The following article appears in Digital Humanities Quarterly (Vol 9, No.2; 2015).
Title
The Shock of the Familiar: Three Timelines about Gender and Technology in the Library
Author
Gabrielle Dean
Johns Hopkins University
Source
Digital Humanities Quarterly
Vol 9, No 2; 2015
Abstract
Widespread ideals about libraries are in conflict with deep-rooted gender-based inequities within the library and gendered perceptions of libraries and librarians by the larger public. These contradictions are particularly striking when we look at gender in conjunction with information technologies that help to structure work-roles in the library, especially as these change. This article uses conventional and “fictional” timelines to survey the historical junctures of gender and technology in the library and to speculate about the future of the academic library, with particular attention to deployments of the digital humanities in the library and its potential for disrupting these long-standing gender patterns.
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