The origins of the “Fanzine Archives”.
From Fanlore, the fan-run non-profit wiki about media fandom
The Fanzine Archives: A Library for the Preservation & Circulation of Fan-created Material was a collection of fanfiction zines owned and circulated by fans, and then Ming Wathne (aka Mariellen Wathne), from the mid-1980s to 2009.
Ming eventually remodeled her house to make shelf space for the hundreds, then thousands of different fanzines she acquired and cataloged. Local fans helped log in new zines, but it was Ming’s show for more than 20 years.
In 2009, the final version of Ming’s library became known as The Fanzine Archives: A Library for the Preservation & Circulation of Fan-created Material. The Fanzine Archives became a federally recognized, non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and circulation of fanzines. The Archives maintained an active circulating library of over 300 fanzines, and a permanent collection of over 3,000 titles.
Quick Timeline
- Beginning in 1981 (perhaps earlier), George Lucas requested that copies of all Star Wars fanzines be sent to him; the Official Star Wars Fan Club folds in 1986.
- The zines were turned over to First Terran Enclave, and they ran it as a lending library from January 1, 1987 to December 1987.
- The zines resided in an unknown location and were not circulated for two years
- In November 1989, Ming wrote a letter to Comlink and explained she was re-opening the lending library and that The Santa Barbara Science Fiction Alliance would be involved. The collection was to be “The Corellian Archives.” She hoped to have it up and running in the spring of 1990.
- The Fanzine Archives: A Library for the Preservation & Circulation of Fan-created Material
- In August 2008, the library was closed due to Ming’s poor health. Ming asked fans to help her find a permanent home for the 3,000 plus zines she carefully accumulated and indexed.
- In early 2009, the Open Doors committee of the Organization for Transformative Works helped to place the Fanzine Archives with the Special Collections department of the University of Iowa Libraries as part of their Fan Culture Preservation Project.
‘Why go to all the trouble to run a zine library?’ ‘Coming into fandom a little late (1980), I missed many of the early SW fanzines, those incredible first efforts. Oh, I had heard of fanzines, as any Trek fan had, but I’d never seen one. Then, at my first convention I discovered a SW fanzine. I was hooked! I had to have more, read more - I wanted it all. Alas, economics prevented me from acquiring more than just a few, although thanks to the generosity of a new friend in fandom, I was able to read some of the ones I’d missed. Whenever I could lay my hands on a ‘zine I hadn’t seen before, I was like a person dying of thirst finding water in the desert (a bit melodramatic, I know, but it’s the only comparison I could think of). I would read whatever I found from cover to cover In record time, not thinking that I should savor the moment, make it last, for I didn’t know when I’d get another one… Now, I have a chance to finish playing catch-up. I’m able to take a look at fan history from the beginning and at how far we’ve progressed. …SW can and will live on in the minds and the hearts of all its fans; and in all the fanzines, both old and those yet to be.”
I forgot to mention that the Fanzine Archives are open to the public. You will need to sign in, leave food/drink/pens behind in a storage locker. You can then “call up” the zines you want (they are brought to you by the library staff). Here is a 2014 road trip (with photos): http://aralias.dreamwidth.org/1989345.html