LAIC Donations Policy

The task of recovering and archiving lesbian history in the UK is a pressing one. In order to reclaim our history and stories, we must track down, rescue and preserve historical sources which throw light on lesbian and bisexual women’s lives. Authentic historical sources are the only way to accurately reconstruct our past.

The Lesbian Archive relies on donations from women around the UK to build up its collection, making it representative of lesbian and bisexual women’s lives throughout the British Isles. If you have items that you think are relevant to the Archive tucked away in your attic and are organising a clear out, please keep us in mind. Please contact us if the cost of postage and packaging is prohibitive.

Below are some guidelines to what the Archive will accept. In many cases, for the more popular items that we already have, we can’t offer to accept more issues as we have limited storage capacity. In this case there is the possibility that another archive or group might accept them.

For more substantial donations we are us ually happy to work in partnership with you to arrange an appropriate access policy (including restrictions such as permission to view material being granted 10 years after one’s death).

We are particularly keen to receive:

Banners, placards, t-shirts, protest leaflets, badges, photographs (citations on reverse are always appreciated), personal memoirs, diaries, journals, videos or DVDs of films & documentaries, postcards, women-only retreat literature.

Newspaper clippings from straight magazines, tabloids, broadsheets, journals etc dealing with issues relevant to lesbian and bisexual women or homophobia.

Currently, we have a deficit of material from both Wales and Northern Ireland so if you have ephemera relating to these countries, we would enthusiastically welcome it.

We would love to see more issues to complete our sets of:

  • Arena 3
  • The Ladder
  • Bi-monthly
  • Girlfriend
  • Any and all fanzines

We are especially keen to collect material from smaller, local projects that you may have been involved with – local clubs (tickets, advertisements, flyers), local projects (youth groups, social groups), local activism (banners, newspaper clippings). We want our collection to be as comprehensive as possible and to reflect the wide variety of actions and activities that have happened throughout the UK.

We can’t accept any more copies of the following publications:

  • Gay Times
  • Gay News
  • Pink Paper (unless after 2000)
  • Spare Rib (unless one of the few issues that we do not already have – please contact us for details)
  • Sappho
  • Off Our Backs

Please contact the Library to discuss your donation and to arrange delivery or collection.

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