Introduction
This letter was sent to chairs of currently established groups within the American Library Association by the temporary coordinators of a task force on women with the SRRT. The letter announced the first official meeting of a task force on women to be held at the annual conference of the Association in Detroit. The letter stated that some of the time at the meeting would be used for consciousness-raising, as well as discussing some of the most pressing issues for women in the profession including, "administrative policies about promotion, maternity leave, and part-time employment . . . ; free information services about family planning and abortion; a statistical clearinghouse to provide evidence about discrimination and to coordinate a program of publicity and censure." The letter stated that "We will emerge from that city [Detroit] with an organization that can, and will speak out."
15 June 1970
Dear
Thank you for your interest in women's liberation and librarianship. The response in the last two months has been tremendous and nationwide.
At the Philadelphia spring conference of the Social Responsibilities Round Table, some thirty women gathered to form an SRRT task force on women's liberation; we are [temporarily] the coordinators of this task force. As a group, we are thus now "official," and we will have our first large meeting in Detroit during the ALA annual conference. Please join with us:
10:30p.m. Monday, 29 June 1970
Woodward Room Sheraton-Cadillac Hotel
We will use some of this time for "consciousness-raising," although few of us need any recital of the plight of the female librarian in order to understand the need for women's liberation in our profession. We will also have a time for workshops when you will be able to choose a favorite topic and begin to organize for concerted action. Some of the areas in which we must begin include [in no particular order]: administrative policies about promotion, maternity leave, and part-time employment; day-care centers for the children of staff and patron alike; free information services about family planning and abortion; a statistical clearinghouse to provide evidence about discrimination and to coordinate a program of publicity and censure; bibliographical projects about the image of women in media, the history of women, movement periodicals and information, career information, and more.
We also hope to bring forward a series of formal resolutions on these topics to be taken to the ALA Council and membership during the conference itself; some of these resolutions are written already, and others may well be written that Monday evening.
We will even have a selection of buttons for those who would wear their "solidarity" visibly!
If you cannot be with us in Detroit, do not despair. We will emerge from that city with an organization that can, and will, speak out; we will see to it that a communications network is formed to keep all of us informed and aware of the problems and their solutions. If you are not a member of ALA, you can still join with us by forming a local action group, and asking to be on the SRRT Task Force mailing list. We will still need and want your support.
You will be hearing more from us--in the meantime, send us your ideas, your experiences, your answers.
In sisterhood,
Ellen Gay Detlefsen
5F/515 East 85th Street
New York, New York 10028
Patricia Schuman
10 West 16th Street
New York, New York 10011
There is already a project underway which needs our support. Sanford Berman [University of Zambia Libs.] is gathering material on discriminatory and biased LC subject headings. If you know of examples of such discrimination, or want to work on this study project, please contact his American-based correspondents; ADULT LITERATURE: Joan Marshall/Brooklyn College Library/Ave.H & Bedford/Brooklyn/N.Y. CHILDREN'S & YA: S.W.Goin, Jr./320 W. 105th Street/New York/New York