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THE WOMEN'S LIBRARY AND INFORMATION CENTER FOUNDATION
(ISTANBUL)
In the period between the middle of the nineteenth century and the early days of the twentieth,
women all over the world were still living in a cloistered world, although at different levels in their
societies, and prevented from doing and participating in the full range of activities permitted to men.
Although some women from time to time rebelled against these barriers, and succeeded in breaking
through them, they remained individual isolated cases. In the early nineteenth century the struggle
to bring down the heavy walls of this restricted domain gradually became somewhat more of a mass
movement, set in motion by pioneering women, groups and organisations. At the same time as this
process of organised struggle was beginning, a wealth of documents, both written and visual, such as
publications, posters, diaries, photos, letters, communiques and reminiscences relating to the fight
for women’s rights, also started to accumulate in the possession of these pioneering women, groups
and organisations.
Parallel with this struggle for rights and
equality, a new awareness began to
blossom that there was a need for women
themselves to look after, acquire and
preserve the documents and archives
about the lives and struggles of women in
the past, generated by women and the
women’s movement, to serve as witness
for future generations. This is precisely
how the process of collecting and
preserving documents pertaining to
women and establishing related libraries
and archives began. These libraries and
archives constitute the memory of women
and women’s movements and their
growth is parallel to the development of a
feminist consciousness.
The Women’s Library, Istanbul
Photo by Ara Güler, 2007
These libraries have another important function: to track down and identify material pertaining
to women preserved in other libraries and archives. By creating new information about resource
materials, they render the invisible woman visible. Thus, women’s libraries grew out of a need to
document women’s history and present specific material on women’s lives and experiences usually
unavailable in regular libraries. A strong feeling that women’s concerns and histories had been
largely overlooked in traditional public or academic libraries led women themselves to redress the
balance with both women ‐ specific documents and the reclassification of subject headings.
The process of establishing the Women’s Library and Information Center Foundation in Istanbul
started in 1985, when one of the co‐founders of the Library first conceived the idea of a women’s
library. At that time it seemed more like an impossible dream than a serious possibility. When she
met another of the future co‐founders in 1988, the Library was still a dream but no longer an
impossible one, and once they had met the three other co‐founders, the dream grew into a serious
project. The story of our beginnings is thus a very long one, but finally the legal status of the Library
as a foundation was established on the 8 of March 1990, and the Library opened to the public on the
14 of April 1990 in its current premises. The Library will celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2015. These
twenty five years have been a long process of struggle both to survive and to establish the
collections.
The Library’s aims include a recognition that the documentation of women’s history provides a
source of empowerment for women, because hitherto women have had limited access to education,
public expression and publication. In a number of cities all over the world information centres,