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LGBTQ+ Studies: Overview

Welcome! This guide shares library resources on LGBTQ+ Studies and related fields. It is intended for students and other researchers looking for resources and search strategies that address the interdisciplinary and intersectional nature of LGBTQ+ Studies, or Queer Studies. 

The guide is primarily organized by type of resource:

  • Journal Articles: where to browse scholarly journals and find databases for topic searches
  • Books and ebooks: how to find print books, ebooks, and book reviews
  • Primary Sources: newspapers and magazines, art, oral histories, documentaries, statistical data, and more

Looking for current issues of magazines and newspapers? We have online access for many titles! See more on the Primary Sources page.

For more about the Pride Office and other CU Boulder resources by and for the LGBTQ+ community, see our LGBTQIA+ Pride Month Guide

Interdisciplinary Research Starters

Research Guide

Listed here are additional research guides focusing on particular collections or libraries.

Where To Search

These resources on the Overview tab offer a wide range of formats across multiple disciplines, including search of scholarly journal articles, books and ebooks, and newspapers and magazines, with OneSearch being the broadest and most interdisciplinary, and Gale OneFile: Gender Studies the most specific to LGBTQ+ Studies and related topics. 

Books and eBooks

Databases

Research Guides

eBooks

Databases

Research Guides

LGBTQIA+ Health Research Guide from UCSF Library - includes links to reports, data sets, and best practices and methodologies

Books and eBooks

Research Guides

Databases

Databases

eBooks

Research Guides

Research Guides

Databases

Books and eBooks

Research Guides

eBooks

Databases

Choosing Search Terms

Materials by and about LGBTQ+ people are sometimes described in library and archives collections using outdated, inaccurate, and offensive, or simply incomplete terms which can make for a challenging search process.

  • Which materials are likely to be described with outdated language? 
    • Older books, articles, and other texts; older audiovisual materials
    • Archival materials: to preserve historical context, archival description often reflects terminology of the time the material was created. Learn more about choosing search terms for archival research.
    • Of course, language evolves quickly and there are also variations of use and meaning of terms among LGBTQ+ communities. The strategies below will be helpful as we adapt our search terms to time, place, and community. 
  • What strategies can we use to find materials? 
    • Try using synonyms and variations of your keywords. 
    • Homosaurus logo. A simple clip-art style black brontosaurus stands in front of a rainbow, with bright pink text below reading Homosaurus  it can be helpful to browse The Homosaurus to understand connections between terms and to find synonyms you might use. 
    • You may need to use outdated terms in your searches in order to find all relevant materials. Contact us for help navigating the gap between current and outdated terms as it applies to your area of research. 
  • What is being done to improve library description of LGBTQ+ materials? 
    • For new materials in our collections, catalogers here at CU Boulder have been and continue to endeavor to use more accurate and authentic language (see Resource Description/Metadata Cataloging)
    • The Gender and Sexuality Funnel Project, which aims to change the most widely used access points for description in academic libraries in the U.S. 
    • The Homosaurus, also linked above, is a community effort of LGBTQ+ and allied library workers to create a vocabulary of terms that can be used to describe LGBTQ+ materials more accurately and authentically. It has been adopted by some libraries and archives. 

Some content in this section is adapted from the work of Gina Bastone at the University of Texas Libraries and Stacy Reardon and Jennifer Dorner at the UC Berkeley Libraries

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Email: libraries@colorado.edu

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Katerina Allmendinger
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If you have questions about research in LGBTQ+ Studies, recommendations for this guide, or purchase suggestions for the collection, please contact Katerina Allmendinger, liaison librarian for Women & Gender Studies and LGBTQ+ Studies.  

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