Cooperative Africana Microform Project (CAMP)
Business Meeting Minutes
Friday, October 19, 2007, 10:30 am – 12:30 pm
Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers, New York
Conference Room J

Present, Executive Committee:

Yuusuf Caruso (Columbia), Vice-Chair; Jill Coelho (Harvard) Chair; Karen Jean Hunt (Duke), Member At-Large; Peter Limb (Michigan State U), Ex-officio Emilie Ngo-Nguidjol (UW-Madison), Secretary; Laverne Page (LC), Ex-officio; James Simon (CRL), Ex-officio

Present, Participants:

Judy Eckoff Alspach (CRL); Shiferaw Assefa (Kansas U); Atoma Batoma (UI Urbana-Champaign); Ruby Bell-Gam (UCLA); Todd Bludeau (Praxess Associates); Simon Bockie (UC Berkeley); Miki Goral (UCLA); Andrew de Heer (Schomburg Center); Karen Fung (Stanford); Marieta Harper (LC); Pamela Howard-Reguindin (LC/Nairobi); Bassey Irele (Harvard); Zbigniew Kantorosinski (LC); Jeremy Kenyon (Indiana U, Bloomington); Patricia Kuntz; Joe Lauer (Michigan State U); Ellen Ndeshi Namhila (U of Namibia); Tom Nygren (Aluka); Loumona Petroff (Boston U); Nancy Pressman Levy (Princeton); Regina Roberts (Stanford); Kate Schroeder (Indiana U, Bloomington); David Westley (Boston U); Dorothy Woodson (Yale); Marc Zertschik (Praxess Associates)

Introductions and Announcements

The meeting was called to order at 10:37 am. There were no announcements following introductions.

Approval of Minutes

The minutes of the April 21, 2007 CAMP Business meeting were unanimously approved.

Election of CAMP Representatives

The following officers were elected for the 2007-2009 term:
Karen Jean Hunt, Member At-large
David Newberry, Faculty Representative
Emilie Ngo-Nguidjol, Secretary

Reports and Discussions
CRL/Global Resources Network (Simon)

James encouraged members to read the CRL report circulated on various lists. The results of the Human Rights Archives and Documentation conference held at Columbia University October 4-6, 2007 will be shared with different groups, at which point they will decide what the next step will be.

There are several Africa-related collections in the submitted nominations for the upcoming Purchase Proposal ballot (Arabic Manuscripts from SOAS, Records of the Amen Community in South Africa). The nominations will be submitted to members for a vote.

CRL has developed capacity in house to deliver electronic access to requests for CRL materials. They add approximately 500,000 images a year including a variety of Africa-related materials. 1,500 Africana-related monographs have been scanned and circulate.

Other activity includes exploration of ideal partners/platforms for delivery of broad classes of CRL & member content (e.g. dissertations, journals, newspapers). For CAMP collections, CRL is exploring a partnership with Aluka. The contours of the partnership with Aluka are as follows:

• CRL/CAMP will be invited to join in partnership with Aluka for the identification, selection, and digitization of content.
• Items selected may be existing resources held by CAMP or its members (print, MF, or digital) or new digitization projects undertaken jointly. CAMP will be co-developer of materials.
• CAMP will have the benefit of deciding what materials to recommend for the Aluka platform and make available to members of CAMP whether they subscribe to Aluka or not.

James and Tom have been discussing additional membership benefits such as additional discounts and other types of incentives and compensation. They are looking at developing a model for a collection of CAMP materials on Aluka. They are also looking at working with partners in African and making the materials available to a much broader audience in the U.S. and Africa.

Tom added that Aluka is willing to put money on the table to get this moving. He invited members to contribute their expertise to the project. They are looking at turning the platform around in the next year. They have built digital labs in African institutions, e.g. the universities of Namibia (Ellen Namhila is here at this meeting), Mozambique, Nairobi. They need input.

Jill asked what the timeline is between now and when the project is ready to go.
James responded that there is no prescribed timeline. The interest is in developing capacity and exploring availability.
Jill added that we need to know the timeline to know how and when we can look at proposals in depth.
The measure for success in this project will be 1) the establishment of a digital archive and 2) the viability of the distribution to members. James asked what members think about the partnership, what pilot project members would propose.
This was a good time for the Digitization Committee to give their report.

