Tutorials

Cataloging Your First Zine

Step-by-step guide to creating your first ZineCore2 record

This tutorial walks you through cataloging a zine from start to finish. You'll learn how to gather information, choose vocabulary terms, create a valid JSON record, and validate it.

What You'll Learn

How to examine a zine and extract bibliographic data
How to choose appropriate subjects and genres
How to create a valid ZineCore2 JSON record
How to validate your record with JSON Schema

Prerequisites

A zine to catalog (physical or digital)
A text editor
Basic familiarity with JSON (we'll explain as we go)

Our Example Zine

For this tutorial, we'll catalog a real zine:

"Not Your Mom's Meatloaf"

A perzine/cookzine about vegan cooking
Created by Alex Martinez
Published in Portland, OR in 2023
28 pages, half-letter size, photocopied with staple binding
Contains personal essays and recipes
Has a "freely duplicatable" statement inside

Step 1: Gather Required Information

ZineCore2 has four required fields. Let's identify them:

1. Title

Look at the cover. Our zine says: "Not Your Mom's Meatloaf"

{
  "title": "Not Your Mom's Meatloaf"
}

2. Creator

Who made it? Check the cover, credits page, or back cover. Our zine says: "by Alex Martinez"

{
  "title": "Not Your Mom's Meatloaf",
  "creator": ["Alex Martinez"]
}

Note: creator is an array (list) even if there's only one creator. Use square brackets [ ].

3. Subject

What is it about? Our zine is about vegan cooking, food, and personal stories about changing diet.

Looking at the subjects vocabulary, we find:

food - Yes, it's about food
cooking - Yes, it has recipes

{
  "title": "Not Your Mom's Meatloaf",
  "creator": ["Alex Martinez"],
  "subject": ["food", "cooking"]
}

4. Format

Is it print or digital? Our zine is a physical photocopied zine.

{
  "title": "Not Your Mom's Meatloaf",
  "creator": ["Alex Martinez"],
  "subject": ["food", "cooking"],
  "format": "print"
}

Congratulations! You now have a valid minimal ZineCore2 record with all required fields.

Step 2: Add Recommended Fields

Let's add more information to make the record useful:

Date

When was it published? Our zine says "2023" on the back.

{
  "date": "2023"
}

Genre

What type of zine is it? Looking at genres vocabulary:

perzine - Yes, it has personal essays
cookzine - Yes, it has recipes

{
  "genre": ["perzine", "cookzine"]
}

Abstract

Write a brief description (1-3 sentences):

{
  "abstract": "A personal zine about transitioning to veganism, featuring recipes and essays about food, family, and identity. Includes veganized versions of traditional comfort foods."
}

Physical Description

Our zine is:

28 pages (count them!)
Half-letter size (5.5" × 8.5")
Photocopied on white paper
Staple binding

{
  "number_of_pages": 28,
  "physical_dimensions": "5.5 x 8.5 inches",
  "binding_features": ["stapled"]
}

Place of Publication

The zine says "Portland, OR" on the back cover:

{
  "place_of_publication": "Portland, Oregon, United States"
}

Rights

Inside the front cover it says "This zine is freely duplicatable":

{
  "rights": "freely-duplicatable"
}

Step 3: Complete Record

Here's our complete record so far:

{
  "title": "Not Your Mom's Meatloaf",
  "creator": ["Alex Martinez"],
  "subject": ["food", "cooking"],
  "format": "print",
  "date": "2023",
  "genre": ["perzine", "cookzine"],
  "abstract": "A personal zine about transitioning to veganism, featuring recipes and essays about food, family, and identity. Includes veganized versions of traditional comfort foods.",
  "number_of_pages": 28,
  "physical_dimensions": "5.5 x 8.5 inches",
  "binding_features": ["stapled"],
  "place_of_publication": "Portland, Oregon, United States",
  "rights": "freely-duplicatable"
}

Step 4: Add Optional Enhancements

Let's add a few more useful fields:

Language

The zine is in English:

{
  "language": ["eng"]
}

Use ISO 639-3 language codes: eng for English, spa for Spanish, fra for French, etc.

