LAGAR Newsletter, No. 21 (August 2001)

People to See, Places to Go

Washington D.C. 

For up to date events in the D.C. area during SAA, visit:

The Washington Blade, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender newspaper, http://www.washblade.com/

Woman's Monthly, for the women's community, http://www.womo.com/

http://gay-washingtondc.com/gay-washingtondc/index_4.html (6/7/01);

http://www.sissycity.com/index2.htm (6/7/01);

http://www.washblade.com/kiosk/bars/body.htm (6/8/01); 

The following are just highlights; there are many things to do and places to go in D.C. Information came from above web sites. 

*Eateries* 

Annie's Paramount Steak House (Gay Owned & Operated)

1609 17th St, NW

202-232-0395

Steakhouse 

Banana Cafe (gay-friendly)

1517 Connecticut Ave., NW

202-387-1462 

La Tomate

1701 Connecticut Ave, NW

202-667-5505

Italian/French 

Larry's Lounge

18th and T Sts., NW

202-483-1483 

Mimi's American Bistro (Gay Friendly)

2120 P St., NW

202-464-6464

American cuisine 

Mr. Henry's (Gay Friendly)

601 Pennsylvania Ave., SE

202-546-8412

Pub food. 

Peppers

1527 17th St, NW

202-328-8193

Cajun/Caribbean/Mexican 

Pizza Paradiso (Gay Friendly)

2029 P St., NW

202-223-1245

Pizza 

1409 Playbill Café (Gay Owned & Operated)

1409 14th St., NW

202-265-3055

American cuisine 

Raku Dupont: An Asian Diner (Gay Friendly)

1900 Q St. NW

202-265-7258

Asian cuisine 

Sheridan's (Gay Owned and Operated)

1874 Old West Steakhouse

713 8th St. SE

202-546-6955

Steakhouse 

Trattoria Alberto (Gay Friendly)

506 8th Street, SE

202-544-2007

Italian 

Trio (Gay Friendly)

1624 Q St., NW

202-232-5611

American Cuisine - "The neighborhood's favorite greasy spoon." 

Two Quail (Gay Friendly)

320 Massachusetts Ave., NE

202-543-8030 

*Bars, Clubs, Dancing* 

Badlands

1415 - 22nd St. NW

202-296-0505

dancing, video, men 

Club Chaos

1603 17th Street, NW

202-232-4141

dancing, drag, video, men and women 

DC Eagle

639 New York Ave. NW

202-347-6025

country-western, Levi/leather, pool tables, men 

Ellington's on 8th

424-A 8th St., SE

202-546-8308

Restaurant, jazz, men and women 

The Fireplace

2161 P St. NW

202-293-1293

video, pool table, men 

Hung Jury

1819 H St., NW

202-785-8181

dancing, women 

JR's Bar & Grill

1519 - 17th St., NW

202-328-0090

video, pool tables, men 

Omega DC

2122 P St. NW

202-223-4917

dancing, video, pool tables, men 

Phase One

525 8th St., SE

202-544-6831

dancing, women 

Remington's

639 Pennsylvania Ave. SE

202-543-3113

country/western, video, karaoke, pool tables, men 

News from the Vault 

Schlesinger Library has opened a portion of the papers of Holly Near to researchers. The collection documents Near's career as a singer, songwriter, and activist co-founder of Redwood Records, who uses her music to agitate for women's rights, gay and lesbian rights, human rights, and peace. The materials available consist of eight linear feet of papers plus audio-visual and oversized materials. Debbie Richards and Susan von Salis processed the collection; the finding aid is available by clicking on "Holly Near" at http://oasis.harvard.edu/sch.html . 

To the Vault

(New Accessions) 

University of Louisville Ekstrom Library has received the Williams-- Nichols Collection. Formerly known as the Kentucky Gay and Lesbian Library and Archives, it has been named for its founder, longtime local gay activist David Williams, and his late lover, Norman Nichols, who died of AIDS in 1995. 

The Williams-Nichols Collection is believed to be among the top ten largest collections of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender materials in the U.S. Over 3000 books, about 14,000 print publications, nearly 400 videotapes, and countless t-shirts, buttons, bumper stickers, and other ephemera are included. Only four other collections are known to have more books. 

