The aim of each volume of this series Guides to Information Sources is to reduce the time which needs to be spent on patient searching and to recommend the best starting point and sources most likely to yield the desired information. The criteria for selection provide a way into a subject to those new to the field and assists in identifying major new or possibly unexplored sources to those who already have some acquaintance with it. The series attempts to achieve evaluation through a careful selection of sources and through the comments provided on those sources.

Some 1,000 critically annotated entries, with introductory comments and cross references, provide a comprehensive guide to printed and organizational sources in women's studies throughout the world. It is both an overview of information sources on women's studies as a subject for study in its own right, and a guide to women's studies literature within other academic disciplines.

This annotated bibliography evaluates the traditional reference aids available in most college libraries in terms of their usefulness in women's studies research, highlighting issues and problems of central concern to researchers in women's studies.

When Betty Friedan produced The Feminine Mystique in 1963, she could not have realized how the discovery and debate of her contemporaries' general malaise would shake up society. Victims of a false belief system, these women were following strict social convention by loyally conforming to the pretty image of the magazines, and found themselves forced to seek meaning in their lives only through a family and a home. Friedan's controversial book about these women - and every woman - would ultimately set Second Wave feminism in motion and begin the battle for equality. This groundbreaking and life-changing work remains just as powerful, important and true as it was forty-five years ago, and is essential reading both as a historical document and as a study of women living in a man's world. 'One of the most influential nonfiction books of the twentieth century.' New York Times 'Feminism ...... began with the work of a single person: Friedan.' Nicholas Lemann With a new Introduction by Lionel Shriver

A survey of 45 libraries and information centers within major Women's Studies Research Centers (WSRC) in the United States was conducted in 1986 to obtain information on their current role within the centers. Usable completed questionnaires received from 31 of the centers (68.8% rate of return) show that 64.5% of them have library and/or information centers within them. The sizes of the collections in these libraries/information centers varies, but many of them contain valuable resources such as unpublished research manuscripts or information databases. Most are staffed by professionally trained personnel, and the largest group of users is students. The work of a significant number of WSRCs is linked to their libraries and information centers, with the most important materials collected and disseminated being unpublished and published materials that are not easily located or readily accessible within traditional libraries. The work of the WSRCs in the United States is promoted and assisted by the Women's Research and Education Institute and the National Council for Research on Women. The research and information activities of the WSRCs appear to be the promotion of women's studies at every level of the American educational system and the interpolation of feminism into social policymaking. Many of them publish journals, newsletters, and working papers, and several organizations have begun to explore the creation of a national women's research database and the development of a thesaurus to organize women's studies research. Each chapter contains references and a 42-item bibliography is included. An appendix lists the WSRCs in the United States. (EW)

Articles cover descriptions of libraries and information services for women, practical application of technology, oral history, archival preservation, access to women's health resources, dissemination of HIV-AIDS information, use of communications media, and much more.