Women's collection threatened

Women's collection threatened

BRISBANE — The University of Queensland student union executive is threatening to close the union library, which includes one of the largest collections of feminist writing in the country.

The threat follows cutbacks to other services including those for overseas, external and part-time students. The executive has also closed the lesbian and gay room and reversed policies preventing racist or sexist literature or events on union premises.

The library also contains comprehensive collections on environmental, Aboriginal and gay and lesbian issues. It includes many rare books and unpublished papers.

The executive wants to break up or sell the $100,000 collection. To protect the library from immediate danger, students have borrowed the entire collection and plan to keep it until the executive guarantees the library's future. n

From GLW issue 12