Workshop co-ordinator: Lucinda Zoe,
Lesbian Herstory Archives, New York, USA
E-mail: lrzbb@cuny.edu

Six speakers talked about their experiences working in lesbian archives, from the initial set up to ongoing consolidation and expansion. Issues discussed include involvement in community activism, how the information is gathered, who does and should use the archive, and how information is disseminated.

Brigitte Geiger, STICHWORT, The Archives of the Women's and the Lesbians' Movement in Vienna, Austria
STICHWORT was founded in the early 80s, in the context of growing and diversifying feminist movements and the first attempts to organize feminist scholars in Austria. It is maintained by an independent foundation, but receives subsidies from the state and communities. It is a collective staffed by volunteers and paid workers. They run a library and a documentation centre which collect published and unpublished materials of all kinds, from all media. Brigitte focused on 3 major aspects one has to deal with when documenting a social movement: The problem of defining and constructing -an archivist has to decide where to obtain information, STICHWORT requires evidence of autonomy and political intention, as well as some material product to add to the archive. Problems of acquisition and collection - building up collections on a social movement's activities and representatives needs constant and active information policies. STICHWORT receives a lot of information from leaflets and circulars etc from other participants in the women's movement but actively seeks detailed procedural information from other institutions. It is important to raise consciousness and make people realise the value of this kind of information. They feel it is especially important to decide the future of archives, so the information will be protected even if the library is closed. Problems of dissemination and usage - Feminist archives are not mere historical places, they contain information centres and help build information networks. STICHWORT encourages research, and also active use of the materials collected, while respecting the difference between public and private.

Adele Patrick, Glasgow Women's Library, Scotland
The library was started as a grass roots initiative in 1991 growing from the liberal women's movement. It is currently the only women's library in Scotland, and since its beginning it has expanded considerably, taking in a separate lesbian archive from London in 1995 that would otherwise have been thrown away. The lesbian archive is stored in a women only space, separate from the women's collection, although they do share resources. Since the archive has moved to Scotland, it has gained information about lesbian life in Scotland. In part this is because all materials are donated, though it is true to say that all collections reflect the politics of the users. Should we keep these politics alive, by storing information in the original format, or can we update storage systems? The library receives no revenue funding, but has done successful fundraising, as well as collecting an annually renewable membership fee. The more successful the fundraising, the more successful they have been in getting grants. The library aims to make itself invaluable to the local council, by undertaking paid research work, this should enable its continued existence.

Question How do you feel about m/f transgender people using a women only lesbian space? Glasgow - This issue is problematic, currently we only accept women born women lesbians only, but we need advice on how to develop a fair policy. Finland - Lesbian and gay movement includes transgender and transsexual people, we are mutually supportive and feel the need to band together because we are so few. New York - This is a huge issue, our volunteer policy is 'If you think you're a woman, you're in', but we are not a women only space. We include trans-gendered people, but this is problematic for some older lesbians who don't like trans-gendered people seeing lesbian materials. Other groups, please can you tell us if you have a policy, or a women only space.

Olga Jans, Lesbian Archives Nijmegen, The Netherlands
The lesbian archives in Nijmegen opened in 1995 after being inspired by the Lesbian Herstory Archives in New York. They share premises with the lesbian and gay centre, and other gay an lesbian organisations. Their aims are to collect, store and disseminate lesbians' information and gay materials of interest to women, and to increase lesbian visibility. The collection contains books, and other published and unpublished material from all media - their specialisation is diversity, but they began with a regional focus. Books and videos can be rented, but other material is stored to protect it. Finance comes from fundraising and donations, but the rent and costs are paid by local government. The users are lesbians, grass root interest groups, students, researchers, therapy groups and the media. They lobby to maintain their position. They have formed a network with other women's information centres in Europe. This gives support and information, but also uses up time and resources. Changes in the women's movement, and social trends mean that they have to prioritise constantly, this is exhausting, but gives inspiration and new impulses.

Ivana Cikes, Because Press, Croatia
Because Press was set up in September 1997, and aims to publish and promote material with a lesbian content that would not otherwise be available in Croatia. They use the printed word to open communication channels among the lesbian community, hoping to lead to change in the restrictive social realities of post-war Croatia. Since the onset of the war, women's and men's roles have been clearly defined by the ruling party, strongly supported by the catholic church. Acceptable behaviour for women is to raise children and support family values; men should be aggressive and controlling. The ruling party has strong control, is able to shut down independent radio and journalism, thus silencing alternative voices. The stance on homosexuality is explicit 'Since the beginning, mankind was accompanied by homosexuality. It was always here whether we admit it or not. From the humanistic point of view, it is better to admit it and to make it as invisible as possible'. Lesbians are portrayed as being ill, deviant, or just going through a phase, so many hide their lesbian identity. In Zagreb there is some freedom because the city at least offers safety in numbers, but even to call yourself a feminist can lead to abuse and harassment. The women's movement was first seen in the former Yugoslavia in 1979, but in 1986 the first radical feminist group was set up, in comparatively liberal political times, but with the change of ruling party in 1990, the 2nd wave of feminism came to an end. Since then new women's information centres have been established, but even within the one openly gay and lesbian group, lesbian issues were not on the agenda, so in autumn 1997 the Croatian lesbian scene organised itself as its own entity, to address its own problems and issues. A lesbian social support group and phone line has been set up, though the founder has suffered from harassment. Because Press wishes to achieve more tolerance and freedom of expression for lesbian women. Obviously books cannot achieve this alone, but publication indicates a change within the lesbian community, and allows women access to information.
Ivana wants to discuss how a group like ours can expand and take advantage of external resources, while being self supporting and supporting our members.

