The Area Studies Council & Collection and Services Advisory Panel Joint Meeting

Meeting Summary 99-1

April 14, 1999, 12:00 – 3:00 pm
Hotel Sofitel
Rosemont, IL

Present:

1. Review of summary of meeting 98-1.

The summary was accepted, pending correction to the section describing MEMP activities. Michael Hopper will submit corrections.

2. CAMP Report.

David Easterbrook reported that CAMP held its business meeting the past Fall. CAMP has increased its membership since the drive 4 years ago, and added two new members in the past year. The following is a summary of major CAMP projects in the past year.

• CAMP has produced a brochure in French for francophone speakers in Africa. Copies can be made available to those interested.
• The Carter-Karis Collection, a large collection of South African political materials (1882-1964), was recently supplemented by the Karis-Gerhart collection (1964-1990).
• CAMP continues to film Liberian newspapers through 1996. CAMP is filming nine current newspapers from Malawi and several from Tanzania. CAMP is also receiving positive copies of newspapers filmed at Northwestern University as part of the CIC-NEH African Newspaper project.
• CAMP is collaborating with the Title VI research centers for Africa to film court records in Senegal (1890-1950). Though this is taking longer than expected, the project demonstrates collaboration and building relationships with national archives in the region.
• A new project, sponsored by Title VI, is dealing with acquiring copies of dissertations/ masters theses. Individual institutions seek partnerships with African universities, and CAMP may be the recipient of copies. The Ford and Rockefeller Foundations are sponsoring Liz Levy (AAAS?) in Nairobi to set up a UMI-like organization to film dissertations. Hopefully, the core universities of Africa will participate.
• CAMP is revising its by-laws, discussing procedural aspects. As changes were not approved last October, another set will be discussed in the future.
• CRL/CAMP is working with the Global Resources Program to host an online Union List of African Newspapers. This project will eventually expand to include more institutions and potential filming and/or digitizing projects.

Jim Nye reflected that Carnegie is becoming interested in African libraries and possible grant opportunities exist there.

3. LAMP Report.

David Block reports that LAMP has two new members (Rice & Indiana Universities). Membership is up to 42. LAMP will meet at SALALM in May. LAMP has traditionally collected so-called "gray literature" rather than newspapers or commercial sets. Some of the projects completed or underway:

• Variedades. This Peruvian periodical is being filmed at UCLA.
• LAMP filmed Irish-Argentine immigrant newspapers,
• LAMP co-sponsored the filming of the Coleccion Lafragua, a major archival collection at the Biblioteca Nacional de Mexico.
• The Brazilian Document Digitization project continues. The project material was first bitmapped and indexed using Table of Contents information contained in the paper originals. A subsequent index was prepared by Ann Hartness – "Subject Guide to Statistics in the Presidential Reports of the Brazilian provinces 1 <1977>." Student indexers are continuing to work on keyword indexing.
• Critica. LAMP is working with the National Library in Buenos Aires, Argentina to film this historic newspaper. There have been some difficulties in filming, as the negatives need to be shipped back and forth to the US for duplication in order to fulfill the agreement reached with the Argentine National Library for use of the paper originals.
• LAMP is examining La Protesta, an anarchist Argentine periodical. Although IDC is filming some of this, LAMP was looking to collect this title from several universities in the region. LAMP is attempting to ascertain what IDC has (or plans) to film.

4. MEMP Report.

Michael Hopper reported that MEMP’s membership remains at 25, after gaining UNC and losing UCSB. MEMP met last December at CRL, with Judy McDermott of LC-Nairobi present and a representative from IDC. Several current projects include:

• Continuation of the LC Arabic Pamphlet project.
• Chaqueri collection of Iranian left-wing materials, 1965-1985.
• Filming Turkish newspapers held CRL, Algerian newspapers at LC, and Sudanese papers at NYPL.
• El Hatif, and Iraqi general-interest newspaper, to be filmed at Princeton.
• Kuwayt Al-Yawm, filming 1954-1969. LC has filmed 1970-1980.
• MEMP’s initial proposal to the ARL Global Resources Project was not successful.
• Dr. Martin – Arab press archive @ Moshe Dyan – in effect a repository for the State of Israel. Catalogs country-by-country (Jordan, Syria, Iraq). Interested in collaboration. Will choose 2-3 titles for pilot program.
• David Hirsch re: Arab-American periodical – basis of future material (?)
• 6 MEMP members (+1 non-member) formed a NE consortium for cooperation, looking towards pooling money and engaging in the acquisition of material not anywhere in US. A draft memo of agreement has been proposed.
• Cooperation with LC. MEMP is examining ways to work together for collection and preservation of materials. Previous relations with LC were poor, but are improving. There are better lines of communication.

