The Zine Machine at the University of Iowa Zine Collection


I was recently at the Iowa City Zine Librarian (un)Conference, which was held (partially) at the University of Iowa.

The university has a pretty big collection of zines (including lots of old sci fi fanzines) and, to be honest, I kind of hate how they're organized (in boxes, in the archive, by collection, as opposed to title). They're also barely catalogued, which really bothers me.


(Some of the zines in a display case outside the special collections room.)


One thing that the library did have that was awesome, was the Zine Machine! A vending machine filled with zines that you could get for FREE! So cool! I think vending machines are pretty neat anyway, and I love it when they're used for art things. I didn't get any zines out of this one (I already had several of them), but I really want to get my own now. Someday!