Boston's amazing Papercut Zine Library needs a home

Aaron sez, "papercutzinelibrary.org is 'a free lending library that specializes in independently published media, particularly zines.' They have been kicked out of their space in Cambridge, MA and are desperately looking for a new home. Their needs are relatively small, but it can be tough getting the word out. I encourage anyone in the Boston/Cambridge, MA area to check out their site and see if you can help. It would be a shame to let all the wonderful zines become unavailable!"

I dropped in on this place a few years ago and was absolutely charmed and delighted. This is a very worthy cause indeed.

Papercut needs new space for August 15 (Thanks, Aaron

• [Anonymous]

  Ouch. It seems everything is in the basement of the Democracy Center (on Mt. Auburn) which was just sold by the owner! The building is going to be taken down, which is a shame for all of us in the community who use it… These guys need space soon, before they lose their storage, too.

• [trippcook]

  blv hv grt r lctn tht shld b prfct fr ths cllctn f zns.

  http://snprl.cm/r3k

• [Anonymous]

  you could probably find a place in Worcester thats 2500 sq FT for like 250 a month, it’s dirt cheap out here…
  I’m renting a 4 bedroom apartment with 2200 sq ft of space for only 850 a month in a really nice part of town

• [MiloBlue]

  Comments to comments…
  Papercut IS awesome. I go there every time I’m in Boston, and their collection is super great. Zine preservation and librarianship is culturally important, IMHO.

  @3: There are a couple of zine-scanning projects online. I know, because I help run one of them (qzap.org). It’s very time consuming, and totally worth doing.

  @8: Donating zine collections to academic and public libraries is good, but they need to have staff that are dedicated to working with zines, and the library has to have a level of commitment to them, as well. One of the drawbacks to donating to institutional libraries is a loss of autonomy that indy zine libraries enjoy.

  This map may not be totally up-to-date, but it shows where there are zine libraries and collections in N. America (indy, academic, and public) http://platial.com/map/North-American-Zine-Libraries/10371

• [Anonymous]

  Tell you what we need: some serious scanning work going on. This stuff is academically irreplaceable and very little-scanned.

• [libraryboi]

  Don’t waste your time with trippcook’s link, it points to a picture of a trashcan. Don’t understand why a BoingBoing reader would post such a useless comment.

  It’s too bad that the public library doesn’t find space for them. Their efforts are reminiscent of the early efforts at community literacy, free speech etc.

• [waaronw]

  That should be “papercutzinelibrary.org” not .net. Sorry!

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    Fixed.

• [bearchild]

  Trippcook, you nasty person.

• [ill lich]

  It was a prime location, but Harvard Square is proving too expensive for anything non-profit.

• [Anonymous]

  try donating the collection to an academic library that has an open campus in the area. Many libraries are now adding these types of collections of zines. This way you’ll get preservation and global circulation through worldcat

• [Rindan]

  I am pretty sad to see the zine library go. I found it here in Cambridge just a couple of weeks before they closed down. I really hope they find a new home within the city.

• [Anonymous]

  As a cambridge resident and user of the library, I’m completely bummed about the loss of the zine library. It’s an awesome and unique place. I hope they find a new space soon. This seems like just another example of how Harvard Square is turning into just an outdoor mall. The square’s got like 5 burrito places and 3 bank of americas, in what’s maybe a 3×3 block area (cambridge doesn’t do real blocks – “can’t get there from here”). It sickens me that any individuality is being stamped out in favor of chain store crap that brings in the boatload of tourists and suburbanites with their strollers and screaming kids all clad in khaki.