The Feminist Collection, also referred to as the Hartford Feminist Library, was donated by the Hartford Women's Center. The collection grew out of the women's movement of the 1970s. Irene Scheibner, former Central Connecticut State alum, founded the library in 1979. Scheibner received a founder's award at the dedication ceremony. "It is an interdisciplinary and multi-cultural collection containing books, as well as, newsletters and journals from the early women's movement," said Dr. Melissa Mentzer, assistant professor of English at the New Britain campus and on the board of directors of the Hartford Women's Center.

Mentzer feels this is an important collection for CCSU that will draw scholars from everywhere via a national inter-library computer network. "I think this will help put our library on the map. It is an invaluable collection-we have lesbian fiction, journals, early essays by Adrienne Rich, and newsletters documenting the early feminist movement in Hartford." Jeanne Sohn, CCSU Director of Library Services, received a rare first edition of E. Sylvia Pankhurst's The Suffragette, published in 1911, from the Feminist Collection.

Until CCSU's acquisition of the Feminist Collection, it was temporarily housed in various rented spaces, most recently the Hill Center on Farmington Avenue in Hartford. "The Feminist Library has always been a community resource. It has been more than a library in the past. It is a place for women to meet whether or not they are in academia. We didn't want to lose that in finding its new home," said Mentzer.