Gale Archives of Sexuality and Gender, IV: International Perspectives on LGBTQ Activism and Culture

CONTENT

The fourth installment of Gale’s Archives of Sexuality and Gender is “International Perspectives on LGBTQ Activism and Culture,” which highlights underrepresented groups, with an emphasis on regions such as southern Africa and Australia. The collection offers valuable insight into the struggle for equal rights, explorations of sexuality, and important figures and organizations in LGBTQ+ history. The archive also provides access to the largest collection of periodicals about the LGBTQ+ experience in Australia from the 1970s to the 2000s and coverage of international lesbian culture and organizations (including feminist organizations).

Content includes more than 450,000 pages worth of material dating from the 1820s, with a significant portion covering the years between 1970 and 2016. The content comes from three major archives: 25 collections from Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action, covering LGBTQ+ life in South Africa and southern Africa more broadly; the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives, which documents LGBTQ+ people’s experiences in Australia; and the Lesbian Herstory Archives in Brooklyn, NY.

The materials are grouped into 28 collections, including the papers of Cape Town’s Association of Bisexuals, Gays, and Lesbians; the archives of Exit, South Africa’s longest-running monthly LGBTQ+ publication; and the papers of anti-apartheid, gay rights, and HIV/AIDS activist Simon Tseko Nkoli.

USABILITY

Users can search the collection using basic or advanced search tools. When browsing collections, users are presented with a selection of thumbnails that represent each of the 28 collections. Each collection includes an overview detailing its significance and contents and identifying the date range, source institution, language, and subcollections. Users can search within a collection or view all documents in a collection.

The publications page lists 159 entries; users can click through individual titles or browse publications. There are options to limit the list by publication country, state/province, or city; language; and date.

Materials are presented in the form of high-quality, text-searchable scans that can be read online, downloaded, printed, or sent to Google Drive, OneDrive, or email.

Platform tools include term frequency analysis and term clusters, cross-searching, and article-level subject indexing to aid in searching by author, region, and/or topic. Citation tools are also available.

PRICING

Pricing starts at $7,245 for the collection, with a hosting fee that starts at $63 annually. Public library pricing is based on population served and starts at $4,830 for the collection, with a hosting fee that starts at $44 annually. Academic library pricing is based on an institution’s full-time enrollment and other institutional variables. Subscriptions are available upon request. Institutions holding two or more Gale Primary Source collections receive complimentary access to the Gale Primary Sources cross-search platform which allows users to discover connections between other archival collections published by Gale. Libraries can request a free trial at bit.ly/3wPA4vi.

VERDICT

This is a unique collection with access to primary source materials from and about regions that may be missed by other resources documenting the experiences of LGBTQ+ people. It’s a valuable addition for institutions that subscribe to the previous installments of Gale’s Archives of Sexuality and Gender, and for institutions serving programs with an emphasis on international studies of gender and sexuality in LGBTQ+ communities.

Gricel Dominguez is a Librarian at Florida International University.