Why Collect Zines?: Notes on the Soviet and Russian Rock Zine Collection in the Global Resources Center of George Washington University Libraries

ABSTRACT This article discusses the phenomenon of rock music zines in the Soviet Union and Russia, focusing on the historical value of zines, as well as their tradition within the realm of samizdat, a milieu where zines flourished, with their writers-editors, production values, types of design, and audiences. Types of zines are discussed as well as their relationship to traditional samizdat. The collection of rock music zines in that International Counterculture Archive at the George Washington University (GWU) Library’s Global Resources Center is described in this regard with special notes given to the provenance of the collection as well as to the cataloging and descriptive approach to processing the rock music zine collection.