Getting Started

What is Public Domain Day?

Public Domain Day occurs every year on January 1st and encourages people to celebrate new and old works in the public domain.

At the start of 2022, works published prior to January 1st, 1927 in the United States will be considered public domain. When a work enters the public domain, it is longer protected by copyright law. This means that ownership is transferred from the author to the public, allowing the public to exercise their creativity in order to reuse, rework, and distribute public domain works as they please!

A couple of examples of well known works entering the public domain this year include Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne and The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway.

What is a Zine?

A zine is a small self published or independently published magazine that usually focuses on a central theme. Zines can contain collections of art, poetry, and writing and have a rich history of celebrating creative expression and sharing information around niche topics.

For more information about zines, check  this Zines 101 guide created by the University of Illinois' School of Information Science.

Public Domain Zine Prompts

Idea Prompts

1. Make decoupage art with public domain images
2. Draw a comic based on a poem or book in the public domain
3. Write and illustrate a poem based on a work in the public domain. 
4. Write what songs you would put on a playlist based on a work that is in the public domain. 
5. Create a mashup of multiple public domain works
6. Write a short story based on the public domain.

Question Prompts

1. How do you feel about the public domain
2. How can the public domain be helpful?
3. How can the public domain be harmful?
4. What do you think the public domain will look like in the future?
5. What is your favorite adaptation of a public domain work?
6. What do you wish you understood about the public domain
7. What do you think an older work in the public domain would look like or sound like if it was created today
8. What would happen if you changed the ending of a written work in the public domain?

Option 1: Single Page

1. Grab a single sheet of paper
2. Write, draw, paste, and/or create your zine page based on our prompts or let your creativity run wild. 
3. Optional: Once you are done, you can *submit your zine page in the drop box at the Library Learning Commons craft station or you can take a digital scan with your phone or scanner and submit to eresources@rosalindfranklin.edu for a chance to be featured in future Library Outreach. 
   1. Submissions can be attributed or anonymous. 

Option 2: Mini Zine

MassArt Art Museum. (2020, April). Drawing Together. https://maam.massart.edu/event/drawing-together-10

 

1. Fold a piece of paper lengthwise
2. Fold the piece of paper again widthwise
3. Fold the piece of paper once more widthwise
4. Unfold the piece of paper completely. You should have eight quadrants.
5. Using your folds as a guide, fold the piece of paper in half widthwise
6. Cut from the middle of the middle fold to halfway to the edge of the paper
7. Unfold the paper completely. You should see a slit in the paper where you just cut. 
8. Fold the piece of paper lengthwise one more time and pinch the outer two corners of the folded paper. the pinched corners closer together from where you’ve pinched. This should cause the slit you created to open and then meet back together
9. Fold into an 8 page booklet. 
10. Write, draw, paste, and/or create your mini zine based on our prompts or let your creativity run wild. 
11. Optional: Once you are done, you can *submit your zine page in the drop box at the Library Learning Commons craft station or you can take a digital scan with your phone or scanner and submit to eresources@rosalindfranklin.edu for a chance to be featured in future Library Outreach. 
    1. Submissions can be attributed or anonymous.