Building a Women's Studies Library Collection

“Building a Women's Studies Library Collection with No Curriculum, Budget, or Administrative Support,” Annual Conference of the National Women's Studies Association, Atlanta, Georgia, June 1987.

In April 1986 I began a project at the Library of the Salkehatchie Campus of the University of South Carolina that targeted women's studies as an area for special attention.  This project, which received no special funding, had three components.  The first two were to identify and add to the collection books, periodicals, and audiovisual materials related to women's studies.  The third, most difficult component--and my real goal for the project--was to make sure the materials were used.

I should say here that my ideas on what should be in library collections vary a bit from what I was taught in library school.  Most librarians are indoctrinated with the idea that librarians should be absolutely objective and that library collections should represent all points of view equally.  If we have conservative materials, we should have the same number of liberal ones.  If we have five books that advocate free choice in reproductive rights, we should have the same number of books that advocate the opposite.

I'm among those who contend that, for most libraries and librarians, this is neither possible nor desirable.  No library can afford everything, so in making choices we censor and impose our own values on collections.  In some cases we may have had the charge to create unbiased collections impressed on us so strongly that we overcompensate by buying more things that express positions we oppose than those we support.

My philosophy of education is that we have a responsibility to expose students to alternative points of view, particularly those that are radical or unpopular.  Educators must challenge students, require them to question traditional values and judgments.  Libraries should assist this process by giving teachers and students easy access to resources that question and challenge.

Instead, library after library owns the same books and periodicals.  Resources that reflect mainstream points of view are available everywhere.  In smaller libraries, where there isn't enough money to buy things that aren't "standard," they are often all that's available.  Because of this over-representation of traditional ideas in most libraries--added to my views on education--I am committed to selecting alternative materials whenever possible.  I may be charged with allowing the collection to be unbalanced, to reflect my own non-traditional opinions, but is that any different than a more conservative librarian selecting only mainstream materials?

I did worry that because women's studies is an area of personal interest for me, it would appear that I was buying what I liked, not what library users needed.  I was careful to justify building the collection, particularly since at that time there were no courses either in women's studies or that concentrated on women taught at Salkehatchie.  However, enrollment was 66% female and the library staff and I were reasonably sure there would be substantial interest in a wider selection of materials by and about women.

We knew, for example, that each semester books on women writers in general as well as books on many individual women writers were in high demand.  We knew that social issues centered on women, like rape, prostitution, and reproductive rights, were extremely popular topics for student research, whether the students were male or female.  We knew that several faculty (all male, by the way) were making efforts to include information directly related to women in their course content.

Another justification, and a big one, was the interdisciplinary nature of women's studies.  The budget is small, so I look for materials that will be useful to students across the curriculum.  With one subscription to Signs, for example, we could have articles on sexuality, history, literature, political science, and any number of other subjects.  Books about women and women's roles relate easily to many of the subjects our students (or anyone else's, for that matter) research.  Introductory works and collections of essays often supply information in a broad range of disciplines.  So, I decided that specializing in women's studies would be popular with our users, reflect the curriculum, and be an economical use of funds.

After the decision to build a women's studies collection was made, the first step was to identify what was already in the collection.  I defined women's studies very broadly--the library is small, so including everything was possible.  In addition, I felt that the more comprehensive the bibliography was, the more useful it would be for showing areas that needed development, plus make it more useful for directing people to resources.

I decided that works in the "traditional" disciplines should deal principally with females to be included.  Books about Renaissance Italy or aging or child rearing or homosexuality or whatever that mention women but primarily take a general approach were usually not included.  Books on the same topics were included if most of the content dealt specifically with women or girls or made a feminist analysis of the topic.

Some decisions about what to include were arbitrary.  Books by women were problematic, as was fiction about women by men.  In the end, I included all primary sources by women, all biographies of women, and all critical evaluations of the works of women.  A final criteria for inclusion was a reference in Esther Stineman's Women's Studies: A Recommended Core Bibliography.  The result was a list of over 500 books, periodicals, and audiovisual materials in the USC Salkehatchie Library collection that were somehow relevant to women's studies.

This bibliography went on to serve a dual purpose.  It immediately became an important reference tool, making it easy for me and my staff to suggest books in women's studies when people asked for help.  It was created to serve as a guide for adding new materials, to give me absolute knowledge of what we already owned.  I combined this knowledge with what I already knew about the curriculum, what patrons were interested in, and faculty teaching styles to make a plan for collection development.

