Publications and Research

Document Type

Book Chapter or Section

Publication Date

1989

Abstract

"The time is past when librarians can assume no patron is lesbian or gay, or that there is no interest in gay research," Dan Tsang and Polly Thistlethwaite wrote in the introduction to the 'Lesbian and Gay' section of Katzes' 1989 edition of Magazines for Libraries. This title review of the queer periodicals of the day was intended to serve as a guide and justification for 'mainstream' libraries' collection building. The number and range of titles in Thistlethwaite and Tsang's collaborative entries (1989, 1992, and 1995) far exceeded any mainstream library collection known to either of the authors who were nevertheless hopeful that libraries would expand their gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender periodical holdings to better serve their communities. "Lesbian and gay publications form the infrastructure of the communities." Tsang's expertise about the 'alternative press' grew from his librarianship, his scholarship, his activism, journalism, and his extensive personal collecting; Thistlethwaite came to know the queer press by tending the periodical collection at the Lesbian Herstory Archives. The entry in this edition marked the AIDS epidemic's influence on the rise of PWA literature; the emergence of periodicals by and for 'lesbian and gay people of color'; and the proliferation of lesbian sex magazines.

Comments

This work was originally published in "Magazines for Libraries", edited by Bill Katz and Linda S. Katz and published by Bowker. It is made available here with permission of the editors

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