Digitization and Newer Technology Report (Miner)

The committee decided to look at circulation data provided by James Hill. So they decided on the following:
It is not worth to put monographs on the table for Google
The will work on small and valuable titles
They have developed a two-tiered structure, six titles were drawn from both tiers to provide a certain geographic balance. There are 2 tiers and a short list. These titles are things for which copyright might be easier to obtain.

One item rose to the top as a consideration for a pilot project. This is the District reports from Tanzania. James noted that they will seek permission from the national archives. They would digitize from the film; so what is lost in the microfilming continues to be lost.

Two questions were raised: 1) what is the value of doing this with Aluka rather than with our own money? And 2) what is the Tanzanian government gaining from this?

Answer: The intent is not to cut Tanzania out. CAMP will continue to play its role as an archive. Tom added that the goal is to produce a high-resolution product and to gain a broader team and audience. Peter L. noted that we should also be looking at African initiatives that have done this themselves to see what we can learn from their experience instead of reinventing the wheel. Yuusuf stressed the need to be flexible and to have different models available in terms of digitization and access. Marieta added that the Ivorian News Agency wants to digitize 1990s newspapers. She asked how something like this fits in this pilot. Jill noted that CAMP needs a group of people who can look at the issues and tell Côte d’Ivoire how they can stand up for themselves. Ellen Namhila explained that when they entered the partnership, they did not know anything about digitization. So there needs to be some education before one can stand up for oneself. Jill asked if Ellen will be willing to serve as an advisor to a group on this issue. Ellen added that the partnership has to be carefully thought out. She also pointed that it is a give and take, which is good, and that African institutions and U.S. partners are not on the same footing in experience.

Yuusuf volunteered the Archives Committee to talk to African colleagues. DANT is the logical group to that this on. They can recruit who they want. Ed asked whether CAMP agrees with DANT’s selection. The Executive felt that CAMP should go with what DANT has done so far.

The following resolution was tabled: To go ahead with partnership with Aluka and with the Tanganyikan colonial records with DANT as an advisory group, and in spring, to find out what happened. The pilot will work with a small sample.

The resolution passed by 16 votes.

Membership Structure and Fees (All)

Atoma distributed the proposal submitted by the Membership Committee. The current membership fee structure is $500 for CRL members and $1,000 for non-CRL members. Ruby noted that the start-up fee of other AMPs is $800. She thinks that new members will clearly understand it as a one-time fee. According to Peter L, a fee increase is long-overdue and the increase brings us to the same level as the other AMPs. These fees allow us to do more. As a collective organization, we need to seriously think about increasing fees. Joe L. asked whether we are voting to approve the proposal or to approve to send it to membership for voting. He asked members to keep in mind that not everyone is present. Jill responded that the $300 increase is an investment an will grow with added membership. Ed doesn’t think there will be any objection to a $300 increase. He asked if we have a compelling interest in distinguishing between CRL and non-CRL members and what the impact of the fee increase will be on smaller institutions.

Issues to vote on:
1. Amount of non-CRL member fee of $1,300
2. $800 for ongoing membership
3. Initial fee
Ruby brought up the discrepancy between what the by-laws say and what the fee increase is.
If fees are voted upon in spring, they will be implemented in July. The proposition needs to be fleshed out with definitions of industrialized and non-industrialized countries.
Voting results:
1. No start-up fee
2. Non-members of CRL: annual fee of $1,300
3. Members of CRL: annual fee of $800
These decisions will be put on a ballot on email for a vote.

Africa & Africa-related Archives Committee (Caruso)

Not very much has happened. Things are still in the planning. The committee is hoping to bring a technician in March or April for best practices training. This is the main outcome of last year’s conference. Yuusuf needs to contact the Head of the National Archives of all the other countries to see what to do next.

