The reticent archives: Preserving LGBTTTIQ histories

Seize the Initiative: In‐Process LGBTQ+ Research Findings and Their Impact on Connecting Practices in New Zealand GLAMU Institutions

“…The findings for New Zealand GLAMU institutions clearly accord with other studies in this area (Avery, 2013;Davison, 2006) regarding a lack of LGBTQ+ representation. Conversely, broad and accessible collection policies, intended to be inclusive and diverse, do not reflect practice as they fail to encourage offers of donations from a diverse range of societal groups assumed in the literature (Sauer, 2001;Grgic, 2011).…”

“…Much of the research around LGBTQ+ collecting focuses on the lack of representation in GLAMU institutions with information professionals cast as willing collaborators (Avery, 2013). These views appear to have extended to scholarly inquiry around GLAMU holdings of LGBTQ+ collections with only a few such surveys undertaken.…”

“…These views appear to have extended to scholarly inquiry around GLAMU holdings of LGBTQ+ collections with only a few such surveys undertaken. In Canada in 2010 it was found that only 55.9% of surveyed public institutions had LGBTQ+ materials and only 26.5% actively collected these (Avery, 2013). A 2006 survey of holdings in the state of Victoria, Australia, showed an institution‐wide failure to represent LGBTQ+ communities and, of the larger institutions that did hold LGBTQ+ documentation, there was an LGBTQ+ silence in existing collections for the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (Davison, 2006).…”

“…Change has been slow in New Zealand with homophobia still perceived in 2020 as a pervading issue in art galleries and other major institutions (Te Kani, 2020). These past and current attitudes still require those in LGBTQ+ communities to collect and preserve their stories or risk losing them, underlined in a recent New Zealand media [New Zealand] queer Academic attitudes have also influenced collecting strategies as providing resources for researchers is an important part of the work of GLAMU institutions, encouraging acquisitions in those areas of interest (Avery, 2013).…”

“…Academic attitudes have also influenced collecting strategies as providing resources for researchers is an important part of the work of GLAMU institutions, encouraging acquisitions in those areas of interest (Avery, 2013). LGBTQ+ history and sexual diversity were originally excluded from and overlooked by universities and, by extension academic journals, which meant GLAMU institutions were much less likely to accept proffered donations or actively seek to develop collections in that area (Brickell, 2008; Downs 2021).…”