Brian, It might be nice to display a copy of Booth & Booth**. It rather makes the point that women were there from the start. (I remain grateful to the UK Meteorological Office library for discarding their copy, which I was able to buy for £2 many years ago.) If there's anything written on Mary Berners-Lee, that would be good too. ** Automatic Digital Calculators, Andrew D. Booth, D.Sc., Ph.D., F.Inst.P. and Kathleen H. V. Booth, B.Sc., Ph.D., London, Butterworths Scientific Publications, 1953. Regards Brian Carpenter On 19-Dec-23 03:57, Brian Randell via Members wrote:
Hi:
We are planning to provide a permanent display in our School of Computing, in a prominent location that will be readily visible to our undergraduate students in particular, of published books on Women in Computing. The hope is that this might help to redress the imbalance in the students’ popular perception of computing pioneers as being an almost entirely male crew.
I attach below a first list of contenders (other than Ada Lovelace) for space in this display – comments, both positive and negative, on this list will be welcome. (Ada Lovelace will of course be well-represented – however I’ve already had detailed advice on which of the plethora of works on Ada to include, so I’m keen to make sure that other worthy contenders for display space are not accidently omitted. At present it is undecided whether to include, and if so whether to have a separate set of books on, Women in Code-Breaking – see the presently-separate second list below, on which comments are also sought.)
I’m looking for biographies, autobiographies, and good scholarly accounts on the contribution of women to the computing world, not books aimed at young school pupils. The plan is that copies of all the books on display will also be available for borrowing from the University Library.
My apologies, especially to the authors, for any accidental egregious omissions from these lists!
Season’s Greetings
Brian Randell
Books on Women in Computing
(other than Ada Lovelace)
Janet Abbate. Recoding Gender: Women's Changing Participation in Computing. (2017).
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Recoding-Gender-History-Computing-Abbate/dp/0262534... <https://www.amazon.co.uk/Recoding-Gender-History-Computing-Abbate/dp/0262534533>
Crystal Bennes, Klara and the Bomb (2022).
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Klara-Bomb-Crystal-Bennes/dp/9492051826 <https://www.amazon.co.uk/Klara-Bomb-Crystal-Bennes/dp/9492051826>
Kurt W. W. Beyer. Grace Hopper and the Invention of the Information Age, (2012).
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Invention-Information-Lemelson-Studies-Innovation/d... <https://www.amazon.co.uk/Invention-Information-Lemelson-Studies-Innovation/dp/0262517264>
Claire L. Evans. Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet, (2020).
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Broad-Band-Untold-Story-Internet/dp/0593329449/ <https://www.amazon.co.uk/Broad-Band-Untold-Story-Internet/dp/0593329449/>
David Alan Grier. When Computers Were Human. (2007)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/When-Computers-Human-David-Grier/dp/0691133824 <https://www.amazon.co.uk/When-Computers-Human-David-Grier/dp/0691133824>
Kathy Kleiman. Proving Ground: The Untold Story of the Six Women Who Programmed the World’s First Modern Computer, (2022).
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Proving-Ground-Untold-Programmed-Computer/dp/178738... <https://www.amazon.co.uk/Proving-Ground-Untold-Programmed-Computer/dp/178738862X>
Mark Jones Lorenzo. Everlasting Code: The Education of Grace Hopper and the History of COBOL, (2021).
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Everlasting-Code-Education-Business-Oriented-Langua... <https://www.amazon.co.uk/Everlasting-Code-Education-Business-Oriented-Language/dp/B09CRQP1Q6>
Richard Rhodes . Hedy's Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World. (@012)
https://www.amazon.com/Hedys-Folly-Breakthrough-Inventions-Beautiful/dp/0307... <https://www.amazon.com/Hedys-Folly-Breakthrough-Inventions-Beautiful/dp/0307742954>
Jon T Rickman and Kim D Todd. Pioneer Programmer: Jean Jennings Bartik & the Computer That Changed the World. (2013)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pioneer-Programmer-Jennings-Computer-Changed/dp/161... <https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pioneer-Programmer-Jennings-Computer-Changed/dp/1612480861>
Carl J Schneider. Grace Murray Hopper: Working to create the future. (1998).
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Title-Murray-Hopper-Working-create/dp/1571636064 <https://www.amazon.co.uk/Title-Murray-Hopper-Working-create/dp/1571636064>
Dame Stephanie Shirley. Let It Go: My Extraordinary Story - From Refugee to Entrepreneur to Philanthropist. (2019).
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Let-Go-Extraordinary-Entrepreneur-Philanthropist/dp... <https://www.amazon.co.uk/Let-Go-Extraordinary-Entrepreneur-Philanthropist/dp/0241395496>
Kathleen Broom Williams. Grace Hopper: Admiral of the Cyber Sea, (2013).
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Grace-Hopper-Admiral-Cyber-Sea/dp/1591149789 <https://www.amazon.co.uk/Grace-Hopper-Admiral-Cyber-Sea/dp/1591149789>
Books on Women in Code-Breaking
Jason Fagone. The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America's Enemies (2017).
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0062430483/ <https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0062430483/>
Peter Hore. Bletchley Park's Secret Source: Churchill's Wrens and the Y Service in World War II, (2021).
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bletchleys-Secret-Source-Wrens-Y-Service/dp/1784385... <https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bletchleys-Secret-Source-Wrens-Y-Service/dp/1784385816>
Liza Mundy. Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II. (2018).
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Code-Girls-Untold-American-Breakers/dp/0316352543 <https://www.amazon.co.uk/Code-Girls-Untold-American-Breakers/dp/0316352543>
Patricia Owtram and Jean Owtram. Codebreaking Sisters: Our Secret War. (2020).
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Codebreaking-Sisters-Our-Secret-War/dp/1913406059 <https://www.amazon.co.uk/Codebreaking-Sisters-Our-Secret-War/dp/1913406059>
Mair Russell-Jones and Gethin Russell-Jones. My Secret Life in Hut Six: One Woman's Experiences At Bletchley Park, (2014).
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Life-Hut-Six-Experiences/dp/0745956645 <https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Life-Hut-Six-Experiences/dp/0745956645>
Jan Slimming. Codebreaker Girls: A Secret Life at Bletchley Park. (2021)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Codebreaker-Girls-Secret-Life-Bletchley/dp/15267841... <https://www.amazon.co.uk/Codebreaker-Girls-Secret-Life-Bletchley/dp/1526784114>
Jan Slimming. The Secret Life of an American Codebreaker: Codebreaker Girls. (2022)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Life-American-Codebreaker-Girls-ebook/dp/B09... <https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Life-American-Codebreaker-Girls-ebook/dp/B09P47QVDB>
Michael Smith. The Debs of Bletchley Park. (2015).
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Debs-Bletchley-Park-Michael-Smith/dp/1781313881 <https://www.amazon.co.uk/Debs-Bletchley-Park-Michael-Smith/dp/1781313881>
Betty Webb and Kerry Howard. No More Secrets: My Part in Codebreaking at Bletchley Park and the Pentagon. (2023).
https://www.amazon.co.uk/No-More-Secrets-Codebreaking-Bletchley/dp/B0C43L3MV... <https://www.amazon.co.uk/No-More-Secrets-Codebreaking-Bletchley/dp/B0C43L3MVJ/>
—
School of Computing, Newcastle University, 1 Science Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 5TG
EMAIL = Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk PHONE = +44 191 208 7923
URL = https://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/staff/profile/brianrandell.html
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