From: http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/thewomenslibrary/
The Women’s Library is seeking a new home
On Wednesday 14 March, London Metropolitan University’s Board of Governors announced that they will be seeking a new home, custodian or sponsor of The Women’s Library’s collections.
If a new home is not found by the end of December 2012, the Library will move to opening hours of one day per week for a period of three years, with a further review at the end of that period. We will keep you informed of further developments, and we are in the process of contacting key stakeholders.
If you have any suggestions of potential custodians, or any queries, please email us: moreinfo [at] thewomenslibrary.ac.uk
From: Emily Labarbera-Twarog
Hello Everyone,
I just received this email via the United Assn of Labor Educators' listserv
- Please sign on to help keep this archive open.
Emily
Please distribute this especially to the women in UALE.
The Women's Library at London Metropolitan University (formerly the Fawcett Library), a world-renowned collection of materials on the British women's suffrage movement, among other things, is about to become victim to severe budget cuts and made nearly inaccessible. It is an extraordinary resource for scholarship in Women's Studies, used by scholars from all over the world.
This morning I received a request from a colleague, asking me to sign a letter of protest to the Times of London; I promptly sent her my signature information. The deadline for signatures is midnight London time (7:00 pm EDT), and I am sending you the text of the letter with a request that you circulate it, if you see fit, to your faculties in Women's Studies, English, and History. I hope we can garner many US signatures this way. Signatures should be sent, today, to Naomi at naomi.hetherington [at] gmail.com
Dawn
Dear Sir,
The recent decision by London Metropolitan University to rid itself of the Women's Library is a shocking betrayal of our cultural heritage and the legacies of women who struggled for equality.
The Library's opening hours are to be slashed to just one day per week, if no new home is found by December 2012. This unilateral move by London Met is an unacceptable threat to publicly-funded research by scholars, schools, community groups and the general public.
The Women's Library is a unique and internationally renowned collection (Britain's largest resource on women) and holds UNESCO-recognized documents. It was just ten years ago that the Library finally acquired its own premises in a heritage-lottery funded building in London's East End. Great strides have been made in opening up access to this key part of our national heritage, through exhibitions, events, education programmes, and a Reading Room service free and open to all.
In the new Higher Education funding climate this move sets a worrying precedent for other cash-strapped institutions who are custodians of important collections. One would hope that any Government committed to preserving our culture and history would intervene and protect this essential resource, before it is too late.
Yours Sincerely,
Professor Leonore Davidoff, University of Essex Dr. Lucy Bland, Kings College London Dr. Kathryn Gleadle, Mansfield College, University of Oxford Dr. Anna Davin, Birkbeck College, University of London Professor Catherine Hall, University College London Dr Caroline Bressey, University College London Dr Diana Paton, Newcastle University Dr Sue Morgan, University of Chichester
Dr. Dawn E. Addy, Florida International University
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Emily E. LaBarbera Twarog, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign School of Labor and Employment Relations Labor Education Program - Chicago Office
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[Cross-posted, with thanks, from H-Labor]