The last Library Journal zine review column, Fat Activism and Body Positivity: Zines for Transforming the Status Quo, written by Sarah Lawrence librarians Kate Angell & Charlotte Price has been posted.
The first column was published, in the magazine, as well as online in March 2008. Four years really isn't bad.
Here's the sign-off I wrote:
This is the final zine reviews column LJ will be publishing for the known future. While I’m disappointed that zines will no longer benefit from the boost in visibility LJ’s reviews provide, I’m also okay with zines disappearing from the library mainstream. I want zines to be taken seriously and to be collected, preserved, and shared by librarians and archivists, but zines are the expression of various subcultures and are thus always vulnerable to cooptation. I am happy that this column and its predecessors will continue to be available on the internet, and that the zines and distros reviewed will benefit from library workers and their friends having written about them authoritatively, and with love.
I'd like to thank Anna Katterjohn, who edited all but the last column, and whose departure from Library Journal ended the column. Anna went above and beyond in her work with the zine review column, with me and with the column contributors. I also want to thank all of the reviewers and zine publishers who participated over the life of the column. And here's a special shout-out to fellow over-40 zinester Krissy Durden, whose zine Figure 8 was reviewed in both the first and the last column. And thanks to anyone who read the columns. I think the contributors and I covered important topics, so yay us!