Sam Cooling

Stub — Sam Cooling is a librarian at the State Library of NSW specialising in LGBTQI+ collections, known publicly as the “Queerbrarian.” Cooling manages and promotes the State Library’s LGBTQI+ holdings, which include CAMP NSW records, the Garry Wotherspoon papers, and oral history collections.

In a January 2026 ABC Radio National Sunday Extra segment, Cooling discussed the State Library’s LGBTQI+ collections and the Australian Queer Archives (AQuA), contextualising them within the SCOI findings and the broader urgency of preserving queer history while witnesses are still living.

Cooling is a key contact for this project’s oral history holdings research — particularly for identifying State Library and AQuA materials relevant to documented cases.

Research needed:

• Full name and professional contact details
• Scope of State Library LGBTQI+ collections most relevant to this project
• Whether Cooling has published or presented on specific cases in scope