Multnomah County Library is the best!!

[S. M.]

So, I was pleasantly surprise when I went to my local library-- Multnomah county's Hollywood branch-- and found that they have started a zine exchange! Now, not only do they carry zines in many branches and offer a bunch of great zine info online, but they also facilitate zine trades!! They had a box below the zine shelf full of zines for trade on the honor system, like many book-borrowing shelves in libraries. A sign explained the difference between zines to check out (have barcodes) and zines to take/leave. I don't know how long they've had it there, not long I think, as I am a pretty regular library patron and voracious zine reader. I hope it helps to circulate zines even more. I picked up the fantastic Zine Librarian Zine#2 and one called MEME-O-MATIC and was very pleased with my (free!!!!) choices. I plan to drop off some zines of my own next time I go...

[Kelsey Smith]

Thanks for the plug, Joshua! The zines have always been circulating at Oly, but the catalog is set up so that people can't place holds on them... yet. For now, people have to actually come to the library to check stuff out. A space for zine trades sounds like a really great idea- if I can get a little more space eked out in our library, maybe I'll try to do something like that too.

Anyone in the Olympia area should stay tuned for more info about a 24 Hour Zine Thing & Reading we're going to have at the library on July 23rd- right before the Portland Zine Symposium. Excitement!

[Ms Valerie Park Distro]

(Just to the north...) The Olympia Timberland Library has a zine section with zines that are available for check out, too. It got started about a year ago, but I think people just started figuring it out (i think maybe it's new that you can check them out, you used to be able to just read them at the library). A marvelous woman named Kelsey Smith started it, she would probably totally love donations as a budget cut means she most likely stops getting her hundred dollars a year to buy zines: TRL 313 8th Ave SE Olympia, WA 98501-9300

[Sabrina]

that sounds awesome!