I targeted certain disciplines and specific subjects within those disciplines and ranked the target areas.  The Library collects mainly in English and American literature, U.S. and European history, sociology, psychology, education, and art history.  These are the areas in which most Salkehatchie patrons--who are about 35% high school juniors and seniors and about 50% first and second year college students--are required to do projects that require library use.  They are also the areas in which library staff have the most influence over what topics students choose.

Within these broad areas, I listed specific topics.  In literature, for example, I wanted feminist criticism, criticism and biography of women writers (particularly Black women writers), studies of gender roles and female characters, and drama and fiction by women (particularly lesbians and Black women).  The more target areas a book covered, the more versatile it was, and so the likelihood of purchase increased.  Feminist interpretations of the roles of women in the plays of Lorraine Hansberry would be a pretty sure bet.

Knowledge of faculty teaching styles and specific course content was essential to selecting target areas.  I decided what to buy in each area differently, based on the different approaches instructors used.  Two history professors, for example, require students to compare how three scholars interpret a topic.  So, owning at least three sources on a subject is required before most students will consider it.  Sociology students research essentially the same topics semester after semester: spouse and child abuse, rape, prostitution, divorce, abortion, pornography, family life, etc.  Art history students select their own topics, so resources used and topics vary widely each semester.

For history, I used the bibliography to identify topics where one or two sources were already owned, added a couple more, and handed out a list.  In sociology, I simply made a list of common topics, identified resources owned and not owned, and started adding from each topic as money was available.  General sources suit art history best, so I found books that dealt with women artists in general or in a period, geographic region, or art movement.  Books on individual women artists and how women are depicted in art were added later.

The search for sources is a challenge.  Here again, Stineman is a basic tool (Catherine R. Loeb, Susan E. Searing, and Esther F. Stineman's supplement Women's Studies: A Recommended Core Bibliography 1980-1985 had not been published when I started, but is now heavily used).  Another good source was the American Library Association Committee on the Status of Women in Librarianship's publication A Feminist Resource List.  I check the bibliographies of books and articles on topics of interest, keeping files of possible acquisitions.  I use the reviews in Women's Review of Books and Signs and other related periodicals.  I identify publishers of interest--particularly those representative of the alternative press--request catalogs, and examine those.

I use one more selection technique that is considerably less librarianly.  I buy from bookstores.  I take the collection development plan, the bibliography of what is owned, notes on some specific titles to look for, and an open mind.  Booksellers have things in stock faster than many sources review them (quick reviewers like Publisher's Weekly and Library Journal are not noted for their emphasis on women's studies, although they are improving).  Large bookstores also stock titles from the alternative press, which are difficult to find reviewed anywhere.

In the bookstores, books can be evaluated personally.  Indexes and tables of contents can be checked for subject content; text can be scanned not only for content but also for attitudes.  I can see what level the book is written on myself rather than wondering what a reviewer meant when she said it should be in every college library.  Even if a library can't buy from a book store, librarians can use them to identify and evaluate sources before they buy from the publisher or a jobber.

There is no accomplishment in buying books, putting them on the shelves, and then just waiting around to see if they're used.  We shouldn't build collections just to say we have them; we must become activists to get them into people's hands.  I use a number of strategies to insure that women's studies materials get used.

I keep in mind that one of my reasons for starting the collection was patron interest.  Students use what they're interested in, so it's important to keep connections between that interest and the books we want to be used close.  As the people dealing directly with students and with what does and doesn't circulate, librarians often have a much better idea of what students want than faculty do.  I ask faculty to recommend books and welcome their help, but I select most of the materials myself.

We buy paperbacks whenever we can and put them on the shelf as they come from the publisher.  For hardcover fiction, although not for nonfiction, we retain the dust jacket.  Studies, most recently Ron Hayden's article "If It Circulates, Keep It," in the 1 June 1987 issue of Library Journal, indicate that books with illustrated covers circulate more frequently than those with plain covers.  A copy of Galbraith's Affluent Society with its original illustrated cover circulated nine times, while a plain hardback, put on the shelf at the same time, never circulated.  When given the choice between a boring looking copy of Richard Chase's Emily Dickinson (which incidentally was published as part of Greenwood Press's American Men of Letters Series) and the illustrated cover of Susan Howe's My Emily Dickinson, I hope students will choose the latter.  We carry this one step farther for new fiction, which is mostly by women writers, and put the books on public library-type display racks.  When we put fiction right into the stacks, it never moved.  Now students are reading Fay Weldon and Marge Piercy and Doris Grumbaugh for pleasure; most were pulled in by the attractive covers, not an interest in feminism.

