Teaching Gender with Libraries and Archives The Power of Information i5 Libraries 00 book.indb 1 2013.10.04. 9:49 Titles in the Series: 1. Teaching with Memories. European Women’s Histories in International and Interdisciplinary Classrooms 2. Teaching Gender, Diversity and Urban Space. An Intersectional Approach between Gender Studies and Spatial Disciplines 3. Teaching Gender in Social Work 4. Teaching Subjectivity. Travelling Selves for Feminist Pedagogy 5. Teaching with the Third Wave. New Feminists’ Explorations of Teaching and Institutional Contexts 6. Teaching Visual Culture in an Interdisciplinary Classroom. Feminist (Re)Interpretations of the Field 7. Teaching Empires. Gender and Transnational Citizenship in Europe 8. Teaching Intersectionality. Putting Gender at the Centre 9. Teaching “Race” with a Gendered Edge 10. Teaching Gender with Libraries and Archives The Power of Information Title 1 is published by ATHENA2 and Women’s Studies Centre, National University of Ireland, Gal- way; Titles 2–8 are published by ATHENA3 Advanced Thematic Network in Women’s Studies in Europe, University of Utrecht and Centre for Gender Studies, Stockholm University; Title 9-10 are jointly published by ATGENDER, The European Association for Gender Research, Edu- cation and Documentation, Utrecht and Central European University Press, Budapest. i5 Libraries 00 book.indb 2 2013.10.04. 9:49 Edited by Sara de Jong and Sanne Koevoets Teaching Gender with Libraries and Archives The Power of Information Teaching with Gender. European Women’s Studies in International and Interdisciplinary Classrooms A book series by ATGENDER ATGENDER. The European Association for Gender Research, Education and Documentation Utrecht & Central European University Press Budapest–New York i5 Libraries 00 book.indb 3 2013.10.04. 9:49 © Editors and Contributors, 2013 Cover Illustration: © Art work ‘Biografias VI’, by Alicia Martín, made for the International Paper Biennial 2012 for Museum Meermanno | House of the book. The artwork, which was attached to the façade of the museum, was on display from the 1st of Sept -2nd of December 2012. Photographer Frank Jansen, Den Haag. Series editors: Nadezhda Aleksandrova, Sveva Magaraggia, Annika Olsson, Andrea Pető Editorial board: Barbara Bagilhole, Gunilla Bjeren, Rosi Braidotti, Anna Cabó, Sara Goodman, Daniela Gronold, Aino-Maija Hiltunen, Nina Lykke, Linda Lund Pedersen, Elżbieta H. Oleksy, Anastasia-Sasa Lada, Susana Pavlou, Kirsi Saarikangas, Adelina Sánchez, Harriet Silius, Svetlana Slapsak, Berteke Waaldijk Editorial assistant: Mónika Magyar, Shosha Niesen Joint publication by: ATGENDER, The European Association for Gender Research, Education and Documentation P. O. Box 164, 3500 AD Utrecht, The Netherlands Telephone: (+31 0) 30 253 6013 E-mail: [email protected], Website: http://www.atgender.eu Central European University Press An imprint of the Central European University Limited Liability Company Nádor u. 11, H-1051 Budapest, Hungary Telephone: (+36-1) 327-3138, Fax: (+36-1) 327-3183 E-mail: [email protected], Website: http://www.ceupress.com 224 West 57th Street, New York NY 10019, USA Telephone: (+1-212) 547-6932, Fax: (+1-646) 557-2416 E-mail: [email protected] ISSN 2227-5010 ISBN 978-615-5225-60-4 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book is available upon request. Printed in Hungary by Prime Rate Kft. i5 Libraries 00 book.indb 4 2013.10.04. 9:49 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii List of illustrations viii List of figures viii INTRODUCTION 1 Sanne Koevoets and Sara de Jong SECTION 1 – HISTORIES/LEGACIES The library as knowledge broker 13 Sara de Jong and Saskia Wieringa Parallels in the history of women’s/gender studies and its special 31 libraries Karin Aleksander Institutionalizing activist legacies 49 Silvia Radicioni and Virginia Virtú SECTION 2 – PRACTICES Searching for women in the archives: collecting private archives of 65 women Svanhildur Bogadóttir Core feminist texts in Europe online: teaching with the FRAGEN 76 database Sara de Jong, Gé Meulmeester and Tilly Vriend Teaching gender-sensitive English as a foreign language through 87 databases: local practices and beyond Véronique Perry v i5 Libraries 00 book.indb 5 2013.10.04. 9:49 (Re)searching gender in a library 99 Fabiënne Baider and Anna Zobnina Information as a tool for the empowerment of women 112 Caroline Claeys SECTION 3 – UTOPIAS Reflections on Glasgow Women’s Library: the production of cultural 125 memory, identity and citizenship Tanita L. Maxwell Beyond the bun lady: towards new feminist figurations of 142 librarianship Sanne Koevoets ANNEX 164 CONTRIBUTORS 178 vi i5 Libraries 00 book.indb 6 2013.10.04. 