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Cooperative Africana Microform Project (CAMP)

Executive Committee Meeting Minutes

Pre-Business Minutes
(1st draft, 17iii2002. 1 correction, 5iv2002.)
Cottonwood B Room, Hyatt Regency Houston
Houston, Texas
Thursday, 15 November 2001
1:30 PM to 2:00 PM

Present: David Easterbrook (Northwestern University), chair; Helene Baumann (Duke University), past chair; Ruby Bell-Gam (University of California, Los Angeles), vice-chair; Lauris Olson (University of Pennsylvania), secretary; Laverne Page (Library of Congress), ex officio; James Simon (Center for Research Libraries), ex officio. R James Gentner (Library of Congress); Emilie Ngo-Nguidjol (University of Wisconsin); Afeworki Paulos (University of Michigan).

The meeting was called to order at 1:35 PM by the Chair.

1. Business Meeting agenda corrections.

The Chair will invite Sheri Young to speak first about the Mozambique National Archives. The Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf Collection discussion will be tabled until Spring 2002 when more information should be available.

2. Mozambique National Archives.

Page reported that the situation was discussed at the Lusophone Studies Association's first meeting last year. Scholars at that meeting stated that remedying the state of the archives was very important. Within the Library of Congress, Paul Steere will investigate; he had not visited the archives on his last trip. The AMED Division will follow this issue: Mozambique is now of great interest to AMED. However, the original effort was directed toward physical plant: the Library of Congress would only collaborate on collection preservation. Page suggested that Young seeks our assistance in identifying donors or collaborators.

Olson noted that Young's draft report on the archives identified "an inventory of materials currently in demand ... in deteriorated condition" and suggested that CAMP could pursue preservation if the list were provided.

Subsequent discussion focused on individual charitable organizations. Olson observed that the draft report did not mention the Gulbenkian Foundation. Baumann and the Chair added that the Mellon Foundation has an interest in South Africa. Page and the Chair lamented that although the Carnegie Foundation would seem a likely participant, given that a Carnegie officer is Mozambican, Carnegie restricts its activities in Africa to anglophone Commonwealth countries.

3. Ford Foundation archives.

Olson asked that this be added to the Business Meeting agenda. The Chair reminisced that, at a Ford Foundation meeting two years ago, Ford officers had no understanding of digitization. Nevertheless, Ford has an ongoing project to digitize materials in South Africa.

4. CAMP election results.

The Chair reported that Peter Limb will succeed Phyllis Bischof as member-at-large, that Dorothy Woodson will succeed Olson as secretary, and that Bruce Haight (Western Michigan University) will succeed Kathryn Greene as faculty representative.

5. CRL activities.

Simon reported that he has been clearing up Marlys Rudeen's backlog, sending small batches of 10-12 newspaper issues for filming as single reels. He will not seek funding for these. CAMP also bought a 14-reel German-language Dar es Salaam newspaper, Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Zeitung, that partially duplicates an incomplete run held by CAMP.

6. CRL Foreign Official Gazettes task force.

Simon reported that, although the AALL 2002 meeting will be held in Orlando, FOG has chosen not to participate. Pat Finney, CRL task force coordinator, will convene a conference call. Simon asked if Paulos or Olson should attend.

7. Timbuktu MSS project.

The Chair reported that the manuscripts have undergone mylar encapsulation, that the preservation work was slow but successful. He has met with the digitizer, who wishes to work in the library to protect the manuscripts. However, the Chair thought the work may be delayed as Northwestern has stringent on-site work requirements for outside contractors. Dramatic staffing changes at Northwestern's African Studies Program have also slowed work.

The meeting was adjourned by the Chair at 2:10 PM.

CAMP Post-Business Meeting Executive Committee Meeting Minutes
(1st draft, 17iii2002)
Cottonwood B Room, Hyatt Regency Houston
Houston, Texas
Thursday, 15 November 2001
4:30 PM to 5:00 PM

Present: David Easterbrook (Northwestern University), chair; Dorothy Woodson (Yale University), secretary; Jill Coelho (Harvard University), ALC chair, ex officio; Peter Limb (Michigan State University), at large; Laverne Page (Library of Congress), ex officio; James Simon (Center for Research Libraries), ex officio. Lauris Olson (University of Pennsylvania), outgoing secretary; Phyllis Bischof (University of California, Berkeley), outgoing at large; Ruby Bell-Gam (University of California, Los Angeles).

