INDIANA
 

The Chris Gonzalez Library and Archives
Location: 1112 Southeastern Ave.
Indianapolis, IN 46202
Address: Diversity Center
P.O. Box 441473
Indianapolis, IN 46202
Phone: (317) 639-4297
Contact: Michael A. Bohr, Director
Internet address:  http://www.gayindy.org
Hours: Tue: 5:30-8:30 pm; Sat: 12-5 pm.
Wheelchair Access: no
History
The library began as Michael Bohr's private collection and became available to the community in 1992. It opened in its present location in the Diversity Center in 1995. The center provides no direct financial assistance to the library.
Information about holdings
Printed material: 2,254 books, many periodicals
Film/Video/Sound: 30 videotapes of local & national gay interest
Photographs: 50 promo shots of local female impersonators
Other holdings/notes: Original artwork by local artists

Time periods/geographical regions documented:
The collection focuses on Central Indiana.

Significant People/organizations/subjects documented:
Complete runs of Indianapolis gay and lesbian publications, including The Screamer (1966-67), The Works (1980-1992), The Mirror (1985-1990), Heartland (1990-91), Fever (1991-92), and The Word (1991 - present).
Collecting interests
Accept new acquisitions.
Use requirements
Open to the general public.
Services
Research space, copying, reference assistance on site, telephone reference, and borrowing privileges for individuals.

Other services/notes:
Borrowing is restricted to certain books.
Indices, finding aids, collection descriptions
On-site database of book collection with many access points, including subject, author, and title. Cataloging of archival material has just begun.
 
 

The Kinsey Institute for Research
in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction
Location: Morrison 313
Indiana University
Bloomington, IN 47405
Phone: (812) 855-7686 Fax: (812) 856-6063
Contact: Shawn C. Wilson, User Services Coordinator; Catherine Johnson, Curator; Liana Zhou, Head of Library
Email: libknsy@indiana.edu
Internet address:   http://www.kinseyinstitute.org
Hours:Monday - Friday 9:00am- 12:00 pm and 1:00pm-5:00 pm. See website for variations. (New users should make an appointment; some materials available by appointment only.)
Wheelchair Access: yes
History
The institute was founded by Dr. Alfred Kinsey in 1947 and is affiliated with Indiana University. The mission of the Institute is to promote interdisciplinary research and scholarship in the fields of human sexuality, gender, and reproduction.
Information about holdings
More than 100,000 volumes of monographs, journals, magazines, newsletters and numerous archival collections provide rich historical and cultural account of GLBT people in the U.S, Europe and Asia. Extensive literature on homosexuality, bisexuality and transgender documents all aspects of GLBT including behaviors, societal attitudes, the communities, organizations and publications. Singnificant archives include Alfred C. Kinsey's correspondence collection, Magnus Hirschfield Collection, Harry Kinsey's correspondence collection, Thomas Painter Collection, Glenway Wescott Collection, and Louise Lawrence Collection. The Library also has a large holding of film and videos, sound recordings, comic books, newspapers and vertical files that are related to GLBT issues and history.
Collecting interests
The Institute collects scientific and scholarly works relevant to the study of human sexuality, gender, and reproduction; it also seeks to document changing cultural mores regarding sexuality by collecting popular culture materials. Both contemporary and historical items are sought.
Use requirements
Consistent with its Articles of Incorporation, The Kinsey Institute makes its library and special collections of art and archival materials available to duly qualified students of sexuality, including university students at least 18 years of age, with demonstrable research needs related to human sexuality, gender, and reproduction.
Services
Research space, copying, audiovisual facilities, exhibitions, reference assistance on site, telephone reference, and Internet reference (email/web).

Other services/notes:
Internet and telephone reference services are limited, as are available audiovisual facilities.
Indices, finding aids, collection descriptions
Online public access catalog (KICAT) to library's holdings. No online catalog for archival or art/photography/artifact collections. Finding aids, collection guides, and abstratcs available onsite.

Up the Stairs Community Center Archives & Resource Library
Location: 514 E. Washington Blvd.
Fort Wayne, IN 46802-3212
Phone: (260) 422-2450
E-mail: utslib@hotmail.com
Contact: Scott Mertz, Advisor/Director
Website: http://www.gayfortwayne.com/utscc/library.htm

Hours: Wed-Thursday, 7:00-10:00 p.m., Friday 11:00am-3:00 p.m. and 8:00-12:00 pm.,
Wheelchair access:yes.

