The Women's Library @ LSE - A perfect fit for the future
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The Women’s Library @ LSE A perfect fit for the future
Plaque on LSE campus marking the location of the Women’s Social and Political Union offices
“Clement’s Inn, our headquarters, was a hive seething with activity...
As department was added to department, Clement’s Inn seemed
always to have one more room to offer...
To lose the personal in a great impersonal is to live!”
Christabel Pankhurst
9 February 1907
The picture on the front cover of this proposal shows a suffragette march near the offices of the Women’s Social
and Political Union and the plaque shown here, funded by descendants of the suffragettes, marks the location of the
WSPU offices. This location is now part of the campus of LSE so we see this proposal as bringing the collections
home to The Women’s Library @ LSE
Women’s Library @ LSE 1
Contents
1 Summary 2
2 Introduction to LSE 3
3 Response to the selection criteria 5
a) Integrity of the collection 5
b) Identity of the collection 5
c) Governance of the collection 5
d) Access to the collection 6
e) Synergy with LSE 9
f) Staff resources 12
g) Collections development 13
h) Audience development 14
i) Stakeholder relationships 16
j) Financial security 16
4 Transfer schedule 17
5
Housing and display of the 18
Women’s Library @ LSE
6 Finance 20
“Where will historians, teachers, students and the general public – among
whom I include my grandchildren – go to learn about the history of
women and their struggle for equality?
The Women’s Movement of the early seventies was about economics
(equal pay) and politics (legislation) and most of the women concerned
were nervously putting their collective toe in the water of both these
subjects for the first time. So it seems appropriate that the history of
the struggle for equality should be housed in the School in the heart of
London where those women were about to learn – and eventually to
teach – these subjects which are essential to democracy – for both sexes.”
Shirley Conran OBE (awarded for services to Equality)
2 Women’s Library @ LSE
1 Summary
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
Library presents its plan for a secure long-term home for the
Women’s Library, continuing the custodianship of London
Metropolitan University (LMU).
The Women’s Library @ LSE ensures:
a The integrity of the Women’s Library collection and its staff
by their location in a single building in central London.
b A clear identity for the collection in a new purpose built
Women’s Library Reading Room within the LSE library.
c Proper governance of the collection by active interaction
with depositors and stakeholders with clear links to LSE
governance and careful attention to existing collection and
deposit conditions.
d Excellent access to the collection through its location in the Fabian Tract #175,
capital in a library open to the public for long hours. held at LSE Library
e Clear synergy between the collections of the Women’s
Library and the campaigning archives held at LSE in the 2013
context of the premier social science library with fully January – May
Designated Status by the Museums, Libraries and Archives • LSE contributes to costs of opening Aldgate Women’s
Council, now overseen by the Arts Council. Library building
f Specialist staff resources in the combination of Women’s Library • Women’s Library staff join the LSE Library staff
staff and LSE’s team of professional archivists and librarians.
• Project Team prepares collections and combines catalogues
g Continuing collection development through expert staff
and LSE’s funding and recognition by the Higher Education • Collections are moved to LSE.
Funding Council for England (HEFCE) as a National Research The Women’s Library collections will be appropriately housed
Library for the social sciences. at the LSE Library:
h Continuing audience development through the use of • Open shelf collections in the new Women’s Library @ LSE
LSE’s ground-breaking Digital Library, targeted cataloguing Reading Room
projects and a new Teaching and Activity room for use by
LMU and LSE staff. • Museum objects adjacent to the new Teaching
and Activity room
i Effective stakeholder relationships building on those existing
at LMU and LSE to keep depositors and supporters engaged • Archives in secure archives accommodation.
and informed. Exhibitions will be organized in the area adjacent to the new
j Assured financial security through the positive financial Women’s Library @ LSE Reading Room and in LSE’s central
position of LSE and agreed funding for this proposal Atrium Gallery.
including expert management of existing endowments for LSE has developed this proposal through the establishment of
the Women’s Library. a Project Team chaired by the Director of LSE Library Services
The timetable is: with the support of professional colleagues in the LSE Library,
Archives, HR, Estates and Finance and welcomes input into the
2012 plans by specialist Women’s Library staff.
October – December Once the transfer has been successfully achieved a project will
• Engagement between LSE and LMU be considered to combine appropriate existing LSE archives to
form a more extensive collection for the future for The Women’s
• Joint confirmation of responsibilities
Library @ LSE.
• Appointment of LSE Project Manager
• Establishment of joint Project Team LSE and LMU
• Transfer of collection ownership.
Elizabeth Chapman
Director of LSE Library Services
E.Chapman@lse.ac.uk
Women’s Library @ LSE 3
2 Introduction to LSE
LSE’s motto is Rerum cognoscere causas – “to know the The Fabian Society members who founded LSE, Beatrice and
causes of things.” Sidney Webb, Graham Wallas and George Bernard Shaw,
wanted to create an educational institution dedicated to the
The London School of Economics and Political Science was
betterment of society, where the study and analysis of inequality
founded in 1895 and has grown to become one of the foremost
and social issues would produce original work which would set
social science universities in the world. A specialist university
the agenda for change in Britain and around the world. LSE has
with an international intake, LSE’s research extends from its
remained true to these principles throughout its history, being
central London campus around the world.
a pioneer of the social sciences, and consistently producing
LSE covers the full range of social science subjects and with its research which has influenced governments and leaders around
Gender Institute includes the largest research and teaching unit the globe.
of its kind in Europe. It has a diverse and international student
population of 10,000 with 1,300 academic and support staff “LSE was founded in 1895 for the ‘betterment
spread across 23 academic departments and institutes and of society’. We hold true to that ideal today.
