2SLGBTQIA+ History and Archives

In the UBC Library Catalogue and UBC AtoM (archival database), try combining your topic keywords with one of these terms:

For Example: "Gay men" AND Autobiograph?

Search Tip: Use quotation marks to search for a phrase (e.g. "Gay men"). Use a question mark to truncate a term to search for words with the same stem (e.g. Biograph? retrieves Biography, Biographies, Biographical, etc.). 

From the Queer Arts Festival fonds 2011 program "Games People Play" Located in RBSC-ARC-1833-01-05

Call number browsing is an effective way to virtually "see" books as they are arranged on the shelf.

Learn more about call numbers.

To design your own call number browse, use the catalogue's "simple search" tab within the "advanced search" function.

Enter the beginning of the call number. The more you enter, the more specific the search. Be sure to select Rare Books and Special Collections from the dropdown menu beside "Filter by Location/Item Type/Language"

To browse for Queer books on the shelves, use the call number HQ. Please note that the below list contains problematic and outdated terminology to refer to 2SLGBTQIA+ people. Please refer to the UBC Positive Space Language guide for terminology which promotes awareness and ensures we engage respectfully with one another.

• HQ19-30.7 Sexual behavior and attitudes. Sexuality

• HQ31-64 Sex instruction and sexual ethics

• HQ74-74.2 Bisexuality

• HQ75-76.8 Homosexuality. Lesbianism

• HQ77-77.2 Transvestism

• HQ77.7-77.95 Transexualism

Try following one of these links or build your own subject search. These subject headings are used throughout the UBC libraries, not only for RBSC.

Please note that the below list contains problematic and outdated terminology to refer to the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. Please refer to the UBC Positive Space Language guide for terminology which promotes awareness and ensures we engage respectfully with one another. 

General searching note: Using subject headings to search for resources will return a greater breadth of results that share a common theme. The below tables are separated into subject headings for the Library of Congress Subject Headings and Medical Subject Headings, which occasionally use the same term name ("Homosexuality", for example) but would return different results based on which type of subject heading type you choose. Take care to choose the correct type of subject heading for your research needs. In your search, you may also come across terms that include "Narrower Term" options which can be useful to further specify your search; for example, the Library of Congress Subject Heading for "Homosexuality" lists "Male homosexuality" as a narrower term. In your search, you may also come across terms that include "See Also" terms, which are related subject headings to the term you searched.

The below table uses terms from the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). LCSH is a controlled vocabulary thesaurus that describes the primary subject matter of the literary work. LCSH is slow to update terminology in comparison with how quickly society changes, therefore some terms that would not be acceptable in today's language are still present on this list, but do not represent how UBC or RBSC view 2SLGBTQIA+ people. This is not a comprehensive list of all LCSH subject terms that describe 2SLGBTQIA+ materials; for a full, alphabetical list of terms please see this guide from Indiana University Bloomington.

The below table uses terms from Medical Subject Headings, and contains problematic, offensive, and outdated terminology to describe 2SLGBTQIA+ people. The historic medicalization of 2SLGBTQIA+ people sought to "diagnose" or "cure" them, which has been disproven countless times and has since removed homosexuality as a classification for psychiatric diseases. 2SLGBTQIA+ people are not mentally ill, criminal, or immoral, though unfortunately they were historically thought of as such. The below table includes health information, sources, services, and information for or about 2SLGBTQIA+ people in a medical setting.

To learn more advanced strategies for searching the UBC Library catalogue, including how to use the advanced search interface and how to read a catalogue record, please see the following video:

From the Queer Arts Festival fonds 2011 program "Games People Play" Located in RBSC-ARC-1833-01-05

Researchers looking for archival material at RBSC can search through AtoM, our database, for more than 700 archival fonds and collections. If you are new to archival research, the Archival Research Guide will provide you with an overview of doing research in RBSC. RBSC's search does not use phrase (e.g. "Gays and Lesbians") or truncated searching. Try a simple keyword search instead (e.g. Gay men).

See the Finding Archival Materials page of the Finding and Using Materials in Rare Books and Special Collections LibGuide for instructions and tips on how to effectively search RBSC's database.