Crucial to the collection are extensive newspaper clippings, newsletters, meeting minutes, correspondence, fliers, and other print materials detailing Kentucky's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender history since the late 1960s. 

Dr. James Sears used these primary source materials in writing his forthcoming history of the gay and lesbian South after Stonewall. Rebels, Rubyfruit and Rhinestones is due out in bookstores this fall. 

Controversy continues to arise within the gay and lesbian community over whether to donate lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender materials to libraries or archives or to try to retain the materials within the community itself. The donation of the Williams--Nichols Collection raised the issue once again. But for David Williams, there were several practical considerations for transferring the collection. 

Williams, who had housed the material in his home, found the collection increasingly unwieldy. Materials overflowed from bookcases to piles on the floor and to the cellar which became unusable. The chance to move it out of the house was irresistible. 

But two other situations played an important role. The Ekstrom Library offers much greater public access than Williams could provide at his home. Secondly, the library uses state-of-the-art techniques to preserve fragile documents. Most lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender organizations do not have the physical space to provide public access to the materials nor the monetary backing to perform the expensive preservation actions needed to maintain such collections properly. 

The Ekstrom Library held a dedication of the collection on 28 June in connection with the Louisville Gay Pride Celebration. In addition to a reception after the dedication, the Special Collections area in Ekstrom will maintain a display of several books and magazines from the collection throughout the summer. 

[Thanks to Brenda J. Marston, for this information.] 

Schlesinger Library has acquired the papers of Alix Dobkin ("The Head Lesbian"), who's Lavender Jane Loves Women was the first album of women's music to be distributed internationally in 1973. For further information, log on at http://www.radcliffe.edu/schles . 

Archives and Special Collections Department at Northeastern University recently received eleven cubic feet of records of The Theater Offensive. The web site for The Theater Offensive -- http://www.thetheateroffensive.org -- indicates that "for the past ten years, The Theater Offensive has driven its ambitious programming to the cutting edge of queer culture and politics. Grounded in a commitment to build an activist-based artistic forum, its groundbreaking programming has become a vital arena for the unique voice of queer cultures." For more information on Northeastern University, see http://www.lib.neu.edu/archives/ 

News About the Vault 

In February, the Archives at the University of Hawai'i at Mnoa moved from three storage areas in Sinclair Library to the new addition to Hamilton Library. Then in March, we moved more materials from an off-site storage area into the new facility. Further consolidating will have to wait until the beginning of fall semester 2002 when renovation to the older parts of Hamilton Library are finished and library departments temporarily using space in the new addition can return to the rest of the library. Then the Congressional Papers collections and other materials will move to the new addition to Hamilton. 

Community Archives Liaison Project

Needs Your Help

(Envision here Uncle Sam

pointing a finger) 

At the upcoming annual meeting the Community Archives Liaison Project, formerly the Buddy Project, will be discussed. The idea for a Community Archives Liaison Project started in 1994 when LAGAR's membership expressed a desire to pair up professional archivists in LAGAR with people in community archives to help them deal with basic archival issues. 

Your input is needed on the following issues and questions: Is the LAGAR membership still interested in doing the Community Archives Liaison Project? How do we make community archives aware of SAA and LAGAR and aware of the ways we might benefit these organizations? 

LAGAR needs to develop a list of members willing to volunteer as consultants on an one-time or ongoing basis with community archives. Ideally we will have volunteers from different regions of the country. LAGAR also needs a comprehensive list of community archives in order to create a network between LAGAR and the groups documenting the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. 

Please bring any ideas you have to the meeting. Paula Jabloner and Debbie Richards thank everyone who returned the survey from last year's newsletter and volunteered to be a part of the project. If you are interested in getting involved, please email Paula <pjabloner@sjhistory.org> or Debbie <richards@radcliffe.edu>. 

From Archives/Archivists

Floods Again 

Undoubtedly many of you read the account from Mark Lambert, Special Collections and Government Documents Librarian, South Texas College of Law Library which he posted to the Archives Listserv last June. He had assisted other records curators following the floods in Texas from the tropical storm. Now the first week in August, another tropical storm is pouring rain and bringing floods to areas with libraries, archives, museums, etc. So I thought some of Lambert's reflections might be in order as reminders. 

