Subject Librarian: Kalina Grewal
Academic Programs Supported and Description of Current Collection
The Libraries’ collections support teaching and research in Women’s Studies up to, and including, the Ph.D. level. The Women’s Studies program offers a diverse range of undergraduate courses cross-listed with the Faculty of Arts and with Atkinson and Glendon colleges. Undergraduate students can complete an ordinary or an Honours B.A. with a major, minor, combined or specialized focus in Women’s Studies.
The Faculty of Arts offers linked, double majors with African Studies; Canadian Studies; German Studies; Health and Society; Labour Studies; Latin American and Caribbean Studies; Law and Society; Mass Communications; Science, Technology, Culture and Society; Social and Political Thought; and Urban Studies.
Atkinson College offers a General Certificate in Women’s Studies and a Certificate in Women and Development. Glendon College mounts unique courses in English and French. Major/minor concentrations with the Faculty of Environmental Studies and the Faculty of Fine Arts are also options available to undergraduate students.
Graduate studies in Women’s Studies explore the areas of Feminist and Gender Theory, Women’s History, Women’s Literature, Women and Culture, Women and Politics and Labour, Women and the Law, Women and Performance, among others.
Description of Current Collection
Women’s Studies is quite obviously an interdisciplinary program and the Libraries’ collections must reflect its character and scope. The program explores issues and themes from a feminist/women centered perspective in all the major disciplines in the Humanities and the Social Sciences and in interdisciplinary programs, such as Environmental St udies, and in professional programs, such as Education and Social Work. The areas of strength for Women’s Studies materials are in the larger collections of Sociology, Education, Literature, Law, Fine and Performing Arts, and History. The Sound and Moving Library has an excellent collection of videos and films relevant to Women’s Studies. Works considering the experience of ethnic or racial minorities and works on sexual diversity are an important part of the collection.
The journal collection is particularly strong for Women’s Studies and is kept current to reflect emerging research interests at York.
Subject Librarians are responsible for the Women’s Studies materials relevant to their collecting areas. The collection policies of the major academic disciplines and subjects are available through York University Libraries’ web site.
As topics relating to women can appear in almost any discipline or because a feminist analysis can be used to analyze or critique the focus and parameters of a discipline, most of the Libraries’ collections have resources of interest to Women’s Studies scholars. The Archives and Special Collections should be specifically mentioned for their strong holdings, including the Federation of Women Teachers’ Association of Ontario papers, and the papers of such noted Canadians as Joyce Wieland, Margaret Laurence, Linda McQuaig and Stevie Cameron. A guide to the collection can be found on the Archives web-site. To view a more in depth guide to archival resources for Women’s Studies at York University Archives, please click here.
The Nellie Langford Rowell Library is an important resource for Women’s Studies scholars as it houses ephemeral materials, such as newsletters and reports.
The collection at Scott Library is almost exclusively English language. French-Canadian materials are acquired selectively. The Frost Library has much richer resources for research in French.
Geographical Coverage
The collection at Scott Library is almost exclusively English language. French-Canadian materials are acquired selectively. The Frost Library has much richer resources for research in French.
Chronological Coverage
The contemporary period is emphasized, but scholarship on other eras is also collected if it pertains to research and teaching interests evident at York.
Current publications predominate. Classical works from major scholars are also collected. Retrospective materials are collected on a selective basis only.
Duplication
Women’s Studies materials are of great interest to students at York so added copies are purchased for many monographs. There are also back-up copies of the most heavily used journals, for example, Sex Roles.
Gifts of recently published materials are accepted.
Relegation and Weeding
Old editions of textbooks are periodically weeded from the collection.
- Books – Paperback and hardback monographs are selected, with the emphasis on paper. Textbooks are only purchased if the author is well known in the field or if the publication is a standard text. Earlier editions are selected if they are significantly different from later editions. Monographs in a series are selected on an individual basis.
- Journals – Subscriptions are maintained for all significant periodicals, and backruns may be acquired either in paper or microform. In keeping with the international focus of the Women’s Studies program, journals published outside of North America are particularly sought as are those focusing on issues of sexuality, immigration or race.
- Mircoforms – Microform backruns are selected as backup to heavily used or mutilated journals, or if paper copies are unavailable. A few microform collections have been purchased, including Women and Health; Women and Gender Issues in Latin America; Sex and Sexuality, 1640-1940 – Literary, Medical and Sociological Perspectives; and Colonial Discourses: Women, Travel and Empire, 1660-1914.
- Theses and Dissertations – Dissertations may be purchased, especially if they are of Canadian interest. They are bought in paper format.
- Ephemera – Ephemera are seldom selected, however, through access to the on-line index Contemporary Women’s Issues, articles, personal stories and other grey literature is available.
- Electronic Resources – The Libraries are subscribing to increasing numbers of electronic journals and multidisciplinary full-text databases. These augment the paper collection, but do not replace it.
- Films, Videos, Sound Recordings – These items are selected by the librarians in SMIL.
- Exclusions – Self-help books of a popular nature are not acquired, but as Women’s Studies values the personal in academic research, some materials such as memoirs or personal narratives may be purchased.
Collecting Levels
Last updated 2008