16 research centres. LSE is based on an easily accessible and
Our research and teaching is both relevant
compact campus in the centre of London.
and global.”
“We work on topics such as economic Professor Judith Rees, LSE Director
inequalities by gender, parental leave,
employment patterns and family form, The desire to bring academic expertise to bear on the problems of
society motivated the founders of LSE and underpins the School’s
childcare policies where the background vision and strategy today. LSE is an outward-facing university,
policy debate is relevant to our research and constantly engaged with the big policy issues of the day and
where the Women’s Library archive can be communities around the world. The public lectures programme at
LSE embodies the School’s engagement agenda and caters for
directly useful.”
the thirst for informed debate. Global leaders in politics, business
Professor John Hills and the academic world come to LSE to discuss the issues of the
Director LSE Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion day – speakers over the last three months have included Aung
San Suu Kyi, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Dr Dambisa Moyo the
international economist and Bill Clinton.
LSE counts 16 Nobel Prize winners among its alumni and former
staff members and has been led by a series of influential social
scientists, including William Beveridge, the architect of the UK
social security system, in the 1920s, Ralph Dahrendorf in the
1970s and Anthony Giddens in the 1990s. The current Director
Professor Judith Rees will be followed in September 2012 by
Professor Craig Calhoun, a world-renowned social scientist
whose work connects sociology to culture, communication,
politics, philosophy and economics.
The LSE Library
The LSE Library was founded shortly after the School itself in
1896 as the British Library of Political and Economic Science
with the aim of systematically collecting all available material
from around the world on the subjects studied by the School.
These goals of comprehensiveness and concentration on
primary sources, which have been followed throughout the
Library’s 115 year history, have led to the creation of one of the
world’s largest collections dedicated to the social sciences.
Blue Rain, Artwork by Michael Brown, installed on exterior of LSE Library
4 Women’s Library @ LSE
The collection contains over four million separate items,
including rare books, unique archives, photographs, Case Study: Man and Cameraman
campaigning objects such as badges, posters and pamphlets,
George Bernard Shaw was a keen amateur photographer
as well as the extensive electronic research collections required
whose images date from the early 1890s to the 1940s
of a modern international research library. The collection
is international in coverage and has particular strengths in and document a prolific literary and political life. Man and
government and official publications, data and statistical Cameraman, a recent project in partnership with the National
materials. Its importance has been recognised by the Higher Trust, conserved, catalogued and digitised this collection.
Education Funding Council for England, which provides Totalling around 15,000 images, the majority of items were
funding to it as one of only five National Research Libraries in aging negatives at high-risk of permanent loss – including
the UK. The LSE Library collection, unusually for a university, many thousand highly flammable nitrates and fragile glass
carries Designated Status as being of outstanding national and plates. An interim release of c.2,000 images gained national
international importance, a designation now managed by the and international press coverage, while the remaining images
Arts Council. will be released through LSE Digital Library later in 2012.
The collection has already been the subject of a six month
“In this London School and this Library, there exhibition at the Fox Talbot Museum, which highlighted new
is a great opportunity of getting together aspects to Shaw as a socially engaged intellectual figure by
showing his artistic contribution to the world of photography
a body of students who will have a real
and documenting the social context of his life and work.
influence on the condition of people…”
Beatrice Webb 1896
Users of the collection benefit from its location on a single site
in the Library building on the LSE campus in central London.
As custodian of an internationally recognised collection with
This was extensively refurbished and remodelled in 2001 with
important holdings of rare and unique materials the LSE Library
assistance from the Heritage Lottery Fund to a striking Norman
has substantial experience of managing an historical archive of
Foster design, which in addition to providing several hundred
public significance. Our expertise is grounded in the tradition of
study spaces houses 95 per cent of the printed collection on
print and physical holdings and also in new, ground-breaking
open shelves. The LSE Library is freely open to the public and
digital approaches.
has extensive facilities for visitors, including numerous PCs to
The personal papers of Beatrice Webb are an early example of access the wide range of electronic resources held.
a collection placed into the Library’s care and her diaries have
Further redevelopment of the building for library use has already
recently been brought to a wider audience by being digitized
been planned. This will enable the Library to expand into a
and made available through the LSE Digital Library. Similarly, the
further floor and provide dedicated space for the display, use
Library holds the original records of Charles Booth’s survey into
and storage of the Women’s Library @ LSE.
life and labour in London carried out between 1886 and 1903,
including his hand coloured poverty maps which were digitized in
2001 and have recently featured in the BBC2 series The Secret
History of Our Streets. LSE is proud to care for and promote
the archives and collections of campaigning groups including
the Hall-Carpenter Archives of gay and lesbian activism and the
papers of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
To actively acquire and promote collections in the digital age
significant investment has been made in developing the LSE
Digital Library. This enables born-digital materials, including
archives of emails, personal papers and web-based political
literature, to be collected, displayed and digitally preserved for
future generations. The Library is at the forefront of digital display
and preservation of materials including maps, posters, badges,
pamphlets, photographic prints and negatives, and audio-visual
material. Our aim is to ensure that the Women’s Library remains
a vibrant and actively developing collection in print with an ever
extending online audience for its digital offerings.