History: Up The Stairs Community Center Archives & Resource Library (UTS Library) is both a free-lending library of over 2400 circulating items and an archives of local and regional glbt history. The UTS Library with the help of volunteers serves over 195 registered patrons who come from all over the Northeast Indiana region and surrounding states. The UTS Library is supported mainly through fundraisers, pledges and percentages of subscriptions to the Community Center's newspaper, the Rainbow Reader.
The UTS Library's claim to being the "oldest glbt collection in Indiana" starts in 1978 when Kent Neuhouser offered to design a check-out system for two shees of books in the socail room of the Open Door Chapel on Leith Street. In September, 1982, a gay/lesbian organization called GLO and Open Door Chapel collaborated to start a community center with a resource center. The Center was above the gay/lesbian bookstaore called Rainbows of Life in a building at 305 W. Jefferson in Fort Wayne, IN and was christened Up The Stairs Community Center. Kent Neuhouser and Deb Overcash began operating the UTS library at that time with donations from both the bookstore downstairs and people in the community. In 1984 the lease was lost for that building and for a year the center was run ning out of the First Presbyterian Church. During 1985, when the Center found the propert at 3426 Broadway in Fort Wayne, where it is still located, the Center filed for and obtained a 501(c)(3) or not-for-profit tax registration certificate under the name of the Fort Wayne Community Education -business-as the Up The Stairs Community Center. From 1985 to 1997 the UTS Library was in a small back bedroom of the Center on a more or less self-serve basis.
Early in 1997, Scott Mertz was approached to start an advisory board and work on reopening the library in a larger room of the Center. The new Library Advisory Board met on July 22nd and included Greg Kroemer (UTSCC Board Liaison), Scott Mertz and Mary Voors who was an early GLO officer and assisted the library founders in starting the library. A major goal for the Advisory Board and its policy development was to increase access to the 600 book collection plus archives through electronic cataloging, volunteer staffing, and collection development. The UTS Library reopened in the newly repainted room on April 19, 1998 for National Library Week and by February 1999 the Library began circulating materials by computer.
The year 2000 has seen the UTS Library networking in several directions: first, the UTS Library became an INCOLSA member which is a cooperative of over 750 academic, public, and specialty libraries across tstate of Indiana; second, the library has contacted and particpated with local groups like PFLAG, Outspoken and at Pride Day to assure the library is a resource for the total community; third, the UTS Library has encouraged sharing of resources between other gay/lesbian libraries in the region like Gerber-Hart Library (Chicago), Chris Gonzalez Library (Indianapolis) and Williams-Nichols Institute (Louisville) which has resulted in sharing of a large donation of materials from Gerber-Hart which has passed down to the other two through the UTS Library. The UTS Library has started and is in the process of entering the archive holdings into an electronic database to improve access while also assessing the preservation needs of the collection.

Information about holdings:

Circulating: 2,393 books, 55 videos, 8 music CD's, 1 book on tape.
Non-circulating: Nearly 100 feet of periodicals including titles ranging from the Advocate to XY. Plus nineteen 55 gal. storage boxes from a Gerber-Hart donation. Clippings/vertical files - 11 file drawers and seventeen unsorted 55 gal. storage boxes. Objects/ephemera - one 55 gal. storage box of buttons, t-shirts, totebags, mugs, ashtrays, posters, proclamations, puzzles. Films/videos/records/slides/photos - three 55 gal. storage boxes.
These itmes primarily are from the late 1970's to the present and cover the Fort Wayne and northern areas of Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio plus some southern Michigan.

Collecting interests: Because of space limitations, the acquisition of large complete collections is being deferred but all other donations are being warmly welcomed and processed.

Services: Reference services onsite, by telephone, by mail, by e-mail, limited research space,wordprocessing, copying, limited display space.

Indices, finding aids, collection descriptions: public catalog.

News about collections: The UTSCC A&R Library updates the public about it's holdings or activities through the Rainbow Reader newsletter and available online @ http://www.gayfortwayne.com/rainbowreader

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