Rainbow shelves serve as a reminder of the diversity of gender and sexuality

The rainbow shelf features and highlights the library’s materials that deal with rainbow people and LGBTQIA* topics. Rainbow shelves were established so that customers could find materials related to gender and sexual minorities more easily. Libraries’ rainbow shelves remind us that the diversity of gender and sexuality is part of everyday life.

Rainbow shelves contain material for adults, children and young people in Finnish, Swedish and English. The library staff selects the content of the shelves, picking books and other materials in which the lives and identities of gender and sexual minorities are described through positive representations. Content is also selected based on customer feedback. The rainbow shelf is not the place for homo-, bi- and transphobic material.

Rainbow shelves contain around 2,000 titles of books, comics and films, from romantic comedy to non-fiction, from children’s picture books to young people’s fantasy novels. Some of them deal with very tough topics.

The first rainbow shelf in Finland was established at the Kallio Library in January 2015. Currently, there are 33 rainbow shelves in Helsinki libraries, and several Espoo and Vantaa libraries also have them. In Helsinki, the rainbow shelf is a genre of its own, whereas in Espoo and Vantaa, the material of the rainbow shelf is selected separately by each library’s staff. The Kauniainen Library also regularly hosts exhibitions featuring rainbow material. Other Finnish libraries have also picked up the idea of highlighting rainbow materials, and in many municipalities, libraries have either physical or digital rainbow shelves.

Photo: Jonna Pennanen / City of Helsinki