Homosaurus
Homosaurus is a thesaurus or controlled vocabulary dedicated to LGBTQ+ terms.[1][2] It aims to replace and complement outdated and disparaging definitions in broader vocabularies such as the Library of Congress Subject Headings,[1][3][4][5] and has been used by the Library of Congress since 2016.[6]
The project was started in 1982, where it was made as a standalone vocabulary to describe the collection for the IHLIA LGBT Heritage in Dutch. It was significantly expanded in 1987, and was merged with a queer-focused vocabulary from Anna Blaman Huis. In 1997, it was translated into English as A Queer Thesaurus,[4][5] which was available in both Dutch and English.[7]: 159 In 2013, it was renamed to the Homosaurus[5] and expanded with a focus on reducing its bias towards white cisgender gay men.[4] In 2016, it was decided to reduce the scope of the vocabulary to LGBTQ+ terms only.[4][8] Since then, it has been used to support any use for collating LGBTQ+ works.[4][9]
The thesaurus has been translated into Swedish and French.[9][10] An effort to translate the project into Spanish was started in 2023 in collaboration with the San Francisco Public Library, UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, and the Arizona Queer Archives[9] when the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities granted 350,000 dollars to do so. It is slated to finish in late 2026.[6]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Jarmain, Haley (27 June 2024). "Mount Royal Library takes on Homosaurus Project". https://www.mtroyal.ca/AboutMountRoyal/MediaRoom/Stories/2024/06/mru-library-takes-on-homosaurus-project.htm.
- ↑ Roache, Emma (11 May 2023). "What's in a word — describing LGBTQ+ collections". https://natlib.govt.nz/blog/posts/whats-in-a-word-describing-lgbtq-collections.
- ↑ Varner, Greg (24 August 2023). "Making GW's Library Catalog Express and Reflect Our Community's Values". https://gwtoday.gwu.edu/making-gws-library-catalog-express-and-reflect-our-communitys-values.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Cifor, Marika; Rawson, K J (15 May 2022). "Mediating Queer and Trans Pasts: The Homosaurus as Queer Information Activism". Information, Communication & Society 26 (11): 2168–2185. doi:10.1080/1369118X.2022.2072753.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Fischer, Rachel K (January 2023). "Using the Homosaurus in a Public Library Consortium". Library Resources & Technical Services 67 (1). doi:10.5860/lrts.67n1. ISSN 2159-9610. https://www.journals.ala.org/index.php/lrts/article/view/7985/11110. Retrieved 24 May 2025.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Monares, Freddy (26 June 2024). "New resource seeks to link Spanish speakers with LGBTQIA+ library materials". https://www.knkx.org/arts-culture/2024-06-26/spanish-homosaurus-translation-lgbtqia-library-catalog-reference-search-terms.
- ↑ Jack van der Wel (2011). Greenblatt, Ellen. ed. Serving LGBTIQ Library and Archives Users. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-4894-4.
- ↑ Walker, Walt (29 September 2019). "Building the Homosaurus: An International LGBTQ Linked Data Vocabulary". https://librarynews.lmu.edu/2019/09/building-the-homosaurus-an-international-lgbtq-linked-data-vocabulary/.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Kirschman, Lauren (31 March 2023). "Q&A: Developing a new Spanish-language controlled vocabulary of LGBTQIA+ terms". https://www.washington.edu/news/2023/03/31/qa-developing-a-new-spanish-language-controlled-vocabulary-of-lgbtqia-terms/.
- ↑ Lloyd, Noah (24 February 2023). "How to say 'Homosaurus' in Spanish: A renowned LGBTQ+ resource gets another edition". https://news.northeastern.edu/research/archives/how-to-say-homosaurus-in-spanish-asi-se-dice-homosaurus-en-espanol/.
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