WINE - Women Information Network Europe

About Her

WINE is the network of women's libraries, archives and information centres in Europe.

She aims at:

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.
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.

The cooperation of WINE and ATHENA

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.

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

ATHENA3 is now in its final year. The dissemination of its products is the focus of the agenda for 2010.

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.

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