{"value"=>"<p>The National Gay Archives and Library Committee consisted of individuals, including Gittings and Lahusen, working to establish a national gay archive. The committee was formed in February 1975 and initially conceived by Dr. Howard Brown. According to its initial press release, the committee \"intended to bring together gay-related personal papers of prominent homosexual women and men, as well as books with homosexual themes and every kind of gay movement material.\" Notably, the committee was in talks with the New York Public Library with the intention of creating such an archive there in the late 1970s.</p> <p>In the course of her work for the committee, Gittings gathered records from the following organizations: Gay Support and Action Group (Maine), Detroit Gay Liberator, and the National Gay Task Force. The National Gay Archives and Library Committee folded by 1981, when its bank account closed. When it failed to establish a gay archive, Gittings and Lahusen absorbed the records they had collected on behalf of the committee into their personal collection and continued to collect materials to document gay history. For information on their collection, see: Series III. Subject Files -- Gittings and Lahusen Archival Collection. The National Gay Archives and Library Committee may have been the precursor to the International Gay Information Center (IGIC) archives; this collection was later donated to the Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library.</p>"}