Grant Preparation Committee (Caruso)

As Chair of the GP Committee, Yuusuf jumped ahead on a grant proposal and got approved to submit a proposal. The project will be based at Université Gaston Berger in St-Louis, Senegal. They are requesting $100,000 to accomplish the main goals of the project which will make more accessible to a worldwide research community selected primary and secondary source material on the economic, environmental, and public health history of the Senegal River Valley since the 1950s, a geographic region encompassing northern Senegal, southern Mauritania, and western Mali. Most of these materials are hard-to-find or available only on-site in Saint-Louis, Senegal. Currently, researchers must use printed guides and incomplete electronic catalogs on isolated staff computers in order to access detailed information about the collections. Research notes, maps, photographs, and other unpublished documents remain largely inaccessible even on-site due to a lack of adequate cataloging and/or little or no preservation. Yet most of these collections are and will be of increasing value to academic and policy-oriented research communities with interests in the study of economic development, environment, public health, emigration/immigration, and other aspects of West African history and society.
He will hear in December whether they have been given the funding.

The GP committee will also be going to the British Library for Endangered Archives Programme for a pilot project call Swahili Language Materials Archives. The materials are held by University and Institute for Swahili Research and cover the 16th and the 19th centuries. Much of the collection is in Arabic. The project might include some transliteration to roman script. The deadline is November 7. Yuusuf needs to know if the institutions will support this.

Bibliographic Access Committee (Harper)

The committee lost one of their key members. They need a new member. They are hoping to have a more detailed report in spring.

Newspapers Committee (Woodson)

Dorothy presented the results of the survey the committee was conducting. She distributed 2 lists, one for the number of titles by county excluding South Africa and the other for the number of titles received by institution by country. Contact her by email if you want a copy of the spreadsheet. The committee needs guidance on how CAMP wants them to proceed with this information. They have concerns about LC not providing microfilm duplicates for Sub-Saharan Africa and what the implications might be. Dorothy and Pamela gave a paper at IFLA where they addressed these issues. Dorothy's term as chair is over, so a new chair is needed.

CAMP Financial Report

Judy presented the budget. Members with questions should contact her by email.

New Proposals Under Consideration

Africa Confidential Consortial Membership
Negotiation is proceeding on recently-submitted proposal for various subscription models. James will report to members by email. It would be a voluntary contribution.

Senegal Muslim Archives (Caruso)
15 years ago, Dennis Galvan identified this collection in St-Louis, Senegal. Last June, Yuusuf found that the material is ready to be worked on. They combined it with related court records. The collection has been moved to Dakar. They might need additional funds to make copies.
Jill asked what is the usual balance that we run ourselves. James noted that absent other proposals, we can deal with it as we wish because we are not in a financial straight. Yuusuf suggested to allocate $5,000.00 some place else.

Ivorian New Agency Digitization Project (Harper)
Marieta proposed to digitize about 50 titles from the Ivorian news Agency spanning from the 90s to 2006. The proposal is in a raw state, so she does not have information on which titles we have and don’t have. She needs to do a survey in a few months because we don’t have a cost estimate. When we get more information from Marieta, we will put the proposal on the table. Dorothy and David will help Marieta fine-tune the proposal. This has no financial impact on Yuusuf’s proposal.

Dorothy proposed to vote on $10,000 because James said that we have $4,000 and we might find $6000 more. The proposal was approved.

Other Reports

Library of Congress Preservation Efforts (Howard-Reguindin)
Pamela thanked everyone for supporting the Congolese project. They have sent the newspapers to CRL for microfilming. She has no proposals this year. When she attended the IFLA conference in the summer, she reported on microfilming Kenyan newspapers.

AFRINUL Update (Simon)

James thanked Stanford, Yale and UCLA for their contribution to AFRINUL. The tool is up and working. He will train people on its use. They are also working on pulling newspaper holdings and plugging them into the database. This should be done by spring. James would like to pass the project on to someone once he is done with adding the LC holdings. Dorothy reminded people that the work is easy and fun.

Jill noted that the rest of the agenda will be covered in the spring. People should send burning issues to the Executive Committee and/or to the email list.

She also reminded members of the memorial service for Gretchen at 2:00 pm.

The meeting adjourned at 12:35 pm