INSIGHT ‘‘ I
In our living memory, we’ve seen how scientific and medical information has been deliberately withheld from the queer community.
Eilish McLaughlin, Chair of CILIP LGBTQ+ Network
HOPE everyone had a scien- tific and innovative February – as per this year’s LGBT+ History Month theme, Sci- ence and Innovation (in case that wasn’t obvious!). As we well know by now, queer people have always existed. Our history however is another matter. For over 20 years now, the founders of LGBT+, Schools Out have been highlighting “the incredible things LGBT+ people in all our diversity have achieved throughout history, in all areas of life”. It’s a means of redress over revisionism that we as queer information professionals are well placed to promote.
Relationship
The theme may seem tricky on the face of it – queer people haven’t always had an easy relationship with science, to say the absolute least. In our living memory, we’ve seen how scientific and medical information has been deliberately withheld from the queer community. The theme helps us to remember how empowering information is, especially for those in communities that are marginalised – historically and contemporarily.
Community resource
Both organisations the CILIP LGBTQ+ committee worked with over February provide an excellent example of the meaningful book-related work out there by and for the community. The Small Trans Library and Lavender Menace work to preserve and promote queer history through their collection and community engagement.
The Small Trans Library, based both in Glasgow and Dublin, is a lending library with over four hundred resources authored by trans writers. They also host regular reading groups and workshops
February-March 2026 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL 25
and other community events across Scotland and Ireland. However, their reach is not limited to Celts, you can browse their online catalogue via the Small Trans Library Website and have your book posted anywhere in the UK and Ireland. It’s a community resource so supporting them financially helps keep this wonderful initiative alive to help our trans friends access books that tell their stories. Please check out their website (https://
smalltranslibrary.org), sign up to their mailing list, and donate if you can. They have also set up an urgent groceries fund for trans people that are out of work or struggling in response to the current crisis for which donations would be gratefully received. Lavender Menace is a Queer Book Archive that collects and preserves LGBTQ+ books (with a focus on those published between 1970 and 2000). They host a physical archive space that’s open for visitors on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 11am and 4pm which is well worth a visit if you’re in Auld Reekie! You can also browse their digital catalogue to get a sense of how extensive the work has been on their database (as a former
cataloguing library assistant, I know enough to know it’s no small feat!). All this is towards the noble goal to keep queer works “alive for readers in a way the publishing industry’s business model makes it difficult to do.” Again, you should look at their website (https://
lavendermenace.org.uk). There’s lots of ways you can support Lavender Menace listed, from donating queer LGBT+ books to offering up your information professional skillset – they’d love to hear from you.
Committee
As the committee in its current form is made up of a good few new members (present company included), it’s been a wonderful experience to work with two organisations that are doing so much to uplift our queer community. It gives us much to aspire to as well as some hope in a challenging context, especially for our trans friends. Please do support Small Trans Library and Lavender Menace if you can and keep an eye out for more CILIP LGBTQ+ events in the spring and summer, we’re always happy to meet community members and allies. IP
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