On Tuesday 23 September Samtökin ’78 (the National Queer Organisation of Iceland) gave a donation of books to the Gender Studies programme and the National and University Library of Iceland at a ceremony in the lecture hall of Þjóðarbókhlaða, the library building at Arngrímsgata 3. The handover fell on International Bisexuality Day, or Bi Visibility Day, on which Samtökin ’78 want to draw attention to the concerns of bisexual and pansexual people and people with “fluid” sexualities, and to celebrate this group’s role and share in the history and culture of queer people.
Samtökin ’78 are at a turning point: this autumn the organisation is moving to new premises at Suðurgata 3 in Reykjavík, after many years at Laugavegur 3. On this occasion the organisation’s annual general meeting in March 2014 unanimously agreed to break up the part of its library consisting of scholarly books and novels. It was also decided to give the scholarly books to the Gender Studies programme at the University of Iceland, to be lent from the National and University Library of Iceland. The gift comprises just over 1,000 titles: foreign scholarly works on the lives and culture of queer people, as well as fiction. Professor Þorgerður Einarsdóttir, head of the Gender Studies programme, received the gift from Hilmar Magnússon, chair of Samtökin ’78.
