Listen to this articleThis month, the Utah Pride Center Library and archives will be moving, as the Center has sold the building and is in the process of procuring a new one, and is moving some services offsite.
The library will be moving to the downtown Salt Lake City Public Library. This change is part of the continuing care of the library and access of materials for patrons. With space issues, and for the overall health of the collection, an agreement was reached with the Library to host the Center library as a loan collection for up to five years, ending in 2022. The collection will be maintained as one entire unit, keeping the integrity of its specialized nature. The materials will be available for lending through the SLC Public Library’s catalog and available for check out with a library card.
The Utah Pride Center Library started at the Utah Stonewall Center when the Center opened in June, 1991. The library started with the intent of providing a space for everyone to find materials and information that was LGBTQ affirming. Today the library maintains that goal as part of its collecting scope as a special library that supports the community and other Center resources.
The Utah Pride Center archives have all been safely secured at the Marriott Library at the University of Utah. Library administrator Daniel Cureton, scoured the building, asking and gathering all the materials, artifacts, posters, and photographs the Center contained and donated it to the Marriott Library, which has developed and maintained a large repository of artifacts relevant to Utah’s LGBT community.
“By containing the records at the Marriott, the Center is able to guarantee the safety, health, and public access of the UPC records indefinitely,” said Cureton.
Cureton, started at the library in October 2015 as the first paid librarian and archivist. His first task was to build the institutional memory and knowledge of the library’s past. This, he says, allowed him to take the library to new heights and directions by helping the Center and community understand what it means to have an information professional and what it could do for them. Over the two-year period working as the librarian, he developed the library by writing policies for collection development, receiving grants, presenting at conferences, and building community partners. Some of this work demanded renegotiating the relationship of the library with past donors, building trust, and more importantly extending the hand of partnership to other libraries and communities to let them know about the resource.
In the fall of 2016 Cureton was able to secure a $15,000 grant from the Library Services and Technology Act, administered through the Institute of Museum and Library Services. This grant allowed the purchase of new materials, provided access to current items, updated the library, and expanded to other areas that were previously unavailable in the library such as scores, sheet music, and DVDs Overall use and lending increased 400 percent. Q
