DRAFT Minutes

November 12, 2004
8:35 – 11:05 AM
New Orleans Marriott
La Galerie Salon I

Present: Executive Committee, Ruby Bell-Gam (UCLA), chair; James Simon (CRL); Edward Miner (U Iowa), secretary; Peter Malanchuk (U. Fla.), vice-chair and chair-elect; David Easterbrook (Northwestern), past-chair; Laverne Page (LC); Gretchen Walsh (Boston U), ALC chair; Dorothy Woodson (Yale), at-large; Ned Alpers (UCLA), faculty representative.

Members and guests: Esmeralda Kale (Northwestern), Helene Baumann (Duke), Marion Frank-Wilson (Indiana U), Karen Fung (Stanford), Miki Goral (UCLA), Marieta Harper (LC), Afeworki Paulos (U Michigan), Loumona Petroff (Boston U), Al Kagan (U Ill), Andrew de Heer (Schomburg Center), Joe Caruso (Columbia), Lauris Olson (U Penn), Ken Lohrentz (U Kansas), Jill Coelho (Harvard), Patricia Ogedengbe (Northwestern), Simon Bockie (UC Berkeley), Robin Fryde (Thorold’s Bookshop)

1. Introductions & Announcements
Harvey Feinberg sends his regrets – he is undergoing medical treatment. Robin from Thorold’s Bookshop brought a copy of “Birds of Africa” for people to flip through.

2. Amendments to the Agenda
In the CRL report (item 5), Simon will include an update on DATAD. Item 16a is added as Liberian Presidential Archives (as a follow on to the presentation at the Title VI meeting). Item 19b (under Eastern Nigeria Guardian) will include an Eritrean title. Item 19b, bullet point “Other Newspapers” will also include We Yone (Sierre-Leone) and Courrier d’Afrique (Leopoldville). Item 21 will be changed to Mellon/Aluka initiative, and Simon suggests discussion of digitization, time permitting.

3. Approval of Minutes of the May 8, 2004 Business Meeting
Minutes approved with minor revisions. Final minutes will be posted on the CAMP website. For item 23, Malanchuk provided correction that the University of Florida microfilmed Independence newspapers and interviews from Sierra Leone. Item 6 should read “another proposal has been submitted to NEH to continue International Coalition on Newspapers”. Item 8 should read “invoice for the microfilming and will commence work”. Item 11 should read “there are almost never any submissions”. Item 18 should read “it can be used for reading microfilm but will not for microfiche at the moment”.

4. 2004 CAMP Elections Report
Nominating Committee (consisting of Dorothy Woodson and Loyd Mbabu) had submitted a slate of candidates by email. Ned Alpers was elected to a 2nd 2-year term as faculty representative , and Jill Young Coelho to position of vice-chair/chair-elect. Peter Malanchuk will become new chair after this meeting.

5. CRL Report
Simon reported that CRL has picked up membership from 15 smaller institutions. Continues to catalog dissertations. Turn around time for interlibrary loans is getting quicker, with 95% shipped out in 24 hours. CRL is taking on administration of the Latin American and German parts of the Global Resources Network as of June 1. The summer FOCUS newsletter highlighted the Africana collection at CRL, and included the following articles:

• Cooperative Africana Microform Project: Forty Years of Collaboration and Scholarship
• Inside Apartheid: The Benjamin Pogrund Collection of Southern Africa Materials
• The Carter-Karis and Karis-Gerhart Collection of South African Political Materials, 1882-1990
• Recent Development in African Scholarly e-Resources (by Peter Limb)
• Political Communications Web Archive – Preserving Nigerian Election Sites
• Disseminating African Scholarship: A Report on the DATAD Workshop

In addition, CRL has launched a new publication called Global Resources, primarily for the Latin American and German projects, but which can also include information on AFRINUL, etc. Simon deferred detailed comments on DATAD to the ALC roundtable in the afternoon. But CRL continues to work with the Association of African Universities (AAU) to “plot the future” of DATAD, especially on how to turn it into a full text delivery program. The International Coalition on Newspapers (ICON) proposal to NEH was successful – will fund more microfilming, more database development, and select digitization of newspaper reference materials. Finally, among its strategic directions, CRL is discussing digital delivery of its resources. CRL wants feedback from the AMPs about how to do this. Olson asked if this would mean he could get PDF files of Congolese newspapers from the 1940s, for example -- Simon said yes. Copyright issues must be identified. Use copies might be rough scans with no value added features.

