Library Zines

Portsmouth Public Library has created a variety of publications in recent years. Read on for all past issues of our zines, and The Parrott Magazine!

Play Zine

Come play with us!

A Zine focused on Play? Really? You might be thinking “why now”? When events around the world are heavy, and people are feeling overbooked and overwhelmed. Folks are feeling frazzled and burned out. Others are feeling lonely. Others on autopilot. Play, we discovered, might be a remedy. This is a gentle invitation to reevaluate our relationship with fun and play.

It turns out that Play and Fun have important roles for our well-being. According to the National Institute of Play website “for adolescents and adults play is an antidote to stress and a foundation for wellness. When we have playful experiences, we are improving our brains and our lives.” Play can relieve pain as well as improve brain function and how we manage stress. Play releases the feel-good hormones of endorphins, serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin. It stimulates creativity and improves relationships.

Catherine Price, author of The Power of Fun, shares that fun and play improve our physical and mental well-being. It is essential to forging connections, finding meaning, and improving health. Play is a lighthearted attitude. It doesn’t have to be playing games. It is letting go of perfectionism and not caring as much about the outcome.

This is permission to feel all the feelings. We can still be anxious about current events and find delight in play. We can bring a spirit of playfulness to situations.

Read on to discover more about incorporating more play into our lives, learn about Mahjong and Pickleball, meet a board game designer, get some helpful reading lists, and even turn this zine into a board game!

Let’s Connect and Play! Pick up a print copy in the library, or read online.

Read the Play Zine online

Death Zine

We are all bound together by our mortality, yet death is a topic rarely discussed in pleasant company. By embracing open and honest discussion around death, we hope you will be able to use this zine as a tool to open the door to factual and compassionate discussion around the topics of death and dying, and also find comfort in knowing just a little bit more about “the great unknown."

Pick up a print copy in the library, or read online!

All links in the online zine are clickable, but please also see our Resources and References page for more information.

Read the Death Zine online

Anti-Ageism Zine

In 2021 we created a zine to highlight Anti-Racism resources to provide insight into a movement that is affecting our nation in a major way. We also began thinking about the library's responsibility as a community hub and we asked ourselves: how can we be more welcoming, more accessible, and more equitable to all who visit our space? In our discussions, we came to realize there is one issue that affects every single one of our patrons and staff: AGEISM.

The truth is we all experience judgment or even discrimination based on our age, regardless of our age! At different points in our lives, we might be dismissed as "just kids" or "over the hill;" our questions belittled by phrases like "you'll understand when you're older" or "you're out of touch;" our ideas disregarded because "this is the way things have always been done" or "you have to keep up with the times."

Sometimes it's just annoying or humbling to be put into a box based on age, but these judgments can also have real world consequences like deteriorating mental health. In fact, depression is the most prevalent mental health problem among older adults, and those living with depression tend to visit the doctor more often, use more medication, incur higher outpatient charges, and stay longer in the hospital (CDC, 2008).

So what can we do to change the stigma associated with age? You've made a great first step by picking up this zine! We don't have all the answers, but we've come up with some truly wonderful books, films, and podcasts that will help you understand ageism and all the ways it sneaks into our lives. We hope this encourages you to keep learning, keep reflecting, and keep reading!

Read the Anti-Ageism Zine online

Anti-Racism Zine

Libraries, like all public institutions, have a history of exclusion, segregation, and discrimination. This includes our own beloved PPL. As the staff of the library, we are raising our voices and saying it is time to change.

In June, we launched a staff working group that we’re calling TIDE: The Taskforce for Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity. Our weekly meetings have encouraged us to speak candidly about our own experiences, to educate ourselves about the experiences of others, and to look critically at our library. What can we do to better serve the human beings in our community? How can we uncover and combat racism in our collections, our building, and our profession?

Zines have long been used to easily share information, encourage personal expression, and promote community. In this tradition, we created a zine that serves as both an invitation and a challenge to ourselves and our patrons - a starting point for critical reflection that will hopefully inspire conversation, education, and action. Our zine includes reflective prompts as well as resource lists to help us integrate anti-racist work into our daily lives. We have personally engaged with many of the resources we list. These are the books, films, and podcasts that have inspired us to examine our preconceived notions of race and racism. We acknowledge that this zine is curated by a predominantly white staff and encourage you to check out additional resources created by BIPOC folks (such as those listed in this zine and our #ReadWoke lists which are findable on our website).

It’s taken a long time for us to get here and we know we’ve only just begun. If you want to come along with us on this journey, you’re in the right place! Spend some time with the prompts, sign up for our Standing Up To Racism course, and, as always, keep reading!

Read the Anti-Racism Zine online

The PRRTT April 2020

The PRRTT (short for Parrott Avenue, where the library is located) is a small zine with book lists, book reviews, and more - written, designed and illustrated by library staff!

What you'll find inside this issue:

How to get a beach brain
YA books adults will love
Playlists with music available on Hoopla
Strange things we've found in the library
Book/music pairings
Crossword
and more...

Click here to get the printable file (8.5 x 11, double sided, black and white), or read online below!

Read The PRRTT online

The Parrott Magazine

The Parrott was a quarterly magazine from the library. Written, edited and designed by library staff, The Parrott featured book reviews, interviews, and more. Readers could get an inside look at their library and their community.

The library no longer publishes The Parrott, but you can read all the archived issues below!