Conditions Governing Use

The donor of this collection has transferred rights of the intellectual property they created to the Center. For more information regarding permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the West Virginia and Regional History Center.

Conditions Governing Access

Material in box 16 contains student research proposals from 1999 and is restricted for 75 years after the latest date of creation. Materials may be accessed in 2074.

Preferred Citation

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Carroll Wilkinson Papers, A&M 4576, West Virginia and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Wilkinson, Carroll, 2019 April 24.

Gift of Toren, Beth Jane, 2024 June 05.

Biographical / Historical

Carroll Wilkinson is a feminist scholar and librarian best known for her 41 years of service in West Virginia University Libraries, where she was a prominent voice for women's rights and an active member of a wide variety of university councils and committees.

Carroll Wilkinson was born Carroll Feild Wetzel on January 17, 1946, in Chicago, Illinois to Anne Tate Feild Wetzel and Theodore Cuyler Wetzel and raised in Lake Bluff, Illinois. She attended Wells College, a historical women's college, in Aurora, New York from 1964 to 1968 where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Music. In 1968, she married Christopher Wilkinson, with whom she would have one son, Samuel Evan Wilkinson.

While attending Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, in New Brunswick, New Jersey between 1972 and 1975, Wilkinson was employed at the Kilmer Area Library in Livingston College in the reference department as a library trainee (1972-1974) and reference librarian and coordinator of instructional services (1974-1975). She graduated with her master's in library science in 1975.

In 1976, she was engaged in graduate studies at the Institute for Communication Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Champaign, Illinois, where she also worked as a part-time instructor of information services in the music library.

In 1978, Wilkinson became employed by the West Virginia University (WVU) Gerontology Center as a research assistant. She served in this position for a year before becoming a reference librarian and Appalachian bibliographer at WVU Libraries. She would stay with WVU Libraries for the next 40 years before retiring in 2019.

During this long consecutive employment with WVU Libraries, Wilkinson worked in several roles, including Chief Circulation Librarian/Head of Access Services for the Wise Library (1980-2006), Adjunct Instructor in the Center for Women's Studies (1988), Women and Gender Studies Bibliographer (1993-2019), Head of the Math Library (2004-2006), Director of Instruction and Information Literacy (2006-2014), Women's Studies Subject Librarian (2009-2019), Director of Strategic Library Initiatives (2014-2019), WVU Libraries Interim Director of Strategy and Planning (2017-2019), and University Librarian Emerita (2019-present).

Additionally, she was a participant in the "Women in the Community Project" sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and Radcliffe College from 1981 to 1983.

In 1988, she was awarded the Mary Catherine Buswell Award, for providing outstanding services for women at WVU.

While Head of Access Services for the Wise Library between 2002 and 2006, Wilkinson oversaw the opening of WVU Libraries' first book depository and led the development of the electronic reserves system. She also served as president of the Western Pennsylvania/West Virginia chapter of the Association of College and Research Libraries from 2006-2007. In 2007, she was a co-recipient of the WVU Outstanding Librarian Award alongside fellow librarian Penny Pugh.

She taught several classes and gave numerous lectures and presentations focusing on women and library science. Her research interests were particularly centered around women's employment, especially in the coal industry and other traditionally male-dominated industries.

Wilkinson also served on a wide variety of university committees and councils throughout her 41 years of employment, including the West Virginia University Senate, Gerontology Center Executive Committee, Gerontology Center Service Committee, Gerontology Center Library Committee, Center for Women's Studies Executive Committee, Council for Women's Concerns, University Affirmative Action Committee, Center for Women's Studies Curriculum Committee, Center for Women's Studies Faculty Associates, Women's Studies Advisory Committee, Public Service Grant Committee, University Planning Council, and Faculty Senate Library Committee.

Upon retirement in 2019, she was awarded the Faculty 2019 Center for Women's and Gender Studies Joyce McConnell Award for Feminist Leadership.

As of 2024, Wilkinson holds an active presence in WVU Libraries as University Library Emerita, where she has been focused on collecting and promoting feminist activist history through the West Virginia and Regional History Center Feminist Activist and Women's History Collections.

Scope and Contents

This collection contains materials collected and created by Carroll Wilkinson during her time working for West Virginia University (WVU) Libraries and Women's and Gender Studies Center between 1979 and 2019. It includes materials from her work in several positions within the library and WVU Women's Studies Center, including Chief Circulation Librarian, Women and Gender Studies Bibliographer, Head of Access Services, Director of Instruction and Information Literacy, Director of Strategic Library Initiatives, and Interim Director of Strategy and Planning. It also includes materials from her participation in several councils and committees, such as the Council for Women's Concerns and the Gerontology Center Service Committee.

Materials include memos, minutes, correspondence, grant applications, pamphlets, brochures, newsletters, catalogs, manuals, notes, policies, photographs, drafts, bibliographies, agendas, publications, conference materials, book orders, newspaper clippings, budgets, statistics, presentations, and class planning. Also included are two CDs, two VHS tapes, and three medallions.

The collection is divided into two series. There is some overlap between the two series, especially concerning Wilkinson's work as librarian liaison to the WVU Women's and Gender Studies Center.

Series 1. West Virginia University (WVU) Libraries: This series contains materials produced and collected by Carroll Wilkinson during her employment with WVU Libraries between 1979 and 2018, particularly the Wise and Downtown Libraries. Prominent topics include the implementation of faculty status for WVU librarians, implementation of innovative technologies for the WVU library circulations department, library instruction, and library business administration. The types of materials included are memos, minutes, correspondence, grant applications, pamphlets, brochures, newsletters, catalogs, manuals, notes, policies, and photographs. Also included are two CDs, two VHS tapes, and three medallions. Box 15 is an addendum of 2024/06/05.

Series 2. West Virginia University (WVU) Center for Women's and Gender Studies: This series contains materials created and collected by Carroll Wilkinson during her work with the West Virginia University (WVU) Women's and Gender Studies Center (formerly the WVU Women's Studies Center) and various women's councils and committees such as the Council for Women's Concerns and the Women's Studies Curriculum Committee. Prominent topics include class curriculum, collection development, women's labor and employment, and women coal mining. Types of materials included are correspondence, bibliographies, minutes, agendas, grant applications, newsletters, notes, publications, conference materials, book orders, newspaper clippings, memos, drafts, articles, and budgets. Box 15 is an addendum of 2024/06/05.

An addendum of 2024/06/05, consisting of one binder, has been divided into the two series according to subject matter.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Adult education of women
• Education, Higher -- Administration
• Library records
• West Virginia Feminist Activist Collection
• West Virginia University -- Women's Centenary (1891-1991)
• West Virginia University - buildings - Downtown Campus Library.
• West Virginia University. Center for Women's Studies
• West Virginia University. Center for Women's and Gender Studies
• West Virginia University. Libraries
• Wilkinson, Carroll
• Women blue collar workers
• Women's studies