The Austin Fanzine Project started as a relatively straightforward digitization and transcription project  intended to improve access to the documents of a recently-historical subculture – the Austin, Texas underground music scene of the 1990s.

The project has blossomed into a sandbox for creative experimentation with digital archives and digital humanities methods and tools. To date the project volunteers have digitized fanzines and posted the resulting downloadable files; researched digital archives best practices and crafted project policies; experimented with crowd-sourced transcription and indexing using new open-source software; and explored ways to virtually visualize the connections in real-life communities via maps, e-books, and audio tours. The digitized material has already proved useful for a variety of uses including, most recently, a collaboration with the Early Modern OCR Project.

To follow the Austin Fanzine Project’s progress, follow the blog, friend us on Facebook &/or follow us on Twitter.

You can help out by transcribing fanzines from home in your spare time! Check out the transcription interface:

• Geek Weekly #1 on FromThePage
• Geek Weekly #2 on FromThePage
• Geek Weekly #3 on FromThePage
• Geek Weekly #4 on FromThePage

Free PDFs of Geek Weekly are available here:

• PDF of Geek Weekly #1
• PDF of Geek Weekly #2, part 1 of 2
• PDF of Geek Weekly #2, part 2 of 2
• PDF of Geek Weekly #3, part 1 of 2
• PDF of Geek Weekly #3, part 2 of 2

Thanks for checking us out!