In the post-Stonewall era, the role of libraries in providing information and services to LGBTQ individuals has been a topic of discussion among library professionals. Libraries can often play an important role for LGBTQ individuals looking to find information about coming out, health, and family topics, as well as leisure reading. In the past 50 years, advocate organizations for LGBTQ content in libraries have emerged, and numerous theorists have discussed various aspects of LGBTQ library service including privacy concerns, programming, collection development considerations and librarian/staff education needs, as well as special services for juvenile and teen patrons.Poole, Alex H. 2020. “‘Tearing the Shroud of Invisibility’: Communities of Protest Information Practices and the Fight for LGBTQ Rights in US Librarianship.” Library Quarterly 90 (4): 530–62.

History

Commensurate with the LGBT rights movement in other arenas, LGBTQ activists began visibly advocating for greater representation in libraries in 1969. In 1970, the Task Force on Gay Liberation formed within the American Library Association (ALA). Now known as the Rainbow Round Table, this organization is the oldest LGBTQ professional organization in the United States. Barbara Gittings became its coordinator in 1971. She pushed the American Library Association for more visibility for gays and lesbians in the profession. She staffed a kissing booth at the Dallas convention of the ALA, underneath the banner "Hug a Homosexual", with a "women only" side and a "men only" side. When no one took advantage of it, she and Patience and Sarah author Alma Routsong (pen name: Isabel Miller) kissed in front of rolling television cameras. In describing its success, despite most of the reaction being negative, Gittings said, "We needed to get an audience. So we decided, let's show gay love live. We were offering free—mind you, free—same-sex kisses and hugs. Let me tell you, the aisles were mobbed, but no one came into the booth to get a free hug. So we hugged and kissed each other. It was shown twice on the evening news, once again in the morning. It put us on the map."

In the early 1970s, the Task Force on Gay Liberation campaigned to have books about the gay liberation movement at the Library of Congress reclassified from HQ 71–471 ("Abnormal Sexual Relations, Including Sexual Crimes"). In 1972, after receiving a letter requesting the reclassification, the Library of Congress agreed to make the shift, reclassifying those books into a newly created category, HQ 76.5 ("Homosexuality, Lesbianism—Gay Liberation Movement, Homophile Movement").

Gay rights pioneer Barbara Gittings (July 31, 1932 – February 18, 2007) advocated for a revolution in the inclusion and cataloging of LGBTQ materials in public libraries to create a more positive, supportive, informative environment for all members of the community.

In the 1980s, literature began to emerge which examined information seeking behaviors of gay and lesbian library patrons. The 1981 book The Joy of Cataloging by Sanford Berman outlined the difficulties of accessing gay and lesbian books and information. In 1988, the Task Force on Gay Liberation released the "International thesaurus of gay and lesbian index terms," aimed at standardizing terms used for cataloging gay and lesbian-related library materials, and changing or removal of pejorative Library of Congress Subject Headings in relation to same-sex attraction and the LGBTQ community.

Four years later, in 1992, Ellen Greenblatt and Cal Gough published the first collection of essays about the information needs of gay and lesbian patrons, entitled Gay and Lesbian Library Service. The work has since been revised as Serving LGBTIQ Library and Archives Users and remains influential.

In 1992, American Libraries published a photo of the Gay and Lesbian Task Force (now the Rainbow Round Table) on the cover of its July/August issue, drawing both criticism and praise from the library world. Some commenters called the cover "in poor taste" and accused American Libraries of "glorifying homosexuality," while others were supportive of the move. Christine Williams, who wrote about the controversy in her 1998 essay A Lesbigay Gender Perplex: Sexual Stereotyping and Professional Ambiguity in Librarianship, concluded that in the mid-90s, the library world was "not an especially welcoming place to gays and lesbians."

In 2007, the Rainbow Project Task Force began within the ALA to promote the presence of LGBTQ juvenile and young adult literature in library collections. The group now, now called the Rainbow Book List Committee maintains an annotated bibliography of LGBTQ titles for youth and teens, as well the yearly Rainbow List featuring the best of LGBTQ YA and children's titles.

In 2010, the GLBT Round Table announced a new committee, the Over the Rainbow Committee. This committee annually compiles a bibliography of books that show the GLBT community in a favorable light and reflects the interests of adults. The bibliographies provide guidance to libraries in the selection of positive GLBT materials.

After the passage of equal marriage in the State of New York in 2011, the Research Library at the Buffalo History Museum in Buffalo, New York, became the first known library in the United States to collect wedding memorabilia from legally-wed same-sex couples.

Challenges

Legal restrictions

Historically libraries have had instances of being legally restricted from providing LGBTQ materials, in the United Kingdom Section 28 prohibited public libraries run by local authorities to 'promote homosexuality' leading to libraries scaling back what they delivered whilst the law was in place 1988–2003.

