LGBT Representation in Libraries

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SamanthaLehane

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Hi! In addition to my lurking and occasional commentary on AW, I'm a library science student. This semester I made a website, called Queer for Books (http://queer4books.samigardner.net/), for a student showcase (and won $50 for it. Booyah). Q4B is a collection of LGBT library science resources in addition to indexes of publishers, magazines, blogs, organizations, and more. I think that it has potential to be useful to librarians to improve their LGBT collections and outreach. I have plans to expand Q4B's link collections. That is where I need some help. I figure that AW is full of pop culture sponges and idle internet surfers who can shake out their bookmarks for a couple of LGBT links. Please check out my site and let me know if I missed a great LGBT resource.

 

Kitty Pryde

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Nice. What I dislike about what our local library (LAPL) does is not shelve children's books in the children's section where an actual child might find them and read them. For example, I found See You At Harry's in the YA section amongst a shelf of much racier more sophisticated books. No YA reader would pick it up, it looks way too sweet with its 11 year old protagonist and blue checkered cover, and no MG reader will get to it either. The book has a gay older brother who (gasp) holds hands with his boyfriend and dances with him at a school dance. And they shelve Totally Joe, another MG book, in the adult section. Hello? This is a 1st person POV book about an extremely innocent gay kid, who is friends with his crush, and thinks about how he likes him and someday in the far future might consider that kissing him wouldn't be that bad. I hate that there isn't even a chance for a kid to pick it up and read it and think that a gay kid is an okay thing to be. Personal pet peeve!
 

BigWords

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I hate that there isn't even a chance for a kid to pick it up and read it and think that a gay kid is an okay thing to be. Personal pet peeve!

In fairness, there are a lot of books - across all genres - which are either misunderstood by the people placing them, or are deliberately kept in one place. This isn't an "issue" rather than a lack of understanding, and from the times I have corrected people I have found that most folks who love books are more than eager to correct placement.

That is, of course, if they have appropriate sections. There are a couple of small libraries which I dare not enter any more due to the illogical stacking.
 

Kim Fierce

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Yeah, my book has 13 and 12 year old lesbian characters, and I'm too afraid to approach either my old junior high or high school to see if they'd carry it in their libraries, or even the public library. I grew up in a backwards town, but maybe they would put it in Indianapolis!

I think this web site is a great idea.
 

SamanthaLehane

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@Kitty: Thank you. That is exactly what my site is trying to fight against by giving librarians more resources. Hopefully, my site can be useful to patrons as well.
 
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Kitty Pryde

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Yeah, my book has 13 and 12 year old lesbian characters, and I'm too afraid to approach either my old junior high or high school to see if they'd carry it in their libraries, or even the public library. I grew up in a backwards town, but maybe they would put it in Indianapolis!

I think this web site is a great idea.

I grew up in Terre Haute. I remember going to the Vigo County public library (Indiana) as a kid in the early 90s, and seeing a wooden plank labeled Heather Has Two Mommies amongst the books. They couldn't keep the book on the shelves--whether it was to protect the children from Teh Gay or to protect the book from adults who want to deface it, I don't know!
 

BigWords

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They couldn't keep the book on the shelves--whether it was to protect the children from Teh Gay or to protect the book from adults who want to deface it, I don't know!

:Wha:

Defacing library books should be a capital offense.
 

Kim Fierce

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Awesome, Samatha, I'll check it out!

And Kitty, I wonder if you had to specially request that book from teh libararian. Maybe angered parents didn't want their innocent children to pick up a Heather Has Two Mommies book and be bombarded by the gay agenda!!!!
 

SamanthaLehane

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And yay, a fellow library science student!

Awesome! Yay! We are the few, the proud, the bookish!

Awesome, Samatha, I'll check it out!

Please do and if you have any suggestions then please let me know!

Thank you all for commenting on this thread!
 
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