Workshop co-ordinator: Beth Stafford,
Women's Studies and Women in International Development Library, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, USA

This workshop is being co-ordinated in co-operation with the Women's Issues Round Table of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA).
The aim of this workshop is to find ways to make women's information more visible and accessible in mainstream libraries. What are the responsibilities of regular libraries in regard to collecting and disseminating women's information, particularly in countries where there are no special women's information services.
Presenters are:
Vera Di Campli San Vito of the Fawcett library, United Kingdom, Sheridan Harvey of the Library of Congress, USA, and IFLA Women's Issues Round Table representative; and Beth Stafford (see above)
The focus is on the following questions:

The workshop was attended by about 25 participants, including presenters and voluntary staff. Presenters gave a description of their libraries and discussed the various ways in which librarians can make women's information more visible and accessible in their libraries.
The Fawcett library is a specialized women's history and studies library. It is part of the London Guildhall University.
The Library of Congress is both a congressional library and a national library, and material on women is hidden throughout the collection. But it focuses on women through a number of activities, including to have at least 1 person for women's studies and for promoting the collection and acquisition of women's information.
The Women's Studies and Women in International Development Library is the smallest library of the University of Illinois. It is set up as a reference library.
The libraries were set up to improve the visibility and accessibility of women's information. Librarians try to make women's information more visible by undertaking activities such as lectures, articles in local papers, exhibitions, through internet and mailings, bringing classes to the library, by making bibliographies of the material in the libraries, make guides to the various collections that exist.
There are various ways through which the libraries get material on women. Methods to acquire women's information that were mentioned by the presenters show many similarities. The most interesting material to acquire is the not officially published material(so-called grey literature) and there are a number of sources to get hold of this type of information as well as mainstream information. These sources include publishers, by searching catalogues of small presses, personal contacts, by participating in programmes, conferences, go to book fairs, through donations, mailing lists, through suggestions of colleagues, and by integrating women as an explicit subject in the acquisition policy statements of libraries. Networking, establishing relations with other women's libraries is considered one of the most important sources for the acquisition of women's information.
Cataloguing is considered important for the accessibility of the increasing amounts of material on women. This has been discussed in another workshop.
Declining budgets, lack of space, and the current and future demand of researchers all have an influence on the collections. Interlibrary cooperation on special collections may be one answer to declining budgets. Preservation and maintenance of materials is under pressure as budgets decline, but maybe collaboration and the availability new technologies may offer opportunities for preservation.
The experiences show that the establishment of specialized collections on women in a mainstream library is possible. Such collections have a larger chance to get established when they are supported by decision making staff, and when they have dedicated initiators. It appears also to be important to put a lot of effort in raising the consciousness of colleagues.
Women's information in mainstream libraries can be made physically more visible by putting it into a separate room, or setting up a reference library while the material is integrated into the catalogue of the mainstream library. When there is no separate women's the library staff in mainstream libraries has an important role in helping people to find information women's information. It is not always necessary to create a separate women's studies section. A database of books, chapters of books and articles on women's issues can also improve the visibility and accessibility of women's information in mainstream libraries.
A point raised was the under-valuation of being a women's studies librarian. In some cases it adversely affects a librarians' career development.
Questions that remains to be answered are whether 'women' is changing into 'gender' and what to do with gender material? Can it be placed in a women's library or not?

The workshop was ended at 17.00 hours