• Section 28 and Black History Month: public libraries after the new urban left

    Author(s):
    Colette Townend (see profile)
    Date:
    2020
    Group(s):
    CityLIS
    Subject(s):
    Libraries, History, Public libraries, Sexual minorities, Blacks--Study and teaching, Library science, Information science
    Item Type:
    Dissertation
    Institution:
    City, University of London
    Tag(s):
    Section 28, Black History Month, New Urban Left, Lambeth, Haringey, Library history, LGBTQ history, Black studies, Library and information science
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/wxys-tj02
    Abstract:
    The advent of Section 28 and Black History Month had very different initial impacts on British public library provision from 1987 onwards. Equal opportunities policies in new urban left local government of the earlier 1980s led to an increase of LGBT+ literature in libraries and schools, leading to the punitive Section 28 law, which would lead public libraries to self-censorship. The abolition of the GLC led to Black History Month (BHM) as a legacy of race and ethnic minority unit work. In library services today a historiography of Black and LGBT+ lives has been built through Black History Month and the corrective LGBT+ History Month (LGBTHM) respectively, with both being observed in modern day British local library services. Using desk research, surveys and in depth interviews with British public library workers about their experience of these phenomena of the 1980s, this dissertation investigates this history, recognises the work done by library workers and the results. Findings include the comparison of library services who stood up or fell to self-censorship under Section 28, as well as understanding BHM as a successful legacy of the new urban left’s LSPU and ultimately the value seen in BHM and LGBTHM by librarians today.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    3 years ago
    License:
    Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
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