February 21, 2006

HELP PRESERVE OUR HERSTORY

Rutgers University Library is interested in acquiring the papers of every New Jersey NOW chapter as well as those of NOW NJ.

Rutgers is a leader in the area of scholarship about women.  Besides its program of studies in women’s and gender history, the University sponsors a number of special research centers dedicated to women:  the well known Center for American Women and Politics, the Center for Women’s Global Leadership at Douglass College, the Center for Women and Work and the Institute for Research on Women.

The Library is interested in collecting everything we many have:  minutes, pictures, correspondence, reports, clippings.  They want documents relating to the chapters and our personal feminist activities as well.  HERE COMES THE GOOD NEWS.  We do not have to organize anything.  The librarians prefer to do that themselves.

This is what every chapter needs to do.  One person needs to volunteer to use her house or office as the collection site.  Individual members need only to get their collections together in a box or envelope and write their name, address, and phone number on their package and bring it to the “collector.”  When this phase of the work is deemed completed, the person to contact is Dr. Ronald Becker, Director, Special Collections, University Archives, Alexander Library, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ.  His phone is 732-932-7006 Ext 362.  Rutgers University will pick up all the material.  I was delighted to find out how easy this process would be.

Delight Dodyk, Northern New Jersey Chapter member, and a former women’s studies professor at Drew University put me in touch with Dr. Becker.  These are her words.  “IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT WE MODERN FEMINISTS MAKE SURE THAT OUR ACTIVITIES AND ACTIVISM ARE RECORDED AND REMEMBERED, AND THAT OUR PAPERS ARE PRESERVED FOR THE HISTORICAL RECORD.  WOMEN’S HISTORY HAS A WAY OF BEING FORGOTTEN AND IGNORED, WE MUST DO OUT PART TO MAKE SURE THIS DOESN’T CONTINUE TO HAPPEN BY REALIZING THE IMPORTANCE OF THE WORK WE ARE DOING.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Suzanne Messing