SOCIETY OF AMERICAN ARCHIVISTS
LESBIAN AND GAY ARCHIVES ROUNDTABLE
Dear Friend,
I am writing to ask for your assistance with a project to increase awareness of manuscript and rare book collections about gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered people. You and many other devoted people across the United States and Canada are working to preserve these important historical resources. The goal of this project is to help make sure that researchers and potential donors can easily find out about your work.
I am writing on behalf of the Lesbian and Gay Archives Roundtable (LAGAR) of the Society of American Archivists (SAA). SAA, celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, provides leadership to help ensure the identification, preservation, and use of the nation's historical record. In 1989, SAA members concerned about the recovery, preservation, and understanding of the history of lesbians, gay men, and their institutions formed LAGAR.
We believe that lesbian and gay men's history is linked to a wide range of behaviors that transgress socially sanctioned boundaries of gender and sexuality. Our historical interest embraces bisexuality, cross-dressing, transsexuality, homosexuality, and a wide range of sexual interests and practice. We expect lesbians and gay men to continue their long tradition of self-labeling, and we are and will be interested in the history of bulldykes, queens, gay women, lesbian feminists, fairies, queers, and people with identities we haven't heard of yet. Currently, we're using the abbreviation LBGT (lesbian, bisexual, gay, trans-gendered) to refer to this range of sexual and gender identities.
With your help, SAA's Lesbian and Gay Archives Roundtable will publish the first comprehensive guide to primary sources relating to the history and culture of LBGT people held by repositories in North America. LAGAR will also make updated information available, perhaps via the Internet. Growing interest in LBGT history by academic and community researchers alike, demand for material by publishers, and the need to identify responsible repositories during a time of many deaths of early community activists has impelled LAGAR to undertake this project. Although it is assumed that almost every repository in North America has some lesbian and gay material, the aim of this project is to describe for potential researchers and donors those collections considered significant, as well as those repositories with active collecting programs focusing on LBGT material.
You can help this project provide useful information about the people and places across North America working to preserve our history. Please fill out the brief survey enclosed by July , so that we will be able to include accurate information about your collection in LAGAR's guide. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. I look forward to working with you.
Thank you,
SURVEY OF SOURCES
DOCUMENTING LESBIAN, GAY,
BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENDERED PEOPLE
This survey is being conducted by the Lesbian and Gay Archives Roundtable (LAGAR) of the Society of American Archivists. Our goal is to produce a national guide to manuscript and rare book collections about lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgendered people. Please help us by completing this form and mailing it to:
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to call or e-mail me:
1. Contact Information
Your organization's full name and contact information (include physical, mailing, e-mail, and web (etc.) addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and names of contact people).
2. History
Who founded this collection or institution? When? Were there predecessors? Is it associated with any other institution or organization? Is there a written objective, mission, or by-laws? (Please attach any written material.)
3. Current Holdings: Size and Content
Please answer either section A or B, about the size and content of your current holdings, depending on what best suits your institution/organization. Some people answering this survey are from institutions that also collect in other areas. If you are one of these people, please limit your answers to the LBGT holdings.
A. How much material is there? Please specify the unit(s) of measurement (e.g. number of items, number and size of file cabinet drawers, number and size of boxes, or linear or cubic feet). If you cannot quantify by format, please give a total size and check the formats you have.
Manuscript material (personal papers) Film, video, or sound
Organization's records Photographs
Printed (books, journals, etc.) Microfilm
Clippings or vertical files
Objects and ephemera (key chains, bumper stickers, graffiti, t-shirts, etc.)
Other (please specify)
What specific time period(s) and geographical region(s) do the holdings cover?
What significant people, organizations and subjects are documented in the material?
B. Please attach a brief summary of the collection (or of each collection) including the quantity, a biography or history, and a scope and content note. If only a portion of a collection documents gay and lesbian history, please be as specific as possible about that portion, especially its quantity, and names of people and organizations, and subjects documented.
4. Collection Growth
Is the organization/institution willing and able to assume curatorial responsibility for additional material? In what subjects, time periods, and geographical areas? What kinds of materials (please specify, as in #3A)? (Please attach any written collecting policies.)
5. Access and Use (please answer A, B, C, and D)
A. What are the requirements for using the organization's/institution's material?
Are these requirements different than those for using the LBGT material?
Are regular hours maintained for access (please specify when), or is it by appointment only?
Is the site wheelchair accessible?
(Please attach any written access policy.)
B. Services (please check all that apply):
Research space Reference assistance on site
Copying services Telephone reference
Audiovisual facilities Internet reference (e-mail/web)
Exhibitions Loan agreements for exhibits
Borrowing privileges for individuals (please specify what kinds of material may
be borrowed)
Other (specify)
C. Are there indices to the collection(s)? Please describe what printed or online indices are available and to what level of detail they describe what portions of the collection (e.g. notebooks with written descriptions, card catalogs, databases, finding aids, MARC records in a local database, RLIN or OCLC, etc.)
D. Updating Collection Descriptions
Does your repository maintain any method for regularly informing researchers of additions to your Gay/Lesbian collections? If so, please describe the method (newsletter, annual report, etc.).
Thank you for helping us gather this important information on LBGT collections!
