WINE is a network of women’s libraries, archives and information centres in Europe (Web)

Currently more than 50 organizations from several countries are members of WINE network’s purpose is to provide a common platform for European women’s libraries in terms of education and research in gender, women’s and feminist studies.

WINE AND FRAGEN
European women’s libraries and scholars from all over Europe are working together on the Fragen project which aims to collect the mst important texts from the feminist movements of the second part of the 20th Century.

In the context of this project, women’s libraries and academic researchers are selecting relevant feminist texts – such as books, articles and pamphlets – which have been influential in the development of feminist ideas in the 1970s and -80s in Europe. The objective is to make information available for comparative research into the history of feminist ideas in different European countries. Aletta (FP6 Integrated Project – 2006-2011) (Quality in Gender + Equality policies).

WINE and IFLA
IFLA, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, is the leading international body representing the interests of library and information services and their users. It is a worldwide organization with many members. At the annual conference which took place in Sweden 2010, 3.300 participants of 125 countries where present. By linking up WINE with IFLA we can reach many women and use the IFLA infrastructure to communicate with women, we could not reach before.
IFLA and WINE will organize a satellite meeting on ‘Women and Gender information issues’ prior to the IFLA conference in Helsinki in 2012. MINNA, the centre for gender equality information in Tampere agreed to take a leading role in this respect.

HERStory
Members of the WINE network have been active in European join activities and the one with ATHENA is certainly one of the most fruitful of these co-operations: it has indeed a long history back and could be a fruitful and positive one for the future.

In this context, WINE is an independent network which holds a working relationship with ATHENA as a way of qualifying for European subsidies. In other words, ATHENA, as a well-established European network, should be considered as a source of funding in the first phase of the consolidation of WINE.

On the other hand, WINE will be the major actor in disseminating the outcomes and results of the Thematic Network ATHENA, through its great network capacity, publications and databases. WINE co-operated with ATHENA to strengthen the link between academic research and information/documentation by:

• co-ordinating the development of the partners’ facilities in the direction of training and research;
• creating positive synergies with university programmes in Women’s Studies;
• fulfilling a representative function for its partners within different programmes of the European Commission in the field of information and documentation services on women and gender.
• setting up specific regional meetings for professionals in the field, which will take place in the time-slots in-between the larger international ‘Know How’ conferences.
• broadening the number of partner institutions from all the European countries. Therefore special attention is given in both WINE and ATHENA to the development of co-operative ties with Eastern and Southern European partners.

The initiative emerged during an expert meeting that took place in Utrecht in 1995, organized by the Network WISE and the IIAV (now Aletta).
The need for such an European network of women’s libraries, documentation and information centres was recognized by the university partners and integrated into the preparations for the Socrates Thematic Network ATHENA in 1995.

The plans for WINE were officially presented at the Limerick conference in 1996, when the European Association of Women’s Studies AOIFE was officially established.

In October 2002, new ideas and future projects have been discussed and formalized during the Bologna meeting, co-organized with ATHENA.

ATHENA3, the Advanced Thematic Network of Women’s Studies in Europe, brings together 80 institutes in the interdisciplinary field of Women’s and Gender Studies. ATHENA’s aim is to unite scholars, teachers, and stakeholders from civil society and public institutions in the field of gender and diversity.

ATHENA3 is the continuation of the activities and results of two three-year cycles of ATHENA (1997-2001) and ATHENA2 (2003-2006) and those undertaken during the dissemination year (2002-2003). The main achievement of these activities has been the growth of the European dimension and institutional development of the new scholarly field of women’s studies.
In Athena3 WINE network co-operate with the working group 3A as a separate group. The aim of the area 3 is to strengthen cooperation between academic and social and/or civil organizations addressing women or gender differences.

Please pay a visit to the expert database of group 3A for updates on intersectionality: www.rosadoc.be/athena
WINE network is a focal point for the dissemination thanks to her capacity in spread publications, information, teaching series through women and gender research’s libraries, gender equality units and women’s organisations.