The Research Committee of the Women’s Studies Section of ACRL became an official committee in 2001. It was charged to identify needed research, encourage collaboration in research, facilitate the acquisition of skills related to research and publishing, and promote an awareness of existing and ongoing research related or applicable to Women’s Studies librarianship. In order to determine potential research areas, the committee embarked on a project to first identify the research that had previously been conducted. This project resulted in the “
Bibliography of Scholarship on Women’s Studies Librarianship.”
After collating this initial bibliography, the committee reexamined each citation to further explore the research articles and research questions as a means to identify research that needed to be revisited as well as areas of study that had never been researched. This effort, along with brainstorming about cutting edge and emerging issues in women’s studies and librarianship, resulted in this research agenda.
The research agenda is divided into two headings: intellectual access and professional issues. The subheadings under intellectual access all relate to the collection, maintenance, and organization of information related to women’s studies and how that information is made accessible to the users who need it. The subheadings under professional issues relate to librarianship and women’s studies librarianship and the practitioners thereof.