LSE Library entrance
Women’s Library @ LSE 5
3 Response to the selection criteria
a) The Women’s Library @ LSE ensures the integrity c) The Women’s Library @ LSE ensures proper
of the Women’s Library collection and its staff by governance of the collection by active interaction
their location in a single building in central London. with depositors and stakeholders with clear
links to LSE governance and careful attention to
Our proposal is to transfer the Women’s Library collection to the existing collection and deposit conditions.
LSE Library building and to keep the collection together as a
single entity. At LSE the entire collection will be stored, managed
and accessed within a single building in central London. Items LSE Library Governance
will be described as being part of the Women’s Library on the The senior governing body of the LSE is the LSE Council who
catalogue and people will be able to work with the materials as a have reviewed and approved this proposal. The Council are the
discrete collection. Trustees of the LSE Library (The British Library of Political and
The LSE Library has extensive experience of achieving these Economic Science) which was confirmed in a Deed of Trust in
criteria having acquired numerous nationally significant and 1896. We therefore anticipate no difficulty in LMU transferring to
distinctive collections in this spirit. One example is the Hall- LSE Council similar Trusteeship for the Women’s Library.
Carpenter Archives of lesbian and gay activism, which transferred LSE Library Services operate under a 25 year agreement
to LSE in 1988. with the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) following the Norman
Foster refurbishment of the Library in 2001. This agreement
b) The Women’s Library @ LSE ensures a clear identity will be enhanced to include the accession of the Women’s
for the collection in a new purpose built Women’s Library Collection and will be a matter for negotiation with the
Library Reading room within the LSE Library. HLF. As noted elsewhere LSE cannot take on any long-term
responsibility for the Aldgate building but will contribute to
The distinct identity of the Women’s Library will be protected at running costs until the collections move to the LSE.
LSE, both on campus and online. The Women’s Library will have The Director of LSE Library Services reports, via the School’s
a dedicated reading room and exhibition space. This will celebrate Secretary, to the Director’s Management Team, the senior
the Women’s Library at LSE and welcome those wishing to use the executive body of the School, and consults and reports on
collection. All audience development work, described in detail later policy via the LSE Library Services Committee.
in this proposal, will be clearly identified and acknowledged with
the Women’s Library brand. The Library Services Committee chaired by the Pro-Director
Teaching and Learning, includes the Librarian of an external
The Women’s Library website will transfer to the LSE content university and reports to Academic Board and onwards to
management system and will continue at LSE. As part of the Council. The Library Director has access to the Director of LSE
programme of digitization of Women’s Library collection materials for strategic matters and formally reports to Academic Board
planned within this proposal, further images and curated content annually as does the Library Services Committee.
will be actively added to the website so that it continues as a lively
and valuable part of the Women’s Library identity. A more informal Library Services User Consultative Forum
chaired by the Director of Library Services seeks input from all
As a university with a global reach LSE will also seek to extend Library users and reports to the Library Services Committee.
the international position of the Women’s Library brand, We will enhance the membership to include a member of the
building on the recognition already achieved by the founders Archives Advisory Board (see below). Library Services works
and current custodians and drawing on the expertise of LSE with the student community via regular meetings and liaison with
Communications professionals. academic departments is carried out by a team of Academic
Support Librarians, and attendance at relevant committees.
“As a Board Member of the International
Women’s Forum, a past Chief Executive of “The acquisition of the Women’s Library will be
the Equal Opportunities Commission and an a perfect complement to the LSE’s established
academic now at the Cass Business School, British and radical politics collections. This is
City University, I support the move of the precisely the sort of collection that a major
Women’s Library to the LSE. research library such as BLPES should be
bidding for and I am very happy to support
When I was at the EOC I supported the
that bid. The BLPES is the natural home for
move of the Library to what became London
the Women’s Library collections.”
Met when it was last in danger. As a user I
Paul Kelly
know how important it is that this amazing LSE Professor of Political Theory, Pro-Director and Chair
resource is available to academics not only in LSE Library Services Committee
this country but also internationally. For that
reason, I support it remaining in London and
specifically at the LSE.”
Lynne Berry OBE
6 Women’s Library @ LSE
LSE Archives Advisory Board and the
Women’s Library
We will create an LSE Archives Advisory Board as a sub-
committee of the Library Services Committee to enable all
stakeholders including those of The Women’s Library to have
the opportunity to offer advice and support to the LSE Library
and to ensure that interested parties have an opportunity
to contribute to the work of the Women’s Library and other
archives collections at LSE.
Proposed terms of reference for the Archives Advisory Board:
1 To advise the Director of LSE Library Services on the
development of the Archive and Rare Book Collections in
the Library and to provide support in interaction with other
academic, cultural and funding institutions.
2 To receive reports on the development of the archives
collections at LSE and on developments in archives elsewhere.
3 To appoint a representative to attend the LSE Library Services
Committee and to report annually to that body.
