Shirley Jones
In the beginning Jessie Street National Women's Library was established as a national library with its sole focus the literary and cultural heritage of women.
Catering primarily for the researcher and the reader, the Library aims to:
The idea of a national women's library in Australia was first mooted in 1989 and met with an enthusiastic response. Because this year was the centenary of Jessie Street's birth (see article) it was proposed to name the library in her honour. A steering committee worked hard, printing and distributing brochures, talking at women's groups and generally raising public awareness of the idea. In August 1989 at the inaugural meeting a management committee was elected. In March 1990, the organisation was incorporated and granted registered charity status; donations became tax deductible, which was, and still is, of tremendous value to a young and self-funded organisation.
The foundation of the collection came in 1990 with the donation of 500 feminist books. Stored originally in someone's laundry, the books were unpacked and put on shelves in a room off the library in the NSW Teachers' Federation building. It was highly exciting to see the beginnings of a women's library, albeit a very modest one.
From
there the growing book and archival collection was transferred, in 1993, to
temporary accommodation in a leased room at the NSW Writers' Centre in Sydney.
A move to raise money to restore an old Town Hall (a heritage-listed building)
in one of Sydney's suburbs was unsuccessful and the committee was once again
seeking permanent accommodation. One of the organisations approached was the
City of Sydney. Negotiations proved fruitful and in December 1997 the councillors
voted unanimously to offer the library accommodation in Town Hall House at
minimal rental. We are very proud to be supported in such a way by the City
of Sydney. Photo: packing up the Library at the NSW Writers' Centre before
moving to Town Hall House in 1999.
The year 1998 was one of ups and downs and the inevitable delays. However the renovation of the space being provided was completed in February 1999, and JSNWL has finally moved into its new premises. The library has its own separate space on Level 1 of Town Hall House in an area fittingly shared with the City Archives.
The library's book collection consists of material relating to women and women's issues and contains both fiction and non-fiction. In the fiction area, the emphasis is on Australian women writers. Our wide collection has been entirely acquired through donations from a wide variety of individuals, organisations and book publishers. In some cases we have been given entire libraries, such as that from Women's Liberation House. We have also acquired material from the libraries of women's organisations that have closed. We see this as one of our functions - the preserving of material that might otherwise be abandoned.
The
collection now numbers over 6000 volumes, all of which have been catalogued
and recorded on computer database. This will soon be accessible through the
Internet.
The archival material has also been acquired through donation, and we encourage women to contact us if they have material they think would be valuable for the Library to hold. We collect women's diaries, letters, journals and personal papers; papers from women's organisations and ethnic women's groups; as well as manuscripts of published works. Among our collection are: the entire Canberra Women's Archive, which represents the history of the women's movement in Canberra, 1975-87; papers from the Australian Council for Women relating to Australia's preparation for the Beijing conference in September 1995; and papers from the Association of Non-English Speaking Background Women of Australia (ANESBWA). Photo: A group of people, at the NSW Writers' Centre, who knew and worked with Jessie Street are recording their stories of her, led by Faith Bandler.
A special project the library is currently running is the Tapestry project. We are encouraging women to contribute stories of their mothers, grandmothers, sisters, friends - or their own personal stories. All women have interesting stories to tell and these will form a significant social document of lives that would otherwise not be recorded. Women's lives are too often invisible. This was made apparent to us when we received a contribution from a man writing his mother's story. His father and two brothers featured in the item, but a photograph accompanying it included two sisters. When we rang to ask why the sisters were not mentioned, he told us that he didn't think this was important. We were completed floored by his added comment that it was odd we should ask that question, because it was exactly what his sisters had asked when shown his contribution!
Our
library is kept functioning by the work of a dedicated band of volunteers.
Those who staff the library are professionally trained, committed to the concept
of a women's library and keen to further it. Some are retired librarians,
others are students obtaining library qualifications or women who have completed
a library course but have not yet found employment. Professional archivists
too, have given their services as volunteers to the library. And volunteers
help also with a myriad other tasks from newsletter mailouts to the making
of sandwiches for our lunch-hour functions. Photo: A meeting of committee
and volunteers on the verandah of the NSW Writers' Centre in Rozelle, Sydney.
Jessie Street National Women's Library is self-funded and relies for funding on membership subscriptions, donations by members and well-wishers and fundraising activities. Our major event of the year is the luncheon held in Parliament House each September. Amongst our fundraising functions are our popular lunch-hour talks, held on the third Thursday of each month. This year we are holding these in the Lady Mayoress' Rooms in the Sydney Town Hall, rooms of great beauty containing wonderful antique furniture.
Donations big and small are very welcome. We were very grateful to be given last year a donation of over $6000 from the Women's Place in Brisbane and earlier we received $3000 from a quilter's group in Sydney. Many smaller donations made by individuals add substantially to our budget.
We have members Australia-wide. Each year a member runs a fundraising function for the library in Brisbane and we are planning functions in other States.
Jessie Street
National Women's Library liaises with important women's libraries overseas
- the Fawcett Library in London, the International Information Centre and
Archives for the Women's Movement (IIAV) in Amsterdam, the Bibliothèque
Marguerite Durand in Paris, the Schlesinger Library in Harvard, Massachusetts
and the newest of the organisations, the Women's Library and Information Center
in Istanbul. Many members have visited these libraries and shared their experiences
by writing personal reports for the JSNWL newsletter. Photo: At the launch
of the Library in 1992, Eve Higson talks to Hon Elizabeth Evatt under a portrait
of Jesse Street.
We are becoming more widely known overseas. We recently received, from a university in the USA, a faxed request for a journal article, a request that we realised should have been directed to the National Library in Canberra. Are we becoming better known in the US than the National Library?
Jessie Street
National Women's Library is a young organisation but growing strongly. Our
new premises are centrally located in the city of Sydney. Town Hall House
is immediately above the Town Hall station and near numerous bus stops. Our
street address is Level 1, Town Hall House, 456 Kent Street, Sydney, 2000
and from 10 March we are open Mondays to Fridays from 10 am to 3 pm. We welcome
all visitors. Photo: Hon Elizabeth Evatt speaking at the opening of the exhibition,
"Jessie Street and the Foundation of the United Nations" in the
Jesse Street auditorium in 1992.
Library Enquiries:
GPO Box 2656, Sydney, NSW 2001
Telephone: (02) 9265 9486
Fax: (02) 9265 9646
Email address: jsnwl@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
Administration/Secretary
Telephone/Fax: (02) 9876 3927
Shirley Jones is the Secretary of the Management Committee of the JSNWL.