The title of this recording is "The history of LILAC - part 2". It is described as: Ellen Faed continues a talk on 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 18th October 2024. Ellen Faed is presenting.  Their name is spelt correctly but may appear incorrectly spelt later in the document. The duration of the recording is 8 minutes, but this may not reflect the actual length of the proceedings. 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 1990s decade. A brief summary of the recording is: In this recording, Ellen Faed recounts the establishment and evolution of the Lesbian Information, Library and Archives Centre (LILAC) in Wellington, marking its 30th anniversary with a retrospective on its pivotal developments throughout the 1990s and beyond. The narrative provides insight into LILAC's early grassroots efforts, detailing how initial support and resources were gathered following a call on Lesbian Radio in October 1993. After a meeting at the YWCA, a committed group of supporters mobilized over ten months, gathering books, setting up shelving, and forming an incorporated society to manage the space. The first location for LILAC was in Janet Campbell’s counseling room, located on The Terrace. This space, although functional, presented some challenges: the entrance was locked outside of business hours, meaning that volunteers had to manage access manually, with a buzzer eventually installed to facilitate this. Security concerns meant that the exact location was kept confidential, as Campbell’s counseling work included serving survivors of violence. LILAC saw substantial growth from its initial 400 books, attracting a steady membership and participation. By 2002, when the original building faced conversion to apartments, LILAC relocated nearby, thanks to support from the new property owners. Over the following years, a series of moves ensued, including stints at locations such as Mason’s Lane and later, two small rental rooms at St Andrew’s on The Terrace. By the end of 2012, LILAC finally secured a more permanent location at 187 Willis Street, opening its doors in January 2013 to what Faed described as its "best room," equipped with facilities for events and gatherings. Faed also highlights the diverse content and resources that have enriched the library over the years, which includes a collection that has grown to over 2,800 books, magazines, newsletters, and DVDs. Iconic publications, such as Diva, Curve, and Lesbian Connection, have held a special place in the library, with some international publications still available in print, while others have transitioned online. Audio-visual media, particularly DVDs like the popular series The L Word, became focal points for community interest, demonstrating the significance of both printed and digital media within the collection. Throughout LILAC’s journey, Faed emphasizes the role of publicity in fostering visibility and connection within the community. Initial promotions were conducted through the Wellington Lesbian Newsletter, the Lesbian Radio programme and LILAC’s website. The library has also leveraged modern tools like TinyCat, an online catalog accessible via smartphone, enabling members to explore available books and resources with ease. In recent years, LILAC’s space has supported an array of community events, including monthly book groups, art exhibitions, social gatherings, and even speed dating. Quiz nights serve as both social events and fundraisers, underscoring the library’s need for continued financial support to sustain its mission. The Armstrong and Arthur Trust has been instrumental in assisting with costs, though member dues and fundraisers remain essential to cover remaining expenses. The full transcription of the recording follows.  It includes timestamps every thirty seconds in the format [HH:MM:SS].  The transcription begins:  As we all know this is the, we're celebrating the 30th anniversary of LILAC's opening and I spoke last month about the 10 months of planning and preparation that went into it all after a notice went out on Lesbian Radio in October 93, Linda Evans, and calling a meeting in the YWCA and we voted yes and got on with it for 10 months. Fundraising, getting books and cataloguing them and getting shelving and [00:00:30] creating a And incorporated society and all the rules and what we do. And, of course we couldn't pay market rents and Janet Campbell offered us a temporary solution and little did she know we were in her counselling room when she was setting up at 17 the terrace with bookshelves along the walls and covered with curtains when she was using it as the counselling room. So we opened on the 17th of September with about 400 books and [00:01:00] dozens of women came in on the first day, joined up. But there were a few interesting problems with Janet's room. It was an office building so the street door was locked when we were open on Wednesday evenings and Saturdays. Janet eventually got a buzzer installed so that then someone could go screaming down six flights of stairs or down in the lift to let the women in. And Janet had two sets of [00:01:30] keys for the room. She kept one set, and the other set was put in a pouch for everyone on the roster. And so it was past the pouch, across town and up the, and out in the suburbs. And we couldn't advertise our address because Janet was doing counselling for women who were rape victims and victims of violence, so she could not have her address known. But the rent was nominal, like [00:02:00] 75 a month. Um, and then in 2002 the building was going to be converted to apartments, so the new owners paid for us to move up the road to to Janet's new room, which was in Mason's Lane, which runs between the Terrace and Lambton Quay. So there was no