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!
