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Libertas in Stationery Business Directory

 

Libertas began trading as a womens bookshop in Gillygate York in November 1998, owned by Jenny Roberts and Ann Croft. This was followed by the launch of our lesbian booklist DykeLife in August 1999 and by our website in February 2000. It soon became clear that it was our lesbian customers who supported us the most and, as our mail-order and web service blossomed, we began to concentrate increasingly on books and videos for the lesbian community – both at home and overseas. The York Lesbian Arts Festival (YLAF) was founded by Jenny in 2002 and continues as a great success. 3000 lesbians converge on York for along weekend filled with music, dance books and fun! Libertas and Diva remain as sponsors of this annual event. In December 2003 the shop was closed to concentrate on improving and expanding the mail order and web services which, since the very beginning, had always represented the main source of Libertas’ business. In November 2004 Libertas was bought by the Millivres Prowler Group (MPG), the publisher of Diva, Gay Times and The Pink Paper. Whilst one of the largest players in the LGBT field, MPG is a small independently run business, which has been trading in the lesbian and gay community for over 30 years. Millivres Prowler is a community minded business, which played a major part in sponsoring the Stonewall Civil Partnership campaign, as well as supporting several Pride events around the UK. Libertas is run as an independent business within the Millivres Prowler Group and continues to be run for lesbians by lesbians. The Libertas team are: Emma Hands (Manager) - Emma comes from a very varied retail and marketing background, most recently with Waterstones Booksellers. She manages all day to day activities at Libertas. Emma has many vices, top of the list being socialising, volunteering, good food and walking, also, reading, photography, art and cinema . Emma has been a Volunteer Telephone Counsellor for London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard. She is also Vice-Chair of PrideLondon, where year on year she tries to make sure events happen for the ladies - she always needs more help though so do get in touch with her. Lucia Pajon (Assistant to Manager) - Lucia hails from La Coruna in Northern Spain . As a kid she used to follow stray dogs all over town and had a thing for wastelands...then she kind of grew up and trained as a graphic designer before moving to England in 1996. She has had a variety of jobs, including bookselling with Books Etc. Lucia works with Emma on all aspects of the day to day running of Libertas. Lucia loves languages and is proficient in Spanish (obviously!), Italian and German (as well as English...sometimes!) and is especially useful for those handy swear words before you go on holiday. Shes also into comic books (KABOOM!), music, watching Americas Next Top Model with her gal Dawn (because its truly a laugh), photography and computers - thank god one of us is! Maggie Travers (Advertising) - Maggie was a call centre supervisor for Granada TV with a team of 30 before moving to Millivres Prowler Group in 1999. She is Deputy Group Advertising Manager for all MPG titles and Advertising Manager for DIVA. Maggie has now taken Libertas into her portfolio and oversees advertising for Dykelife and eNews. Maggie is famous for her flirtatious manner (no wonder Divas got so many ads!), she cooks a mean Mexican and she has a passion for IT girls! You may have seen her on the lesbian scene, and if you havent the chances are you soon will! Raj Rai (Marketing) - Raj began her career as PA to Senior Directors at Viking Johnson (leaders in pipe joints and repair products), later moving to Hampshire to work for a company specialising in artificial intelligence. She joined MPG in 2000 as Marketing Assistant, and has progressed to Head of Marketing. Raj is responsible for the day-to-day management of all og MPG’s brands and also runs the Millivres Multimedia (MMM) film business area. Raj has recently been awarded the Professional Diploma in Marketing by the Chartered Institute of Marketing. It’s no secret but Raj has a phobia of animals: dogs, cats, flies, pigeons etc, all of which seem to be drawn to her. Whilst out on a lunch break in a very busy Camden she was hit by a pigeon – no more lunches out for Raj! Kim Watson (MPG Deputy MD) - Kim has had 17 years experience in working in gay and lesbian publishing. She is the publisher of Diva and set up Millivres Multimedia feature film distribution in 1998, which brought such classics as Better Than Chocolate, Claire of The Moon and Do I Love You to your DVD players. Kims passion is film and she regularly does the programming for film festivals. Kim is also into football, guitar playing, design, her partner Angie and her daughter Ruby. Jocelyn McConnachie (MPG Retail Director) - Born in Melbourne, Jocelyn moved to England in 1993 and has lived and worked throughout the UK in business development roles at Madame Tussauds, London Eye, and the Royal Armouries Museum. While at Queercompany her career highlight was the launch of the ‘Queer’ credit card in 2001 which received tremendous press coverage including an unbuyable and very favourable half page article in the Sun, on page 3, beside a lovely half dressed lady from Brighton! Despite having been a gay bar hopper for 25 years, she cannot play pool to save her life, doesn’t own a cat and looks appalling in dungarees. She does love the Dutch dyke alternative magazine Girls Like Us, is a London Lesbian and Gay film fest fanatic and is a vegetarian - and an alleged runner, but we dont believe her. Claire Adams (MPG Finance Director) – Claire has been an Accountant for most of her adult life. She loves spreadsheets and pivot tables, but loathes mental arithmetic. Before joining MPG, she was Finance Director for four years at ETC Venues Ltd, another SME. Before that, she worked for 10 years with a top tier firm of Chartered Accountants, during which time she looked after IKEA, Celador (makers of “Who wants to be a Millionaire?”) and the late Bob Monkhouse. Any spare time is spent squeezing in a modicum of exercise and not such a modicum of sauvignon blanc! Business Ethics, Although we obviously need to make profits in order to maintain our service, we have always believed that Libertas is more than just a business. From the start we have tried to provide a focus for the lesbian community and have tried to bring a high degree of accessibility to lesbians all over the UK and throughout the world. We believe in fair pricing and good service, so although you may sometimes find mega-businesses that sometimes undercut us, you will never find one that provides the level of service or the same range of lesbian products. Please help us by supporting us (rather than the anonymous mega corporations) whenever possible. We believe in absolute confidentiality and undertake never to pass on customers’ details to third parties. We believe in fair trading and honesty and we will always act responsibly in our dealings with customers. We believe in helping those who may be coming out or those who are nervous about their sexuality. Above all we seek to build trust and loyalty between ourselves and our individual customers. Privacy and Best Practice, Any personal information that you submit to Libertas whether online, by post, by telephone or by any other means will be kept and treated as confidential and will only be used for our own internal and commercial purposes. Libertas will not sell, rent, lease, or give away your personal information to others. Libertas does not approve of spam and eNews and DykeLife will only be sent to customers and others who have made contact with us regarding our service. If, for any reason, you wish to be removed from our postal mailing list or our e-mail list, then we undertake to do this immediately on request.

 

Address: Libertas, Spectrum House Unit 1, 32-34 Gordon House Road, London, NW5 1LP
Telephone: 020 7485 8317
Website: http://www.libertas.co.uk/