This year, the ALA Think Tank Pre-Party will be a fundraiser for the Center for Sex and Culture Archival Library and sponsored by Makingithappen.us and EveryLibrary. All proceeds will go to support this rare archive and important social educational center.
About CSC
The Mission of the Center for Sex & Culture is to provide judgment-free education, cultural events, a library/media archive, and other resources to audiences across the sexual and gender spectrum; and to research and disseminate factual information, framing and informing issues of public policy and public health. The Center for Sex & Culture aims to provide a community center for education, advocacy, research, and support to the widest range of people. Founded 1997, established as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) 2001, the Center for Sex Culture serves a nationally (in fact, globally) significant function, adding to the few accessible resources for sex education available to the public, not just academics or specialists. We have acquired various collections of books, papers, art, erotic material, personal collections from notable people in the sex-positive community, and other media.
The Collection
The CSC is dedicated to collecting and preserving information about sex. We have our donors to thank for the vibrancy of our collection. Our donors, including Dr. Carol Queen, Dr. Robert Lawrence, Good Vibrations, Vern and Bonnie Bullough, Annie Sprinkle, Jonie Blank, Larry Townsend, Jello Biafra, and more were dedicated to collecting materials that have long been shunned by traditional booksellers, libraries and museums. They have collected these materials at great personal risk and expense because they believe they had intrinsic value to society. At the Center’s library, these materials have finally found a home where they are cataloged, stored and preserved for future generations of researchers and the public.
A sample of our remarkable holdings include:
- Graduate and undergraduate dissertations, representing original research
- Rare Pulp erotic fiction from the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s to today
- Rare Zines from the late 1950s to today
- Sexual education textbooks from the 1970s to today
- HIV education materials from the ’80s to today
- Early 20th Century “marriage manuals” (sexual instruction guides)
- Extensive collection of sexual journals, including Sexology and Libido Magazine, the journal of sex and sensibility
- Nina Hartly fan mail
- Patrick Califia papers
About the Event
This fun event will take place at ALA in San Francisco on June 25th at 8pm until midnight. Throughout the night, you will have the opportunity to meet and network with quite a few librarians and find new friends before the conference starts. Your $35 ticket will get you complimentary beer and wine, appetizers, live music as well as tours of the center and highlight many of its important collections. You aren’t going to want to miss this opportunity to see one of the most hidden libraries in San Francisco and your money will go to a good cause so come out and join us.
Purchase your tickets here –
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ala-san-francisco-pre-party-and-fundraiser-for-the-center-for-sex-and-culture-tickets-16190426000
e taught by Laura Saunders. The discussion revolved around the challenges and obstacles we may face when attempting to serve within a “radical” framework. Myself, along with Brian Flaherty, reference librarian at New England Law, and Alana Kumbier– librarian at Hampshire College and author of Queering the Archive, gathered to talk to a class of MLIS students on what it means to serve radical. The session was focused on human sexuality in academic or specialized libraries, but there was it turns out there much cross over into a public library setting when it come to serving in a “radical” manner. Flaherty, the Sex Law Librarian, sent me a list of topics and questions with issues such as controlled vocabulary, language, censorship, and internal biases. My library partner at the Center for Sex and Culture discussed these topics and more, and what it means for us to serve radical. Our answers to Brian’s questions can be seen here.
Over the last year the CSC Library has grown and developed — books have busted out of the boxes that had, for too long, been holding them captive, filling our beautiful new shelving— more books and rare materials than we could ever have space for— we must sell! 