Illinois state library's collection on women

margaret l. groninger
reference librarian
illinois state library
springfield, illinois

The battle over ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment in Illinois had many side effects, one of which was the founding of a women's collection at the Illinois State Library. As proponents and opponents of the amendment demonstrated in the Capitol, their chants and cheers were often heard in the nearby Centennial Building, home of the State Library, reminding the staff we would be wise to collect materials on women's issues as they were happening around us. Thus the collection began, around 1972. While the shouting over the ERA has died down the State Library's women's collection is still very much alive — and growing.

Both Illinois legislators and staff, and members of other state agencies ranging from the Department of Agriculture to the Commission on the Status of Women have expressed enthusiasm for our holdings, and for the assistance the reference staff has been able to give when dealing with women's issues. In addition, we host a number of "walk-in" patrons (such as a representative of the Illinois Women's Agenda from Chicago) who have heard of the collection. Visiting Illinois librarians have also discovered us, often when touring the State Library, with the result that we are receiving many questions from them in that subject area.

The heart of the State Library's women's collection is the Womensfile, an untidy, inelegant, but richly endowed eight drawer file cabinet of uncatalogued material on women's issues — material consisting mostly of newspaper and magazine articles plus title pages of appropriate books owned by the library. Topics in the alphabetically arranged file run from ABORTION to WORKING WOMEN - BLUE COLLAR, with over one hundred others in between. We have an entire drawer on the EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT, divided by year, and also by special subareas such as ERA AND RELIGION; STATE ERAS; ERA CARTOONS; LETTERS TO EDITORS ABOUT ERA; ERA BOYCOTTS. Besides clippings, this part of the Womensfile contains numerous pamphlets published by groups involved with the ERA, both pro and con. (The ERA drawer was recently gifted with material given us by a state legislator who worked on the amendment.) Obviously, our approach provides a good overview of the history of the amendment and the activity surrounding it in Illinois, since we relied heavily on in-state newspapers (Springfield, Rockford, Peoria, Moline, Decatur, Champaign, and others) for information. Another part of the Womensfile is a scrapbook of clippings, again many from Illinois newspapers, about the 1977 National Women's Conference in Houston, which quite a few Illinois women attended or otherwise reacted to. Arranged chronologically, the scrapbook provides an almost day-by-day retrospective. Editorials, letters to editors, and news stories show (among other things) how Illinois women felt about the event.

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As the material in the Womensfile does not circulate, it sees heavy usage within the library. We do have copy machines available to walk-in patrons for a fee of $.10 a page, with a 50 page copy limit. As might be expected, students from neighboring colleges and even high schools are prime users of the file, searching for facts and figures to flesh out a term paper or thesis. Blue-jeaned young women with toddlers in tow, gray haired grandmothers, and dark suited "budding executives" huddle over files they have taken to tables, pondering certain clippings on, perhaps, the current status of women in Japan, the history of women legislators in Illinois, or the pros and cons of day care centers. State employees using the file tend to be researching very current subjects; past favorites included battered women, rape, and displaced homemakers, while today's interests center around economic based areas such as job sharing, estate planning for women, and networking. The State Library staff has also found good use for the file in assembling displays during Women's History Week. Always, the Womensfile has been a valuable resource in handling informational requests from Illinois library systems too. (Incidentally, we do not charge copy fees for requests via the ILLINETnetwork.) In addition, several staff bibliographies have emerged from information contained in the file. Another library publication that has drawn heavily on the Womensfile is Too Good to Forget: Outstanding Illinois Women (tentatively scheduled for publication by the Illinois Secretary of State's Office in 1984) which will give brief information on Illinois women, past and present, who have received special awards and honors, held leadership positions in state or national organizations, or been the first of their sex (or sex and race) in unusual categories. Old favorites like Myra Bradwell will be flanked by less familiar names such as Anne Cusick (first woman chosen Illinois Press Photographer of the Year), Mildred M. Horton (first director of the WAVES), and Esther R. Rothstein (first woman in the United States to head a city bar association).

Although the State Library has a large number of books (including state and federal documents) of interest to women, these items are not kept separate from the rest of the collection. In fact, while the library is open to the public Monday through Friday, 8:00 to 4:30, we have closed stacks, so we are not a good browsing facility. To make the women's books more accessible, we publish a monthly bibliography, On Women, which cites books we have recently received that we feel are of special interest to women or anyone concerned with women's issues. Arranged by subject, the bibliography is sent to all library system headquarters in Illinois as well as to any other libraries or individuals who ask for it. The books may then be requested through a local library using the ILLINET interlibrary loan process. (We are also part of the OCLC, CLSI, and LCS networks.) In addition, title pages and tables of contents from each book in On Women are placed in the appropriate section of the Womensfile. In that way, when researching a subject, the file user can have both immediate access to newspaper and magazine articles on that subject and at the same time determine quickly what books the library owns on the topic.

While interested in state and local reactions to what are often national issues, we also try to add items reflecting a broader spectrum. And when an issue is controversial, we make a special effort to include all points of view; our aim, after all, is not to promote certain ideas, but to provide access to all ideas, in support of fairness and good scholarship.

Contact person for the Illinois State Library's women's collection is Margaret Groninger (217-782-5430; Reference Section, Illinois State Library, Springfield, Illinois 62756), who also compiles the On Women bibliography. Ms. Groninger can also supply a list of subject headings used in the Womensfile.

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