WSS Research Committee
ALA Midwinter Meeting
Philadelphia, PA
January 13, 2008
Members Attending:
Dolores Fidishun, Staci Elliott, Jennifer Gilley, Kayo Denda, Jennifer Nace,
Jane Nichols, Jeanne Armstrong, Marcia Barrett
Members Absent:
Cindy Ingold
Guest: Cathy Eisenhower
AGENDA
- Committee members introduced themselves.
- Staci Elliott volunteered to take minutes.
- Reviewed and approved Annual minutes.
- Guest Cathy Eisenhower added to New Projects agenda.
- Old Business
- Research Forum planning for Annual: Proposal format printed on back of agenda was finalized so Jennifer Gilley can report to the Executive Committee on our Call for Posters. See second page for details.
- WSS Research Agenda Wiki Page: Jane Nichols has moved us to the ACRL Wiki. She created a WSS link, with a link to the Research Agenda. We agreed that the next step is to add links inside of that wiki Agenda. Jane will send location and access/editing information to Members. Jane agreed to be the webmistress for the Research Agenda. Jennifer Gilley has several student papers to post to the wiki. We will wait to learn more about the ACRL wiki security options before deciding on access controls for our wiki. We agreed that all members will have access, however.
- We have a total of nine members in the WSS Research Committee right now, with only one member rotating off this year, so recruitment is not currently an issue.
- New Projects and Business
- Dolores: Assessing underrepresentation of women speakers at ALA is now a formal research project. She needs volunteers to go through last 3 years of ALA pamphlets and record/track down information about the presenters. No other records about speakers have been kept by ALA. Contact Dolores for the rubric of data to record. dxf19@psu.edu
- Cathy Eisenhower of George Washington (cathye@gwv.edu) shared her current project with us. (see attached pdf file for her outline) Women in and Beyond the Global: An Open-Access Feminist Project. WIBG. It will include an archive of feminist research, global feminist action, etc; Training online for how to document feminist action; Online Encyclopedia of 2-pg fact papers. She needs scholars and librarians to write short entries for the Encyclopedia. She also seeks partnerships with academic libraries, archives, “anywhere women are taking meaningful action,” etc… Please contact Cathy to get involved. cathye@gwv.edu
Research Forum Call for Papers Proposal Details:
- Members agreed that the Chair will receive all submissions, will strip off the names, and then send submissions to all committee members. Members get three votes each, and the 3 or 4 proposals with the most votes will present their posters at Annual. “Priority will be given to WSS Members and/or Women’s Studies topics.” We will have two tables for our posters at Annual.
- No formal presentation will be given, but researchers will stand beside their posters to answer additional questions and get feedback. A rubric of points will be decided upon later.
- The timeline is: Submit by March 15; Notify chosen by April 15; Present at Annual in June. WSS Membership Meeting at Annual is June 28, 4-5:30 pm. We will add the timeline, and the date and time of the meeting to the Call for Posters that Jennifer Gilley will present to the Executive Committee.
- We defined where we will advertise the Call: COSWL Wiki, FTF Listserv, WSS Listserv, LEAD, Dolores’s Blog, Any members’ listserves, LITA…
- We clarified that our intent in hosting a Call for Posters was to encourage mentorship and support research skills, especially by WS Librarians or about Women’s Studies.
- Selection Criteria: #4, Potential Scope will move to the top of the page. #1 changed to “Significance of topic. Priority will be given to section members and/or women’s studies topics.” #2, Remains the same. #3 deleted from Call.
- We agreed to add a link to the WSS Research Agenda in conjunction with #4. “For information on possible research topics, research ideas, we encourage you to consult… If you’d like to become a member…” We will ask “Are you a WSS member?”
Dolores’s Rubric of ALA Presentation Data So Far Includes: