Reproduction: A Guide to Materials in the Women's Education Resources Centre

Virginia Gillham is Associate Librarian of the Public Service Library at
the University of Guelph.

This bibliography includes citations to references on abortion,
reproductive rights, surrogacy, teenage pregnancy, birth control,
reproductive technologies, reproductive health, midwifery, family
planning, genetic engineering, pregnancy and childbirth, fertility and
infertility, fetal rights, and sex education. Its intellectual content
is of inestimable value. Its organization and access methodology may
well intimidate users who lack a background in bibliography or library
science.

The nearly 3500 references are organized alphabetically by main entry
under their major subject headings. A subject index in an appendix
offers access by secondary subjects, but neither index benefits from any
cross-reference information. Additional appendixes offer access by
author and title. The trick for anyone searching by subject is to
identify the correct subject heading under which to search. This is
relatively easily accomplished for such headings as “abortion” or
“sterilization,” but less easily accomplished when the heading is
“City of Osaka” (entered under “C” as opposed to “O”) or
“Today Vaginal Contraceptive Sponge” (with no alternative entry
under vaginal, contraceptive, or sponge).

Many of the titles referenced form part of the 50,000-item vertical
file of the WERC library. We are told that there is a long-range plan to
index the entire file, though there is no suggestion that any
technological aids or cross-references will be employed to simplify
access. We are also told that the WERC database is searchable on-line;
however, this resource presumably does not include the contents of the
vertical file, since they are not yet indexed. Nor does the on-line
search capability appear to encompass random key-word access. Rather, it
seems to be tied to the same perverse subject-heading list without
cross-references.

This bibliography is a must for any library or researcher with an
interest in any aspect of the subject matter. Users will be well served
when it appears in electronic format with random key-word and
combined-term search capabilities.