Women's Employment in Industrial Libraries and Information Bureaux in Britain, ca. 1918–1960

Abstract

Historical studies to date on the employment of women in librarianship have focused overwhelmingly on the public library sector. However, after the First World War, a different kind of library career also emerged for women in the technical libraries and scientific information bureaux of individual industrial enterprises and co-operative trade and industry research associations. Women's employment experiences in this field were shaped not by the discourses and practices of traditional librarianship, but by those of the industrial sector. Technical library and information work was the only branch of industry to which women science graduates were routinely appointed, but it also attracted a significant number of male recruits. Drawing on a range of sources including company archives, the records of Aslib and the Women's Employment Federation, and contemporary periodical and other literature, this paper explores the status and roles of women engaged in industrial library and information work between 1918 and 1960. It argues that deeply gendered workplace ideology restricted even as it permitted women's employment, but also illuminates how some women scientists were able to seize on this rare opening as a means both of negotiating responsible careers in the overwhelmingly hostile industrial environment and of making influential contributions to the development of the technical library and information field. This paper is based on research undertaken for the AHRB-funded research project 'The early information society in Britain, 1900–1975' in the School of Information Management, Leeds Metropolitan University. Thanks to Alistair Black and David Muddiman for helpful discussions on earlier drafts of this work.

Towards 100 years of LIS education and research at UCD

“…Early October 1919 had marked the definitive launch of the CUKT‐funded “Diploma in Librarianship” at University College London; by October 1921 this had diversified into a fulltime postgraduate Diploma available to Arts graduates (Plant, 2007a, b). Just under a decade later, at University College Dublin, the Inaugural Lecture of 14 February 1928 by Fr Stephen Brown, SJ, the noted bibliographer of Irish literary fiction, signalled the full implementation of the UCD “Diploma in Library Training”.…”

“…Like City University, London, it was at the forefront of UK information and library studies education, particularly with regard to information science, then taught at just four out of the UK's 16 LIS schools. Both these UCD staff had professional affiliations reflecting this expertise, as Associate Members of the UK Institute of Information Scientists, a professional body, which had been launched in January 1958 in a rather adversarial context fully described by Plant in her recent portrayal of “Education for the early information professions in Britain” and “Women's employment in industrial libraries and information bureaux in Britain”, prior to 1961 (Plant, 2007a, b). In keeping with the regional branch network rapidly developed outside London by the Institute's Members, for example, at Edinburgh, an Irish branch at Dublin had been launched by the early 1970s, which included IIRS staff from the Technical Information Division.…”

A new history of ASLIB, 1924‐1950

“…Typically, the branches organised series of professional meetings, visits and discussions, and they intermittently served as a focus for the development of local co‐operation between industrial, commercial, public and academic libraries (Hutton, 1945, p. 17; Lamb, 1935). The most successful of them appears to have been the Lancashire and Cheshire branch, which flourished between 1931 and 1936 under the energetic leadership of Beryl Dent, Librarian at Metropolitan‐Vickers in Manchester (Plant, 2004, p. 57). In 1932, the branch boasted twenty‐six members, organised four meetings (including one addressed by Henry Tizard, President of ASLIB) and was compiling a union list of publications for special libraries in North West England (Association of Special Libraries and Information Bureaux, 1932, pp.…”