ZAM Zine Archives Montreal Expozine 2025
ZAM
Zine Archives Montreal
November 12 – 14 2025
The ARCMTL archive centre and Expozine are happy to announce a new international conference on zine archives, Zine Archives Montreal 2025, with this year’s theme: On Our Shelves, On Our Terms.
The conference takes place during Expozine 2025, when all of Montreal is abuzz with zine energy ahead of North America’s largest zine and small press fair with over 240 exhibitors.
Activities include visits to several archive centres and libraries with zine collections in Montreal and three days of presentations, discussions and activities from November 12 to 14.
Special guests from zine archives and libraries from outside Montreal, along with local actors will discuss issues and challenges related to this very specialized field.
All programming is open to the general public (on registration via Eventbrite links to come).
Schedule
Wednesday November 12
Presentation and guided tour, Concordia Fine Arts Reading Room (FARR)
Concordia University EV Building, 1515 Sainte Catherine W., EV-2.785
11h – 12h30
Conference Day 1
Concordia Webster Library, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W. room LB-322
13h30 – 17h
Registration required, free, Eventbrite
Opening
13h30 – 14h
Louis Rastelli, Director, ARCMTL
Andy Hales, Director, Fanzinothèque (Poitiers, France)
Video presentations, participating zine libraries and archives
14h – 14h30
Zine Thesaurus
14h30 – 15h30
The Zine Subject Thesaurus, based out of the Anchor Archive Zine Library in Halifax, is a set of subject terms for cataloguing zines that provides zine libraries, archives, and collections with an alternative to traditionally used controlled vocabularies. The need for accurate description of radical materials drives the development of the Thesaurus, ensuring the respectful treatment of works by marginalized creators. Members of the Zine Subject Thesaurus Management Collective will share the background of the Thesaurus and discuss the collaborative work that strives to keep the Thesaurus up-to-date.
On Our Terms
15h30 – 17h00
Discussions about zine metadata, descriptions, categories.
An overview of metadata schemes, terminology, categories and descriptors adapted for zines and artists’ books by zine librarians. Is it important to try to use as much of the established library and museum institutional standards as possible or do we go our own way? Do we risk further propagating old and outdated and discriminatory systems by using them, or do we help modernize them with our work? How to keep a very open mind on how to best describe collections today without being too belaboured with honouring the methods of the past.
Break, supper – happy hour
Guided Visit/ Presentation of Quebec Public Interest Research Group McGill University (QPIRG-McGill) Radical Library
3516 du Parc, Montréal, Québec, H2X 2H7
18h30 – 19h30
With Louis Lussier-Piette
Registration required: Eventbrite link
Bar Co-Op Milton Parc
3714 du Parc 19h30
Social gathering, next door at Bar Milton Parc. Radical Trivia Night!
Thursday, November 13
Morning: Archive visits (details to come)
Lunch
Visit and guided tour of the Archives Gaies du Québec
1000 Rue Atateken, Bureau 201A, Montréal, Québec, Canada, H2L 3K5
13h-13h45
Registration required: Eventbrite link
ZAM Conference at Mes Pants de Queer
2025 rue Parthenais, suite 241
14h30 – 17h
Registration required: Eventbrite link
Institutionalized
The growing interest and inclusion of zines in the collections of institutions and libraries, local and academic, comes with certain challenges from their acquisition to their integration into collections. What experiences have independent zine archives and libraries had with regards to these institutions?
On Loan
Zine libraries that lend zines are becoming rarer given issues with conservation, theft, and resources involved in managing loans. How essential are loans to the accessibility of zine collections?
On The Take
From donations, purchases at zine fairs, stores, garage sales, online orders, what strategies are librarians and archivists prioritizing in order to build their collection? What sort of acquisition policy is appropriate for zine and artist book libraries and archives?
Expozine event: Vernissage – presentations: La Route du Zine; Jordan Coulombe / Crooked Fagazine; Club de Bridge
17h30 – 20h
Friday, November 14
ARCMTL Archive Centre
6600 Saint-Urbain local 306, Montreal, Quebec H2S 3G8
Registration required: Eventbrite link
11h – 12h
On The Mend – On Our Shelves – Zine and artist book conservation and repair workshop
Join professional conservator Emilie O’Brien and the ARCMTL team for demonstrations of zine and artist book repair and conservation. From cleaning stains, removing stickers, repairing torn pages to proper bagging and shelving for safe access on the shelves.
Lunch break
13h00 – 14h00
On The Platform
Discussion of issues relating to making zines available online and online catalogues. What are some of the experiences archives and libraries have had with varied online catalogue management systems? What are the risks and benefits to putting digitized zines online, from copyright theft to AI ingestion.
14h – 14h45
Lost in Translation
Challenges in managing multilingual zine archives and libraries.
15h00h – 17h00
In The Community
What are the particularities of zine collections that are part of a wider larger community archive? How does cataloguing and metadata, acquisition etc differ from a standalone zine library or archive?
Furthermore, why do we feel that zines are important to collect, preserve and be made accessible? What do these collections mean in our own communities?
