The Dutch women's thesaurus: A tool for cooperation between women's collections in the Netherlands and Belgium

Abstract

The Dutch Women's thesaurus is an example of close cooperation between many workers in Women's Studies and the library and information world. It is the outcome of a 4-year project and is a joint publication of the Anna Maria van Schuurman Centre, Graduate School for Research on Women's Studies at the University of Utrecht and of the International Information Centre and Archives for the Women's Movement in Amsterdam. This article contains a brief review of the situation of women's collection in the Netherlands, followed by a description of the thesaurus project itself. The two main characteristics of the Dutch Women's thesaurus are described: they involve an ideological change in concepts in comparison with mainstream indexing and classification systems, in that women's experience is central and men's experience is the exception. The thesaurus is used in many women's collections, devoted entirely to women's materials, in the Netherlands and Flemish Belgium. In this way it provides the much-needed uniform indexing system to promote cooperation and the exchange of information. Mainstream (special, academic, or public) libraries with a Women's Studies section now have a resource on hand to enable them to incorporate new perceptions on women's issues into their own indexing systems.