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Dissertation Information for Marilyn J. Martin

NAME:
- Marilyn J. Martin

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science

SCHOOL:
- Texas Woman's University (USA) (1993)

ADVISORS:
- Keith Swigger

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Frank L. Turner
- Stephen Louis Recken

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: From Altruism to Activism: the Contributions of Women's Organizations to Arkansas Public Libraries

Abstract: In 1933 the American Library Association estimated that seventy-five percent of all public libraries in the United States were founded by women's organizations. Historians of the library movement have, for the most part, overlooked this phenomenon. Arkansas women's organizations were particularly active on behalf of libraries, establishing sixty-four between 1880 and 1990. Literary clubs flourishing at the turn of the century were responsible for thirty-four of these.

This study examines the involvement of Arkansas women's organizations in public libraries to determine whether their contributions reflected the changing social roles of women in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The study also contributes to the rewriting and completion of the history of Arkansas public libraries.

The research is based on a survey designed to identify libraries founded by women's organizations and to ascertain the existence of records documenting their history. Records and documents identified by the survey were used to answer the following questions: Who joined literary clubs and why? What motivated club women to found libraries? What was the relationship between libraries founded by literary clubs and the broader public library movement? What does this tell us about women's roles in society?

Findings indicate that women joined literary clubs to expand their influence beyond the sphere of homemaking and child rearing. Founding public libraries was often a first step toward activist reforms typical of the Progressive Era. Gaining confidence and credibility with library projects, Arkansas club women advanced to other causes such as child labor legislation, penal reform, and city sanitation systems, all the while protecting their images as housewives and mothers. Their contributions to public libraries did indeed reflect the changing social roles of women in turn-of-the-century America, since that change was predicated upon the good women could do, and not on their basic human right to equality.

MPACT Scores for Marilyn J. Martin

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:12:42

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