COSWL Cause

Herta Müller "who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed"

Herta Müller has been named by the Swedish Academy as the winner of the 2009 Nobel prize for literature

Subject: Message from the NWHM - H.R. 1700

WASHINGTON, DC - Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) today hailed
committee passage of her bill, H.R. 1700, which establishes a
National Women's History Museum on the Mall in Washington,
DC to honor the role that women have played in American
History. It passed the House Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure by a voice vote.

"Less than five percent of the 2,400 national historic landmarks
chronicle women's achievement and of the 211 statues here in
the U.S. Capitol, only ten are of female leaders," Rep. Maloney
said. "The museums and memorials in Washington are one
measure of what our society values. We already have museums
for stamps and spies. This bill would provide women, comprising
53% of our population, a long overdue home to honor their many
contributions to building our country."

"From Susan B. Anthony to Oprah Winfrey, from Hattie Caraway--
the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate--to Julie Taymor--the
first woman to win a Tony Award for Directing--the story of what
women have contributed to the American way of life is a story
long overdue for the telling," she continued. "This museum will do
just that, and I'm grateful for the leadership of Chairman Oberstar
and Ranking Member Mica in moving H.R. 1700 through the
Committee, and for the extraordinary support of District
Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton. Now, it's on to the House
floor!"

"Women are indispensable to the functioning of society, but
absent from the Mall and other prominent monument sites in
Washington. We are overdue in giving women their due," Rep.
Norton said. Norton also said she is particularly proud of the
women who have raised funds and have persisted with the effort
to build a museum for women in the nation's capital. Norton has
been a strong proponent of the museum, not only because of its
importance to women, but also because of its significant potential
to bring to D.C., a major tourist town, new visitors and to
encourage others to stay longer.

"Women will finally have a front row seat on the National Mall. We
are very appreciative of Representative Maloney's leadership on
this. She's really been our champion and Chairwoman Norton,
whose efforts moved the bill, has been extremely supportive,"
said Joan Wages, President & CEO of the National Women's
History Museum.

The bill directs the General Services Administration (GSA) to sell
its old Cotton Annex property on the Mall at 12th and
Independence to the museum at fair-market rates. The museum
would be built and maintained with private funds.

Senator Susan Collins (ME) is working on introducing the
companion bill in the Senate.

Heather McHugh

Heather McHugh is a poet whose intricately patterned compositions explore various aspects of the human condition and inspire wonder in the unexpected associations that language can evoke. The author of eight volumes of poetry, numerous works of translation, and a book of essays on poetics, McHugh has been a significant voice in American literary life for almost four decades. In poems that are rich with wordplay — puns, rhymes, syntactical twists — she reveals the complex layers of meaning that individual words or phrases contain. The result is intellectually challenging, yet emotionally engaging verse that balances gravity with humor. In Eyeshot (2003), McHugh combines a range of literary traditions in poems that focus on our struggle to mediate the world and our place in it through the filter of sensory perceptions. She mines words for contradictions and double-meanings, offering the reader an expansive, fresh perspective on such themes as love and mortality. McHugh’s verbal playfulness and expressive range are also evident in her translation of Euripedes’ Cyclops (2001), the only surviving satyr play in Greek drama, as well as her widely respected series of essays, Broken English: Poetry and Partiality (1993). In this collection, she examines the relationship among language, culture, and poetry in works by authors ranging from Aeschylus to Dickinson to Rilke. A prolific writer of verse, translations, and essays and a dedicated teacher, McHugh has already influenced a generation of poets and will continue to enrich the art form for years to come.

On Account of Sex: An Annotated Bibliography on the Status of Women in Librarianship (Paperback)
by Betsy Kruger (Author)
As with its four predecessors, the 1990-2002 compilation of this annotated bibliography continues the commitment of ALA's Committee on the Status of Women in Librarianship to identify published materials on the status of women in the profession and to compile, update, and issue a bibliography of these materials on a regular basis. Materials published in the library and information science literature as well as the literature of related fields (i.e., social sciences, management, higher education, and women's studies) have been compiled. Relevant statistical compilations, such as ARL Salary Surveys, which examine gender as a variable are covered. Topics include career development for women; salary and compensation; sex discrimination; equal stratification in the field; and the history of women in the profession. The book has a broad subject arrangement, and entries within are arranged chronologically. Each annotation provides the researcher with sufficient information about the source to make a decision on its usefulness and applicability.