I publicize new books in the weekly campus newsletter, Salk Talk, which is read by most students and employees.  Every week five or six new titles are listed, along with a brief description and the call number.  I keep in mind what assignments are going on and try to list related titles.  Making a Difference: Feminist Literary Criticism and Jane Rule's Lesbian Images circulated the day they were listed in Salk Talk as having information on Gertrude Stein.  Neither is listed under Stein as a subject by the Library of Congress, so the chance of a student finding them on her own would have been slim.  I haven't followed up on how many of the Salk Talk books have been checked out, but since listing them is easy, its worthwhile if only a few have.  This type of publication is better, too, than a special library newsletter because the audience is broader.

In a more serious vein, I produce instructional materials and develop instruction sessions that highlight women's studies regardless of what the course is.  I prepare bibliographies or guides to research for classes upon request.  One English professor has had his students write on A Raisin in the Sun and Death of a Salesman for so long that I automatically revise my bibliographies on the plays annually.  At first they were just bibliographies--now I take care to include feminist criticism, articles about female characters or Lorraine Hansberry as a lesbian, or at least sources by women.

I also produce research aids on topics I identify.  These may be brief bibliographies on high-interest topics or they may be lists of suggestions for students who don't know what to write their history paper on.  Here I also make sure women's studies is strongly represented.  For example, in addition to a number of books that deal exclusively with slavery in the United States, my bibliography on the topic includes An Economic History of Women in America which has a chapter on "Women's Work and the Sexual Division of Labor Under Slavery," that would never be found otherwise.  A list of 75 ideas for art history term papers includes a number of individual women artists and other women's studies-related topics, topics that students find interesting but would probably never think of on their own.

Finally, in-class library instruction is tied to the women's studies collection.  In many sessions I am asked to instruct students in using the library, but they haven't picked topics yet.  I always use women's studies topics to illustrate my presentations and as practice topics for students learning to use sources.  Students at least become more aware and many times they will later "select" the topics I have talked about.

If topics have been assigned, I talk about how women's studies relates to the topic.  When I make instructional materials, I include the subject headings for books about women that are pertinent, along with a few examples of what's there to make it easy for students to find what I want them to.  For example, many books on women in cultural groups are subject indexed only under WOMEN by the Library of Congress, not under the name of the group.  A student doing research on community life in Japan probably wouldn't think to look under the subject WOMEN--JAPAN--SOCIAL CONDITIONS, missing The Hidden Sun: Women of Modern Japan, a perfect resource for his project.

Another way to help people find women's studies materials is to make cross references in the card catalog.  Librarians may not want or be able to change standard subject headings (although I think some of them need changing), but we can quite legitimately make suggestions about other places to look.  Instead of relying on being able to tell students in person to look under WOMEN as well as JAPAN to find books on Japanese community life, I put a cross reference in the card catalog that will always be there.  Now every time someone looks up JAPAN, they get a message that some books are listed under WOMEN, too.  They may or may not follow that up, but at least they got the message.

I monitored the use of women's studies materials, to see if those added to the collection were used.  New women's studies books added since the project began were used at a slightly higher rate than other new books added at the same time.  New books on Black women, women writers, physical and sexual abuse of women and girls, and female sexuality were used about twice as often as new books in general.

Its hard to say what this higher rate of use means, though, for two reasons.  First, a women's studies course was taught in Spring and Summer 1987.  I taught the course both times and given the nature of the course plus my interest in seeing the materials used, I think it would be safe to say it increased use.  Second, nearly all books added between April 1986 and July 1987 were part of the project.  There weren't many new books to compare them with.

I do know of specific instances when books in women's studies were used as a result of my efforts, though, and I know that the books are used, for whatever reason.  I also know that many of the books, especially those that talk about lesbians, are stolen from the library soon after they're put on the shelves.  The need and interest is obvious and I feel confident that the project is a success.