A Historical Perspective on Gender Issues in American Librarianship

Library history continues to reflect library gender politics more than current trends in social history or women's studies. Accordingly, the myth of female responsibility for the low status of librarianship, vital to the maintenance of a largely male elite, remains almost unchallenged in historical and other writings on the library. This paper will provide a brief overview of the connection between library politics and library history and the emergent trends in writing library history. It will review some major concepts in recent scholarship in relevant disciplines and suggest a new model for looking at a crucial period in library history.