Referencing Audre Lorde

This chapter is close a reading and textual analysis of canonical texts, speeches, and archived audio recordings of Audre Lorde. It embraces Lorde’s many identities, including her identity as a librarian who chose to depart from the library as a means of survival. The author urges reference librarians to study Lorde’s example and learn from Lorde’s choice to act in a space where silence can be transformed into language and action. Acknowledgment of the limitations and opportunities that Lorde teaches us in reference service and institutional structures, may allow for librarians to move toward a realm of justice

Being a Lesbian Librarian, Collection Development in Lesbian Librarianship, and Archives as Lesbian Spaces

Edited talk From Pratt SILS Gender LIS Panel curated by Dinah Handel on March 27th, 2015Co-presenters include: Sian Evans; #artandfeminism Wikipedia Editathon & Jen LaBarbera; Filling in the Margins: The use of Queer Theory, Feminist Standpoint Theory, and Critical Race Theory to build inclusive archival collectionsThis talk remarks on the role of the librarian to provide lesbian-specific content

Graphic Activism: Lesbian Archival Library Display

This chapter outlines the implementation of Graphic Activism, an exhibition of archival material from the Lesbian Herstory Archives, the oldest and largest lesbian archive in the world, located inside the display cases of the Graduate Center library of the City University of New York. The two-semester-long display stems from an institutional need to showcase material inside of the main library display cases, and the interest of including visual representations of Women\u27s Studies material from the collection as well as those which represent the collection. The chapter discusses collaborative relationships outside of the academic institution, pointing to select challenges when using archival material, and highlighting events and outreach with Graphic Activism as its\u27 focus

Queer Housing Nacional Google Group: A Librarian’s Documentation of a Community-Specific Resource

Beginning with a discussion of information access and its relationship to communities, this article is a first-person experience for creating a community-specific information resource, a queer housing listserv called Queer Housing Nacional. Written as a case study for how librarians may apply their skills to community as well as document the journey of this time capsuled listserv, one may find that this listserv may complicate librarianship’s promotion of open access, instead, encouraging closed participatory group structures, with collective distributions of power. Included are multiple email exchanges from the listserv, as well as Appendices of survey questions, notable responses, and actual correspondence from within this closed community of queer women of color and allies

Opening Remarks to Outing Lorraine at the Schomburg Center

This article is an edit of the opening remarks for the event held on May 22nd, 2014 at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture as part of the In The Life Series supplying Black LGBT programming coordinated by Steven Fullwood. Outing Lorraine included panelists: Alexis DeVeaux, Joi Gresham, and Steven Fullwood and was moderated by Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz. Opening remarks provide a biographical description of Lorraine Hansberry\u27s life, prepare the audience for a conversation on the implications for outing a black iconic figure, details the purpose for use of primary and secondary sources when, and provides a bibliography for further reading

Sources on lesbian subjectivities for the production of lesbian of color identity formation through literature, art, film, or documentation: An annotatated bibliography

Historically, coming out as a lesbian and then forming an identity of a lesbian of color includes seeking out like voices and stories. Librarians who hold an understanding of the lesbian of color coming out process as well as the fluidity of language in Queer Studies will be better equipped to service lesbian of color patrons. This paper holds three tools for reference librarians: A literature review outlining the history of lesbian of color identity formation, secondly, a bibliography with interdisciplinary humanities reference annotations that source lesbians of color in literature, film, performance art, and identity, and thirdly, a model of content analysis that is strategic for finding applicable lesbian of color sources in multiple formats

Breaking Open: Defining a Student-Centered Pedagogy

Intersections of Open Educational Resources and Information Literacy—which went through an open peer review process—informs and inspires on OER, info lit, and their many iterative convergences. It is available as an open access edition at https://bit.ly/ACRLOERInfoLit.Librarians at the Graduate Center at CUNY (City University of New York) used state OER funding to create an Open Pedagogy Fellowship for graduate students who were teaching as adjuncts in undergraduate classes. Following a competitive application process, the fellows accepted into the program were introduced to open resources and strategies for innovative pedagogy at an intensive four-day OER boot camp and an end-of-year symposium. The fellows were challenged to implement “open” in their field of study, supported by librarians and educational technologists on the creation of course sites, and charged to migrate their syllabi to OER. Toronto-based scholar Clelia Rodríguez served as inspiration and symposium keynote speaker for the program, which was a response to decolonial and critical pedagogies, race/diversity in the New York City educational system, and inclusivity as it pertains to scholarship

A Blueprint on Self-Exploration to Justice: Introduction to “Referencing Audre Lorde” & “Lesbian Librarianship for All”

My approach to social justice problematizes the profession by challenging the librarian to focus inwardly to a space concentrated with identity and self-exploration. To galvanize justice, the librarian may impose her or himself into the reference interaction as an element of praxis

The New Face of Queer, the New Face of CUNY

The seventh Queer CUNY conference for LGBT students, staff, faculty, and alumni, took place at Brooklyn College on April 1, 2006. Students from all over the CUNY system of schools gathered to discuss, debate, and deconstruct what LGBT community is and what it might be