Lilac Library
New York State’s Largest Community Center LGBTQIA+ Library Collection
We are the home of the largest publicly available LGBTQIA+ library collection of its kind in New York State. The agency’s library contains over 10,000 items including fiction, non-fiction, biographies, rare books, early homophile publications, magazines, films, music, and a complete physical run of the Empty Closet.
You can check out books!
Borrow:
Each item may be checked out for 3 weeks
Items can be renewed in person, over the phone, or by email
You may check out up to 5 items at a time
Fines may be assessed for lost materials
We have items including books, movies, and music available in our collection for you to borrow.
Come visit during open hours to get your own Lilac Library Card– getting a library card and borrowing privileges are free!
Donate
We welcome donations of items featuring queer content or made by queer creators
We do not accept duplicates at this time, please check out collection to see if we already own an item
Need to renew your items? Have questions about what can be donated to our collection? Contact us at library@gayalliance.org
Photo Credit: Natalie Fox
Browse the Collection
Stop by during open hours to browse our library collection. Our friendly volunteers will help you find the item you are looking for or give you a recommendation to discover something new!
How to Browse the Collection
Our collection is hosted on LibraryThing and the trickiest part of navigating this is the TWO search bars the site has. When you click on the yellow button above to access the site, you will see two search bars on the right side:
The search bar that you want to use is the lower search bar that says “Search this library” which will allow you to browse items that are in the Lilac Library collection.
The upper search bar that says “Search LibraryThing” will look at items in all collections available within LibraryThing.
Photo Credit: Natalie Fox