   
Round Table on Women's Issues
WOMEN AND LIBRARIANSHIP
No. 16
66th IFLA Council and General Conference
13-18 August, 2000, Jerusalem, Israel
Information for Cooperation: Creating the Global Library of the Future
RTWI Program: Information for Cooperation: Women Library Leaders Serving
the Majority Wednesday, 16 August, 12:30-15:00
Speakers and Topics:
Sandra Parker, Catherine Hare, and Pat Gannon-Leary (School of Information Studies, University of Northumbria, United Kingdom): National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) One Route to Improve the Status of Women in Libraries?
Beth Stafford (Women's Studies/WID Librarian, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA): Freeing Access to Women's Information: an Overview
Thabisile (L.T.) Simelane (The Library, Manzini, Swaziland): Woman and Librarianship in Swaziland
Zarema Shaimardanova and Rosa A. Berdiglieva (National Library of Kazakstan, Almaty, Republic of Kazakstan): Kazakstan Women: Resources of Cultural Development
Nira Shani (Librarian, Lesley College Extension in Israel, Natanya-South, Israel): Bringing Feminism Into Our Public Libraries
RTWI Members in the News
Isabel A. Stirling has become Associate University Librarian and Director
of Public Services at the University of California at Berkeley. We extend our warmest congratulations to Isabel and wish her well in her new positions.
Kalpana Dasgupta has been elected the new President of the Library Association of India. Kalpana is one of the founding members of RTWI and has, since 1990, actively participated in RTWI's meetings and programs. Warmest congratulations to Kalpana. We hope she will promote women librarians' status, education, and professionalism in India as well as through IFLA.
IFLA Conference, 2001
The 67th IFLA General Conference, Libraries and Librarians: Making a Difference in the Knowledge Age, will be in Boston, Massachusetts (USA) 16-25 August, 2001. At that time, RTWI will elect new officers for two-year terms. We strongly encourage all interested parties to participate in RTWI programs and projects. (For more information, see below.) Your participation is key to our success.
Association of Research Libraries Annual Salary Survey, 1999-2000
Sandra Parker (UK) calls our attention to an interesting analysis of Gender data that Martha Kyrillidou performed on the above survey. Kyrillidou and Michael O'Connor produced the annual survey for the Washington D.C.-based organization.
It is perhaps noteworthy that the average salary for female directors ($132,000) in University Libraries is slightly higher than the average salary of male directors ($125,000) (pp. 16-18). There is now the highest number of women in top administrative positions than there has been before 54 women out of a total of 111 directorships.
This is of course the good news. The bad news is that the overall salary for women in research and academic libraries in the U.S.A. is still only 94% that of men. During the 19 years that statistics have been gathered women have been gradually closing the earnings gap, as in 1980 they earned only 87%, but it is a slow process. Overall, men represent only 35% of the workforce among professional librarians.
It would be interesting to discover how this compares with salaries in other countries and other sectors. This chapter could form the basis for some interesting comparative statistics if other members of the group could follow up.
RTWI Snapshot Project
Sandra Parker (School of Information Studies, University of Northumbria at Newcastle, UK) is heading the project, which aims to survey women officers and committee members in IFLA to ascertain a glimpse at the status of women librarians internationally. Anyone interested in working on this can contact Sandra at the institution above or at sandra.parker@unn.ac.uk
Satellite Meeting at IFLA Glasgow Meeting
RTWI Chair Leena Siitonen suggests that we have a satellite meeting in conjunction with the 2002 IFLA Conference in Glasgow, Scotland. Anyone interested in working on this project please contact Leena at lsiitonen@hotmail.com or at c/Valderribas, 39-3-2, 28007 Madrid, Spain
Mainstream Media Involvement Minimal: NGOs Spread the News During Women 2000 Meeting
WomenAction 2000, a global network of women's information and media organizations, continues to receive praise from around the world for providing coverage of the UN Women 2000 meeting held in New York from Jun 5-9. Most of the world's press, including the New York Times, said not a word to herald the launch of the week-long conference, wrote Michele Landsberg, who was kept informed by Women Action, in the Toronto Star on June 10th.
WomenAction 2000 insured access to the decisions made during the UN special session of the General Assembly, entitled Women 2000 Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the 21st Century. The meeting was a follow-up to the 4th United Nations World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995, where a comprehensive Platform for Action 'guidelines' were established for governments to advance the status of women.
WomenAction 2000 provided listeners and readers throughout the world with a daily flow of information using two daily newspapers produced onsite as tabloids and disseminated via email lists and the WomenAction 2000 Website. In addition, the group produced a daily Internet TV program (mostly French) and daily Internet-based radio broadcasts (mostly Spanish). The WomenAction 2000 Internet café, near the UN building, provided access to women at the meeting to send thousands of messages to their constituencies and to receive information back.
WomenAction's reports brought to light the difficulties many women's organization and governments face in implementing the Beijing Platform for Action. We regret there was not enough political will on the part of some governments and the UN system to agree on a stronger document with more concrete benchmarks, numerical goals, time-bound targets, indicators, and resources aimed at implementing the Beijing Platform For Action, Charlotte Bunch, Director of the Center for Women's Global Leadership (USA) and June Zeitlin, Director of Women's Environment and Development Organization (USA), said at the end of the meeting.
But they mentioned many gains made. One is the area of violence against women. For the first time the UN addressed the issue of honor killings and forced marriage. The Outcomes Document called for comprehensive mechanisms to stop dowry-related violence and marital rape. In the area of human rights, there is a call to ratify the optional protocol of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and to recognize the specific needs and rights of indigenous women.
In the period leading up to the UN Women 2000 meeting, WomenAction 2000 was instrumental in making it possible for women's organizations to become involved in preparations for the meeting. WomenAction 2000 will continue to provide information for the advancement of women, using interactive TV, radio, Websites, and email lists.
For more information on the Special Session, please consult the official UN Beijing+5 http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/followup
(This press release was produced by Lin Pugh of the IIAV, International Information Centre and Archives for the Women's Movement, and partner in WomenAction 2000)
American Library Association Conference Programs
Two groups in ALA will present programs related to women in general during the annual conference in Chicago, 6-12 July, 2000. The Women's Studies Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries presents:
Taking the Temperature of Women's Studies in the Year 2000 on Monday July 10th.
The Feminist Task Force of the Social Responsibilities Round Table presents:
Pornography, Feminism, and the Internet on Sunday, July 9th.
To Recieve this Newsletter
Women in Librarianship: newsletter of the IFLA Round Table on Women's Issues (RTWI) is published semi-annually. To receive the newsletter or to change address, etc., send your name, address, job type, fax and voice telephone numbers, and email address to: Beth Stafford, University of Illinois Library at Urbana-Champaign, 1408 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
Please send articles, news items, and comments to the same address, or fax:
217-333-2214
Email: bstaff@uiuc.edu
Please print clearly.
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