The meeting was called to order at 4:32 PM by the Chair.

1. Current CAMP budget.

The Chair noted that only $3000 was committed to date. The funds are committed for the Tanzania and Malawi newspaper projects.

2. Mozambique National Archives.

The Chair will forward to Sheri Young the contact person at CLIR for their Lusophone archivists efforts.

3. Membership campaign.

The Chair remarked that John Howell had asked him to manage the last campaign. He will check his files.

Bischof noted that a colleague attends meetings of an association of European development librarians. Also, Bischof will ask Al Kagan for best contacts among the various associations of African librarians within Africa. Bischof concluded by noting that Simon is seeking contacts for CRL collection development. Bischof has also given CAMP brochures to Berkeley's representative to the AAU PhD initiative.

4. Bleek and Lloyd collection.

Woodson will follow up on this.

5. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf collection.

The Chair will check correspondence in H-Africa and then work with Simon to follow up.

6. Foreign Official Gazettes.

The Chair began discussion on CAMP's future participation by asking if African studies librarians knew if their schools collected FOGs. Woodson noted that law school libraries tend to collect these and that most law school libraries have catalogs separate from their institution's general library catalog. Simon will ask Pat Finney, FOG Task Force coordinator to identify law libraries currently collecting African FOGs and currently microfilming African FOGs. Olson commented that the Law Library of Congress may be the only library actively microfilming FOGs. Page identified Mark Strattner as Law Library of Congress contact person: he pursues current and past official gazettes. Page added that Strattner recently discussed Botswana's official gazette with her. Simon commented that the CRL FOG Task Force will not focus on post-1995 FOGs. Simon will forward Afeworki Paulos as CAMP FOG Task Force Representative to Pat Finney, FOG Task Force coordinator. Simon will also ask Finney to provide a list of African FOGs they wish CAMP to pursue.

7. Ford Foundation archives.

The Chair will write an inquiring letter to the Ford Foundation contact to be identified by Olson.

8. Black Sash archives / University of Cape Town.

Limb will examine CAMP's holdings. He asked for permission to discuss funding with Lesley Hart, University of Cape Town Library Manuscripts and Archives Department. The Chair replied that talking generally about funding is acceptable and that this project is certainly of the kind CAMP has pursued in the past. Subsequent discussion focused on the scope of a potential project drawing together diverse regional collections and requiring a longterm commitment.

Simon described his estimate for pages per microfilm reel:

9. CRL microfilm activity.

Simon will work with Limb on the Malawi newspaper fill-ins. Simon will also contact James Gentner regarding future shipments of Malawi newspapers through the Library of Congress New Delhi Field Office. Simon will follow up with Joe Lauer regarding the Liberian newspapers project. Simon will add University of Michigan Library to the list of CAMP invoice recipients.

10. Archives in southern Africa.

Limb observed that Narissa Ramdhani (University of Durban-Westville), director of the ANC historical archives project, is at ASA meetings. He will ask her for assistance in identifying vulnerable materials.

Woodson reported favorably on the conditions of the University of Fort Hare Library ANC archives. Limb observed that other archival collections at the University of Fort Hare are in some disarray. Woodson recommended that CAMP contact the University of Fort Hare Library's Head Librarian, perhaps through Mark Snyders, African rare books librarian, regarding the current state of important collections.

Limb considered that University of Fort Hare would be suitable for dissertation exchange. He characterized Michigan State's exchange program with University of Zimbabwe as slow-moving; Michigan State offers to obtain any US or UK dissertation in exchange for Zimbabwe dissertations.

Woodson reported that Lovedale Press has closed. She asked the director for a listing of their materials. She observed that, although most of their titles are in US collections, the Press has a collection of titles not yet published.

Woodson will follow up on the Livingstone Museum situation. Bischof asked if the issue was chiefly a funding problem.

11. CAMP materials on the African diaspora.

Limb asked if CAMP collected diaspora materials. The Chair noted that some Pan-Africanist materials are held by CAMP, but in general CAMP's focus is on Africa.

12. Lusophone brochure.

Bell-Gam reported that Coelho received the brochure copy at the Nashville meeting, and that Coelho's spouse would proofread it. Coelho will follow up. Bell-Gam noted that she has retained a copy of the brochure. When Simon receives the copy, he will proceed with the brochure design.

The meeting was adjourned by the Chair at 5:01 PM.

Return to CAMP meeting summary page

 

Last updated 05/13/2004
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