With materials from hundreds of institutions and organizations, including major international activist organizations, local, grassroots groups, and governments, the database LGBTQ History & Culture (also known as the Archives of Sexuality and Gender) collects an incredible set of primary sources for the historical study of sex, sexuality, and gender. Use this resource to investigate how sexual norms have changed over time, health and hygiene, the development of sex education, the rise of sexology, changing gender roles, social movements and activism, erotica, and many more topic areas.
To access this database from your own device, sign in with your library card number and PIN, then select LGBTQ History & Culture from our list of Online Resources.
Homepage
The homepage for the database has a standard search bar with the option for advanced search as well, but with archival collections it’s more important to familiarize yourself with what is in the archives. Just below you’ll see a brief summary of what is included in the resource, and to the right side there is a bar with labels of “Collections,” “Publications,” and “Research Tools.”
About
This about page provides a detailed explanation of what is included in the resource, that it includes four separate archives collections, and what materials and topics are in each archives. Knowing what is in an archives becomes important if you plan to browse instead of search, but also for knowing the limitations of performing a search.
Research Tools
While the about page might seem detailed, it still only provides an overview of what is included in this massive collection. The research tools page includes a number of articles that go into multi-page explanations of what is included in each of the separate archives collections, as well finding aids written for many of the individual collections available within each archives.
Search
The search is straightforward. Either perform a keyword search in the search bar, or go into advanced search to filter your results beforehand. The results page will display images of the archives materials by content type (monographs, newspapers, etc.). You’ll be able to filter by source, sub-collection, subjects, author, and so on. Each filter has a drop down menu with options, and is quite user friendly.
Collections
On the collections page you’ll see each of the 51 included collections, with a representative image and name. When you select a collection, you’ll go to a collection homepage that includes an overview description of the collection, including time period covered, source of the collection, the ability to search within just that collection, or look at all documents in the collection. Depending on what’s in the collection, it might list all of the publications that are present in the collection; if it’s a newsletter or newspaper collection, for example. If you decide to search the collection, or even go to view all materials, it’s the same results page as with a search of the entire resource, with the ability to filter down or browse through results.
Publications
The publications page is an alternate way to browse the materials in this resource. While with collections you’re browsing the particular organization of materials from a source institution, with publications you can literally just browse the titles of the many thousands of publications that are included throughout the resource, regardless of its source collection or archives. The page has a search bar, as well as the ability to filter by language and date. You can also just look through an A-Z list of all publications. Once you go into a publication, there is information about the publication, as well as a menu with a variety of years, and then you can choose a particular issue available from the year you’ve chosen.
Documents
Whether you choose to search, or browse, or browse then search, you’ll eventually find yourself on a document record. On this page you’ll find a menu on the left hand side that has “explore,” “view full citation,” and possibly other options depending on the document, such as “table of contents.” Explore gives you some options to view the document image scan or possibly a text version, as well as searching within the document and looking at related subjects and notes. View full citation gives you the full details of the document, including titles, date, language, and so on. To the top right of the screen, you’ll have the option to cite the document in a number of styles, as well as send, download, print.
You’ve done it! These are the basics for using LGBTQ History & Culture about as well as your trusty community librarian to search for health topics!
While all Library locations are closed to the public, we will continue to provide the many digital services you have come to love:
You can find all these and more compiled on our Staying Home page. As more library services become available, we will make announcements on our website.
Please be sure to contact us through our Ask Us reference question platform with any questions you may have. Be well.
This post is part of our Staying Healthy with Your Library series featuring online consumer health resources available from The Seattle Public Library. Read our previous posts on using Proquest Consumer Health database, ConsumerLab.com, Consumer Reports for health products, and Consumers’ Checkbook for finding healthcare providers, and stay tuned for more posts. Databases require a library card number and PIN for remote access.
~posted by Mychal L.
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