The title of this recording is "The history of LILAC". It is described as: Ellen Faed talks about the history of LILAC - the Lesbian Information, Library and Archives Centre, which was opened on 17 September 1994. It was recorded in Lesbian Information, Library and Archives Centre (LILAC), Second floor, 187 Willis Street, Wellington on the 15th September 2024. Ellen Faed is speaking at an event.  Their name is spelt correctly but may appear incorrectly spelt later in the document. The duration of the recording is 6 minutes, but this may not reflect the actual length of the event. A list of correctly spelt content keywords and tags can be found at the end of this document. The content in the recording covers the decades 1990s through to the 2020s. A brief summary of the recording is: The audio recording celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Lesbian Information, Library, and Archives Centre (LILAC), an initiative that began in 1993. Recorded on September 15, 2024, at LILAC’s current location on Willis Street, Wellington, the speaker, Ellen Faed, reflects on the origins, growth, and impact of LILAC over three decades. Faed explains that LILAC is now in its fifth home, having occupied its current space since 2013. This venue is considered the best, largely due to its sturdy design and shelving securely bolted to the wall - features seen as crucial for safety, particularly during earthquakes. LILAC was conceived in the early 1990s by Linda Evans and Glenda Gale, both of whom worked at the National Library. The idea for a lesbian library emerged during casual discussions at the library’s cafe, and it quickly gained momentum. The two women used their involvement with the local lesbian radio program, co-hosted by Evans, to spread the word and gather support. A meeting was convened at the YWCA to discuss the feasibility of creating a lesbian library in Wellington, and the idea was met with overwhelming enthusiasm, particularly from the many librarians in attendance. The first official steering committee met on November 2, 1993, and the group decided that LILAC would function as both a lending library and an archive. From its inception, the project relied heavily on volunteer efforts and donations. Fundraising events were crucial to LILAC’s success. One significant event was held at the Gay and Lesbian Fair in March 1994, where LILAC raised over $1,100 through a second-hand book stall. These funds helped lay the foundation for LILAC’s growth. Initially, LILAC faced challenges in securing a permanent home. Janet Campbell, a key figure in the organization, provided a temporary solution by offering her counselling room as a space where books could be stored and accessed. The bookshelves were covered with curtains when the room was used for counselling, ensuring that the library could coexist with other activities. During this time, the group also registered LILAC as an incorporated society, opened a bank account, and established membership criteria, setting membership fees at $10, $20, and $30 - a structure that has changed little over the years. Acquiring books for the library was another challenge that LILAC’s founders tackled with creativity and determination. Many books were donated by community members or sourced from second-hand bookshops in Wellington. Evans even sent back books from a trip to San Francisco, while Kathleen Johnson contributed books from London. As LILAC’s collection grew, volunteers catalogued and processed the books, relying on supplies that were often donated by other libraries. Publicity for the new library was initially handled through Lesbian Radio and the Wellington Lesbian Newsletter, which included regular notices about LILAC’s progress and membership opportunities. However, for a time, LILAC’s location was not publicised, as Campbell, who used the space for counselling, did not want the address widely known. Instead, women interested in the library were directed to call the Lesbian Line, a phone service that was popular in lesbian communities across New Zealand at the time. On September 17, 1994, LILAC officially opened its doors with a collection of about 400 books. On its first day, 51 women joined the library, though each could only borrow two books at a time due to the limited size of the collection. Reflecting on the early days, Faed emphasizes how different communication and social interaction were in the 1990s. At the time, LILAC's activities were coordinated via snail mail, landlines, and face-to-face meetings, as email and social media were either non-existent or in their infancy. Despite these limitations, the community’s passion and persistence allowed LILAC to thrive. The full transcription of the recording follows.  It includes timestamps every thirty seconds in the format [HH:MM:SS].  The transcription begins:  Tuesday the 17th, this coming week, is the 30th anniversary of the day we first opened for business. And this room is our fifth home. We're nomads, except we've been here since January 2013. But this is our best room. It's got a solid wall along there and those bookshelf uprights are bolted to the wall, So, in the next Kaikoura earthquake the bookshelves won't [00:00:30] fall over, just a few books will fly off, but stay away from that end if it's the Wellington fault line. I can't remember the previous four, I mean Janet Campbell's was one. Janet Campbell was first, Janet Campbell second, the church, the Buddhist Centre and then here. Anyway, before we opened, of course, there was many, many months of planning, preparation and fundraising. But the plot to create a lesbian library seems to have been hatched [00:01:00] by Linda Evans and Glenda Gale, who both worked in the National Library, so I think it was down in the coffee bar they came up with the idea, and Linda was co presenting the lesbian radio program each week with Alison Laurie, and so she gave a notice saying that the room had been booked in the YWCA for a meeting to discuss whether or not we should have a lesbian library in Wellington. And so lots of women turned out, about half of whom were librarians. And we voted yes. This, [00:01:30] this um, happened, yes, the first meeting