The status of women in librarianship cannot be assessed without a consideration of women's general status in society, as well as the relative positioning of librarianship in the broader world of work. With the publication of this volume, ALA's Committee on the Status of Women in Librarianship (COSWL) continues its commitment to identify published materials on the status of women in the profession and to compile, update, and issue a bibliography of these materials on a regular basis. The years covered in this volume were a particularly rich time for writings relevant to the status of women in librarianship and information science. In addition to a large body of journal literature, these years also witnessed the publication of several significant books. Also notable during these years was the growing trend on the part of many LIS writers to draw on the rich body of gender and feminist studies outside LIS to inform the study of gender in the LIS field. The editors of "On Account of Sex" perform a very important service to all who are concerned with women in librarianship by bringing together the body of work upon which future scholarship must be built.