From the ALA Feminist Task Force:

 

We are looking for a seventh year of Women Of Library History submissions!

We’re doing things a little bit differently this year–rather than posting intensively during March for Women’s History Month, we’ll be spreading posts out throughout the year. Therefore, submissions are currently open with a rolling deadline.

As usual, we are looking for your stories of women who have been significant to the libraries, services, and systems you know and love. In spite of popular depictions of librarians as meek, apolitical, and quiet, we know that librarianship has always been hard work, and that women have been raising money, creating action, and providing professional leadership for a long time.

The Feminist Task Force invites your submissions to highlight valued women in libraries. This is the perfect time of year to remember the contributions of these important women in librarianship—perhaps a founder, a mentor, or an activist in your community.

What? The FTF will host a blog at womenoflibraryhistory.tumblr.com with regular postings of historic women of librarianship, beginning in March. We hope to receive enough submissions to continue throughout the year.

Why? Highlight the legacy that you still see alive today and share a piece of your library’s history with your patrons and library lovers everywhere. Submissions to this project continue to illustrate the breadth of contributions women have made to their communities through libraries, and the long legacy of activism in our profession.

Who? Anyone who would be pleased to be identified as a woman and who has made a significant contribution to library history. Past subjects have included librarians, founders, community activists, women’s clubs, and even the developer of our beloved MARC format. Subjects may be deceased, retired, or currently practicing, so long as their contribution to the field (whether locally or globally) is significant and enduring.

To submit:

Please send all submissions to Katelyn Browne at womenoflibraryhistory@gmail.com. Submissions should include

  • a write-up of the woman/women’s significance to library history (this should be original content OR we should have explicit permission to re-publish it)
  • your name(s) and title/library, or other identifying information
  • if possible, one or two images that WoLH has permission to publish on our Tumblr (with source information as possible)
  • any links to other online information you’d like readers to see

For examples, please see our posts on Maude Langhorne Nelson, Oralia Garza de Cortés, and Dorothy Burnett Porter Wesley. We do not have any specific word-count limits, but we reserve the right to edit your post for length, grammar, and/or content.

I go through submissions about once a week. I will reply at that time if I need clarifications or additional material; otherwise, you will hear from me when your post appears on the blog. I post all submissions that meet the requirements in this post, though I reserve the right to change my mind about that.

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The Feminist Task Force is proud to bring voice and efforts to the intersection of feminist perspectives with issues related to libraries, librarianship, information services, and ALA. To find out more and get involved, please visit us on any of our websites and virtual spaces:

Websites: http://www.ala.org/srrt/feminist-task-force/ and http://libr.org/ftf/
Discussion list: http://libr.org/ftf/ftflist.html
ALA Connect: http://connect.ala.org/node/65369
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/121097054767/