Liberating minds : the stories and professional lives of gay, lesbian, and bisexual librarians and their advocates /

In naming there is power, and this collection of essays and interviews is a powerful first discourse on the subject. From the anecdotal to the academic, queer librarians from the United States, Canada, and Germany elucidate topics of librarianship about which most straight professionals have probably never thought. Contributors such as Sanford Berman and Martha Cornog relate the difficulties of cataloging and archiving materials on gay history, a subject once considered marginal at best, obscene and worthy of censure and destruction at worst. They also discuss the importance of the public library as the one place where most queer youth first find relevant information about who they are. The rise of the Internet as a vital means of communication linking queer librarians around the country and the world is also covered. Other essays address the importance of and the need to insist on current and factual information about health issues of special concern to the queer community, as well as the need to revise outdated subject headings, which to this day represent the personal prejudices of catalogers from centuries past. The volume includes an appendix of library resources, organizations, web sites, and listservs of special interest to the queer librarian and is completely indexed. This landmark study of a relatively new field is highly recommended for all professional and academic collections.‘Jeffery Ingram, Newport P.L., Ore. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.