LSE Archives Management
Depositors are kept informed of developments affecting their
collections including cataloguing and digitization projects. The
Library works with depositors in promoting collections for
example see links between the Fabian Society Online Archive
and the Fabian Society or the recent public exhibition of Shaw
photographs with the National Trust. Examples of our existing
Covent Garden Flower Women, photograph by John Thomson from
stakeholders are the Royal Economic Society, the British Street Life in London, 1877, from LSE’s rare book collection
Sociological Association, the Liberal Democrat History Group,
LGBT History Month, the Society for the Study of Labour History,
d) The Women’s Library @ LSE ensures excellent
the National Archives and the Arts Council.
access to the collection through its location
The LSE Library is organized into Service Groups with the in the capital in a library open to the public for
Archives and Academic Services Groups working closely to long hours
review potential new deposits to ensure their fit with the Library’s
collection policies. The Archives Services Group works closely LSE is able to offer a central London home for the Women’s
with stakeholders and depositors to ensure good management of Library with free public access to the collection within a single
the Archives collections. The Archivist and the Director of Library building. Visitors to the Women’s Library can enjoy long opening
Services discuss potential acquisitions on a monthly basis. hours at LSE and users will be able to access the collection
All new archives acquisitions are covered by a deposit beyond the library walls through the LSE Digital Library. The
agreement, signed by the Director of Library Services, covering collection will be cared for to the highest standards, both in
ownership, copyright, access and disposal. Several of our physical and digital form and will live into the future to be viewed
Archives collections have deeds of gift with conditions which and used by generations to come.
we have agreed and we will review the Women’s Library
Collection’s documents with LMU during the period October – Free access for all
December 2012. In 2001 LSE agreed to provide free access to its collections for
25 years as part of the HLF contribution towards redevelopment
of the LSE Library building. Thus the LSE Library, unlike many
other UK university libraries, is open to the public and receives
many visitors from the UK and abroad. In the academic year
2011/12 over 90,000 visits to the LSE Library were made by
members of the public. In 2010-11 16 per cent of visitors to
the Archives reading room had no academic affiliation and a
further 228 people attended workshops and talks relating to
the collections. Visitors to the Women’s Library at LSE will be
actively encouraged and warmly welcomed, whether they are
attending exhibitions from the collection, public events and
lectures, or seeking to use the collection in the Women’s Library
Reading Room.
Women’s Library @ LSE 7 Architect’s drawing of proposed entrance to the Women’s Library @ LSE The LSE Library opening hours are extensive including evening and weekend opening. The Library is available for study 24 hours a day, seven days a week for six months of the year. LSE Archives open six days a week, including some weekday evenings, meaning that LSE can extend the current opening hours offered by the Women’s Library. Although the LSE Library partially restricts access during the student revision and exam period, typically for six weeks during May and June, these restrictions do not apply to users of Archives and so would not apply to visitors to the Women’s Library. The LSE Library is a member of SCONUL (Society of College, National and University Libraries) and RLUK (Research Libraries UK) Access schemes, granting borrowing to academic staff and research students from our existing research collections and reference access to all full-time students. The Women’s Library will remain available to LMU staff and students in support of teaching, learning and research. LSE Library staff will seek to partner with LMU Academic and Library staff to support the delivery of seminars and workshops using the Women’s Library collection in the new room set aside for this work. A London home The Women’s Library is a collection of national significance with an international audience. The Women’s Library at LSE will be in central London within walking distance of three mainline stations, seven tube lines and many bus routes. The nearest tube station Holborn is just two stops away from St Pancras International Station and on the Piccadilly Line for Heathrow airport. LSE is located in reach of the Aldgate building and this gives the Women’s Library the opportunity to continue established local relationships and maintain its profile within the capital.
8 Women’s Library @ LSE
“Surely LSE is the best place for the Women’s “I would absolutely encourage the collection
Library, and better than its rather remote to come to LSE. When I researched my book
current location. One may deplore the on gender and policing I used the Women’s
fact that London is seen as the centre of Library. The great strength of the collection is
everything, but there it is: worthy venues its ephemeral material and it would be crucial
in other locations would surely not attract to keep it together as a collection. It would
the same attention and LSE’s track record in be a fantastic resource for students looking
looking after such things is immaculate. I was at the history of women’s fight for the vote
among those who helped launch the library in and also the papers relating to one of the first
its present location, and have great respect for mass political movements involving women.”
it, and I would like to join in urging that the Professor Jennifer Brown
invitation of the LSE to take over the library Mannheim Centre for Criminology LSE
Deputy Chair Independent Police Commission
and store and improve it be accepted.”
Katherine Whitehorn In addition, we will provide a newly refurbished Teaching and
Activity room on the lower ground floor of the building where
As part of the LSE Estates strategy the space available for library primary documents and museum objects can be used by
use within the LSE Library building is being increased. Our proposal school children, scholars and members of the public. This room
is to transfer the Women’s Library into this space, creating: is sound proofed and will be equipped to enable a wide range
of activities and events involving a variety of participants. Staff
• a dedicated reading room and exhibition area on the newly
from the Women’s Library and LSE will be supported in making
refurbished 4th floor;
creative use of this space to develop public engagement with
• a newly refurbished Teaching and Activity room on the lower the Women’s Library.
ground floor;
Women’s Library archive and special collection materials
• a secure environmentally controlled collection storage area for currently held in secure storage in the Aldgate building will be
archives and museum objects on the lower ground floor. transferred to an extended secure environmentally controlled
store on the lower ground floor of the building. As mentioned,
The Women’s Library @ LSE will have a dedicated reading room materials requested for use in the reading room on the 4th floor
providing silent study space, with controlled access and staff will be transferred using a secure service lift. A secure staff work
supervision to ensure security of the collections when in use. room on the fourth floor will enable conservation work to be
Printed materials currently on open access in the Women’s carried out by professional staff. Museum objects will be held
Library Reading Room at the Aldgate building will be housed in a newly created secure environmentally controlled store on
within the Women’s Library reading room at LSE. Archives and the lower ground floor of the building. This store is adjacent to
special collections materials held in the secure environmentally the Teaching and Activity room and will enable secure delivery
controlled (PD5454) store on the lower ground floor will be of items for use. The stores will have space for growth of the
brought to the reading room on request, via a secure service lift. collections, to enable active collection development for the
Archivists and librarians will have staff offices co-located with Women’s Library. All the secure storage will comply with the
the reading room and will be readily available to support visitors PD5454 standard.
viewing and using the collections.
