Lavender Legacies Guide

Survey of Sources Documenting Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered People

To add information about a manuscript or rare book collections about lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgendered people not currently listed in the guide, please provide the following information in an email to:

stevenmg "at" verizon.net

or by sending it by sending it via U.S. Postal Service to:

Steven Mandeville-Gamble
Associate University Librarian for Collections and Scholarly Communication
Melvin Gelman Library
George Washington University
2130 H Street NW
Washington, DC 20052

1. Contact Information

1. Your organization's full name
2. Your organizations's and contact information (include physical, mailing, e-mail, and web (etc.) addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and names of contact people).
3. Name of individual submitting the form:
4. Email address of individual submitting the form:

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.

1. Manuscript material (personal papers)
2. Film, video, or sound
3. Organization's records
4. Photographs
5. Printed (books, journals, etc.)
6. Microfilm
7. Clippings or vertical files
8. Objects and ephemera (key chains, bumper tickers, graffiti, t-shirts, etc.)
9. Other (please specify)
10. What specific time period(s) and geographical region(s) do the holdings cover?
11. 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. Physical Access

1. What are the requirements for using the organization's/institution's material?
2. Are these requirements different than those for using the LBGT material?
3. Are regular hours maintained for access (please specify when), or is it by appointment only?
4. Is the site wheelchair accessible?
5. (Please attach any written access policy.)

B. Services (please check all that apply):

1. Research space
2. Reference assistance on site
3. Telephone reference
4. Internet reference (e-mail/web)
5. Copying services
6. Audiovisual facilities
7. Exhibitions Loan agreements for exhibits
8. Borrowing privileges for individuals (please specify what kinds of material may be borrowed)
9. 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!