of a steering committee of volunteers was held on the 2nd of November, 93. So this was back in 1993. And we decided we wanted it to be a lending library with archives and information. And on February the 8th, the meeting, we decided we need a name. And Janet Campbell wanted LILAC. And this dweeb, numpkin, in the next three minutes turned LILAC into an acronym. [00:02:00] My day job was working with acronyms on steroids. But the main topics we discussed at our meetings and the projects we worked on included fundraising. For example, at the Gay and Lesbian Fair in March 94, we had a great big white elephant stall with a table of second hand books and raised over 1, 100, which in today's terms would be about 2,400. {In the days we were admitted to [00:02:30] the lesbian fair}. Well, this was, this was the gay and lesbian fair, and we had a big place for it, and op shops weren't doing bric a brac then, they were just doing clothes, so we did very well. Students equipped their flat kitchens. Um, premises, we knew we just couldn't afford rents around the town. But Janet came up with what she thought was a temporary solution. Because she was setting up a counselling room in, uh, in a building on The Terrace. And [00:03:00] she said, well, we could set up our bookshelves against the walls and cover them with curtains when we weren't open. And she was using it as a counselling room. And we drafted a constitution and registered it as an incorporated society, opened a bank account, decided on membership criteria. Set subs at 10, 20, 30 dollars. They've only risen twice, about twice since then. Books, of course, we needed books to open. We got lots of donated books. We [00:03:30] shopped in all the second hand bookshops on Cuba Street and and on Courtenay Place and in Newtown. And Linda Evans visited a secondhand bookshop or two in San Francisco and sent back a mailbag packed with books. And Kathleen Johnson bought some books in London and sent them back. And then Muggins catalogued the books. Having been recruited by Glenda Gale from the Breathing Space Group. You'll [00:04:00] catalogue the lesbian library, won't you Ellen? Yes. We scrounged for book processing supplies. Book issue cards in the book pockets and the loan slips. We bought the plastic sheet for covering. Our libraries around the town were of course all automated and didn't need to issue books manually anymore so they were rooted out of back cupboards and brought to LILAC. We bought second hand library shelving. [00:04:30] And, for publicity, Lesbian Radio and the Wellington Lesbian Newsletter, of course, which had about three or four pages of notices in it each month, and until we opened it was a notice, if you are interested, contact them, the phone number. But, once we did open, we couldn't publicise the address because Janet Campbell was using it for counselling. Didn't want the address known. So women had to [00:05:00] phone Lesbian Line. Anyone remember Lesbian Line? These young things here won't know what a Lesbian Line is. There was Lesbian Lines up and down the country. They're all listed in the Wellington Lesbian Newsletters. So we opened on the 17th of September with about 400 books. One of the other curly things, of course, is that we were open after office hours, and it was an office building, so the street door had to be locked. So we had to have a volunteer sitting behind the door when we were open, [00:05:30] to open it for when likely looking women came along, and, uh, until Janet got a bell, a button to push to ring a bell up in the room. But we had, according to the, uh, something I found in the first minute book. About 51 women joined up on the first day. They poured in. And they could only borrow two books at a time because we only had 400. But for the young ones here, something of [00:06:00] the flavour of the times, the social milieu. Minutes were photocopied and posted out snail mail. No one had a personal email account. Some of us had work email accounts. Landlines not cell phones. And if you were phoning someone, you had to hope they had an answer machine that you could leave a message on. And the worldwide web was in its infancy. Social media was a nightmare to come, but there were chat rooms. I found a chat where called chat room [00:06:30] called nz. soc. queer, which was nicknamed socwear. {So what was that again?} nz. soc. queer - all you could do was post text messages The internet was travelling down copper wires and it was all very slow But we persisted! And we did it! The full transcription of the recording ends. A list of keywords/tags describing the recording follow. These tags contain the correct spellings of names and places which may have been incorrectly spelt earlier in the document. The tags are seperated by a semi-colon: 1990s ; 2000s ; 2010s ; 2020s ; Alison Laurie ; Aotearoa New Zealand ; Cuba Street ; Glenda Gale ; Janet Campbell ; Job ; Lesbian Community Radio Programme ; Lesbian Information, Library and Archives Centre (LILAC) ; Lesbian Line (Wellington) ; Lesbian Newsletter (Wellington) ; Lesbian and Gay Fair ; Linda Evans ; London ; Newtown ; Prue Hyman ; QUILTED BANANAS (Wellington Access Radio) ; San Francisco ; Space ; United Kingdom ; United States of America ; Usenet ; Wellington ; Wellington Access Radio ; Willis Street ; archives ; books ; building ; button ; chat room ; church ; coffee ; coffee bar ; community radio ; counselling ; earthquake ; email ; fundraising ; gay ; hope ; internet ; landline ; lesbian ; library ; lilac. lesbian. net. nz ; march ; media ; meetings ; newsletter ; nz. soc. queer ; op shops ; other ; queer ; radio ; soc. culture. queer ; social ; social media ; stall ; time ; volunteer ; women ; work. The original recording can be heard at this website https://www.pridenz.com/lilac_30th_birthday_history_of_lilac.html. Ellen Faed also features audibly in the following recordings: "Rainbow Pride Community Honours (2015) - Part 1", "Out in the carPark", "Open mic sessions - Queer History in the Making" and "The history of LILAC - part 2". Please note that this document may contain errors or omissions - you should always refer back to the original recording to confirm content.