5. SAMP Report.

Jim Nye reported the SAMP is considering an increase in dues, though the structure is not resolved. SAMP is poling the membership and CDO’s to begin a multi-phase increase. Some projects:

• Sukamar Sen papers: manuscripts from the former lingust and literature scholar. Need to get a camera on-site to complete the filming – cannot remove the papers.
• SAMP has a used camera to be sent to Calcutta, then Hyderabad (Urdu research). 1 more camera from LC is anticipated to be sent to the region.
• The Hyderabad Urdu filming is under the Microfilming of Indian Publications project. Based in New Delhi, the project is an extension of PL480 and the previous NEH grant. So far, 19,500 volumes of the projected 56k have been filmed. Currently, filming is being paid out of OCLC credits.
• Kaiser-i-hind, an Indian newspaper from the late 19^th century, has been collated and begun filming.
• Cambridge is donating 11,000 (18,000?) volumes of the Official Publications of India to whoever wants them. SAMP may support microfilming of this collection. Where to film these English-language publications from the mid-19^th – 20^th century is still a question.
• CRL and SAMP members have submitted a proposal under the DOE Title VI program. This will expand the database of holdings of the Official Publication of India and continue the activities of the Digital South Asia Library.
• The CRL Board has approved a center for South Asia libraries – the new center will apply to CAORC to be affiliated with them. The proposed center will focus on library needs throughout the area, provide a base for contributions of private collections. It will be governed by a CRL secretariat and have staff from India. Based loosely on the Urdu Research Center.

Milton Wolf commented that CRL is interested and willing to work with those whose support from their home institutions is not forthcoming for projects like this one. CRL can operate outside the University system and do things that a national library should do.

6. SEAM Report.

Susan Go reported on various current and future projects, including:

• Indonesia manuscripts. All microfilm has been received by SEAM (or soon will be).
• Vietnam project – 61 reels have been received by CRL, and inventory of which is on the CRL Web page.
• Cambodia – Yale has received 10+ microfilms and is looking towards the GRP for some more funding for this.
• SEAM will continue filming for the Cambodia genocide project.
• SEAM is looking into Indonesian political tabloids – 100 or more are in publication or recently ceased.
• British Library – Burma recently retired and uncovered a number of newspapers and magazines in the backlog. A number of institutions have been targeted – Umich, NIU, LC – who are recipients of these. SEAM would like to put together complete rund and film.
• Deposition papers – filming in Hawaii.
• There will be a conference April 29 & 30 (post IFLA) to evaluate the preservation filming in SE Asia. Ford hired a consultant from KITLV (Lieden) to evaluate. Projects SEAM subsidized have poor storage, negatives have been lost or are decaying. The report calls for re-mastering and a central storage for these negatives. The conference will invite Philippine microfilmers to share their experiences. [Ed. note: the conference has subsequently been cancelled.]

CSAP members expressed interest in receiving copies of the report, as other institutions have found that MF needs re-mastering (NEH did a similar study & found similar results in the U.S.). Many preservation educators focus on creating a quality product, but not on storage. Perhaps CLIR would be interested in putting the report up on their site.

Milton Wolf commented that it may make sense to have major preservation universities and organizations like CRL to join together and put all master negatives into one safe central storage area. The group could leverage prices and save costs through shared costs. Also, the group could institute regular reviews of the material to ensure its preservation. Why have previous attempts at this failed?

