Hello, I am Celine. As a student of Literature and Arts from Germany, I was delighted to have the chance of diving into the history of Glasgow Women’s Library. It is my pleasure to share with you in a series of twelve blog posts some of the highlights captured in past GWL Newsletters. I hope you enjoy reading about them as much as I did during my placement at this wonderful place and join in the celebration of the Library’s 30th Anniversary.
When Glasgow Women’s Library was founded thirty years ago, everyone involved worked on a voluntary basis for a several years, which shows just how important volunteering is to the successful life of the Library. As a driving force, volunteers have devoted their time and dedication over thirty years now. This is deeply appreciated and it is clear that GWL would not be able to thrive without their helping hands. Side by side, one can see women working together from the launch on.
The value and space given to volunteers is apparent right from Issue 1 (1996) of GWL’s Newsletters which mentions the “volunteers’ section of the Library”. The recurring column ‘Volunteer Profile’ allowed space for volunteers to share their experiences with the readers of the Newsletter. There is also plenty of evidence of investment in volunteers, such with training being offered, which dates back to Issue 11 (1999), and is still part of the Volunteer Programme today. Currently, there are around 70 volunteers actively supporting GWL, who join a long line of women who have played a role in Glasgow Women’s Library’s growth over the past 30 years and have given their time, brought new ideas, shared their skills, and consistently made GWL a warm, fun and exciting place to be.
As well as involving and supporting volunteers, Glasgow Women’s Library has offered placements to students from a whole range of courses (including Museum Studies, Library Studies, Community Development, Publishing, Gender Studies, Gender History, History of Art, Curatorial Practice, and many others). A detailed report from one of the first students at GWL, Christiane J. from the Humboldt University in Berlin, allows an insight into the beginning of this form of collaboration. It was identified as a “logical and mutually beneficial scheme”, which allow students to enjoy an enriching time at Glasgow Women’s Library still today. Christiane’s article was published in Issue 10 (1999) and functions as a marker in history about what was going on at the Library at the time. “Cataloguing and systemising the huge amount of women and lesbian related materials” was one of the tasks yet to be done. The feminist classification system, developed by today’s Librarian Wendy Kirk, would only come later on in GWL’s history (you can read about the classification scheme in last month’s blog). Yet, it is so lovely to see how far the Library has come, when looking back at the goals they had set, articulated in Christiane’s report:
“[…] the decision to insist for the future on funding on a regular basis which expresses the self-esteem the Library has acquired as an indispensable part of the Glaswegian Women and Lesbian movement and as the only women’s library in Scotland, one of three in Britain. Financial support would not only allow more paid staff members and more activities, that could be attractive to a wider range of women, it would also permit a move to a bigger space, to be a library, lesbian archive, women’s cafe research centre, meeting place, cinema, etc.”
Having a look back at all the women who helped shape Glasgow Women’s Library over the years enhances the appreciation for everyone who has given their help and support to this day. It also highlights the organisation’s commitment to involving a wide range of people and to working collaboratively, be that with volunteers, students, creatives or partner organisations. When the Newsletters were being published there was no team member solely responsible for involving volunteers, yet volunteers were invited and encouraged to contribute to the publication. All staff members took responsibility for ensuring volunteers were supported and able to contribute to GWL, whether to the newsletters or in other ways. While this continues to this day, there are now (since 2011) dedicated team members responsible for recruiting, training and providing a range of ongoing support to volunteers. If you would like to find out more about our volunteering programme visit this page.
This blog post titled 30 Years of Volunteering by Celine Kempf is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