disabled access. But we had it on the same principle. And then in December 2004, when Janet decided to pack in her [00:02:30] counselling room, we were homeless again. And didn't have a clue where to go next, so we packed up everything and parked it all in Katherine Johnson's garage round in Lyall Bay. Until Alison Lorry, the late Alison Lorry, um, suggested trying St Andrews on the terrace because they had a big building behind which was a hall and had lots of rooms and maybe they would have a room we could rent. And in fact they had two tiny rooms. So, [00:03:00] we, we rented them and we had the, the main room and then the low, another, the second room for low use books. But we couldn't hold collective meetings in the room, it was too small. So we had to go out into the lobby and sit on the, um, chairs and sofas there and carry out our one or two chairs. And, and then St Andrews had money to redevelop the building, so we were out. at the end of 2009, but we'd found a sublet in the Buddhist Centre in Kent [00:03:30] Terrace. And by this stage we were getting rather good at packing up and moving and setting up again. And when the Buddhist Centre's lease ran out at the end of 2012, we found this room and opened here in January 2013. And it's our best room. We can actually hold events here. Laughter. And, throughout the time, publicity has been important for attracting members. We had [00:04:00] regular articles in the Wellington Lesbian Newsletter until it folded. Notices and programs on lesbian radio until it morphed into something else. The Wellington Lesbian webpage from November 1995, and I've brought the archive in and you can look at the very first webpage. And all its horror. And when we couldn't give out the address, women had to phone the [00:04:30] lesbian line. Um, until the end of 2005 when we, uh, well, until we set up in, at St Andrews. Then we could advertise our address. So that was the way things had to be done then. And what did we have in our collections? Well, we opened with about 400 books and now we've got over 2, 800 magazines, lots of donated back issues of lesbian newsletters from around [00:05:00] the country and we had subscriptions until they all folded. And glossy magazines, there were three from overseas, Lottle from Sydney and Deva from London and Deneuve, later called Curve. When a certain actress complained about the title, um, from the States. But the, uh, Curve and Lottle are now just online, but we still get Diva. [00:05:30] We had videos from November 95. Until sometime in 2013 when they left the building and somebody forgot to tell the cataloger to take the videos webpage off the website. Um, we had DVDs from July 2005 Once we got the L word DVDs, they were very popular. Women would come into our room and sit at Andrews. The DVDs were opposite the door. They would go over, grab the next one they wanted to borrow, and, because they could only have one DVD at a [00:06:00] time, and then come to the desk and, and return the previous one and take out the new one. Um, we've had a website from 2000. Initially that was hosted on Wellington Community Net, so it was lilac. wellington. net. nz and then the City Council stopped the Wellington Community Net. Um, and it became, we went on to lilac. lesbian. net. nz. [00:06:30] And I get to manage the lesbian. net. nz, uh, domain. We had a primitive searchable catalogue from 2001. Library, our library thing improved, searchable, 2010 and now we've got TinyCat, which you can search on your phone to see what we've got. Go to the LILAC webpage on your phone, website, and you'll [00:07:00] see the link to search, and you can do it when you're in here and see what we've got, buy an author you're interested in, or if we've got something, we can't tell you if it's going to be on the shelf or if it'll be out, but, use it, use it. And now that we've got this fabulous room, we can have all sorts of groups and events using it, and we're trying to turn it into a lesbian community centre. We've had book group on and off for about 12 years. We've had book launches and guest speakers. [00:07:30] Social events. Speed dating to a couple of times. Art exhibitions. Coming out meet ups. Once a month now. And quiz nights, and there's one next month. The quiz nights are lots of fun and they're also fundraisers. We need fundraisers because our patron saints, the Armstrong and Arthur Trust, can't cover all the rent we've got to, and the subs don't either, so we need fundraisers. [00:08:00] And we're open to suggestions and help organizing. So, That's a quick trip down memory lane. Thank you. 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 ; Alison Laurie ; Aotearoa New Zealand ; Armstrong and Arthur Charitable Trust for Lesbians ; Community Centre ; DVD ; Ellen Faed ; Events ; Janet Campbell ; Kent ; Lambton Quay ; Lesbian Community Radio Programme ; Lesbian Information, Library and Archives Centre (LILAC) ; Lesbian Line (Wellington) ; Linda Evans ; London ; St Andrew's on the Terrace ; Sydney ; The L Word (tv) ; Wellington ; Wellington Buddhist Centre ; Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) ; access ; author ; books ; building ; collective ; coming out ; community ; council ; counselling ; dating ; fun ; fundraising ; laughter ; lesbian ; library ; lilac. lesbian. net. nz ; magazines ; meetings ; memory ; newsletter ; other ; patron ; quiz ; radio ; rape ; rent ; social ; time ; trust ; violence ; website ; women. The original recording can be heard at this website https://www.pridenz.com/lilac_30th_birthday_history_of_lilac_part_2.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". Please note that this document may contain errors or omissions - you should always refer back to the original recording to confirm content.