IHLIA LGBT+ Heritage

IHLIA LGBT+ Heritage (Internationaal Homo/Lesbisch Informatiecentrum en Archief) is the largest LGBTQ+ heritage collection in continental Europe and the largest LGBTQ+ archive in a public library anywhere in the world. Its origins trace to 1978 as a Homodok collection at the University of Amsterdam; through mergers with three other Dutch queer archives, the current organisation was consolidated in 1999. Since 2007 IHLIA has occupied the top floor of Amsterdam's newly-built Central Public Library (OBA) on Oosterdokskade, integrated into the standard OBA layout: the ground-floor lobby and cafe are open library, IHLIA's reading room and rotating exhibitions occupy the eighth floor. The collection numbers approximately 130,000 items — books, journals, DVDs, personal papers of Dutch and international activists, ephemera, photographs — spanning six centuries of European queer material. The reading room is free and open to anyone without appointment during OBA hours. Rotating exhibitions in the eighth-floor gallery run typically four times a year; recent shows have covered Dutch trans history, colonial-era Indonesian queer material, and the Homomonument at 35. The library's café and viewing platform give a panoramic view over central Amsterdam. Open daily 10:00-22:00 (OBA hours); the IHLIA reading room and gallery run typically 10:00-18:00. Free entry. Amsterdam Centraal station is a five-minute walk. Combine with the NEMO Science Museum across the square and — for the queer-heritage traveller — the Homomonument on the standard Amsterdam LGBTQ+ heritage day.