BREAK for evening
ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS
ARCMTL is a Montreal non-profit organization created in 1998 by a group of independent artists and publishers, with a mandate to both promote and preserve the independent arts. It has organized the Expozine independent publishing fair and festival since 2002; the Volume MTL art book fair and festival since 2018, and also co-produces the Montreal Printed Arts Festival. While its archive centre has grown to encompass many aspects of Montreal documentary heritage, it remains focused on preserving the work of independent artists, including the hundreds of small presses, publishers and self-publishing writers and artists who take part in the organization’s programming each year. Its vast collection of zines and artists’ books is part of a wider community archive that includes audio-visual documentation, cultural and radical periodicals and magazines, independent music and video art, promotional posters and advertisements and other ephemeral materials.
The Anchor Archive Zine Library
The Anchor Archive Zine Library is a collectively-run, non-profit library located in Halifax. Its collection holds over 7000 zines from both the local area and across the world. The archive has been providing access to independent media, art, and local zine history and culture since 2005 through operating the library and offering tools, resources, and programming for making zines. Their collection is searchable through their online catalogue.
In 2008 they created the Zine Subject Thesaurus by librarian and zine-maker Amanda Stevens and the zine cataloguers at the Anchor Archive Zine Library which is now used by many zine libraries and collections around the world.
Archivo Fanzines (Aguascalientes, Mexico)
The Archivo Fanzines located in Aguascalientes, Mexico is a private archive/repository dedicated to zines published in the state of Aguascalientes from 1989 to present. In addition to collecting, preserving, cataloguing, and digitizing their collection they aim to promote their study and dissemination.
The Fanzinothèque de Poitiers brings together over 60 000 documents, zines, mico-editions, and alternative press. The collection includes a significant fonds of zines that came out of the punk and DIY scenes, instigators to the development of independent publishing. The Fanzinothèques holdings also include magazines, and underground comics from the seventies as well as a significant quantity of screenprinted graphzines. The collection is the largest of its kind in Europe and amasses over a thousand new items every year. Documents can be consulted on site and can be borrowed with a membership to the Fanzinothèque. The collection is also searchable through their online catalogue.
Hard-Pressed Community Printshop & Zine Library (Vermont, USA)
The Hard-Pressed Community Printshop & Zine Library located in Vermont is a community space dedicated to the printed arts. They host workshops, hold weekly open studios and house a zine library. The library is a project of Banditry Press in collaboration with Burdock Zine Distro. It is mainly composed of zines that were previously housed in other spaces, namely the Beehive Design Collective alongside collections by Burdock Zine Distro and Banditry Press’s growing number of resources and DIY published titles.
Toronto Zine Library (Toronto, Ontario)
The Toronto Zine Library & Archive (TZL) is a library space run by a collective of zine readers, zine makers and librarians striving to make zines accessible for the Toronto community. The aim is the cherishing, protection, and promotion of zines. They hold workshops at the library and abroad as well as other events promoting zines as a method of open communication and free expression.
Michigan State University Libraries (Lansing, Michigan)
Michigan State University Libraries’ Zine Collection brings together a diverse range of sub- and counter-cultural self-publications in printed form. Zines became an intentional collecting area in 2008.
The collection has a significant collection of English-language punk, hardcore, and other alternative music fanzines as well as covering a wide swath of underground and alternative culture from the 1980s to the present, from diary-like personal zines (perzines) to anarchist political zines and a wealth of unique, under-represented perspectives in gender and sexuality. The collection also includes a selection of alternative comics, mini-comix, and new wave comics as well as significant archivally arranged collections of science fiction fanzines from the Star Trek universe and others. Ongoing collection efforts seek to sustain existing collection strengths and to build strength in zines by people of color, zines by people identifying as queer and trans* and zines in languages other than English.
The Fine Arts Reading Room is a student-run art library and resource centre located on the second floor of Concordia’s EV building in Montreal. They offer access to resources including computers, printing, reference help, and loans from their collection of historical and contemporary art publications. Throughout the year they run a number of projects designed to support student artists, such as workshops, lecture series, as well as annual projects such as funded research residencies, and publication grants.
The QPIRG-McGill Alternative Library is a community library and archive of radical materials in Tiohtià:ke (Montréal). It is dedicated to lending and archiving rare, independently published, formally unconventional, and intellectually marginalized books, periodicals, media, and zines that contribute to QPIRG-McGill’s anti-oppression mandate and support its working groups. The Alternative Library is home to an ever-growing collection of over 500 zines from 1989 to present. The collection has a focus on Montreal student groups, although it includes zines from all over the world.
Les Archives Gaies du Québec (Montreal, Quebec)
Founded in 1983, the Archives gaies du Québec (AGQ) has the mandate to collect and preserve all handwritten, printed, visual, audio, and other documents that bear witness to the history of LGBTQ2S+ communities in Quebec. In addition to collecting, conserving, cataloging, and digitizing their collection, they aim to promote the diversity and inclusion of LGBTQ2S+ people, to update the content of their collections on all aspects of gender and sexuality, and to promote research on sexual and gender minorities and the recognition of their rich contributions to the history of Quebec. The AGQ collection is available for consultation on-site and through their online catalogue.