Adjacent to the Women’s Library reading room on the 4th floor Beyond the library walls
will be a display area dedicated to exhibitions of collection The Women’s Library will thrive in the digital age at LSE with a
materials from the Women’s Library. Specialist equipment will be focus on increasing access to the collection through the use of
provided to enable the appropriate care of materials on display digital technologies. We intend to increase the scale and scope
and professional staff will curate the exhibitions undertaken. This of cataloguing activity to enable the Women’s Library collection
dedicated space will link with the wider programme of public to be fully discoverable on the web, and to combine this effort
events planned as part of audience development and described with a programme of collection digitization. Using the LSE
in more detail later in this proposal. Digital Library, the Women’s Library collection will be accessible
to a worldwide audience and coupled with innovative mobile
applications new audience interactions with the materials will be
possible as exemplified by the PhoneBooth mobile application.Women’s Library @ LSE 9
Case Study:
PhoneBooth is “mobilising” the Charles Booth Maps,
Descriptive of London Poverty 1898-99 and digitised police
notebooks, which record eye-witness observations of London
street-by-street. The mobile “app” will engage a wide audience
with the archival material as well as support curriculum-focused
teaching use. Smartphone or tablet users of the collection will
be able to plot their current location on the historic map from
anywhere in London and read nearby notebook entries which
describe their surroundings as they were seen a century ago.
Additional map layers make it possible to compare the Booth
survey to modern government open-data sources such as the
Index of Multiple Deprivation. Future plans include further
layers containing digital library collections which are linked to
specific locations such as photographs and diary entries, as well
as guided audio walks which take people on journeys through
places, times, and other digital collections. We plan to develop a
Women’s History map as part of this project and to support The
Women’s Library @ LSE.
e) The Women’s Library @ LSE demonstrates clear
synergy between the collections of the Women’s
library and the campaigning archives held at
LSE in the context of the premier social science From LSE’s pamphlet
library with fully Designated Status by the collection
Museums, Libraries and Archives Council,
now overseen by the Arts Council. Synergies exist between the Women’s Library collection and
the work of nearly all LSE departments, but they are particularly
LSE is the leading social science university in the UK and strong with the LSE Gender Institute. This is the largest institute of
the only one exclusively devoted to social science study and its type in Europe, offering five Masters programmes and enrolling
teaching. All its departments and research centres are involved 80 students a year. The transfer of the Women’s Library to LSE
in investigating economic, social or political issues, now and would significantly enrich the range of primary materials available
in the past, and as such it is a perfect home for a world class to the Institute for use in research and teaching, while the Institute
collection on the political, economic and social history of would provide strong support for the collection, and is well placed
women’s lives. It is for this reason there has been unanimous to promote wider public awareness, acting as a locus for gender
and overwhelming support from all LSE departments for the studies across London. The Gender Institute already has good
transfer of the Women’s Library to LSE, and recognition of the links with colleagues at LMU and these will continue.
benefits to their core work which will come from bringing the
collection here. This ranges from Sociology and Social Policy to “An archive is only as alive as its readers
Management, Law and Economics. and as such the LSE is uniquely able to
“I think it would be a great addition to the support the continuing vitality of the
LSE library. The Women’s Library is a unique Women’s Library because of the LSE Gender
collection dealing with issues relevant for Institute and the research and seminar
many social scientists working on gender and programme which it supports.”
women. Furthermore it has important archives Professor Mary Evans
LSE Centennial Professor
for many working on social movements
and activism in what is an important aspect
of 20th century politics – the women’s
movement and feminism. But it also provides
important insights into the changing role and
position of women in the society. In this way
it would fit with the LSE library very well.”
Dr Hakan Seckinelgin, LSE Social Policy Department10 Women’s Library @ LSE
The LSE Library already holds significant quantities of material
relating to the lives and experiences of women. In the archives
area alone LSE has identified 1,500 boxes of material in its
collection specifically from women or women’s organisations.
These would be significantly enriched by adding the Women’s
Library collections to them. Areas where specific links and likely
synergies have already been identified include: Women in the
workplace, where the Women’s Library collection of material
on women’s employment associations and campaigns links
with LSE collections such as the Women’s Industrial Council,
Charles Booth’s Enquiry into London Life and Labour and the
investigations of Beatrice Webb on women’s work; pacifism
and campaigning, where LSE holds the archives of CND and
the Women’s Library collection includes papers relating to the
Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp and the Women
in Black movement; and equality and liberation, where the
Hall-Carpenter Archives of gay activism held at LSE would
complement the women’s liberation movement material held by
the Women’s Library.
