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Women's Studies Section
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Note: this is an archived HTML copy of the Fall 2000 WSS Newsletter.
Each year it is a struggle to describe for the Strategic Plan Implementation our section's contributions that go beyond more established activities such as WSSLinks, the Annual Program, Core Bibliographies, etc. Bi-annually, our energetic and creative members submit program requests for the ACRL Conference, but often we do not succeed in gaining a slot. This year, we will have a member presenting at ACRL's Conference in Denver. It is my hope, that by raising our profile as a section within ACRL, we will be able to contribute more to ACRL and, therefore, to our current and future members. Once again, ACRL is offering to fund projects that move the Strategic Plan forward. I am hoping that this column will inspire members of the section to contribute their ideas for individual, group, or committee projects. The grants can range in support from $500-$2,500. The request for the grant must come from the section, and I would like to open up the process in ways that encourage your participation. First, read or reread the plan (http://www.ala.org/acrl/stratpla.html) with particular attention to the strategic directions. Second, send your ideas to wgss-l@ala.org or talk with colleagues. Next, send a SHORT outline of your project to wgss-l@ala.org. The Executive Committee will discuss all proposals at Midwinter and then ask one or two of the authors to submit a full application. If you attend Midwinter, I would encourage you to discuss your ideas with colleagues at the WSS social hour, work with a committee chair to discuss ideas during a committee meeting, or bring your ideas to the general membership meeting for discussion. If you can attend a portion of the Midwinter Executive committee meeting to answer questions about your proposal, that would be welcome as well. The deadline for submission of the funding requests is in March. Let's make ACRL sit up and notice us for all of the right reasons--our creativity, our energy, and our commitment to Women's Studies librarianship. Theresa Tobin
WSS Annual Program: “Taking the Temperature of Women’s Studies in the Year 2000” Discusses Issues Important to Women’s Studies Librarianship The Women’s Studies Section program at ALA annual in Chicago began with the presentation of two new awards: the award for Significant Achievement to Lynn Westbrook and the Career Achievement award to Susan Searing. Section Chair Marlene Manoff then introduced the topics for a program which gave participants a chance to share their insights and ideas about the state of Women’s Studies librarianship in the year 2000. Introductory presentations on topics for discussion were given by Ellen Broidy, Univ. of California-Irvine, who focused on changes in the disciplines that make up Women’s Studies; by Sarah Pritchard, Univ. of California-Santa Barbara, who enumerated issues related to the institutional location of Women’s Studies; by Sandy River, Texas Tech Univ., who discussed topics dealing with electronic resources, and by Dolores Fidishun, Penn State Univ., who gave perspectives on advances in education and instruction. After the introductory presentations, the session participants broke into groups to discuss the topics, and then each group reported the results of their interaction to all assembled. The results of these discussions produced the following list of issues that the section will use to guide future programming and other initiatives: Location of Women’s Studies:
Changes in the Discipline:
Electronic Resources:
Education and Instruction:
Dolores Fidishun, Ed.D.
Grant-seeking in Women's Studies: a Webography Half the battle in receiving funding is knowing where and how to locate applicable grants. While there are grants available specifically for Women’s Studies, there are also numerous grants available with general requirements for funding which can be directly applied to Women’s Studies activities. Depending on how you write your grant request, there are many sources of monies available. When searching for applicable grants, begin by keeping your search terms general and use all available resources to locate funding opportunities. Some Web sites to try: Foundation Center’s Grantmaker Web Search
Grants for Individuals: Women’s Studies
Grants & Scholarships Index from the American
Library Association U.S. Department of Education More specific sites for grant-seeking can be found at the following: Carnegie Corporation of New York Challenge Grant for Women’s Studies through
The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation Department of Education’s Women’s Educational
Equity Act Program (WEEA) Fellowships, Grants, Awards through the American
Association of University Women Laubach Literacy Grants Locating and Writing Grants For Public Libraries
National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant Proposal
Guide Patrina Foundation Grants Grant-seeking and writing is a learned skill and does not always net results quickly. Many grant recipients have applied multiple times for the same grant before finally receiving it. When available, it is always important to study previous award-winning applications for style, content, and guidelines. Always remember, too, that grants are available locally and investigative work will be necessary to locate these opportunities. Stacy Voeller
Call for Papers: Library Research Seminar II The Library Research Seminar II Planning Committee invites researchers, practicing professionals, and students to attend and contribute to this international dialogue on library and information studies research. Scholarship will be solicited and refereed for presentation in the following areas, among others: new information technologies; basic and applied quantitative and qualitative research; interdisciplinary connections; technology-based research; research and policy analysis; research and strategic directions for libraries; practitioners and the academy; education for research; student research; historical research and the future of library research. For more information about this opportunity, contact Dr. Lynn Westbrook (jwestbrook@twu.edu) or visit the conference web site http://www.dpo.uab.edu/~folive/LRSII/index.htm. Proposals for clinics, papers, panels, and discussions are due February 1, 2001.
Volunteers Needed: WSS Core Lists Volunteers are needed to update the WSS Core Lists for Politics and Politics International. Volunteers would only need to check the 2000 lists against the current Books In Print. The deadline for updating this year's lists is Dec. 1, 2000. Please contact the editors, and they will send the current guidelines to anyone interested in updating these important collection development tools. Contact: Bernice Redfern (San Jose State University) bredfern@email.sjsu.edu or Megan Adams (Swarthmore College) madams1@swarthmore.edu.
