By John Mack Freeman
As part of the GLBT News ongoing work to better keep our membership informed about the goings on in the roundtable, we will be profiling one of our standing committees every month to check in with them and see what they are currently up to. As always, any committee can have news posted at any time by e-mailing the editor or using the Contact Form above. If you have suggestions on how to improve this feature, please let us know!
The first committee in our profile spotlight is the Resources Committee. I recently spoke to Cat Walker, current chair of the Resources Committee, about what they have been up to.
- What are some of your committee’s recent successes (or what has your committee been working on)?
We’re a relatively new committee, officially starting after the Annual Conference in Las Vegas, although we actually began working on projects a few months earlier. We have updated and created several bibliographies and other resources for the GLBTRT Professional Tools page at: http://www.ala.org/glbtrt/publications. A Google map display of GLBTQ archives and libraries was created. A hate crimes bibliography was revised, and the Professional Tools page was reorganized and streamlined with the aid of the Web Committee. We have recently added an African American GLBT bibliography and a large, annotated same-sex marriage bibliography created by the committee, and a children & teen gender exploration bibliography created by another GLBTRT member.
- What does your committee have planned for the future, both in the near and long-term?
We have several other projects that are planned or in-process, including Asian American GLBT, Latina/o GLBT, GLBT teen bullying, bisexuality, GLBT law, and gay detective novel bibliographies. Gender-neutral bathroom guidelines and forms, a resource list on nonbinary/genderqueer identities, guidelines on how to develop a GSA, and a PFLAG location list are all in-the-works. We’re also planning to transform and expand the map of GLBTQ bookstores into a map of GLBTQ-friendly bookstores and to update some of the other resources already on the Professional Tools page.
- Who are the current committee members?
Kevin Coleman, Marian Mays, Caroline “Charlie†McNabb, Sara Pic, Jane Sandberg, Dev Singer, and Walt “Cat†Walker (chair).
- Is there any way that the Roundtable can help you out? If so, how?
Other roundtable members can suggest resources for us to revise or create in the coming year, and they can also submit resources they have created for our review for possible inclusion on the Professional Tools page. We hope to keep the resources on the page fairly current, so we may update submitted resources with newer items or information in the coming years.
- What else do you think the Roundtable should know about your committee?
The Resources Committee was created following the recommendations of the earlier Ad hoc Resources Committee. It took a while to get formed, but I think our persistence has paid off, as we are now busy revising and creating GLBTQ information resources for the Round Table.
The Committee works virtually by email, which allows members who may not be able to attend conferences to still be involved in helping the GLBTRT and its work for the library and GLBTQ communities. Each committee member works on creating or updating a resource, developing criteria for it with the assistance of the rest of the committee, and then sends a draft to them for feedback and suggestions for revisions. Once approved by the committee, the final version is sent to the Web Committee for posting in the appropriate section of the Professional Tools page.
