This past November, I went to Barcelona, Spain for a short vacation. Before I left Toronto, I knew that I wanted to see what the zine library equivalent was like in Barcelona and compare it to my experience volunteering for the Toronto Zine Library. So, I tried searching for a zine library online, first encountering Sukie Zines and messaging them for a library visit request.
However, after receiving a response saying that the Barcelona chapter of Sukie Zines is currently closed, I decided to try and find something else. That’s when I came across La Fanzinoteca, a zine archive in Barcelona. Even though Google said they were permanently closed, I still tried to send an email through the information I found on their still-active website. And I got an answer! One of the collective members sent a response back, saying that I could visit La Fanzinoteca on Tuesday evening, which made me feel super ecstatic. I did it! I found a place dedicated to zines and successfully coordinated a time to visit.
When it got to the actual time of the visit, I was pretty curious about the space I’d be walking into and was a little underwhelmed when seeing the exterior of La Fanzinoteca. It looked like every other building nearby; there wasn’t anything to suggest that zines were here, like a sign or some sort of display. Once I got buzzed in and climbed to the first floor, a collective member opened the door and I knew I was in the right place. Not because there were zines everywhere, but actually because of the displayed order in the form of boxes upon boxes of zines! The space said “archives” without saying “archives”. A collective member of La Fanzinoteca, showed me that they catalogue donated zines mainly by date, which is useful if a person donated a bunch of zines all at once. Then, you can locate all of those zines easily. These zines are also given a catalogue number based on the date it was cataloged, placed in a plastic bag with a board and index card describing the zine. It made looking for zines via catalogue number very easy. Judging from the boxes within the space, there were more than 1000 zines, with the exception of some that were on loan for an exhibit in the city.
I even got to use their cataloguing system to catalogue a zine I had brought from Toronto. Initially, I had meant to donate the zine, thinking that it would be a cool thing to leave behind in Barcelona. But then, I was asked to catalogue the zine as well, and I jumped at the chance. With some help from the collective member, since the cataloguing system was in Spanish, I catalogued a zine, placed it in a plastic bag along with a board behind it, as well as filled out the index card. Cataloguing a zine with La Fanzinoteca was interestingly similar to how we catalog zines at the Toronto Zine Library. The only differences I can think of are the way the title is recorded (capitalizing the first letter and no other words within the title, unless they’re a proper noun), mentioning who donated the item, as well as some physical descriptions (like describing how the zine is bound). Overall, it was really cool and made me happy to see the donated zine already included into the archive’s collection.
Afterwards, I got a chance to go through the other zines available in the boxes, using the catalogue provided on La Fanzinoteca’s website to find them via catalogue number. I found the catalogue to be very helpful and in most cases, I found the zine I was looking for, the exceptions being the zines that were on loan at the time. But I did miss the way I could find a bunch of zines under a specific category at the Toronto Zine Library and almost treasure the way that looking for one zine within that category could lead to finding others to peruse as well.
All in all, I’m glad I got a chance to visit La Fanzinoteca before I left Barcelona and would recommend that other people visit the space as well.
– Sumaya, a Toronto Zine Library volunteer