As a continuation of SOA’s “Crucial Conversations” series, this presentation focuses on community archives projects in LGBTQ+ communities across Ohio for the SOA track. To raise awareness about community archives and LGBTQ+ collections in Ohio, the session will be moderated by a Justice, Equity, Diversity, Accessibility, and Inclusion (JEDAI) committee member, with questions focusing on issues in community archives and the importance of preserving history of underrepresented groups. The panel will feature representatives from the Akron LGBTQ+ Archives and the Ohio Lesbian Archives to talk about how they built their community archives, how they function, and how they receive support. Representatives from the University of Toledo will speak about the LGBTQ+ collections they hold, how connections were made with the donors, and what work is being done (digitization, etc.) to bring awareness of these collection resources to the broader public. Time will be allotted at the end of the presentations for questions and suggestions from the audience. Along with chronicling LGBTQ+ archival collections in Ohio, this presentation will view the issue of community archiving from several different standpoints, allowing you the opportunity to learn not only about the process of starting and maintaining a community archive, but also the on-going struggles of such programs and what forms of support are needed for their success.
Speakers Hannah Kemp-Severence, University of Akron (Session Chair) Sara Mouch, University of Toledo Nancy Yerian, Ohio Lesbian Archives Dr. Hillary Nunn, Akron LGBTQ+ Archive
