IFLA Lgbtq+ Matters Section

🌈 Happy Pride Month from the IFLA LGBTQ+ Matters Section! 🌈

June is here, and with it comes a time to celebrate, reflect, and reaffirm our commitment to inclusive and welcoming libraries for everyone - no matter who they are or who they love. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

As librarians, we are on the front lines of building spaces where every community member feels seen, valued, and represented.

How does your library acknowledge or celebrate Pride Month?
• Do you put together a special LGBTQ+ display or reading list? 📚
• Are you hosting events, workshops, or film screenings? 🎉
• Are you partnering with local LGBTQ+ organizations? 🤝
• Are you decorating your space with Pride flags and colours? 🖼️
• Or perhaps you're doing something completely unique? 💬

Share your ideas, photos, and stories in the comments below - let's inspire each other and celebrate the incredible work happening in libraries around the world! ✨
Every act of visibility matters. Every welcoming shelf makes a difference.

📚 We need YOUR voice!

The IFLA LGBTQ+ Matters Section is building a toolkit to support library workers who face challenges or backlash around LGBTQ+ topics at work — and we want it to reflect realities from around the world. 🌍

If you work in a library and have navigated difficult situations, restrictive legislation, or sensitive local conditions related to LGBTQ+ topics, your experience matters.

Share your stories, reflections, and good practices with us — together, we can create a resource that truly helps colleagues globally. 💙

👉 Fill in the form before May 22nd:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeq3fCdHvp8-VYJn0VGqcDsSYUSP4qDwmMkbKENBDJwttE8VQ/viewform

Tag a library colleague who should see this!

Challenges and backlash in your library The IFLA LGBTQ+ Matters Section is developing a toolkit for library workers who are facing challenges or backlash related to LGBTQ+ topics in their professional environments. To make the toolkit relevant globally, we would very much value hearing from colleagues working in different national context...

📣 Call for presenters – only two weeks left to apply!

The IFLA LGBTQ+ Matters Section, together with the Subject Analysis and Access Section and FAIFE, is inviting proposals for lightning presentations at our joint open session at IFLA World Library and Information Congress 2026 in Busan:

Access reclaimed: Defending open knowledge and underrepresented perspectives through subject cataloguing

We are especially keen to hear from colleagues working with:
🔹 LGBTQ+ perspectives in metadata and knowledge organisation
🔹 bias and visibility in subject access
🔹 censorship and discoverability
🔹 ethical challenges in describing identities and lived experience
🔹 community informed approaches to subject analysis and classification
🔹 AI and political pressures affecting subject metadata

We warmly welcome proposals from all types of libraries – public libraries, school libraries, academic libraries, special libraries, and beyond. You do not need to be a researcher or cataloguing specialist. If you have practical experience of challenges related to subject access, terminology, visibility, or restrictions affecting your users or collections, your perspective is valuable and relevant.

📆 Deadline: 1 May 2026

Please consider submitting a proposal, and help us by sharing this call with colleagues and networks who might be interested.

👉 Full call and submission details here:
https://2026.ifla.org/faife/

Your voice and experience can help shape an important international conversation about equitable and responsible subject access.

Call for presenters – help bring LGBTQ+ perspectives to WLIC 2026! 🏳️‍🌈

The IFLA LGBTQ+ Matters Section is pleased to collaborate with the IFLA Subject Analysis and Access Section and IFLA Advisory Committee on Freedom of Access to Information and Freedom of Expression (FAIFE) on the open session "Access reclaimed: Defending open knowledge and underrepresented perspectives through subject cataloguing" at WLIC 2026 in Busan.

We are inviting proposals for short lightning presentations from colleagues working with subject analysis, metadata, knowledge organisation systems, intellectual freedom, and equitable access to information.

From the LGBTQ+ Matters Section perspective, we are particularly interested in contributions exploring how subject cataloguing and metadata shape the visibility and discoverability of LGBTQ+ topics and communities.

Please consider submitting a proposal, or sharing the call with colleagues who should be part of this conversation. Read the full CFP on the IFLA WLIC 2026 website:

Subject Analysis and Access Section; LGBTQ+ Matters Section; Advisory Committee on Freedom of Access to Information and Freedom of Expression - IFLA | WLIC 2026 Join us this August in Busan, Korea for a week of networking, learning, debating and sharing with the most global community of information professionals and librarians!

📝New post on our blog📝
Bridging the Information Gap: Two Decades of LGBTQ+ Health Sciences Information Research by Noemi Somorjai.

Bridging the Information Gap: Two Decades of LGBTQ+ Health Sciences Information Research by Noemi Somorjai, medical librarian, civil researcher  For the past two decades, I have worked as a medical librarian and  civil researcher within a departmental library at a medical uni…

The Bibliothèque Publique d’Information, one of France's largest public libraries with a national mission, has just released an extensive set of resources on gender, sexuality and libraries. This collection highlights current research, professional reflections and practical tools for those working to create inclusive, respectful and informed library services.

All materials are in French and freely accessible to professionals:
👉 https://pro.bpi.fr/dossier/genre-sexualite-et-bibliotheques/

Do you know of other useful resources like these? Feel free to share them in the comments.

Genre, sexualité et bibliothèques Ce dossier explore les enjeux de genre et de sexualité en bibliothèques, pour œuvrer à une société plus égalitaire et inclusive.

Libraries play an essential role in ensuring that everyone can find information, community, and belonging. A new master’s thesis explores how public libraries in Gothenburg, Sweden and nearby municipalities work with “Rainbow Shelves” and other LGBTQ+ inclusive practices.

The study offers valuable insights into how libraries can build welcoming environments, make collections more visible, and strengthen support for LGBTQ+ community members of all ages.

If you are interested in inclusive library services and evidence-based practices, this is well worth a read.

Pignattelli, L. (2025) The Rainbow Shelf in Gothenburg’s Public Library and Near Municipalities : A comparative study. Dissertation. Available at: https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hb:diva-34013

The 23rd National Seminar on University Libraries, organised by FEBAB – the Brazilian Federation of Associations of Librarians, Information Scientists and Institutions – took place from 17 to 20 November in São Paulo, Brazil. Our Chair, Carlos Alberto Della Paschoa, was invited to participate in the roundtable Talking About: Inclusive and Welcoming Libraries on 19 November. On this occasion, he spoke about the LGBT+ collection and the library outreach activities aimed at the LGBTQIA+ community carried out by the Nélida Piñon Library of the Cervantes Institute in Rio de Janeiro.

This month’s newsletter is here! With its theme, we saw it as the perfect opportunity to include an article about our section and our plans for the year.

Here's the direct link to the article: https://www.ifla.org/news/ifla-lgbtq-matters-section-championing-equality-in-libraries-worldwide/

In our October 2025 Issue, we highlight how libraries worldwide are championing and shaping more inclusive, just societies.

https://mailchi.mp/ifla/vol-5-no-10

Presentation on the Homosaurus in Spanish today at UNAM at the Conferencia Internacional sobre Biblioteca Universitarias by Dr. Ernesto Cuba García from Peru.