The passage of House Bills 1557 and 1467 in Florida state legislature in 2022 raised concerns over a possible increase in limitations on LGBT materials in school libraries. Although neither bill explicitly targets such materials, faculty from schools across the state have reported being directed to remove previously accepted LGBTQ books from their classrooms and school libraries that could now be deemed harmful or offensive to minors under the bills. A proposal to expand HB 1557 to cover all school grades (the original bill prohibits certain materials from being presented to children in Kindergarten through third grade) is now under consideration.

Privacy

In their 2006 study of LGBTQ book circulation in an academic library, Stephanie Mathson and Jeffery Hancks found that LGBTQ titles were 20% more likely to circulate via a self-checkout machine than a traditional circulation desk staffed by a person. However, their sample size was small, so study results may be inconclusive.

Need for library staff education

Providing unbiased service to all patrons is one of the central tenets of the Code of Ethics of the American Library Association. Articles dating back to Richard Ashby's 1987 piece entitled "Library Services to Lesbian and Gay People" have argued that this commitment to neutrality should provide the foundation for complete library service for all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender presentation.Ashby, R. (1987) ‘Library Services to Lesbian and Gay People’, Assistant Librarian. 80 (10): 153–5. Ashby argues that libraries, especially in their role as providers of literature for pleasure reading, can support LGBTQ individuals overcome a sense of isolation within the larger community. He emphasizes the importance of staff education to provide all LGBTQ individuals a safe space within the library, including:

Training staff to work with diverse populations, specifically LGBTQ patrons Comprehensive and effective collection development policies for LGBTQ materials Librarian education to gain familiarity with publishers or sources for LGBTQ materials, including the utilization of local bookstores or community groups.

Echoing many of Ashby's assertions in her 2007 paper entitled "Can Scottish public library services claim they are socially inclusive of all minority groups when lesbian fiction is still so inaccessible?", Jaqueline Goldthorp outlines some of the challenges that lesbians face when trying to find lesbian fiction in Scottish libraries. She ties her study of lesbian literature to the importance of reading fiction on the psychological well-being of women, arguing that women often turn to fiction reading for self-affirmation and identity building. In addition, lesbian fiction titles can be priced up to 30% higher than non-lesbian titles, meaning that, for many low-income or working class lesbians, libraries are the only means of access for these titles Goldthorp surveyed 26 Scottish libraries and found that, in 2007, the majority had less than ten books labelled as "lesbian fiction," and almost no recent award-winning titles. She suggests diversity training and education about methods and resources for providing service to lesbians for library staff as a way of promoting greater inclusion.

Mehra and Braquet's 2007 article "Library and Information Science Professionals as Community Action Researchers in an Academic Setting" expands further upon the central role of librarians in promoting LGBTQ acceptance, noting that the profession is "uniquely situated to provide access to LGBT literature and information."Braquet, Donna, and Bharat Mehra. "Library and Information Science Professionals as Community Action Researchers in an Academic Setting: Top Ten Directions to further Institutional Change for People of Diverse Sexual Orientations and Gender Identities." Library Trends 56.2 (2007): 542-565. Academic OneFile. Web. 4 Mar. 2013.

In the UK 2016 research by Janine Walker and Jo Bates found that Section 28 still had a lasting effect on school libraries, with very little LGBTQ+ literature available or support from librarians being given. Later in 2019, John Vincent said that through his research he still met British librarians who assumed Section 28 was still in place.

Book bans

Conservative objections of certain titles available in public and school libraries have had a resurgence in 2021 and 2022, in USA States such as Florida, Wyoming and Texas. One legislator in Texas proposed a list of books to be banned in school libraries, which when analyzed were found to be 62% LGBTQ titles.

The American Library Association maintains a lists of the most challenged books of the year, as well as the most challenged books of the decade, using data collected by their Office of Intellectual Freedom. This data has been collected for three decades now, and materials relating to LGBTQ topics make up a notable portion of these lists time and time again. For example, a study found that "[f]rom 2001 to 2015, sixteen books (22%) on ALA's top ten list were challenged for homosexuality."

Nonprofit organization PEN America has similarly been collecting data on book ban attempts in schools across the nation. Their 2021-2022 report found that out of the 1,648 unique book titles banned during the period studied (July 2021 - June 2022), over 40% of them dealt with LGBTQ themes and/or have major characters that identify as members of the LGBTQ community. As the data PEN America pulls from is limited to publicly accessible records and news sources, it is possible the true scope of banned LGBTQ titles is much greater.

In response to the bans, the Queer Liberation Library was formed in 2023 to give anyone residing in the United States digital access to LGBTQ books.

Collection development considerations

Barriers