USC Libraries Digitizing ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at USC

From The Daily Trojan:

The ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at USC, the world’s largest collection of LGBTQ materials, will complete its archive of historical documents by November. ONE Archives, which is located on West Adams Boulevard, is the oldest existing LGBTQ organization in the United States and houses over two million items, including texts and art from the 1900s.

Michael Gorse, assistant director of the LGBT Resource Center, said that digitizing the material will uphold the archives’ mission to make historical resources more accessible while promoting awareness of LGBTQ history. The project is currently in its final stages of digitization.

“I think often times throughout history, LGBT history even, in history of marginalized communities [there] has often been attempts to be erased or forgotten intentionally by folks who are anti-us,” Gorse said. “Before [digitizing] … students would still have to go in person to see it, so there’s a physical barrier … This allows increased access to these materials,  expand our reach of education and the preservation of knowledge, and in case something ever happens to the physical documents … to have another format.”

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See Also: Writ in Signs: 1960s LGBTQ Civil Rights Struggles (via USC Libraries)

See Also: Search Various ONE Collections Including Digitized Items

Filed under: Archives and Special Collections, Digital Preservation, Libraries, News, Preservation