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

Abstract

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.