9:49 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The idea to write a book on teaching libraries and archives was conceived at the 2011 annual AtGender Spring Conference when librarians, archivists, informa- tion specialists and researchers met within the context of the working group ‘Information and dissemination: infrastructures and networks in Europe and beyond’. This book would not have been possible without the hard work and enthusiasm of all the librarians and scholars who contributed to it. Shosha Niesen has been of tremendous help with her meticulous editing. We also want to thank AtGender and the editorial board of the Teaching with Gender series for their encouragement and feedback, and express our gratitude to the anony- mous reviewers for their helpful comments. The picture of the Art work ‘Bio- grafias VI’, by Alicia Martín, made for the International Paper Biennial 2012 for Museum Meermanno | House of the Book, formed a perfect cover for this work and we are therefore very grateful to artist Alicia Martín, photographer Frank Jansen and the Meermanno Museum for the permission to use the image. vii i5 Libraries 00 book.indb 7 2013.10.04. 9:49 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Illustration 1: ‘Galliera’; picture of one of the first events at CDD in the early 1980s 55 Illustration 2: ‘Saragozza’; shot of the CDC in its early days in 1991 58 Illustration 3: Screenshot of the FRAGEN website 78 Illustration 4: Cover illustration of a book included on the Turkish long-list 81 Illustration 5: Picture of the International Women’s Day celebrations in 2012 130 (Courtesy of Glasgow Women’s Library) Illustration 6: GWL Book Group Special; Picture of the 2011 World Book Night 131 (Courtesy of Glasgow Women’s Library) Illustration 7: Picture of the ‘Hidden Gems of Garnethill Heritage Walk’ (April 135 2010) (Courtesy of Glasgow Women’s Library) Illustration 8: Still from Star Wars II – Attack of the Clones (2002) 149 Illustration 9: Still from Threesome (1994): GOLLY! I love big words 153 Illustration 10: Still from Threesome (1994): Oh, my… The bun lady looks on 154 LIST OF TABLES Figure 1: Ten Dimensions of Feminist Organizations 51–52 Figure 2: Number of Private Collections Received per Year at one Large 69 Archive in Iceland viii i5 Libraries 00 book.indb 8 2013.10.04. 9:49 INTRODUCTION Sanne Koevoets and Sara de Jong “Teaching Gender with Libraries and Archives: The Power of Information” invites teachers and students in gender and women’s studies to engage with libraries and archives not only as storehouses of knowledge, but also as objects of reflection in their own right. When writing and compiling this volume, we had three specific aims in mind. Firstly, we wanted to highlight how gender studies and the institutions and practices that preserve and disseminate knowledge about gender issues are historically and systematically intertwined. Secondly, we saw the necessity to reflect on the symbolic meaning as well as the institutionalized practices of libraries and archives as they are undergoing profound transforma- tions under the influence of new (technological) developments. Finally, we set out to engage with the question of how these transformations give way to new ways of producing, preserving and disseminating knowledge through feminist practices situated between the force fields of cultural and academic institutions, material and virtual culture, and the collective imaginary. From its very conception, this project has been an explicit attempt to make visible those spaces, practices and practitioners that have traditionally remained invisible. At the 2011 annual AtGender Spring Conference librarians, archivists, information specialists and researchers met within the context of working group 3, ‘Information and dissemination: infrastructures and networks in Europe and beyond,’ which aims to make information on women and gender visible and accessible. It is a curious paradox that the people (often women) engaged with collecting and disseminating knowledge for and about women - which has been and remains of central importance to the production and emancipatory potential of feminist research - have remained largely invisible themselves. This paradox was succinctly sketched when someone in the meeting suggested that: “Librar- ians are the housewives of gender studies: the work we do is simply expected to be done, but we are invisible, and the work we do is invisible. It is only when things go wrong that we are noticed.” Librarianship is widely considered to be a feminized profession. In the United States, librarianship became feminized within 30 years, with 20 percent 1 i5 Libraries 00 book.indb 1 2013.10.04. 9:49 of librarians being female in 1870, compared to 80 percent in 1900.1 This devel- opment, by which women quickly entered and came to (quantitatively) dominate the field whereas men retained administrative and managerial positions, has been linked to the dynamics of late 19th century industrial capitalism. As such, the feminization of librarianship in Europe has likely followed a different course than it has in the United States—particularly in post-communist countries. However, little information is available on how librarianship became feminized in Europe. This may very well be an effect of the invisibility and lack of status awarded to feminized professions.2 Indeed, judging by the unavailability of historical data on the library profession in Europe, European library professionals are suffering from a profound case of invisibility.