June is indeed GLBTQ pride month, and I’ve got at least a couple unabashed questions:
1. How (if at all) will your library celebrate?
2. How (if at all) does your library reach out to its GLBTQ patrons?
Feel free to respond anonymously — I’m genuinely seeking anecdotal feedback on both questions. And when you respond, please identify whether you work in a public or academic setting.
And thanks to Ellie for the reminder!
(Creepy coincidence: Just before hitting “Publish,” the Song “Dakota” by the Stereophonics played on my muxtape, with the line “Summertime, think it was June.” Talk about synchronicity.)
1. We’ll have book displays up at most or all of our campuses and I’m working on a resources page that will be linked off our homepage and list local pride events and a few other things.
2. I was really proud to see we have a pretty impressive GLBTQ collection, especially considering we don’t have any specific classes covering queer issues. We don’t really do much programming. But that’s not singling any one group out, we just don’t do much programming. It’s kind of hard at a community college with many people just there for one semester and hopping between campuses and multiple jobs. But definitely something to look into.
We’ll have a small book display, as soon as I manage to get it put together. To be blunt, I am in a Red State wasteland where this is not exactly a priority to put it mildly. Programming is non-existent (something I am trying to change. Maybe next year with luck, if I am still here at MPOW). Probably a resources webpage.
I work in a large private academic library. To the best of my recollection, we’ve never done anything Pride-related in the seven years I’ve worked there, but like Ellie we don’t do a whole lot of programming to begin with except for stuff that’s directly related to academic work.
That said, it’s not like our library culture is bigoted or anything. We have a very active GLBT liaison, the library purchases to support the queer studies program, etc, and we’ve got plenty of out GLB employees (no T that I’m aware of). It just doesn’t take the form of events.
I’m with Hennepin County Public Library, in the major metro around outside Minneapolis. We don’t do anything. I believe we’ve made some small gestures in the past (I’m only on my second year here), but we no longer do. As in Dances With Books’ “Red State Wasteland,” GLBTQ outreach is so low a priority as to be non-existent. We have no GLBTQ liaison on the Diversity Committee. Nada. But we’re not a red state. We’re a blue city! It breaks my heart.
Whoops, backing up. The Minneapolis Public Library subset of Hennepin County Libraries has just put up a Pride 2008 list in digital form: http://www.mpls.lib.mn.us/resources.asp?list=pride2007
Thanks, MPL!