Reviewed:
17th January 1996
By:
Dianne Nelson
As Subject Librarian for a Computer Studies and Maths Faculty, I am frequently asked to help with student projects. One topic that crops up every year is some aspect of Women in Computing for which I have collected an impressive folder of information. This year I was horrified to discover that this valuable resource had been "borrowed", and not returned. In desperation I turned to the Internet. The most useful materials for student projects are bibliographies, full text of articles and reports, and directories tolocate names and addresses of relevant organisations. My prayers were answered by Websters' Network: Women in Information Technology.
From this Web site I could follow clear routes to all the required resources. The term Webster, we are told, is derived from the Old English word "webbestre" meaning female weaver - a name more appealing than Cyberpunk, Netsurfer, or any of the other peculiar labels for Internet users.
The stated aim of this web page is to "provide an annotated list of sources relatingto, or useful for, women in the fields of library and information science, computer science and information technology".The aims are met by a list of resources including links to bibliographies, directories, and organisations. The quality varies widely from the seriously academic to the extremely frivolous, but my major gripe is the overwhelming US bias. The strong point of this Web site are the excellent annotations throughout which decrease the randomness of searching by making it possible to select the most relevant links. The page is well set out with a clear Table of Contents at the beginnning, which is also annotated.
Women In Info Technology Web site.
The best link I selected from the Table of Contents, was Meta-Resources.Described as "one stop shopping for Information on Women and Technology", it provides further links to other Web sites, two of which, I discovered, were full of just the material I was after.
Women and Computer Science, a Web page run by Ellen Spertus of MIT, in the US. It includes pointers to her own writings, including a full report on Women Undergraduate Enrolment in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT,and those of several other women. It also has complete articles from journals, anda reasonable bibliography .
The ADA Project (TAP), of the ACM Committee on the Status of Women in Computing is based at Yale University in the US. This WWW site is designed as a clearinghouse for information and resources relating to women and computing. It includes information on conferences, projects, discussion groups, organisations, fellowships and grants, notable women in Computer Science and links to other relevant Web sites. One of the excellent resources which TAP maintains is a substantial bibliography, subdivided into - Women in Computer Science, Women in Science and Engineering, History of Women in Science and Engineering, etc..Users are encouraged to add to the bibliographies, which is the ideal way tomaintain a dynamic and up-to-date resource. The Women in Computer Science bibliography consists of six pages of very useful references.
Exploring all the links from the starting point of Webster's Network could take forever. Many lead back to the same resources, and after a while one gets the feeling of going round in circles, always ending up in the United States. The shortage of UK resources for Women and Computing is probably because UK Webster's are not developing their own sites. The UK links I found were, the Women's Engineering Society - Southampton Group, and the Octavia Projectfunded by the Education, Science and Research Council (ESRC).
My Internet explorations resulted in an excellent bibliography from The ADA Project, some full text conference papers, and the address of the UK organisation, Women Into Computing. Given more time, I could have unearthed lots more good stuff, but decided to leave something for the student to do.
Material on this page is copyright Ariadne/original authors. This article last updated/links checked on 11-Jul-1997