Mission:  To collect, preserve, exhibit, and make accessible to the public materials and knowledge that supports and promotes understanding of LGBTQ history, culture, and arts in all their diversity.

Background: Founded in 1985, the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society is recognized internationally as a leader in LGBTQ public history. The society's operations center around two sites: the GLBT Historical Society Museum and the Dr. John P. De Cecco Archives and Research Center. Established in 2010 in the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco, the GLBT History Museum was the first stand-alone museum in the world dedicated to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender history. With more than fifteen thousand visitors annually, the museum plays a vital role in advancing public education and cultural awareness, hosting exhibits covering over a hundred years of LGBTQ history and hosting numerous public programs and events. In addition, the more than nine hundred collections housed at the Dr. John P. De Cecco Archives and Special Collections of the GLBT Historical Society include personal papers, organizational records, periodicals, oral histories, photographs, audiovisual recordings, ephemera, artifacts, and works of art.

Outstanding Web Features: Educators, students, and lifelong learners may peruse two robust databases to find items of interest on the GLBTHS site. First, visitors to the site can utilize the catalog search feature, which has listings of archival descriptions from all over the state hosted on the Online Archive of California (OAC) database, then filter the listings by decade or subject. Some entries also include "finding aids," which serve as a more detailed listing of a collection's contents. These aids give the user basic statistics about the collection including, what it's called, how to cite it, how large it is, and includes an abstract that summarizes its key points. Visitors can also search extensive collections of queer periodicals and oral histories within the archives. Some of these oral histories have transcripts, which are available on the site.

Secondly, the GLBTHS has several digitized collections that are available for visitor viewing and easily accessible directly from the site. Many of the collections consist of photographs, audiovisual recordings, documents, and periodicals. Visitors are encouraged to explore all of the museum's online exhibitions by browsing sets of primary sources grouped by topic; reviewing research guides; using the catalog to search over five hundred oral histories conducted with Bay Area residents from the 1980s forward; and checking out the Bay Area Reporter (BAR) archive, the oldest continuously published LGBTQ newspaper in the United States.