Scotland Does Its Part to Save Planet’s Fanzines

While most libraries, whether public or private, house a periodical section, few are likely to carry the handwritten Xeroxed pamphlets known as “fanzines.”

While most libraries, whether public or private, house a periodical section, few are likely to carry the handwritten Xeroxed pamphlets known as “fanzines. “This vein of underground journalism has been a small but significant part of popular culture for decades, but is increasingly in danger of going extinct in the information age. With the creation of blogs and e-mail newsletters, some avid fans are turning to the Internet to access a wider audience with more ease and fewer production expenses. A movement to preserve this low-tech art is coming from an unusual source: the National Library of Scotland.

While the heyday of the fanzine is usually associated with the punk movement of the late 70s/early 80s, amateur niche-market publications first appeared on the scene in the 1930s. The science fiction of writers like Asimov and Clarke was initially ignored by the general public, encouraging enthusiasts to create their own medium to chronicle the genre. Similar small-scale publications were created by early admirers of jazz, the blues, and rock before these types of music were accepted by mainstream society.

With their rich lineage and firsthand accounts of the evolution of contemporary culture, fanzines are beginning to be viewed as legitimate historical artifacts. Chris Atton, a Napier University professor and long-time fanzine aficionado, explains the phenomenon: “The National Library sees fanzines as part of the cultural heritage of this country but 30 years ago if you had handed them a copy of Sniffin’ Glue it would have gone straight in the bin, and that comes from the massive change in how popular culture is covered.” This scholarly change of heart has spurred the Scots to collect and catalogue these relics of the 20th century before they disappear.