2002 Program: Joan Korenman

Brief Notes for Joan Korenman's ALA Talk - June 17, 2002

The Center for Women & Information Technology (CWIT)
(http://www.umbc.edu/cwit/)

Why a Center for Women & Information Technology? Two major emphases in 2002:

• Encourage more women and girls to prepare for careers in Information Technology (IT)
• Assure that IT meets women's needs, including their information needs

Though women now make up slightly more than half the online population in the United States and Canada, they are still seriously under-represented as developers of IT. Why does this matter?

• Workforce needs
• Attractive career opportunities
• Women's technology needs must be better addressed
• Women's information needs must be better addressed

Women's Information Needs: Issues

• Most visible web sites: pornography sites and iVillage
• What will the next generation learn from the Internet about women's lives, issues, and possibilities?
• Need to preserve and expand the gains that Women's Studies has made in putting women's accomplishments, experiences, and perspectives into the curriculum and into people's consciousness.

The Center for Women and Information Technology is very concerned with the quality and accessibility of online information about women. Vital that librarians know about the Center and its resources.

[The rest of the talk was devoted to an online tour of the CWIT web site, focusing on some of the sections mentioned in the handout.]