Women's Library, Turkiye

WOMEN'S LIBRARY and INFORMATION CENTER FOUNDATION

Contact Information	Women's Library and Information Center Foundation. Fener Mahallesi, Fener Vapur Iskelesi Karsisi, Fener-Haliç, 34220 Istanbul, Türkiye. Tel.: +90-212-534-9550. Fax: +90-212-523-7408. E-mail: kek@mail.archimac.org

Working Hours	The Library is Open to public Monday-Friday, 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. It is closed on weekends and on public holidays. Use of the Library on Saturdays is possible if arrangements are made in advance.

History	Documentation of women's history is a source of empowerment for women, because they have had limited access to education, to public expression and publication. In a number of cities all over the world, information centers, archives and libraries related to women have been formed. The main aim of these is to document women's lives and deeds and to facilitate research in the area of women's studies, based on this multifaceted collection of material.
	A center, inspired by these former examples, was opened with the same aim on 14 April 1990, in Istanbul by the Women's Library and Information Center Foundation. The Library resides in a historical building, given by the Greater Istanbul Municipality, right on the Golden Horn. The restoration of the building was undertaken by prominent architect and poet Cengiz Bektas.

Mission	As the first and the only women's library and information center in Turkey, the Library serves:
	academic and non-academic researchers in women's studies, women's organizations and initiatives in need of data and material on women, the press and the media organs in need of data and material related to women. Besides its crucial effect on the development of research in the area of women's studies, the Libray has also a long-term influence on the improvement of conditions of women in Turkey as a result of the accumulation and dissemination of this information on women.

Founders and Staff	The Women's Library and Information Center Foundation was founded by Füsun Akatli, writer and literary critic; Jale Baysal, former chairwoman of the Department of Library Studies at Istanbul University; Asli Davaz-Mardin, translator and librarian; Füsun Ertug-Yaras, archeologist and photographer; and Sirin Tekeli, researcher and translator.
	The library is administered by the General Board of 29 members and an elected Executive Board, which directs all the activities and the functions of the Library for a year. Three Library staff fulfill the general functions of the Library: one of them is in charge of the library service to the readers; the second acts as the coordinator of all public relations and secretarial work in the Library; the third engages in the collection of newspaper clippings. Two other staff help with the organization of various collections in the Library. Quite a regular voluntary help is provided by the students of Marmara University's Department of Archives and Records Management, under the direction of Bekir Kemal Ataman.

Services
Books:	The library owns 6500 books written by women or on topics related to women. The classification system is a custom developed one with 180 subtitles under 8 main headings. All catalogue information is computerized and all books are located on open shelves.
Periodicals:	The most valuable periodical collections at the Library are the 40 complete sets of periodicals published in the Ottoman Empire, between 1867 and 1928, that relate to women. Some of these are photocopies but most of them are originals. Another important part of the periodicals consists of the 80 women's periodicals published in the post-1928 (i.e. Latin alphabet) period. Unfortunately, not all of these are complete sets. The third part of the periodicals are those in foreign languages. These have reached over 120 titles.
Articles:	Over 700 articles in the field of women's studies, which are in Turkish, English, French or German, are available in the documentation center. Bibliographic information regarding these articles can be obtained via the computer-aided retrieval system.
Cuttings:	The collection contains articles, interviews, cuttings from most daily newspapers and weekly or monthly periodicals since 1990. 140 boxes of material about activities and studies of women in Turkey, as well as all over the world, have been accumulated here.
	Statutes of women's organizations, panel discussion texts, unpublished theses, all kinds of information relating to women, documents and statistics are also classified under various topics in 105 topics.
Private archives collections:	Personal documents, memoirs, published or unpublished works of prominent women of Turkey are preserved, catalogued and presented to the users, in accordance with the terms stated by their donators. Currently there are about 200 boxes of private archives material from about 20 different prominent Turkish women.
Visual archives:	The visual archive consists of material in two major categories. The first of these is the activities of the library itself and the other deals with information and documents about women from the Ottoman Empire to the present. The holdings currently amount to about 1000 slides, 250 photographs and postcards, 15 video tapes, 100 audio tapes and about 450 local and foreign posters, all of which are classified according to their subject.
	Apart from this, under a separate project, the Women Artists' Diatheque aims at collecting the works of past and present women artists.
Photocopying facilities:	Photocopies of the material available in the library are allowed in accordance with the copyright legislation only.
Communication with members:	New publications, accessioned by the library, donations and planned activities are announced to members and friends of the library in a newsletter titled Haberler (News), which is published since 1991.
Information Services:	The Women's Library provides information on any subject related to women, as well as information for contacting Turkish or foreign instutions.

