I am a long time lurker, but have been reading and following BASFA for a few years. I think this project may be of interest. What caught my eye is that they're not only looking for fanzines, but any other printed material relating to fandom (convention program guides, flyers, letterzines). Basically the stuff that has been cluttering up our homes for years but we hate to just throw out.I am copying and pasting the announcement here. I do not work for or represent the group partnering with the Unviersity of Iowa but like the idea of preserving fandom history. Feel free to copy/paste and forward wherever appropriate.CassK **********************
The OTW (Organization For Transformative Work) is pleased to announce that we will be partnering with the University of Iowa to create a Fan Culture Preservation Project. The Special Collections department at the University of Iowa already has a strong interest in fanzines, and is making a concerted effort to collect zines and other artifact of fan culture (con programs and flyers, for instance) in order to preserve them and make them accessible to wider popular and research audiences. Iowa is home to a huge (250,000) collection of science fiction and fantasy zines and APA zines, as well as a collection of Riot Grrrl and Underground Music Zines. Media fandom is not as well represented, and they are eager to collect many aspects of fan culture, including all types of fanfiction. The first major donation brokered by OTW is the Fanzine Archive, a collection of over 3,000 classic zines previously housed in Santa Barbara--over 62 boxes! The OTW was able to help the retiring archivist, Ming Wathne, save and protect this valuable collection. Special Collections is currently in the process of sorting and boxing Ming's zines. Soon after that is finished, titles in the Fanzine Archive collection will be listed in a finding aid on the Special Collections website. We are currently helping other long time fans donate their collections to the library. OTW and Iowa are eventually hoping to explore ways to digitize some of these materials, so that fans who want to see them will have access, even if they can't get to Iowa. (We are only talking about works where we have legal clearance; both the University of Iowa and the OTW are concerned about fan privacy first and foremost.) The Special Collections department at the University of Iowa is also willing to photocopy materials for a price of about $.25 cents a page, according to their standard procedures. Moving? Apartment getting too small? If you have zines you no longer want (or more than you can manage!) but want to know they'll find a good home, please contact the OTW. We can arrange for postage to be paid and for UPS to come to your house to pick up the boxes. You might also consider leaving your collection to the Fan Culture Preservation Project or making arrangements through a friend. Please help us preserve this important part of fannish history! more here http://transformativeworks.org/node/698 http://community.livejournal.com/otw_news/55970.html
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