“As a previous Director of the Fawcett Society
and Governor of LSE, I see the LSE Library as
an ideal home for the Women’s Library. The
LSE Library is open to the public, in central
London and already has a great collection of
From LSE’s Mary
Mcintosh collection
campaigning archives. Putting these beside
the wonderful Women’s Library collections will
Moreover, as the pre-eminent collection of social science make an exceptional resource for researchers
material in Britain, The LSE Library collection is closely aligned and the general public. The LSE makes a point
to that of the Women’s Library and bringing the two together
of engaging with the public on issues of social
would provide exciting opportunities to extend existing areas
of research and open up new areas of investigation, something importance, making it an excellent home for
which is widely recognised outside as well as across LSE. this unique collection. I am happy to lend my
“I think LSE is the perfect choice for the wholehearted support to this bid.”
Women’s Library’s future home as it is the Dr Katherine Rake OBE (Services to Equality)
Chief Executive of the Family and Parenting Institute
leading library for social sciences within the
UK so there is clear congruence. I believe that
this will provide the Women’s Library with a
secure future that will ultimately strengthen
its role as a key resource on women’s history.”
Pat Christie
Director of Libraries and Academic Support
University of the Arts London
From LSE’s Mary Mcintosh collectionWomen’s Library @ LSE 11
Architect’s drawing of reader space inside the
proposed Women’s Library Reading Room
Other areas where LSE’s extensive print and electronic holdings Equality and diversity
would complement and be enriched by the Women’s Library
include: women and the media, including campaign literature and “We will promote equality of opportunity for
representations of women in informal publications; criminology students and staff from all social, cultural and
and domestic violence; the economic history of women; women economic backgrounds. We will uphold a
and economics; women and psychology; women’s health;
women and human rights; and women and the family.
culture free of discrimination on the basis of
race, disability, gender, age, religion, belief or
The LSE Library also has a very strong record of innovation in
the area of digital library development. It has been digitising its sexual orientation.”
collections for over ten years and has made material of all types LSE Strategic Plan 2011-16
available online. Notable collections include the Charles Booth
Online Archive which featured in a recent BBC six-part series This is backed up by the LSE Single Equality Scheme,
Secret History of Our Streets, while PhoneBooth, a leading- and comprehensive procedures designed to ensure and
edge digital innovation project funded by JISC, is repurposing promote equality for all staff and students. These include the
the Booth collection for delivery to mobile devices. The Library appointment of an Equality and Diversity Adviser; the Equality
has also embarked on an ambitious programme to collect and and Diversity working group, which discusses strategy and
preserve digital records of organizations and individuals such as standards for equality and diversity activities; EMBRACE (Ethnic
the Royal Economics Society, the Fabian Society and prominent Minorities Broadening Racial and Cultural Exchange), the black
politicians such as Paddy Ashdown. This all complements the and ethnic minority staff network; SPECTRUM, the lesbian, gay,
work already begun by the Women’s Library in collecting and bisexual and transgender (LGBT) staff network; the Disabled
preserving the digital records of women’s organizations and Staff Network, which is open to disabled staff members and
their personal experiences through blogs and tweets, and allies; and the Gender Equality Forum, a network of women
means LSE Library is well placed to continue and substantially across the LSE committed to addressing gender inequality in
extend it. pay, access and culture. These staff networks organise events
and serve as a channel of communication for consultation, with
Commitment to equality and diversity internal and external audiences.
The whole of LSE is strongly committed to the principles of
equality and diversity and these are included as one of our
core “Values and Commitments” in the School’s strategic plan
for 2011-16.12 Women’s Library @ LSE
This all builds on the long term commitment to gender equality Women’s Library staff will move in 2013 into the employment of
practiced by the School throughout its history from one of its LSE and will join a Library Services staff of 110 currently working
founders being a woman to the involvement, participation and in 5 Groups; Resources and Innovation, Academic Services,
leadership of women at all levels. It has welcomed women Archives Services, Collections Services and Public Services.
as both staff and students since 1895 and was one of the There are 36 professional librarians and four professional
few institutions never to practice a marriage bar for women archivists. The Archives Services Group manages our Archives
employees. In the inter-war years the work of the Economic and Rare Book Collections. The LSE Library has consistently
History Department set the standard for the study of women’s good feedback from internal and external users.
history. Lilian Knowles was appointed Professor of Economic
We have an active staff training and development programme
History in 1921 and was followed by Professor Eileen Power
and funding has been built into our proposal for LMU staff
in 1931. The first woman President of the Students’ Union was
transferring with the Women’s Library collection. LSE Library
elected in 1907 and in 1909/10 35 per cent of students were
Services has achieved the Investors in People Bronze standard
women. Dr Christine Challis OBE, Secretary and Director of
and LMU staff will benefit from the culture that this represents,
Administration at LSE from 1983 to 2003 worked with Dame
along with a specially tailored induction programme.
Lynne Brindley, recently retired Chief Executive of the British
Library to complete the successful Foster redevelopment of the
Library in 1999-2001. Lynne Brindley led the first UK all-female Co-working
university library management team at LSE. The proposal includes a period of co-working at the Aldgate
building to ensure continuity, allow familiarisation with
f) The Women’s Library @ LSE ensures specialist the collection for LSE staff and prepare the collections for
staff resources in the combination of Women’s moving. An LSE Library Project Officer will be seconded to
work predominantly at the Aldgate building for the transition
Library staff and LSE’s team of professional
period. They will coordinate the preparation and move of the
archivists and librarians.
collections with input from the Women’s Library staff as part
of a newly appointed joint Project Team. We will encourage
Staffing transfer cross-fertilisation of skills, experience, knowledge and capacity
amongst Women’s Library and the LSE Library staff. We believe
LSE acknowledges the current uncertainty of the staff of the
this will bring benefits for all the staff involved as well as the
Women’s Library and will engage in early consultation over
collections and their stakeholders.
