This week marks the arrival of many new students to the Brooklyn College campus, but also the departure of two amazing students whom I have grown to appreciate very much, and also depend upon: Robin Potter and Devon Nevola, our summer zine interns.

Robin and Devon at Undergraduate Orientation

It has been really wonderful to have Robin and Devon here this summer with me–to explore the city’s zine collections with, to chat with about the future of the collection, and perhaps most importantly, to get to know these two really amazing librarians to-be.

Although both ladies will still be nearby, this week was their last here as Brooklyn College Library zine interns–and they both hold a special place as the very first students of their kind. They will be missed!

My hope is that I can continue to offer zine internships–in the starting stages which we are still working through, and then in the future, with special projects and other adventures.

This week also marks another milestone in the life of the Brooklyn College Library’s Zine Collection: we have been allocated a budget! From this, I hope to start thinking about the way that our browsing collection in the library will be displayed and furnished. Stay tuned for more news as it develops!

Well, I can’t believe how fast it has gone by, but this is the the last day of our summer internship with the Zine Collection at Brooklyn College Library! My fellow intern, Devon Nevola, and I have had many great experiences at Brooklyn College Library and on our field trips to other zine collections in the city. I enjoyed processing and reviewing the zines, as well as researching and contacting zinesters to request submissions. So many people have generously donated issues, it is amazing (and their incredible work has inspired me to get back into making my own zine…we’ll see what comes of it)!

Last week we got to participate in the undergraduate orientation by manning the library table and distributing buttons (!) and informational flyers to incoming freshmen and transfers. It was a rollicking good time, and hopefully got many of the newcomers started on the right foot as library users. Our final few days here were punctuated by an earthquake and a hurricane, but luckily both were much less traumatic than they could have been, and we all emerged with stories to tell, but little damage otherwise.

Alycia has been a very supportive mentor to us both, and I really appreciate all the time and effort she spent, introducing us to colleagues, answering our many questions, and just generally letting us in on the culture of the library. She really made the internship experience a two-way street. Alycia is so dedicated to the collection and to the library, and it has been wonderful to get to know her and the other librarians here at Brooklyn College Library. We were really lucky to get to be in on the early stages of this collection and I wish her the very best as it continues to grow.

While the internship will end today, I am looking forward to continuing my relationship with Brooklyn College Library as I will be staying on into the fall semester, as a College Assistant at the reference desk. I look forward to the day, hopefully in the near future, when I can encourage students to explore the Zines in their very own Browsing Collection!

It seems that the end of August is upon us and what that means for us here at the Brooklyn College Library Zine Collection is <sigh> the end of our internship.  Robin and I have spent several months working under the tutelage of Alycia Sellie which has been, in my humble opinion, a superb experience.  This being my first library “job” (though, one would hope, not my last!), I was so privileged to have such an energetic, supportive and knowledgeable guide as Alycia.  From the start, I was always encouraged to learn and experience as much as I could, and not merely in reference to library zine collections; from the Brooklyn College library system to the general study of library science, Alycia wanted us to gain the most that we possibly could out of our internship.  Plus, she got us a button maker.

And how about those zines?! Having been introduced to zines in the ’90s as the result of listening to underground music (pre-Internet, kids), I was very pleased and somewhat surprised to see what an active and enthusiastic zine scene continues to thrive, all across the US and beyond (little known fact to me: zines are pretty big in Australia!).   That is why the work we have done, and that Alycia will continue to do, is so important: these zines are representations of our collective culture in the most personal sense.  Being independent, DIY publications, they are not bound by rules, popular opinion, or censors.  They are print (gasp!) representations of people’s imaginations and fears and everything in between.  And lucky readers that you are, you will be able to view them in perpetuity here at the Brooklyn College Library.  Just keep checking up on the progress of the collection here on this very blog – I know I will!

Now that I’ve rambled on long enough, I will say my adieu.  So let me end in saying thank you: once again, to Alycia Sellie; to my fellow intern, Robin Potter; to the lovely staff of the Brooklyn College Library; and, to the many zinesters who have donated to the collection – you’ve shown me that people do get excited about the gifts that libraries have to offer and that print will never die.