We received the following press release from AEGIS, the American Educational Gender Information Service, Inc.

Press Release
3/11/98

AEGIS to Continue Critical Services: National Transgender Library & Archive, Database, Bibliography

Retiring Executive Director Dallas Denny has agreed to maintain the National Transgender Library & Archive after her April First resignation and will continue to receive and catalog materials. She will also continue to add new items to the bibliography, and will update the AEGIS database of Service Providers so that it will remain current until a replacement can be found for her.

"Our information will remain state of the art," Denny said, "so that when we once again have the means to distribute it, it won't be stale. We are continuing to look at ways to automate information distribution." The library will remain in Atlanta for the immediate future. but will become the property of AEGIS' successor organization. Our 501(c)(3) status ensures that the library will remain the property of the community. "We are firmly committed to the library remaining in transgender hands," said Denny, "so that our history will not be diluted or reinterpreted." She added, "I envision a day when the library will have the community support to allow it to be housed in its own building."

The National Transgender Library & Archive is the world's largest publicly available collection of transsexual and transgender related materials. "The library will continue to be open by appointment," Denny said. "A number of scholars have already used the library for their work. One graduate student was able to get every bit of research material she needed in two afternoons. That's infinitely preferable to driving across the country visiting library after library, tracking down materials. Anyone who has done a thesis or a dissertation will remember how much fun that is."

Denny is especially interested in continuing to receive newletters and other publications of the transgender community. "The community's newsletters provide a historical record," she said. "Scholars are already looking at them-- to establish time frames for the emergence of the word transgender, for instance. We've also been able to help several support groups by providing them with photocopies of their own materials which they have lost. I urge those organizations with which AEGIS has exchanged publications to keep sending theirs during our period of down time."

Denny feels that the transgender community has not paid enough importance to its history. "We tend to underappreaciate the significance of what we are doing," she said. "We're making history, and it's important to preserve and document that history. Quite frankly, those who don't take steps to archive their materials will find themselves forgotten in the future."

If you publish materials about transsexual or transgendered persons, or if you wish to preserve your personal history, please send them to the National Transgender Library & Archive at the address below.

A Holding List of the materials in the National Transgender Library & Archive (current 3/98) will be available 6/1 on disk for $20, or hard copy for $30.

American Educational Gender Information Service, Inc.
A 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Corporation
P.O. Box 33724, Decatur, GA 30033-0724
(770) 939-2128; FAX (770) 939-1770
aegis@gender.org

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