TUPE obligations which are accepted and funded as part of
this bid. LSE Library Services’ HR partner will start prompt
collaborative consultation with affected employees and LMU Cataloguing and external profile of
HR colleagues. Existing roles required for the work of the The Women’s Library
Women’s Library will continue, including collection development; The LSE Library Archives Services and Collections Services staff
cataloguing; collection management and preservation; are experienced in working to major international cataloguing
interpretation and promotion; and audience development. standards. We are also implementing new standards for digital
LSE does not currently make use of volunteers in Archives collections. The LSE Library is committed to prompt cataloguing
Services except those who are on training courses and gaining of collections as being key to ensuring their availability and
work experience. We welcome the advice of LMU in continuing use. We have a track record of successfully bidding for funding
this valuable work for the Women’s Library. and completing cataloguing projects and with staff from the
Women’s Library we will work on priorities for a programme of
cataloguing recent deposits.
Badges from the Hall-Carpenter Archives, held by LSEWomen’s Library @ LSE 13
Case Study:
Bringing 20th Century Political and Social History to Life, a
three year project funded by the Foyle Foundation received
£105,000 to catalogue seven archives illuminating post-
1945 British and European political history and to enhance
the catalogue records of a further six archives. The project
added to the Archives Catalogue descriptions for over 8,000
files and volumes recording the campaigns for disability
rights, the development of the European Union and South
African politics.
The LSE Library like the Women’s Library contributes records
to a range of national and international datasets, including
the Genesis dataset, via the Archiveshub. We will work with
Women’s Library staff to ensure that such external exposure
of the collection is continued and will look to find other ways
to develop external awareness of the collection via our
membership of the international Research Library Partnership.
g) The Women’s Library @ LSE ensures continuing Suffragette march, Trafalgar Square 1909. Photograph taken by
collection development through expert staff and George Bernard Shaw, LSE founder and supporter of the suffragettes.
Held by LSE Library
LSE’s funding and recognition by HEFCE as a
National Research Library for the social sciences.
The LSE Library’s commitment to actively collecting women’s
LSE’s priority is to ensure that the Women’s Library collection history is embodied in the section of the LSE collection
continues as a vibrant and resonant record of women’s lives development policy which supports the LSE Gender Institute.
in the past, present and future. The Women’s Library and LSE This recognises that all social processes and institutions can
collections are designated by the Arts Council of England as be explored in terms of gender relations, which is defined in the
being of national significance and strong, effective collection widest sense to include the exploration of all aspects of sex and
development policies underpin this designation at both gender as well as feminism and women’s studies.
libraries. The Women’s Library and the LSE Library policies
The LSE Library actively seeks to acquire archives and special
are complementary, sharing many principles and standards of
collections of modern British political, economic and social history,
practice. LSE will adopt the current Women’s Library collection
history of the social sciences including social and political history,
development policy and continue to interpret and adapt the
economics and economic history, social anthropology, gender
policy with staff and stakeholders to ensure the proactive
studies and sociology, and the history of LSE, and welcomes
development of the collection into the future.
the deposit of new collections. For example the papers of the
Feminist Review Collective have recently been deposited.
Selection criteria for purchase and donation
The LSE Library collection policy encompasses all formats of
of material
materials, including photographs, audio-visual materials, posters,
The LSE Library aims to acquire material of all types, in all badges, pamphlets and digital materials. The LSE Library staff
formats and in major languages at research level in the subjects have expertise and experience in handling, displaying and
in which it specialises. These are the subjects researched and preserving this range of materials. The LSE Library will rely on
taught at LSE and include all areas of social sciences. The LSE expert conservation advice in the matter of the textiles and
Library has an acquisitions budget of around £3m per annum ceramics in the Women’s Library.
to support the collection development policy and additional
funds will be added to this figure to support new acquisition
of materials for the Women’s Library collection. In respect of
donations, the Library welcomes gifts of materials which fall
within the scope of its collection development policy.14 Women’s Library @ LSE
“As a designated depositor to the Women’s
Library I would urge the screening committee
to give preference to the bid submitted by
the London School of Economics. There could
not be a more accessible or appropriate
institution for such an immensely rich and
unique collection as the Women’s Library.
The synergy between the academic goals and
history of the LSE and the history of women’s
campaigning for economic and legislative
parity should make the acquisition of The
Women’s Library Collection a perfect fit.”
Sandra Hepburn
Co-ordinator of Women in the Media Archives
EOC Commissioner 1978 – 82
UK representative to UN Status of Women Commission
Director of Production Thames TV
Target audiences
The LSE Library was established as the British Library of
Political and Economic Science with the aim of serving all those
wanting to research and study these subjects. The collection
development policy is designed to support the research
and teaching needs of LSE and by doing so has created the
foremost collection in the social sciences. The collection
provides a resource of national and international importance for
researchers, learners and members of the public. The adoption From LSE Library’s CND collection
of the current collection development policy for the Women’s
Library at LSE will ensure that the key audiences identified in it The LSE Library is also committed to investing in its Digital
will continue to be served by the collections. Library to enable the collection, preservation, and online
display of digital material. This includes staff development in
Priorities for collection skills associated with digital preservation, infrastructure to
support systems and workflows for long-term storage and
The priorities established for the Women’s Library collection in
online discovery and delivery of collections. This will ensure the
the current collection development policy will be maintained at
Women’s Library collection at LSE is included in the forefront
LSE. Staff from the Women’s Library and the LSE Library will
of advances in collection development and management in the
liaise with stakeholders to ensure that relevant sections of the
digital age.
