Rainbow Project and Pride Picnic Reaches Out to LGBTQ Youth
Christine Dalgetty -- School Library Journal, 5/20/2009
With Pride Week fast approaching, it’s time to think about how your library can support LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning) youth. Research tells us that public libraries are often the first place that young people turn to when looking for the information they need, and as a community gathering space, libraries can provide a welcoming supportive and safe environment.At Burlington Public Library we recently completed our Rainbow Project, which evaluated and updated the collection of print and electronic LGBTQ materials. These collections are integrated with the regular collections, and promotional booklists and online lists were created and are available on the library website. We created links to these collections which have been shared with other library systems and school boards in Ontario - Rainbow Reads - LGTBQ Titles for Teens @ BPL and Rainbow Reads for Children and Families @ BPL. Several LGBTQ electronic resources were also added, including the GLBT Life & Issues Collection and Teen Health & Wellness.
As part of this project, Burlington Public Library connected with our local Pride organization, HOPE and participated in the local Pride Week picnic in 2008 (Dalgetty and colleague Jane Kops, at left). The library received assistance and recommendations for the collection, and HOPE promoted these resources to their members. HOPE also conducted positive space training which counters prejudice based on gender identity or sexual orientation as part of our staff development day. Over the last couple of years, we’ve built a partnership with HOPE, and the library is now hosting their monthly support group for gay youth. Recently we participated in a full day workshop at our local school board with teens from gay/straight alliances from across the region. Our session, Queering the Library, focused on booktalks from our Rainbow collection for teens.