Activities	The Library has a considerable and diversified range of cultural activities. These have proven to be a very good way of promoting the Library, its holdings and the topics undertaken.
	Lectures, panel discussions, celebrations, concerts and other activities are held at the Library's Conference and Exhibition Hall. The monthly exhibitions organized by the Library from October till June every year provide an opportunity to women artists to exhibit their works to the public. The Library has organized more than 300 activities in its first seven years and the donations made by the artists who have exhibited at the Library constitute the core of an important collection of the works of women artists. The Library actively participated in two major international events in Istanbul, too. The first of these was the Annual IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations) Congress held in 1995 and the second was the Habitat II Conference of the United Nations held in 1996. The Library also takes part in the Organization Committee of the International KNOW HOW Conference on the World of Women's Information, to take place in Amsterdam in August 1998.

International Relations	A special effort has been made, since the opening of the Library, to keep contact with other women's libraries in the world. With this aim, the First International Symposium on Women's Libraries was organized by the Women's Library, Istanbul, in October 1991. The proceedings of this symposium was published in Turkish and in English and has become one of the most prominent publications of the Library since then.
	The Library was represented by one of the four founders in the Second International Conference of Women's Libraries held in the U.S.A. Visitors from Europe, the U.S.A. and other parts of the world often frequent the Library. In addition to using its facilities, they also receive free advisory help in their research activities on women in Turkey.

Projects	The Library has carried out three projects, all sponsored by KSSGM (General Directorate for the Problems and Promotion on Women), a state office attached to the Prime Ministry:
	A bibliography of books and theses on women printed/prepared in Turkey between 1950 and 1993. A women's oral history pilot project. A collection of 1994 newspaper clippings on the pro-Islamist Welfare Party's statements and actions relating to women. The Library was funded, twice, by the Global Fund for Women, for the general improvement of the archival work.

Publications	The Women's Library and Information Center publishes an illustrated diary every year:
	A Section of Women Painters in 1991, A Section of Women Photographers in 1992, A Section of Women Cinematographers in 1993, A Section of Women Ceramists in 1994, A Selection of the Library Collections in 1995, Istanbul and Women in 1996, Women and Fashion, from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic in 1997, Women and Education, from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic, in 1998. Besides having a visual content and being functional, the diaries are a means of promotion for the women artists and the Library. They are also a fundamental source of income for the Foundation. The Proceedings of the International Symposium of Women's Libraries, which was organized by the Women's Library, was published by Metis Publications in October 1992, in both Turkish and English. The book titled Istanbul Kütüphanelerindeki Eski Harfli Türkçe Kad>n Dergileri Bibliyografyasi (1869-1927) [Bibliography of Women's Periodicals Writtenin Ottoman Script (1869-1927) in Istanbul Libraries] was prepared by the Bibliography Committee (Zehra Toska, Serpil Çakir, Tülay Gençtürk, Sevim Yilmaz, Selmin Kurç, Gökçen Art, Aynur Demirdirek) of the Library and was published by Metis Publications in April 1993.

Support and Donations	The Library and archives that are established by the Women's Library and Information Center Foundation are open to the public. Membership is required only for borrowing books from the Library. Currently, the number of people who have become a member via their donations exceed 800.
	Besides donations of the members, the other major source of income for the Foundation comes from the sale of diaries, books and postcards published by the Foundation. The generous discounts and support given by publishers, bookstores and second-hand book dealers contribute a lot to the collections of the Library, alongside other donations of books and periodicals. You can support the Library by sending your donations to Vakiflar Bankasi, Etiler Branch, Account Number 2009197. Besides donations, the Library needs voluntary labour to help maintain the collections too.

This page was created in October 1998 and was last modified on by Bekir Kemal Ataman, webadmin '*at*' archimac.org. It is located at http://www.archimac.org.