Volume 7: 2023

Near…far…wherever you are.

It’s not just the beginning of a famous song but it is how we had to form our connections with our family and friends during the pandemic. But one thing lockdowns have shown us is that there are different ways to connect with people. Even though we have resumed some kind of normalcy, the new ways of connection is not something that should be forgotten. That is what we like to know from you! How do you stay connected? What old or new ways have you found to connect with the world?

Volume 1:  Summer 2017

"To enter a circulating branch of The New York Public Library is to enter the realm of “real” New Yorkers. Distant from the vacationer’s dream of what this city might be, each branch of NYPL provides those of us who require the extraordinary amounts of patience and fortitude necessary to continue our grind in the midst of so much noise with space to realize our personal dreams and pursuits. As community centers in this urban scramble, the Library is a necessary reprieve where the city dweller can recognize themselves and the questions or epiphanies this environment inspires."

Volume 2: Fall 2017

"This issue is a compilation of ideas that somehow or other fit together to form a part of the blueprint by which New Yorkers work to build both a better city and world. From calls for love to questions scratching at the foundation of civilization, subculture appreciation to pure escapism, this collection of ideas should sprout a seed of inspiration and motivation in the minds of our readers whose hands, now holding this volume tight will go forth and shape this very world. As our young patrons wrote for the Library’s summer reading essay contest: reading can and will build a better."

Volume 3: Summer 2019

"This issue is a compilation of ideas that somehow or other fit together to form a part of the blueprint by which New Yorkers live. From calls for love to questions scratching at the foundation of civilization, subculture appreciation to pure escapism, this collection of ideas should sprout a seed of inspiration and motivation in the minds of our readers whose hands, now holding this volume tight will go forth and shape this very world. As our young patrons wrote for the Library’s summer reading essay contest: reading can inspire and change us."

Volume 4: Winter 2020

"[D]espite the toll of months of uncertainty and fear and an ill fitting silence that threaded itself into its streets, New York City shouted back to us. Like the chants of the many Black Lives Matter protests that marched up and down every borough, this issue of the New York Public Library’s Library Zine! echoes what New York City stands for.

Whether we were ready or not, this was a year of reckoning for the city. We were forced to reckon with the vile and systematic racism built into our infrastructure, the experiences of the oppressed and overworked upon whose back the city survives, and with who exactly we are as individuals. With notes of agony, anger, hope, and love, this issue harmonizes the voices who spoke out in a time of disaster."

Volume 5: 2021

There were moments within the past few years that have made the future unforeseeable, unknowable, and as if nonexistent. Perhaps the true identity of the future, sure, but for many of us used to looking down the road and seeing at least the predictable lines and signs, there was nothing but night and the basic fear that the dark can bring. This issue we asked patrons of the New York Public Library to write to their future selves with both a pessimism of the present and an untiring optimism that change is still possible. 

Volume 6: 2022

What’s something you wish you could change?  What’s something you wish would always stay the same? What event in your life made you the happiest? The saddest?  What’s one thing you always wanted to say to a loved one?

These were the questions asked and more in this volume's theme, Lost/Found. This theme is centered around reflection and celebration. The Zine Committee looked for creative and unique takes on the theme dealing with past, present, and future.