For instance, some materials are inaccessible until fifty years after the donor's death, with the exception of senior institute staff members. Researchers have used the collections to address topics ranging from sex and aging, gender identity disorder, and lesbian pornography to honeymoons, health reform eras, and white slavery in Victorian England. We rely on what donors give us, royalties on published materials, and cash donations. To a large extent, the further development of the collections will continue to depend on donations. Hundreds of books and other materials are donated each year.
Some donors ask for their identity to remain confidential and their wishes are respected.
Others want their donations known, and the institute is currently working on a better system for acknowledgment of donors. Donations come from a variety of sources, including artists, collectors, relatives of artists or collectors, libraries that find erotica while processing gift collections, and researchers of sexuality. The motivation behind almost all donations is the desire to have the materials and collections preserved for posterity and accessible to scholars. As with any piece of work, there is a conversation between the piece and the viewer that speaks on a number of levels. At a time when we are grappling in our society with a number of major problems related to sex, understanding the factors that shape and influence attitudes is crucially important.