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.

This volume invites teachers and students in women's studies to engage with the library not as an instrument for preserving and disseminating knowledge (including feminist knowledge), but as a subject and object of knowledge in its own right.

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of the collections in these libraries/information centers varies, but many of them contain valuable resources such as unpublished research manuscripts or information databases.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linked to their libraries and information centers, with the most important materials collected and disseminated being unpublished and published materials that are not easily located or readily accessible within traditional libraries.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)

Women's Studies Serials: A Quarter-Century of Development examines the history, growth, and present status of women's studies collections available in the United States and around the world. This text investigates the accessibility to women's studies periodicals, how they are used and by whom, and identifies areas where further research is needed to help collection managers and librarians make the best selection decisions for their serials collections. Women's Studies Serials will help you choose serials that meet the needs of your patrons and that comply with the limitations of your budget. Offering you charts, tables, and statistical data, Women's Studies Serials covers many topics that will help you build a thorough and accessible women's studies collection or renovate an existing collection, including: the problems, influences, and expectations involved in women's studies faculty's daily work with magazines and journals choosing the best CD-Rom products for women's studies research based on cost, coverage, content, and recommendations for acquisition techniques and insights for teaching cataloging in an interdisciplinary, dynamic, and evolving information environment examining academic women's studies serials on the World Wide Web and determining whether they are helpful to students and faculty suggestions that may alleviate the inadequacies of subject description and access to current periodical literature concerning African-American women and Latinas in the United States how women's studies serials published in Ireland are adding support and recognition to the discipline of women's studies examining popular women's periodicals in the Popular Culture Collection at Bowling Green State University and how they help reveal and document the history of women's roles in society the management and collection methods of the International Centre and Archives of the Women's Studies Movement located in the Netherlands Providing you with information on how other academic libraries choose their collection material, Women's Studies Serials will help you determine what journals in your library are most widely read and if they are meeting the informational and research needs of faculty and students. The information in Women's Studies Serials will help make your women's studies serials current, cost-efficient, and relevant to your patrons’needs.

This truly monumental work maps the literature of women's studies, covering thousands of titles and Web sites in 19 subject areas published between 1985 and 1999. Intended as a reference and collection development tool, this bibliography provides a guide for women's studies information for each title along with a detailed, often evaluative review. The annotations summarize each work's content, its importance or contribution to women's studies, and its relationship to other titles on the subject. Core titles and titles that are out of print are noted, and reviews indicate which titles are appropriate as texts or supplemental texts. This definitive guide to the literature of women's studies is a must-purchase for academic libraries that support women's studies programs, and it is a useful addition to any academic or public library that endeavors to represent the field. A team of subject specialists has taken on the immense task of documenting publications in the area of women's studies in the last decades of the 20th century. The result is this truly monumental work, which maps the field, covering thousands of titles and Web sites in 19 subject areas published between 1985 and 1999. Intended as a reference and collection development tool, this bibliography provides a guide for women's studies information for each title along with a detailed, often evaluative review. The annotations summarize each work's content, its importance or contribution to women's studies, and its relationship to other titles on the subject. Most reviews cite and describe similar and contrasting titles, substantially extending the coverage. Core titles and titles that are out of print are noted, and reviews indicate which titles are appropriate as texts or supplemental texts. Taking up where the previous volume by Loeb, Searing, and Stineman left off, this is the definitive guide to the literature of women's studies. It is a must purchase for academic libraries that support women's studies programs; and a welcome addition to any academic or public library that endeavors to represent the field.