Olga Stefaniuk, OLA archiwum, Poland
The Polish Lesbian Archive was established in Warsaw, in 1996. Its activities include: Gathering books, magazines, papers and other documents on lesbian and feminist movements in Poland and abroad Conducting historical and archival research in collaboration with other lesbian archives abroad. Lesbian studies discussion meetings. Publication of a lesbian literary journal.
The idea to establish this archive came from Berlin in 1984. Olga lived there for 2 years and saw lesbian archives, thought it would be easy to gather information, set up her archive and discovered it isn't so! It is theoretically legal to be lesbian in Poland, but the word 'lesbian' is taboo, and often not known, and it is socially unacceptable to be lesbian. The OLA archive collects women's literature in sociological and women's studies fields. Much of the material is donated, thanks to German, French and other presses; other international archives offer moral support. There are hardly any gay and lesbian groups in Poland, so OLA does everything - it is an information centre, library, documentation service etc. There are lots of Polish articles on the women's movements, but they are very heterosexual in focus, so Olga's publication is a reaction against that and is a bridge between the beginnings of a lesbian movement in Poland, and the movement in the rest of the world. It is important to encourage Polish lesbians and now they can speak about lesbianism with each other, and the rest of the world, for the first time. There is difficulty in discourse because of a lack of Polish terminology, and this creates problems with translated materials so it is important to gather existing Polish materials to fill this gap. It is vital to have contact with other international lesbian archives; we need to improve the exchange of ideas, and then move on to actions.
Proposal: to set up a lesbian archive conference in Warsaw, achieved through mutual support and co-operation.
Answer: We have to keep in touch, set up a listserv, and try to arrange a conference of some kind for lesbian archivists.

Karen Martin, Gay and Lesbian Archives of South Africa, (GALA)
GALA was established in January 1997, enabled to do so by recent political liberation. It shares a building with the South African Historical Archive. One of GALA's main areas of research is lesbian and gay involvement in the anti-apartheid struggle, so they can liase with SAHA and share resources. This affiliation is advantageous to GALA because they are on university premises, which gives them status and helps to make gay an lesbian history more mainstream, though it also takes away some independence. Although they have collected lots of material, the lesbian voice is hard to find. Karen researches documentation, in order to discover lesbian history in the anti-apartheid struggle. An interesting discovery is that official documentation can reveal more personal information than private letters or diaries. She plans to increase the lesbian component of the archive, by following clues to find these 'hidden' lesbians and by recording conversations as part of an oral history project to keep memories alive. A problem she has encountered is that the majority of users are white middle class women. She would like to reach out to black women, but realises that the definition of 'lesbian' that we use comes from a white cultural background, and also the politics of the ANC support family values, not lesbian values.
Comment:
It is especially important to reach out and include doubly marginalised women, that is for example, women who are both lesbian and black, who risk being excluded from both communities.

Lucinda Zoe, Lesbian Herstory Archive, New York

Her paper for this conference will be published at a later date. The lesbian Herstory Archive was set up in 1973, and has continued to expand and consolidate because of support and commitment from the lesbian community. They are staffed by volunteers and take no government money as a matter of principle. They have an international collection policy, and are open to everyone regardless of why they want to use the collections. They work to store not only the materials of the lesbian movement, but also the to conserve time-specific politics while incorporating new ideas.

Recommendations and Resolutions

• If you need to flee for political or personal reasons, use this network to help set up life in a different country. Use this information to help one another.
  
• It is really important to publish the proceedings of this meeting.
• We need to communicate and write a book on international lesbian archives.
• We can use the Lesbian Herstory web site as a focus for international work.
• We should begin to share information on our research, to help one another and especially new groups. It is wonderful to see the diversity within the community of lesbian archives; so many countries and different levels of development.
• We NEED a conference on lesbian archives, perhaps as a pre-conference at the next international conference. This way we could address the invisibility of the lesbian community even within the women's movement.
• We shall mention this resolution at the closing ceremony.