Join the WestPride Archives for a Working Bee to catalogue the Lespar Library collection!

WestPride Archives (formerly the Gay and Lesbian Archives WA or GALAWA) was registered as an incorporated association in 1998. WestPride Archives preserves and curates a collection of historically significant materials relating to lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse, intersex, queer, Brotherboy and Sistergirl and Asexual (LGBTIQA+) Western Australians. WestPride Archives collections are currently held in the Special Collections Library, Murdoch University, Western Australia. The collection goes back over 90 years.

The Archive is run by a small committee of dedicated volunteers, working hard to catalogue and protect the collection. One of WestPride’s most significant collections is the unique and intact Lespar Library of Women’s Liberation, the first feminist and lesbian lending library in Australia, which operated from 1978 until 1994, independently by Karin Hoffman. The WestPride Archives is seeking volunteers to assist for a one-day cataloguing drive, helping the WestPride Archive free up time to work towards more time-sensitive archival and digitising work, such as vulnerable radio tapes and newspapers.

This event is sponsored by the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Portfolio at Murdoch University.

Agenda of the Working Bee:

Meet the Committee
Learn about the Lespar Library Collection
Receive Archival Cataloguing Induction and Training
Participate in Cataloguing Working Bee
Have lunch and connect with the community

Parking: Parking at Murdoch University is free on weekends. Car Park 3 is closest to the Library

Accessibility: The space is wheelchair and mobility aid accessible, and large enough for spacing out. Masks will be available. Please inform us of any accessibility needs, and we will arrange supports.

Lunch: Please share your dietary requirements upon registration.

Materials: Please bring a laptop, if you have one.

Murdoch University would like to acknowledge the Whadjuk and Binjareb Noongar People as the first owners of the land on which Murdoch University now stands. We pay our respect to elders past and present, and acknowledge the enduring culture of community, identity, and belonging that have been found on this land.