This collection contains the holdings of Wathne's Fanzine Archives, a self-proclaimed "Library for the Preservation and Circulation of Fan-created Material". Nearly all of the collection consists of fanzines and fan fiction relating to a number of different science fiction and fantasy media fandoms. The largest of these fandoms are Star Trek and Star Wars, traditional loci of fannish interest; however, the range of media properties extends from popular favorites such as Doctor Who, Blake's 7 and The X-Files, through smaller cult shows like Beauty and the Beast and Stargate: SG-1, to more obscure titles like The Sentinel, Robin of Sherwood, and Highlander: The Series. Most of the fandoms represented concern movies or television shows, although there are a few in the collection devoted to literary properties (such as the Pern novels of Anne McCaffrey or the Darkover universe of Marion Zimmer Bradley).

More general categories include Multifandom, which includes zines or anthologies of stories encompassing multiple fandoms; and Crossover, which describes stories in which characters and universes from different fandoms encounter each other (for example, a cosmic wormhole might suck the U.S.S. Enterprise out of its own universe into that of Star Wars, or Sam Beckett of Quantum Leap might leap into the body of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.'s Napoleon Solo). Another general category is termed Genzines: the materials in this category are mostly general interest science fiction and fantasy-oriented zines, with a few perzines (personal zines) thrown in.

An additional Assorted category includes stories or zines for various fandoms whose relatively insignificant presences in the Fanzine Archives do not justify giving them their own section here in the collection. (Note that this does not mean that a media property which is underrepresented in the FA does not have a strong following in its own right. For example, there exist vocal fan audiences for the television shows Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Xena: Warrior Princess, even though very few publications relating to those shows are present in the FA Collection.)

Most of the collection is composed of fan fiction - short stories, novellas and entire novels. A not-insignificant percentage of this fan fiction is "slash", that is, fiction that concentrates on sexual relationships between two or more characters of the same sex. A particular category, Fan Fiction, is given over to fan fiction that is not concerned with an existing fandom but rather with original stories and characters.

Among the Star Wars materials, there is a large collection of comic books devoted to that film saga. Most of the comics were published by Dark Horse Comics during the release of the Prequel Trilogy of films, but there is a complete run of the Marvel Comics series produced during and after the release of the Original Trilogy.

A smaller section of the collection consists of miscellaneous materials that accrued as part of Wathne's collection. Some of the materials relate to the administration of the Fanzine Archives itself. A large sub-section of the Miscellaneous section consists of scripts for various media properties, including episodes of Star Trek, Miami Vice, and Starsky and Hutch. There are also some scattered items relating to various science fiction conventions.

Note on Star Trek

Researchers will note that, in the box list, many of the entries under the Star Trek category have three-letter designations. These refer to the particular incarnation of the Star Trek series of television shows to which the zine or piece of fan fiction refers.

TOS: Star Trek: The Original Series (1966-1969), plus the first 6 Star Trek films (1979-1991)

TNG: Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994), plus the next 4 Star Trek films (1994-2002)

DS9: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-1999)

VGR: Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001)

All materials predating 1987, obviously, refer only to the Original Series. After 1987, any publication without a three-letter code has material relating to more than one incarnation of the show. The Wathne Collection does not contain any material concerning the series Star Trek: Enterprise (2001-2005).