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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ALEXANDRIA, VA and BINGHAMTON, NY, March 3, 2010—In partnership with SUNY Binghamton's Center for the Historical Study of Women and Gender, Alexander Street today announced that one of their most popular online resources, Women and Social Movements in the United States 1600-2000, Scholar’s Edition, will be freely accessible for the month of March so that all librarians, students, instructors, and scholars can explore the site’s rich collection of primary materials and teaching tools without passwords or fees. The URL is http://wass.alexanderstreet.com

Named a Best Reference Database of the year by Library Journal and an Outstanding Academic Title for the year by CHOICE Academic Reviews, Women and Social Movements has garnered numerous awards and wide recognition, and is one of the most heavily visited women's studies sites online. Ordinarily accessible only to faculty and students at subscribing colleges and universities, the collection includes primary materials such as diaries, letters, photographs, and pamphlets and makes them cross-searchable together with scholarly essays, commentaries, bibliographies, and other important reference and secondary materials in what is the most comprehensive documentation of women's activism in public life to date. New content is added to the site semi-annually.

Edited by the project's creators, professors Kathryn Kish Sklar and Thomas Dublin of SUNY Binghamton, Women and Social Movements also boasts an editorial board of leading women's history scholars from across the U.S. At the heart of the collection are about one hundred document projects organized around interpretive questions that give context to the wealth of primary materials. Questions such as, “How did the National Women's Conference in Houston in 1977 shape a feminist agenda for the future?” and “How did black and white southern women campaign to end lynching, 1890-1942?” serve as ready-made classroom tools and as models that teach students how to work with, interpret, and conduct research using primary sources. A free companion blog, Women and Social Movements: The Online Discussion, serves as a community forum for women’s history scholars who discuss how they’ve made use of the resource in their courses, share syllabi, and exchange ideas.

Said Professor Sklar, “The open access period makes it possible for faculty and students at universities that haven’t been able to subscribe to the collection to get in and make use of these materials. When we announced a similar opportunity in 2006, tens of thousands of visitors from all over the world came to the site. Since then, the collection has grown to include thousands of additional primary documents, teaching tools, reviews, and other materials, including conference proceedings, biographies, and government documents.”

According to Alexander Street Vice President Eileen Lawrence who commented on the collection’s continued popularity since its launch in 2003, “Women and Social Movements remains one of the collections we are most proud to have published—it’s a must-have resource at every level, from two-year colleges to the largest research institutions and the most specialized graduate programs. That’s in large part thanks to the efforts of Kathryn Kish Sklar and Tom Dublin who have created not only an invaluable teaching and research tool, but a vibrant community of history scholarship that revolves around this collection.”

To access Women and Social Movements, visit http://wass.alexanderstreet.com before April 1, 2010.

© Copyright 2010 Alexander Street Press. All rights reserved.                        Last Updated: 04-Mar-2010