Library Index to The History of the Women's Club Movement in America

This master's thesis describes the compilation of an index referencing libraries in "The History of the Woman's Club Movement in America," a 1,173-page work without an index which was published in 1895. This project was undertaken to facilitate using this work for research on women's roles in the development of libraries. A controlled vocabulary of 24 library-related terms was developed and their use in the history was recorded. The resulting index includes the names of clubs and cities involved in library development, and a separate index to the cities mentioned was also assembled. The report provides (1) background information on the women's club movement and a description of the genesis of the history; (2) a discussion of problems with the history, e.g., inconsistencies in the information gathering process, redundancies, unclear references, and the lack of an index; (3) a description of the methodology of the indexing project, including the definitions, rationale, intent, and limitations of the controlled vocabulary; (4) suggestions for further research; and (5) a discussion of the 16 library associations mentioned in the history. Copies of the subject and city indexes follow the text of the report, and appended materials include a list of the controlled vocabulary used in the subject index and a list of libraries, by institution, that own a copy of the history