2026 Core Forum

The Zine Subject Thesaurus (ZST) is a set of subject terms that can be used to catalog zines and other alternative publications or content. Developed in 2008 for the Anchor Archive Zine Library catalog and recently expanded, the ZST aims to better describe topics in radical materials and to address issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in standardized subject headings. The ZST has over 1800 terms and is now used by zine collections worldwide, collectively maintained by members of the zine and zine library community.
Two members of the Zine Thesaurus Management Collective will introduce participants to equity issues in existing subject heading vocabularies, explain how to use the ZST to ameliorate these concerns, then lead participants in a brief edit-a-thon. Participants will work collaboratively to suggest terms, evaluate terms, choose preferred terms, and create relationships with other terms in the Thesaurus. In a think-pair-share activity, attendees will reflect on and discuss their newfound insight into how to use the ZST and other tools to apply respectful, up-to-date terminology that accurately reflects language used by marginalized creators.