If the zine has a table of contents or clear sections:

{
  "table_of_contents": [
    "Introduction: Why Vegan?",
    "Veganizing Family Recipes",
    "Meatloaf (But Not Really)",
    "Mac and Cheese Without the Cheese",
    "Comfort Food, Comfortable Me"
  ]
}

Public Notes

Add any curatorial or cataloging notes:

{
  "public_notes": "Cover art is a collage of vegetables arranged to look like a meatloaf. Black and white interior."
}

Step 5: Final Complete Record

{
  "title": "Not Your Mom's Meatloaf",
  "creator": ["Alex Martinez"],
  "subject": ["food", "cooking"],
  "format": "print",
  "date": "2023",
  "genre": ["perzine", "cookzine"],
  "abstract": "A personal zine about transitioning to veganism, featuring recipes and essays about food, family, and identity. Includes veganized versions of traditional comfort foods.",
  "language": ["eng"],
  "number_of_pages": 28,
  "physical_dimensions": "5.5 x 8.5 inches",
  "binding_features": ["stapled"],
  "place_of_publication": "Portland, Oregon, United States",
  "rights": "freely-duplicatable",
  "table_of_contents": [
    "Introduction: Why Vegan?",
    "Veganizing Family Recipes",
    "Meatloaf (But Not Really)",
    "Mac and Cheese Without the Cheese",
    "Comfort Food, Comfortable Me"
  ],
  "public_notes": "Cover art is a collage of vegetables arranged to look like a meatloaf. Black and white interior."
}

Step 6: Validate Your Record

Now let's make sure it's valid!

Option 1: Online Validator

Go to the Schema Validator
Paste your JSON
Click "Validate"
Fix any errors

Option 2: Command Line (Advanced)

# Install ajv-cli
npm install -g ajv-cli

# Download the schema
curl -o zinecore2.schema.json \
  https://zinecore.org/v2/schema/zinecore2.schema.json

# Save your record as record.json

# Validate
ajv validate -s zinecore2.schema.json -d record.json

Common Mistakes

Forgetting Arrays

// ❌ Wrong
"creator": "Alex Martinez"

// ✅ Correct
"creator": ["Alex Martinez"]

Using Wrong Vocabulary Codes

// ❌ Wrong (not a vocabulary code)
"subject": ["Food", "Cooking"]

// ✅ Correct (lowercase codes from vocabulary)
"subject": ["food", "cooking"]

Misspelling Field Names

// ❌ Wrong
"title": "My Zine",
"creater": ["Jane Doe"]  // Typo!

// ✅ Correct
"title": "My Zine",
"creator": ["Jane Doe"]

Step 7: What's Next?

Now that you have a valid record, you can:

Save it locally - Keep JSON files in a folder
Submit to the API - If using the Reference Implementation
Convert to other formats - Use JSON-LD contexts for RDF
Create more records - Catalog your whole collection!

"Bike Punx" by Jamie Chen A perzine about bike touring, published in 2022 20 pages, quarter-size, black and white photocopies Topics: bicycling, travel, DIY Genre: perzine Statement: "Please copy and distribute"

Click to see the answer

{
  "title": "Bike Punx",
  "creator": ["Jamie Chen"],
  "subject": ["travel", "diy"],
  "format": "print",
  "date": "2022",
  "genre": ["perzine"],
  "number_of_pages": 20,
  "physical_dimensions": "4.25 x 5.5 inches",
  "rights": "please-copy"
}

Note: You could also add "technology" or create a custom note about bicycles since there's no specific "bicycles" subject term.

Next Tutorials

Describing Zine Creators - Learn AgentCore2
Recording Holdings - Track your physical copies
Building a Zine Catalog - Create a complete cataloging system

Need Help?

Check the ZineCore2 profile page for all fields
Browse the vocabularies for valid terms
Use the Schema Validator to check your work
Review common validation errors

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