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The European Journal of Women’s Studies 9(4)
The library collects and registers all Danish publications on women’s studies,
gender studies, men’s studies, queer studies, gender equality, central and valid
statistics, biographies and autobiographies of Danish women, exhibition cata-
logues of Danish women artists, etc. When it comes to other Scandinavian
countries, such as Sweden and Norway, we aim at collecting nearly at the same
high level as for the Danish material. This decision is based on the fact that welfare
state models and the ways to work for gender equality are very similar in all the
Scandinavian countries. We also collect the most important international research
on women, gender and men’s studies, and the most important publications about
equal opportunities in the member states of the European Union. In fact, no less
than 60 percent of our collection is made up of material in English.
KVINFO has its own classification and subject indexing system invented by
Nynne Koch, our founder, and developed over the years by ourselves. It has been
adapted to the needs of a research library like ours, specializing in women’s and
gender studies. The philosophy behind this unique system is to enrich each post
in the catalogue with key words giving each post as many search-entrances as
possible.
The library also houses the Danish Women’s Photo Archive, a file of 5000 photo-
graphs of Danish women taken between 1880 and 1940. The photographs were
collected in the 1980s and give a good insight into women’s private and public
lives. A small selection of these photos can be viewed at our homepage:
working in the fields, women in the kitchen, women on bikes, women teachers,
female industrial workers, etc. The archive is currently accessible at KVINFO in
the form of catalogue cards with contact copies. The negatives are stored at the
Royal Library and copies can be ordered at production price.
At the library’s website there is, among other things, access to links to other
women’s libraries, research centres, women’s and men’s organizations and other
sites. We have a list of addresses of central organizations, associations and NGOs
working with women’s and gender issues in Denmark, and several lists of
important dates in Danish women’s history. It is also possible to read about the
origin of the International Women’s Day in Danish and German, still celebrated
each year on 8 March in several countries.
OTHER ACTIVITIES
Besides the library, KVINFO offers many other facilities, projects and services.
Every year, we arrange a wide range of lectures, seminars and cultural events. In
recent years, it has been our deliberate strategy to strengthen our services on
best way of reaching our target group and fulfilling our purpose as a documen-
tation and information centre.
FORUM FOR GENDER & CULTURE
KVINFO’s magazine, Forum, was launched in 1982 and until 1992 it was the only
Danish women’s studies journal. In 1998, KVINFO decided to stop publishing the
paper edition altogether and thus it became the first Danish cultural web
magazine. The purpose of the web magazine is to reach new groups of readers and
to place gender on the agenda. The aim is to increase the visibility of Danish