English Introduction

frida - The Austrian Network of Information and Documentation Centre for Women's Studies

Dr^a Ilse Korotin
c/o IWK-Dokumentationsstelle Frauenforschung
Berggasse 17, A-1090 Wien
Tel/Fax: +43/1/317 43 42
E-Mail: iwk.korotin@aon.at
Homepage: http://www.frida.at
Contact Person: Dr ^a Ilse Korotin (President)

Type of organisation / personnel and financial resources:
Non-profit-making organisation; at times self-employed women working on research projects on a contract basis; otherwise unpaid/voluntary work by members of the organisation

Foundation / brief overview:
Founded in 1991/1992 by a group of committed women and feminists in documentation centres, libraries or those working independently, on autonomous projects or in political organisations dealing with women's issues; mission is to represent the interests of women, to act as a discussion forum and to be a specialist and political network for women

Main points of emphasis:/Main areas of work:
Diverse networking activities, regular meetings to share ideas and experiences; workshops (1991, 1993, 1996); presentations by members at national and international conferences: presentation of projects at Women's Information Conferences in 1994 and 1998, presentation of thesaurA at a meeting of the committee responsible for women's issues of the Association of Austrian Librarians (VÖB) in 1994, KRIBBI conference in 1996, Women's Circle lecture at the University of Economics in 1996, participated in the meeting of women's archives in 1997. Since 1994 annual teaching of a module on women's documentation as part of the training course for documentalists (ÖGDI).

Holdings:
As a networking initiative, no facilities for collecting items.

Publications (see there)


Periodically:
A newsletter with the minutes of meetings of the organisation and current supplementary information is sent to all members (approximately 8 times/year).

Projects / Events / Exhibitions (only large scale):
Research project biographiA (1994), research project thesaurA (1993–96), book presentation "thesaurA" and workshop (1996), working group Internet (1996/97); co-organisation of the 29th Meeting of Women's Archives and Libraries (German-speaking) in Vienna (1997), research project kolloquiA (1997–99), participation in "Roundtable for Women-Specific Documentation" at the FH-Studiengang Informationsberufe in Eisenstadt (June 1999; initiated by the Department for Women's Political Issues/Renner-Institut); participation in IWK (Institut für wissenschaft und Kunst) research project "Biographical Database (BDÖF) and Encyclopaedia of Austrian Women (BLÖF/Biographisches Lexikon Österreichischer Frauen)" (since 1998, since 2000 name of project "biografiA").

History:
Networking began in summer 1991, with the first meeting of numerous women working in the feminist information and documentation sector, a heterogenous group including women from the radical feminist, autonomous movement, from commercial or public documentation centers (where women-specific literature is only part of the collection), and from academic libraries.

At first the meetings mainly focused on the different working conditions of autonomous women and those in institutions, and on the kinds and subjects of the collections. But there was a general need and interest to increase cooperation and networking. Therefore we agreed on three steps to further the exchange of ideas:

1) To formulate conditions and needs for cooperation in an Austria-wide network
2) To create an organisational framework for this cooperation
3) To prepare women-specific projects in the information and documentation fields