The UCLA Library and the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives have launched an outreach and collection-building partnership that will expand access to collections held by the Mazer Archives and expand the library's holdings in this important area of social and cultural history. 

 

The Mazer Archives is the largest major archive on the West Coast dedicated to preserving and promoting lesbian and feminist history and culture.

 

The partnership draws on the Mazer Archives' strength in identifying collections, soliciting donors and providing expertise and on the UCLA Library's strength in processing collections, preserving their contents and making them broadly accessible. The project has begun with the creation of finding aids for and the digitization of the collections of the Connexxus Women's Center/Centro de Mujeres, Southern California Women for Understanding, and Women Against Violence Against Women, and the papers of scholars Margaret Cruikshank and Lillian Faderman.

 

"This exciting new effort promises to benefit the Mazer Archives, the UCLA Library and scholars around the world in multiple ways: It makes the archives' holdings more broadly accessible, supports our collection-building efforts and expands the pool of primary materials available to researchers," said UCLA University Librarian Gary E. Strong. "It also strengthens our connections with local communities, which further aligns us with Chancellor Gene Block's goal of civic engagement."

 

"The June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives is thrilled to have this new partnership with the UCLA Library and its skilled and dedicated staff," said Angela Brinskele, the Mazer Archives' director of communications. "We believe that it will add immeasurably to the protection, preservation and accessibility of the grass-roots lesbian and feminist history we have been collecting for three decades."

 

The partnership between the Mazer Archives and the library grew out of the UCLA Center for the Study of Women's "Access Mazer" project. Funded in part by a grant from the UCLA Center for Community Partnerships, this two-year project inventoried, organized, preserved and digitized several key Los Angeles–themed collections. It has resulted in greater access to singular materials on lesbians and lesbian-feminist organizations, which supplement a historical record primarily focused on gay men, and offers insight into a historical moment when the lesbian rights and feminist movements were more closely aligned.

 

The Connexxus Women's Center/Centro de Mujeres Collection contains the 1984–90 administrative records for this Los Angeles nonprofit organization, one of the first to cater to and provide services for lesbians. The Southern California Women for Understanding Collection includes the 1975–99 operational records for one of the earliest lesbian nonprofit educational organizations in Los Angeles. And spanning the years 1964–94, the Women Against Violence Against Women Collection includes papers and organizational records, publications, ephemera and audiovisual materials from the Los Angeles office of this national organization.

 

The 1971–86 working papers of Margaret Cruikshank document the career, scholarship and publications of this early lesbian studies scholar. Covering 1976–89, the papers of Lillian Faderman, a scholar of lesbian history and literature, as well as ethnic history and literature, include manuscripts and research materials for her published scholarship. The digitized collections are accessible online at http://digital2.library.ucla.edu.

 

The partnership will also include a series of scholarly programs. The first will be held during the first half of 2010; details will be announced in the coming months.

The June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives began in Oakland as the West Coast Lesbian Collections in 1981. Under the auspices of Connexxus, the collections moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1980s. In 1989, the archives earned 501(c)(3) nonprofit status and received donated space from the city of West Hollywood, where it remains today. The mission of the Mazer Archives is to collect, preserve and make accessible lesbian, feminist and women's queer history as a means of providing a link among all generations of lesbians; to develop social activities, educational events, opportunities and programs that promote historical awareness; and to provide research and resource facilities.

The UCLA Library, ranked among the top 10 research libraries in the U.S., is a campus-wide network of libraries serving programs of study and research in many fields. Its collections encompass more than 8 million volumes, as well as archives, audiovisual materials, corporate reports, government publications, microforms, technical reports and other scholarly resources. The UCLA Library also develops and provides access to an extensive collection of digital resources, including reference works, electronic journals and other full-text titles and images. Working with curators, faculty, research units and external partners, the library's Digital Library Program coordinates the creation, management and delivery of digital collections of texts, including archives, manuscripts and monographs; images, including photographs, posters and maps; audio, both published and unpublished; and video in support of the library's mission.

 

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