2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Zines are unique, self-published works that provide a platform for personal narratives, activism, and marginalized voices not often represented in scholarly sources. Their format is highly sharable with relatively low production costs—making zines an accessible medium that reduces participation barriers for both creators and readers. Academic libraries can incorporate zines to enhance outreach for practical programming by using them as vehicles for creative expression, community engagement, and amplifying diverse voices. Zines can be a creative medium to introduce library resources to science and engineering students in particular, as they offer concise information in a handy format, while they also present unique opportunities for engagement through creative expression often lacking in the traditional classroom. They can be a pocket-sized, appealing handout that offers greater opportunities for in-depth, tech-free explanations with a novelty that can increase engagement.

For more formal learning, zines can replace informative handouts to share information or to present students with a scaffolded approach to a task. Libraries can also offer opportunities to directly engage with students through zine making workshops. Facilitating these activities can foster concise communication and empathy by connecting academic inquiry to students’ lived experiences. Zines could be included in the library's archives or repository, which bolsters institutional representation of student voices, scholarly output, and campus narratives. Adding zines to library collections broadens their scope, ensuring collections are more reflective of the campus community and promoting critical information literacy. They encourage science and engineering students to explore how creativity emphasizes creation as a physical process, especially in light of how artificial intelligence is shaping the way they engage with assignments. This paper explores the use of zines as informational handouts and as the focus of creative workshops tailored for science and engineering students. By leveraging zines, academic libraries can foster greater creativity, inclusivity, and campus engagement through outreach initiatives that are fresh, meaningful, and deeply connected to their communities.