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Tuesday, March 19
The Indiana Daily Student

LGBT library coordinator works against the IUCAT system

Andrew Wang is the Library Coordinator at the GLBT Student Support Services.

As the library coordinator for the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Student Support Services Office this summer and fall, Andrew Wang must mainly consider the system and the subject.

The GLBT Student Services Library’s separation from the University’s main library search system, IUCAT, creates challenges for Wang when reaching out to the community.

Students utilizing the IUCAT system are not given the option to search the campus’ GLBT SSS library online due to financial reasons, Wang said. Because Wang must manually organize the GLBT SSS library with a less efficient system than IUCAT, it is not as accessible as it should be,?he said.

“You have to know how to search for things, but with that, (the) second thing is you have to understand the subject that you’re dealing with,” Wang said. “So you have to know that if you need resources for someone that is intersex, do you know the terms to search? Or do you know where to look?”

Though Wang said he doesn’t necessarily counsel people or talk to them one-on-one, he does give them access to different resources, books and websites for whatever it is they need to fulfill their needs, he said.

“Our library is one of our greatest assets with books on a variety of LGBT topics and an amazing collection of fine films,” Doug Bauder, director of the GLBT SSS, said. “Andrew is a creative information and library science intern with great ideas, good insights and a sense of how to inspire others to utilize our resources — displays, connections with the residence hall libraries and the Wells Library and, starting in the fall, the possibility of a film series.”

Wang said he continues his library collection development because he and the GLBT SSS staff are always trying to develop different parts of their collections to suit the needs of their ?patrons.

He works to increase the variety of resources available to the community by filling in gaps of what topics are missing or adding intersectional perspectives to serve more than predominately homosexual white males, he said.

“It’s just been a really common trend in recent scholarship in academia — especially for gender studies — There’s just more of an emphasis on not reducing people’s identities to just sexuality,” Wang said.

Wang wishes to push the significance of the services the GLBT library has to offer by posting flyers in the West Tower of Wells Library, reaching out to collaborate with IU’s First Year Experience and providing informational displays for intersectional awareness inside of the library.

“He is also sensitive in relating to our clients, whether they are eighth graders or senior citizens,” Bauder said. “It’s a pleasure to have him on our staff.”

Wang earned his bachelor’s degree in art history from Temple University.

Now he is a dual major in art history and library ?sciences.

“We try our hardest to celebrate all the people who tend to get ignored in the greater umbrella of LGBT. Sometimes people just see G or LG,” Wang said.

The GLBT SSS is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is located on West Seventh Street.

For more information about the services the GLBT SSS has to offer, follow them on Twitter @GLBTlibrary or visit their blog at ?blogs.libraries.iub.edu/glbtlibrary/.

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