7. SEEMP Report.

Michael Biggins reported that SEEMP, now in its third year, has increased to 29 members. There is potential for growth, and SEEMP is considering a membership drive in the Spring. SEEMP has five current projects and two prospective ones:

• Former Yugoslav press – filming daily and weekly newspapers and news magazines from the mid-1990’s.
• Russian Regional Newspapers – filming titles from the mid-1990’s from 15 of 89 oblasts.
• Newspapers of the Russian Revolution – LC holds titles from 1917
• Ukrainian diaspora in Toronto – 1945
• Sarajevo daily newspapers – 1992-95. Problems negotiating rights, the price subsequently rose beyond initial agreement.
• Russian Right-Wing Extremist press (just funded) – the collections at UC-Berkeley and U. of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign of 1990’s ephemeral newspaper titles will be combined and filmed.
• Soviet-Asian pamphlets (just funded). Unique non-Turkic, non-Russian monographs from the ‘20’s and ‘30’s from NYPL

Some of these projects are "core" projects (such as the newspaper projects) which are expected to be widely used by SEEMP member libraries, some are "niche" projects (private collections). Successful projects are ones where original material for preservation has been provided by member libraries or where acquisition and filming of materials has been negotiated with vendors. Although current materials do not have negotiated copyrights, they are covered under "fair use." To date, there have not been cooperative projects in the region, but attempts are being made to negotiate such projects.

Last year, the joint CSAP/ASC committee recommended a more active approach to get members involved in projects. At its Fall 1999 meeting, SEEMP engaged in an exercise where all members submitted project ideas. This list has been organized and distributed to all members.

The challenge will be to develop a more focused mission statement and to develop more thematically coherent projects to meet research needs.

Where does Central Asia fit into the Area Microform Project model? It has often been overlooked as a "no man’s land" between the Middle East, South Asia, and Slavic regions. Possibly MEMP and SEEMP should develop a cooperative approach to the region, dividing the area by language lines. It was commented that the Library of Congress in Islamabad is paying attention to the "’Stans." University of Durham filmed daily newspapers from Central Asia. Perhaps SEEMP should develop resources with commercial publishers, such as Norman Ross, in collecting resources from the area. Additional collaboration with institutions interested in Central Asia (UC-Berkeley, Columbia, Indiana, Wisconsin, Washington, and others) is necessary.

Filming Permissions, Copyright.

CRL distributed two sample letters for filming permissions/copyright. It was suggested that, when Area Studies bibliographers are in the field looking at materials to collect and preserve, it would be encouraged that they attempt to secure permission to copy the material. There may be occasional revenue-generating streams produced, an in the worst case scenario, the AMPs would be developing a capital resource that can eventually be marketed.

There has been considerable difficulty securing copyrights and permissions to film. What it the time-cost ratio on this process? There seems to be fewer duplicate needs in libraries and not a lot of hunger for titles. Copyright is still a murky issue, often put into the "lawyers’ realm." International agreements pose another problem, as one cannot apply Anglo-American norms to areas where the laws are not applicable. The World Intellectual Property Organization is working in this realm – perhaps the groups should consider hiring someone to get legally binding agreements.

A question arose about the model of cheaper filming through offshore filmers. Is this a wise and economic choice? Jim Nye stated that the last estimates of costs from India came to less than $30 per reel to film. For those AMPs using overseas filming, is it possible to use these same organizations for other projects? That is, could LAMP send materials to the Philippines to be filmed? Members agreed to provide information on their overseas contacts and share them with the group.

Microfilming in the Digital Age.

The question posed to the group was whether the Microform Projects still had a role to play in the digital era. CRL distributed a report by Abby Smith entitled "Why Digitize" (Council on Library and Information Sciences, Publication #80, February 1999).

Erich Kesse averred that microfilming is by no means dead. However, digitizing is an economical alternative that is perhaps more exportable. When one is filming, one can also digitize at equal cost. There are still problems with capturing large formats and with universal standards in digitizing. Issues of storage still have not been addressed.

Abby Smith is optimistic as to how long film will last ("several centuries"). Cornell studies have estimated that film, stored properly, should last even 300 years. However, film technology is becoming a thing of the past, requiring the art of photography. Migrating from one electronic media to another will be easier in the future.

Next Meeting.

It was agreed that the committee would meet again in one year at the next annual meeting hosted by CRL [April 12, 2000].

This summary was recorded by James Simon.

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