He indicated a 1 cubic foot record center carton full of records, when submerged in water, and then allowed to partially drain excess water, will expand to more than 1.5 cubic feet and will burst the box open. The weight will have doubled with the water. The soggy handles of that 1 cubic foot box will now tear under the load of the box.

The weight of soaking wet boxes will wear out your emergency recovery team workers quickly. Compare your recovery effort to moving the archives. Realize before the flood occurs, you will need more workers and shorter shifts than you would to move boxes of dry papers. 

Given the effects of water upon materials, Mark questioned the capacity of cantilever library shelving, which some archives have rather than four-post shelving, to hold up when the contents suddenly doubles in wait. For those of us with this cantilever style of shelving, usually handed down from the books stacks to archives, perhaps the floods give another reason to appeal to administrators for good shelving. 

Leather Archives & Museum

Seeks Executive Director 

The Leather Archives & Museum, located in Chicago, is searching for a new Executive Director. Joseph W. Bean, the current ED, says, "I do everything from water the grass to design the exhibits to ... you get

it." The LA&M is buying a building to house its collection. Bean feels that "the time has come to get someone with the right education and information in

the E. D. slot." 

If you or anyone you know might be interested in becoming "the Boss (go

ahead, tell yourself what to do next) at the Leather Archives," contact Joseph W. Bean at archives@leatherarchives.org

for more information or send your resume and/or query to 

Leather Archives & Museum

6418 N. Greenview Avenue

Chicago, IL 60626

telephone: (773) 761-9200 

New Addition to Google Search 

Peter A. Kurilecz, frequent poster of summaries of archives news, indicates that Google has now added an image search feature to their advanced search page. While only in beta, he indicates that it is pretty good. The url is

http://www.google.com/advanced_search Kurilecz cautions to be sure to select the number of results to be displayed before beginning your search. 

Digital Acquisitions Policies

Desired by Library of Congress 

The Library of Congress is seeking papers or sample collection development/ management policy statements concerning the acquisition,

treatment, and preservation of digital materials. This includes electronic

resources, such as subscription databases; e-books and e-journals; digital music and film; contents from the Internet; digital archival collections;

government publication that are produced and exist exclusively in digital form; and CD-ROMs and videodiscs. 

This information will assist the Library in developing a national strategy for the long-term access and preservation of digital information content. Contact person is Ms. Emily C. Howie, Program Specialist/ Librarian. Email her at emho@loc.gov or write her at:

National Digital Library Program. Library of Congress

101 Independence Ave., S.E.

Washington, D.C. 20540-1300 

Gay and Lesbian

Community Center

of South Florida 

On 11 May 2001, Stonewall Library and Archives (SLA) celebrated the grand opening of a new 2300 square foot space at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of South Florida. In its existence, Stonewall Library and Archives has had several temporary homes; it is hoped that this is its last move. Dr. John C. Graves made a generous donation of funds for the renovation of the current space. 

The newly renovated space holds the John C. Graves Reading Room with over 10,000 volumes of books, videos and CDs. Approximately 90% of the collection was donated by individuals. 

The library is open five days a week from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Since the move to the Community Center, circulation has quadrupled and the number of visitors to the library has increased five-fold.

The archives are housed in an 800 square foot facility adjacent to the library. With funding from the Gill Foundation, the Dade Human Rights Campaign and the Florida Local Historical Records Program, compact shelving was purchased to hold the 4000 linear foot collection of materials. The grants also allowed for the purchase of over $10,000 of preservation supplies to stabilize the collection. 

The archives holds the records of many local south Florida organizations. Additionally, the archives holds the Richard Inman papers, founder of the Florida Mattachine Society; and the Joel Starkey papers, founder of the Southern Gay Archives. The periodical collection has over 1000 titles with thousands of issues of early magazines, journals, and newspapers important in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community.

The Gay and Lesbian Community Center is at 1717 North Andrews Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33311- 4813. The telephone number is (954) 763-8565; FAX is (954) 563-9007. One may reach SLA through email at info@stonewall-library.org or through the web site at www.stonewall-library.org.