Some things to think about... Would you as a teen in your decade have known what words were being used to describe what you are experiencing – would you have been comfortable asking for help from a librarian, and would they have known either? Would they be the same words we use today? LGBTQ-focused publications existed as early as the 1950s – but was the RG even indexing those publications, and, even if it was, what are the chances your library would've had them? Would the pubs the RG did index reflect the dominant heternormative culture? And, remember to ask yourself as you are looking up articles: How is heteronormativity being reproduced and/or challenged?
This is how we used to do it - and we had to trudge through the rain, uphill ... blahblahblah, you know the rest. :-)
STEPS for researching your topic in the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature Ref. AI3 .R48 to find articles in magazines pre-Internet era (1990s).
STEP 1: Locate a volume from your decade in the Reference Collection, Library North 2nd Floor, Call# Ref. AI3 .R48.
STEP 2: Look under a Subject Heading, e.g. 'LESBIANISM' or 'HOMOSEXUALITY'
STEP 3: Choose an article, e.g.: Lesbian as mother. il Newsweek 82:75-6 S 24 '73.
STEP 4: Look up the magazine/newspaper (e.g., Newsweek) in the Journal tab on the library's homepage.
STEP 5: Go to Library North 3rd floor Periodical Shelves, use the Call Number (Per. AP2 .N6772) to find the Newsweek volumes, then look for Volume 82/1973, find September 1973 issue, and turn to page 75 to find the article.
And...there is also an online version of the RGPL available for 1890-1982: Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 - if you aren't in to "old skool" research. ;-)
SOCI 3356 Queer Identities – The Decades Paper Assignment – In-Class Exercise Worksheet by Mandy Swygart-Hobaugh is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
