The Archives and Library of the Queer Movement (QRAB)
The Archives and Library of the Queer Movement (in Swedish: Queerrörelsens Arkiv och Bibliotek - QRAB) collects, organizes, preserves and makes accessible documentation and information related to queer movements and people. QRAB's collections are housed at the Regional State Archives in Gothenburg (Arkivgatan 9). You can find the opening hours of the reading room at the webpage of the Regional State Archives.
For more information on how you can use the collections or contribute materials, see the tabs Request and Contribute or contact us.
QRAB is run as a non-profit association. Click here for more information: QRAB's by-laws (in Swedish) and Goals and aims of QRAB for an equal organization (in Swedish and English).
About QRAB
The Archives and Library of the Queer Movement is an association based in Gothenburg, Sweden, open for everybody interested in queer history, presence and future.
QRAB was formed out of the need and desire to preserve materials that often disappear from history - stories of bodies and loves that have been condemned, concealed and contempted. QRAB uses queer as an inclusive term, encompassing lesbian, asexual, intersexual, trans, bisexual, and gay experiences. By making these stories available to activist, academics, and the general public we wish to further an understanding of history that can inspire to a continued struggle for everybody's rights and full freedom.
Do wish to become a member? Look under the headline Join us to learn how. QRAB's membership meetings are held approximately once every month at the Regional State Archives in Gothenburg - if you're curious and want to know more you're welcome even if you're not a member. Contact us for information on meeting times. QRAB also holds lectures, workshops and other activities where everybody is welcome - keep a look out on our Facebook page to stay updated.
Here we have collected links to where you can hear and read more of what has been said and written about QRAB on other platforms.
Here you can read more about QRAB's by-laws (in Swedish) and QRAB's goals and aims for an equal organization (in Swedish and English).
Request
Our collections are housed in the Regional State Archives in Gothenburg, where materials can be requested for viewing in the reading room. You can search the QRAB catalogue through this website. Contact us for requests and questions - the catalogue only shows parts of our materials and we are continually working on cataloguing the collections.
In our project for digital collection of queer memories, My story - Your story - Our story you can read queer life stories without having to go to the reading room of the Regional State Archives.
Contribute
If you want to contribute anything, we are very grateful! We accept both donations - that is, materials given to QRAB - and depostions - that is, materials on loan to QRAB. Materials that could be of interest are for example protocols, fanzines, photographs, posters, magazines, banners, sheet music, videorecordings, paintings, flyers - really anything that shows how queer struggles have been and are being fought.
Tell your story
Do you want to contribute right away, but without any documents to donate? Go to My story - Your story - Our story, our project for digital collection of queer memories.
Join us
Do you want to join QRAB? Make a payment of 100 SEK to Bankgirot: 5842‑3641 (recipient Queerrörelsens Arkiv och Bibliotek). Fill in your name in the message field (maximum 150 characters) and then send an email to ekonomi@qrab.org.
In the email you can, apart from your name, also write your age and gender. In this case, genders can be "man", "woman" or "other", and both age and gender are only reported anonymized when we apply for funding from some donors, as part of their work for equality. If you don't want us to register age and gender, your name is enough. The email address you're sending from will be used for mailings and information from QRAB.
Contact
For general questions, contact info@qrab.org.
For questions on the collections, contact arkiv@qrab.org.
For questions on membership or money, contact ekonomi@qrab.org.
QRAB's collections are housed at the Regional state archives in Gothenburg, Arkivgatan 9A. That's also where we hold our meetings.
Please follow us on Facebook.