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Career Action Center-Resource Center for Women Records, 1972-2002
M1654  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Publication Rights
  • Preferred Citation
  • Access
  • Arrangement
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Organizational History
  • Acquisition Information

  • Language of Material: English
    Contributing Institution: Department of Special Collections and University Archives
    Title: Career Action Center-Resource Center for Women Records
    Creator: Career Action Center
    Identifier/Call Number: M1654
    Identifier/Call Number: 2999
    Physical Description: 18 Linear Feet (30 manuscript boxes, 2 flat boxes, 1 map folder)
    Date (inclusive): 1972-2002
    Abstract: The collection contains materials related to the founding and history of the Career Action Center-Resource Center for Women, a job resource center active on the San Francisco Peninsula between 1973-2002.

    Publication Rights

    All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California 94304-6064. Consent is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner, heir(s) or assigns. See: http://library.stanford.edu/depts/spc/pubserv/permissions.html.
    Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Career Action Center-Resource Center for Women Records, M1654, Dept. of Special Collections, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif.

    Access

    Collection is open for research.

    Arrangement

    The collection is arranged into seven series:
    Series I. History
    Series II. Administrative Records
    Series III.Financial Records and Fund Development
    Series IV. Programs and Publications
    Series V. Audio/Visual Materials
    Series VI. Addendum 2013
    Series VII. Addendum 2021-119

    Scope and Content of Collection

    This collection includes administrative records, financial records, photographs, scrapbooks, publications, program materials, video and audio tapes related to the founding and history of the Career Action Center-Resource Center for Women, a job resource center active on the San Francisco Peninsula between 1973 – 2002.

    Organizational History

    The Resource Center for Women (1973-2002, name changed to Career Action Center in 1988) was founded in 1972 by five women, Eleanor Shelling, Mary Morley Perez, Peggy Kelly Larsen, Marylyn Morrell, and Martha Faust Hargadon, who met at a career planning workshop called "the Next Step" sponsored by the Stanford Faculty Women's Club. The nonprofit center began with a staff of volunteers and the goal of providing guidance to a variety of women in transition, including well-educated women, women re-entering the work force, women with children, widowed and divorced women, and women active in their communities as volunteers. It was supported by individual and corporate donations, membership subscriptions, and grants. The center's original mission statement read: "The Center will serve women who wish to make informed choices about the direction of their lives. It will be an active link between clients who want to use their talents more fully and the educational, volunteer, and salaried work opportunities on the San Francisco Peninsula." Its first newspaper ad read "WOMEN interested in professional part-time or short term work send resumes to Resource Center for Women, 1176 Emerson, P.A;" and its first workshop, held at Foothill College January 1973, was entitled "Focus on Choice: Women in Transition." Over two thousand women contacted the center in its first year for employment assistance, education programs, counseling, referrals, and use of the center library.
    Bertha Bodek Kalson served as the center librarian from 1974 to 1989, starting with a shoe box of clippings and developing a collection that became a model for local organizations. The collection included college catalogs, statistical surveys, career guides, materials on women's organizations, subject files and video tapes. By 2000 membership was down and the center was struggling to survive as a low-cost career services provider. After exploring merger possibilities the center closed in 2002. Its library was donated to the North Valley Job Training Consortium and a fund for career development was established through the Women's Foundation.
    Career Action Center Directors
    Eleanor R. Shelling, 1974-1979
    Judith Ousterhout, Executive Director, 1979-1984
    Gail Stypula, Executive Director, 1984-1988
    Diane Pelosi Saign, Executive Director, 1990-1998
    Sharon Bray, Chief Executive Officer, 1998-2000
    Emily Mora, Chief Executive Officer, 2000-2001

    Acquisition Information

    The Career Action Center Records were given to Stanford University for the Department of Special Collections by Marylyn Morrell in March 2008 and July 2013.

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Career Action Center