Instruction Committee Committee members discussed last-minute updating of the newly finished project, a web guide to Women's Activism. After a last draft, we will submit the guide for inclusion on an appropriate WSS Page. (We have since learned that the project must be approved before it can be linked to the ACRL Women's Studies Page.) We are now engaged in our new project: evaluating electronic databases for their relevance to Women's Studies. Evaluation of the four major databases in Women's Studies (GenderWatch, Contemporary Women's Issues, International Women's Periodicals, and Women's Resources International) was done previously by WSS members and published in Serials Review. Our project studies these as well as additional databases and guides to the literature from an instructional viewpoint (how to teach their use). This analysis would be useful to a (new) librarian instructing classes in Women's Studies. Specific categories of evaluation are:
Specific databases to be covered include: America History and Life/Historical Abstracts, Ethnic Newswatch, Women Writers Online, and Medline. Shelley Arlen, Chair Electronic Resources and Access Committee The committee continues to work on developing a core list of Women’s Studies serials. As the committee began discussing the format of the core list, it became clear that we felt we should add information about electronic availability of titles and electronic indexing. Our entry for each title will include: start date, publisher, frequency, ISSN, major print and electronic indexing, URL for home page, whether it’s available electronically by subscription, and whether the full-text appears in an aggregator package. The annotation will be brief and will include the scope of the publication. Deciding to add electronic availability and indexing information means that we will not be done with this project as soon as hoped. Once the list has been completed and approved according to the section’s publications guidelines, it will appear on a new WSS collection development resources page. Sandy River, Chair Publications Committee The committee reviewed and revised the second draft of the WSS Publication Manual, 2nd edition. Some rather minor revisions were made which were presented to the WSS board. The committee met with the Collection Development Committee to review & discuss its web site development. The Electronic Resources Committee joined in and further Web development was discussed. Both of these committees will fill out the Publications Committee's draft "publications idea" form. The text of the revised manual will be sent to all WSS members who subscribe to the WSS ListServ. Mary Rosenbloom Communications Committee The committee discussed the WSS Brochure which is to be updated in October of each year. Copies with volunteer forms should be placed in the ACRL booth at the Midwinter and Annual conferences. Brochures should also be sent to new members. A copy of a revised brochure was reviewed. Ideas for communication to members and non-members were also discussed. The committee considered the possibility of creating an e-mail distribution list of the membership. Members were asked to think of other options and ways to communicate with these groups as well as to communicate with ACRL members who may wish to join WSS. Communication with new members currently occurs through welcome letters and the new member orientation held at the Annual meeting. This activity should be planned at Midwinter. It was also decided that the next Social Hour, in Washington D.C., should be held as near the membership meeting as possible. As soon as the section’s meetings are scheduled the question of place will be reviewed. Sue McFadden Collection Development Committee Committee members have developed a web site of collection development and management resources for Women's Studies librarians. The site's title will be CD Resources for Women's Studies and is designed to help bibliographers who are new to the field as well as those with more experience. Sections of the site present publishers (with web sites when available), review sources, an assessment of electronic databases that index Women’s Studies’ periodicals, suggested tools for keeping current with WS research, and more. At the ALA meeting in July the CD committee joined with the Publications Committee to learn about the process they have recently developed for review and approval of publications from the Women's Studies Section. The CD Committee chair completed the Publications Committee's review form for WS CD Resources, and the web site will serve as a test case for this review and approval process. A project the CD committee may undertake
next year involves analyzing how the WS core lists are used by librarians
around the country. Ellen Greenblatt, of Auraria Library,
Univ. Colorado, Denver will be the Flora Shrode, Chair Research Committee The Research Committee proposed to the Women’s
Studies Section Executive Committee that it become a regular committee
after ALA annual in 2001 with the following charge:
The Executive Committee approved the proposal and the charge. The Committee will continue to meet at a time not in conflict with the all-committee meetings of the section until it becomes an official group. Projects proposed by the Committee include a call for papers service and the creation of a list of experts who can assist others in research or who can help mentor new researchers. There is also the possibility of a type of research clearinghouse where members could get feedback on research already in progress. Now that the committee has been officially approved, we will be discussing implementation of some the above projects at ALA Midwinter. Anyone who is interested in membership on this committee should contact Dolores Fidishun. Dolores Fidishun, Chair
WSS Meeting
Schedule for the 2001 Midwinter Conference in Washington D.C.
The Women’s Studies Section Newsletter is published semi-annually by the Association of College and Research Libraries Women’s Studies Section, a division of the American Library Association, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. (800-545-2433, ext. 2519.) The Women’s Studies Section Newsletter is available to all section members at no additional cost. Editor: Regan Brumagen (Hartwick
College, brumagene@hartwick.edu) The WSS Newsletter welcomes contributions from readers. Send articles, items of interest, and news to the editors, preferably in electronic format. ©American Library Association, 2000 ISSN 0895-691X
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The first WSS Achievement Awards
were issued July 10 during the ALA conference in Chicago. The
ceremony took place at the start of the Section’s annual
program, to a packed room and a highly appreciative audience.
Andrea Ciecierski from Routledge presented the Significant Achievement
in Women’s Studies Librarianship award to Lynn Westbrook
for her book Interdisciplinary Information Seeking in Women's
Studies (McFarland & Co., 1999). 
Achievement in Women’s Studies Librarianship award to
Sue E. Searing, for her exemplary commitment and dedication
over many years to the cause of Women’s Studies librarianship.
The Section would again like to express warm thanks to our sponsors,
Routledge and Greenwood Publishing Group, both for making these
awards possible and for making this inaugural year such a great
success.