Main Reading Room Reference Materials

The materials presented here comprise reference books that are available for immediate use in the Main Reading Room Reference Collection. These "reference books" may be conveniently found on the shelves for self-serve. Additional materials housed in the "Jefferson or Adams" building will need to be requested online for delivery to the Reading Room.

When visiting the Library of Congress in person, stop by the Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room Reference Desk and ask for Meg Metcalf, LGBTQ+ Studies specialist. You can schedule a one-on-on-research consultation ahead of time by using our Ask a Librarian Service.

Selected Resources in the Reference Collection

The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links for additional online content are provided when available. Use the "Search Tips" tab to locate additional titles using relevant Library of Congress subject headings.

Carry the Word: A Bibliography of Black LGBTQ Books by Steven G. Fullwood (Compiled by, Editor); Reginald Harris (Compiled by); Lisa C. Moore (Compiled by, Editor)
Call Number: PS153.N5 F86 2007
ISBN: 9780978625146
Published/Created: 2007-01-01
Checklist; [a complete, cumulative checklist of lesbian, variant, and homosexual fiction, in English, or available in English translation, with supplements of related material, for the use of collectors, students, and librarians. by Marion Zimmer Bradley and Gene Damon.
Call Number: Z5917.S454 B7
ISBN: 60037709
Published/Created: 1960
Homosexuality: A Selective Bibliography of over 3,000 items by William Parker
Call Number: Z7164.S42 P35
ISBN: 0810804255
Published/Created: 1971-01-01
Contemporary Gay American Novelists by Emmanuel S. Nelson (Editor)
Call Number: PS374.H63 C66 1993
ISBN: 0313280193
Published/Created: 1993-01-26
Publication of this sourcebook on important gay American fiction writers grants legitimacy and recognition to this rapidly emerging area of literary studies.
Words to the Wise by Andrea F. Clardy
Call Number: Z286.F45 C55 1993
ISBN: 156341032X
Published/Created: 1993-04-01
In this revised and expanded fourth edition of the popular handbook is an annotated listing of more than 150 US and Canadian book and periodical publishers, children's book and scholarly publishers -- all from places that welcome women's work.

Cassell's Queer Companion by William Stewart (Editor); Emily Hamer (Editor)
Call Number: HQ76.25 .S75 1995
ISBN: 0304343013
Published/Created: 1995-05-01
This text offers kaleidoscopic coverage of lesbian and gay life, history, politics, language, sex and humour. The volume's 2500 entries celebrate this culture's breadth, from Chinese folklore, Islamic poetry and Native American customs, to dykes on bikes, Alternative Miss World and the Gay Games.
Gay Talk: Formerly entitled The queens' vernacular by Bruce Rodgens
Call Number: HQ9 .R63
ISBN: 0399503927
Published/Created: 1979-10-01
Historical Dictionary of the Lesbian and Gay Liberation Movements by JoAnne Myers
Call Number: HQ76.5 .M944 2013
ISBN: 9780810872264
Published/Created: 2013-09-19
Historical Dictionary of Lesbian Literature by Meredith Miller
Call Number: PN491.3 .M55 2006
ISBN: 0810849410
Published/Created: 2006-01-12

Trans Bodies, Trans Selves by Laura Erickson-Schroth (Editor)
Call Number: HQ77.9 .T714 2014 Alc
ISBN: 9780199325351
Published/Created: 2014-06-10
There are an estimated 700,000 transgender individuals in the US and 15 million worldwide. Even still, there's been a notable lack of organized information for this sizable group.
Gender Outlaw by Kate Bornstein
Call Number: HQ77.9 .B67 1994 Alc
ISBN: 0415908973
Published/Created: 1994-05-12
Gender Outlaw is the work of a woman who has been through some changes--a former heterosexual male, a one-time Scientologist and IBM salesperson, now a lesbian woman writer and actress who makes regular rounds on the TV (so to speak) talk shows. In her book, Bornstein covers the "mechanics" of her surgery, everything you've always wanted to know about gender (but were too confused to ask) addresses the place and politics of the transgendered and intterogates the questions of those who give the subject little thought, creating questions of her own.
Queering Gay and Lesbian Studies by Thomas Piontek
Call Number: HQ75.15 .P56 2006
ISBN: 9780252030314
Published/Created: 2006-01-04
Queering Gay and Lesbian Studies is a broadly interdisciplinary studythat considers a key dilemma in gay and lesbian studies through theprism of identity and its discontents: the field studies has modeleditself on ethnic studies programs, perhaps to be intelligible to theuniversity community, but certainly because the ethnic studies route toprograms is well established. Since this model requires a stable andidentifiable community, gay and lesbian studies have emphasizedstable and knowable identities.
Lesbian and Gay Studies by Theo Sandfort (Editor); Judith Schuyf (Editor); Jan Willem Duyvendak (Editor); Jeffrey Weeks (Editor)
Call Number: HQ75.15 .L44 2000
ISBN: 076195418X
Published/Created: 2000-09-05
This timely book seeks to demonstrate the coherence of lesbian and gay studies. It introduces the reader to the principal inter-disciplinary approaches in the field and critically assesses their strengths and weaknesses whilst asking: What is lesbian and gay studies? When did it emerge? And what are its achievements and research agenda? The gay and lesbian movement has emerged as a major political and cultural force. It poses a series of far reaching questions about the organization of identity, the operation of power and the limits of tolerance. Lesbian and Gay Studies has emerged as a vital and enriching field. It offers challenges to more traditional disciplines and requires new forms of thought about the connections between academic work and personal politics.

Browsing the Library of Congress Online Catalog by subject heading provides additional useful titles for materials relevant to LGBTQ+ research. Each Library of Congress Subject Heading (LCSH) below will provide immediate results in the online catalog that have been categorized with that subject term.

LGBTQIA+ Studies: A Resource Guide

Main Reading Room Reference Materials

Selected Resources in the Reference Collection