Dissertation Information for Juris DilevkoNAME:
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SCHOOL: ADVISORS: COMMITTEE MEMBERS: MPACT Status: Fully Complete Title: As the library turns: Women, technology, and advertisements in the Wired World Abstract: This study examines advertisements appearing in five library journals and in Wired during the period 1991-1997 that depict women and men working with computer information technology. The methodology combines content analysis and semiotic analysis in order to investigate how the library milieu has been socially constructed in ads during a period of profound technological change. Librarianship has long been identified as a women's profession, yet there is growing evidence that certain specialties--such as cataloging and collection development--are undergoing deskilling and marginalization at the same time as other areas of library work--such as computer systems--are increasingly being taken over by men. While men account for about 18% of librarians in North America, ads in library journals display men working with computer information technologies at a rate of about 38%. Cataloging and circulation functions are clearly identified with women in these ads. Conversely, reference and online searching tasks, bibliographic instruction, and systems work are evolving, in the examined ads, into subfields in which women and men are more equally represented. Thematic analysis of these advertisements reveals that women are, to a large extent, identified with the theme of simplicity. Further literary analysis of ads in library journals indicates that, on numerous occasions, women are presented in a less than flattering light. Advertisements in Wired marginalize women as computer technology users to a very great degree, and when women are shown using computers, traditional physical and domestic stereotypes are invoked. |
MPACT Scores for Juris DilevkoA = 1 Advisors and Advisees Graph |