It provides a single search engine for researchers to locate and use materials from more than sixty international colleges, universities, nonprofit organizations, and private collections, including materials hosted by the DTA itself.
[1] The DTA co-locates and provides direct access or links to materials from numerous institutions including (but not limited to) Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives, GLBT Historical Society, Leather Archives and Museum, Transgender Oral History Project, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, and ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives.
[3] The items include newsletters, periodicals, photographs, and zines, and—according to one of the originators of the project—"anything related to 'trans-ing gender.
[1] The resource was developed in response to several challenges in conducting research on transgender history.
[4] The DTA makes available materials that were previously unavailable online or very difficult to find in archival collections.