two libraries’ policies continue to complement each other and
reflect the needs and interests of user communities.
h) The Women’s Library @ LSE Continues audience
Acquisition/access/disposal development through the use of LSE’s ground-
breaking Digital Library, targeted cataloguing
The principles of the Women’s Library collection development
policy will be maintained in regard to acquisition, access and projects and a new Teaching and Activity room
disposal. In practice LSE will increase the resources and for use by LMU and LSE staff.
capacity of the Women’s Library to develop and provide access
to the collection. The collection will have physical space to The LSE Library has a wealth of experience and success in
grow and increased professional staff resource dedicated to promoting collections of national importance to a wide public
cataloguing the collection and conserving the materials. audience which stems from our establishment as the British
Library of Political and Economic Science. As well as the
expertise and enthusiasm within the Library for sharing our
collections as widely as possible, we are fortunate to be part
of a university deeply committed to public engagement and
community outreach.Women’s Library @ LSE 15
Promoting the Women’s Library collection Public events programme
The LSE Library has a dedicated Communications Officer whose We will also link the Women’s Library collections into the
role is to manage a range of activities designed to promote our extensive LSE public events programme where everyone
collections and engage people with them. This member of staff is invited to join the global debate at LSE. In 2011/12 over
works closely with the LSE Communications team so that we can 70,500 people attended 305 public events, and over 19 million
draw on their media expertise to further promote our collections. downloads of lectures were made by people from around the
A recent example of the impact our expertise in this area can world. LSE has a Twitter following for its public lectures of over
deliver is the national media coverage we received in January 2012 25,000 and over 50,000 likes on Facebook.
for the launch of LSE Digital Library with the diaries of Beatrice
We will work with Women’s Library stakeholders, LSE
Webb. Our promotional campaign resulted in wide coverage
academics and communications professionals in the LSE
including an interview with the Head of Archives Services on Radio
External Relations Division to develop a series of events
4’s the Today programme. Since the launch use has continued
focussing on women and gender issues which will form a part
to grow with the Digital Library now receiving over 30,000 page
of the LSE public events programme. There is strong support
views from over 5,000 unique visitors. Around 50 per cent of this
for this across the LSE community, and planning is already
audience is from the UK followed by international visitors from
underway for an event inspired by the Women’s Library and
North America, Europe, India and Australia.
its collections to take place as part of the 5th LSE Space for
Our use of mobile technology to deliver primary sources will Thought Literary Festival in Spring 2013.
appeal to general audiences as well as students as part of their
learning. We will continue to develop our PhoneBooth project “As Leader of the Students’ Union at LSE I
to incorporate materials from the Women’s Library collection to know how important the LSE Library is to
create other applications, for example a women’s history walk
students. It is a great building with good
around nineteenth century London.
facilities, long opening hours and access for
Our aim in bringing the Women’s Library collection alongside
the existing LSE Library collections is to maintain this focus on
the public who need to use it. I would really
collection promotion, with input from Women’s Library staff so like the Women’s Library to come to LSE to
that the stories to which the collections bear witness can reach enhance the resources we already have. There
as wide an audience as possible.
is such an obvious link between the two
“As a keen craftsperson and a member of the collections which focus on campaigns and the
committee of LSE EMBRACE I want to support history of women’s struggle for equal rights.
the move of the Women’s Library Collection I know the LSE Library staff would treat it well.”
to the LSE. I have visited the Women’s library Alex Peters-Day
a few times with members of my WI and we General Secretary, LSE Students’ Union
have been very impressed. Of course I would
rather it stayed where it is but if it cannot Supporting schools and promoting education
I can’t think of a better place than the LSE The LSE Library will continue to support existing schemes
developed by the Women’s Library aimed at supporting
Library where it will be available to everyone school students and groups in accessing the Women’s Library
in a central location.” collection, including the Primary Schools Loan Box and teaching
Gizelle Regis resources on The Prostitution Debate for 16-19 year olds. We
Member of HR staff LSE will also seek ways of extending the scope of these schemes
by exploring the synergies between the Women’s Library
collections and the LSE Library collections. For example, linking
Exhibitions programme materials from the LSE Library CND archives with items from the
The Atrium Gallery situated in the LSE Old Building is a publicly Women’s Library collections on women’s role in the movement
accessible space hosting six exhibitions each year with related would enrich an event such as the Their Past Your Future: the
talks and events. The LSE Library will host a major exhibition Story of a Peace Movement event for KS3-5 school students.
each year inspired by the Women’s Library collections and The LSE Library contributes to the award winning LSE widening
accompanied by a programme of related public events. participation in higher education programme and we will build
The LSE Library will also have exhibition space and facilities on these links to use the Women’s Library collections to help
adjacent to the Research Reading Room for displays focusing inspire young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to
on materials from the Women’s Library collection. We will undertake higher education.
combine use of this physical exhibitions space with online
presentation of digitised materials from the collection. This
combined approach has proved effective in reaching a wide
audience both within and beyond the library walls, for example
with our exhibition CND: The Story of a Peace Movement.You can also read
