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Each June, Dunedin Public Libraries takes part in Out on the Shelves, an awareness campaign for our young people celebrating rainbow stories, identities, and communities. It’s backed by InsideOUT, a charity organisation that helps educate on, support, and uplift rainbow communities of across Aotearoa.
The best part of this month, for us as librarians, is the opportunity to share the ever-increasing diversity of our youth collections with our visitors, staff, and the wider community. We create displays, share resources, and talk about the myriad of queer books on our shelves.
The next best part? Taking part in the annual display competition, which attracts entries from libraries across the motu. By using colour, imagination, and more hot glue than anyone wants to admit, we seek to create a visible celebration of rainbow identities and foster the joy the comes from seeing yourself represented in public spaces and on the pages of our books.
In 2021, the library’s entry took out first place, with a flock of multi-coloured birds supporting our young people to find their flock.
This year, we went botanical, crafting hundreds of paper flowers that we shaped into the latest iteration of the progress pride flag.
This version of the flag was created in 2021 by Valentino Vecchietti, who added intersex representation to the progress pride flag created by Daniel Quasar in 2018, which itself combined elements of Gilbert Baker’s original pride flag, the Philadelphia flag, and the trans pride flag.
Having such a visible symbol of inclusion and representation in our library space is an important step in our continuing efforts to create safe, accessible, and vibrant spaces for our rainbow youth, in which they can be themselves and see themselves represented.
N.B. Since the writing of this article, the winners of the display competition have been announced.
Community Library:
1st Place - Dunedin Public Libraries
Runner Up - Hillcrest Library (Kirikiriroa)
School Library:
1st Place - Te Kura Nui o Rototuna (Rototuna High Schools)
Runner Up - James Hargest College
