Information Needs of Historians of Women’s History
Information Needs of Historians of Women’s History
This presentation will report the findings of a research study undertaken in 2012 that sought to better understand the fuller dimensions of the information needs and uses of material by historians of women’s history in the United States. Because archivists are professionally responsible for deciding what aspects of society are documented in the records preserved for future use, research may be paralyzed or hindered by the unwitting destruction of records or the failure to retain them. If archivists are going to respond adequately to the needs of their users (in this case, historians of women’s history), then archivists must understand a fuller dimension of how this particular group seeks, selects, and uses materials that it finds relevant and trustworthy (in and outside of the archive). The presentation will also address approaches and strategies of how archival practice (the principles and functions that guide how archivists select which records to preserve and how to make those records accessible to those who use the archives) may be changed or expanded to be more sensitive and inclusive of gender and other groups that have been marginalized or silenced by the record in the past.