend in
Publishing," American Libraries, February, 1997, 68-70.
Dodge, Chris. “Zines: Resources for Unhomogenized Self-Expression; Including
Specific Titles and a Zineography.”
Street Librarian.
Duncombe, Stephen. Notes From Underground: Zines and the Politics of
Alternative Culture. London: Verso, 1997.
Earnshaw, Carly. "Best of the Bay 2002: Hip History: San Francisco Was Ground Zero for the Xeroxed
Revolution." San Francisco Bay Guardian.
Gunderloy, Mike. The World of Zines: A Guide to the Independent Magazine
Revolution. New York: Penguin Books, 1992.
Hoffman, Frederick J., Charles Allen, and Carolyn F. Ulrich. The Little
Magazine: A History and a Bibliography. Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1946.
Rowe, Chip, ed. Book of Zines: Readings
from the Fringe.
Zines! 2 vols. San Francisco: V. Vale, 1996.
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