6. CAMP Budget Report
Simon distributed the CAMP Budget Report with final figures for FY 2004 and year to date figures for FY 2005 (through 10/30/04). For FY 2004, the beginning fund balance was $38,327.26. Membership fees and sales brought in revenues of $38,315.50. Total general expenses were $28,750.63. Ending fund balance was $47,892.13.

For FY 2005 (through 10/30/04), the beginning fund balance was $47, 892.13. Membership fees and sales have brought in revenues of $28,830.00. Total general expenses have been $9,098.51. Outstanding commitments total $37,338.64, which include materials on order, materials approved for purchase, and non-material expenses. Available funds are at present $30,284.98.

There has been significant income from sales. Serie10D of the Senegal project is finished and available (paid for by Title VI funds). Recent receipts list includes the demand proposal for Buganda Lukiiko microfilm – provided by Easterbrook. John Rowe had typescripted the archives, which were subsequently destroyed in the Amin era.

7. Arquivo Historico de Mocambique
Alpers requested the discussion about the Mozambique National Archives be moved up because he needed to leave the meeting early. Bell-Gam stated that she has been in contact with Joel Tembe and Sheri Young. Bell-Gam had requested an itemized list of possible equipment for the project, and a prioritized list of materials that the Mozambique National Archives would want to have CAMP consider helping them film. We are still lacking page counts for the items to be microfilmed. There are two sets they want to film. Bell-Gam said that Young had shared with her a preliminary itemized list of possible equipment but the estimates were expensive. Alpers asked how the South African prices would compare to British or other sources – Bell-Gam indicated that we haven’t had a chance to do that research yet. Alpers said this is something to ask Mellon/Aluka people about, since they are buying equipment.

Alpers talked to Tembe in the summer about microfilming priorities. The District Inspector’s Reports are critical -- they are more detailed than similar documents from Tanzania, for example, and contain lots of ephemera. Alpers has also used Boletim Oficial (a gazette), and says that it is extremely detailed – but no US institution has holdings before 1921. O Brado Africano – one of the most important newspaper titles, was published by the mestizo community.

LC had talked to Sheri Young about helping with microfilming, but the material would have to go to New Delhi for filming, which isn’t acceptable to the Mozambique National Archives. There is a commercial microfilmer, but Tembe says that their work does not meet archival microfilming standards.

Bell-Gam raised the question of what the next move should be, since we now have targeted titles. E-mail access to Tembe is sometimes problematic. Jean Pennvenne (Tufts), who is lecturing at Eduardo Mondlane University, might help with communication. It is unclear if what we have is the final proposal. There are shifting political sands in Mozambique, and an election coming up. Bischof asked if it is time to earmark funds? Bell-Gam replied that we don’t yet have important information, like page counts, so we have no idea about what the startup costs would be. As soon as we have the complete information, we can begin final discussion through Introspect, probably before the Spring meeting.

Olson mentioned that ALA has a manual on microfilming and digitization that might serve as a training manual to be translated into Portuguese for the Mozambique National Archives. Simon added that there is a microfilming manual that was translated into Portuguese for LC-Rio de Janeiro (Ballantyne will pursue this). Easterbrook said that CLIR did some Lusophone training materials. Alpers mentioned that with all the Brazil-Angola-Mozambique intergovernmental interactions taking place, there are probably relevant resources there. Bell-Gam suggested that Young follow up on training needs at the archives. Gretchen mentioned the importance of our presence at the upcoming ESARBICA meeting in Botswana in July 2005. Bell-Gam, Page and Caruso are planning on going. The ESARBICA conference website should go up soon (according to Young).

8. AFRINUL
AFRINUL is ready for participants to input data. Usernames have been assigned, and a user guide created. Simon will be following up after Christmas on getting started.

9. TICFIA Grant
Bell-Gam had thought TICFIA to be a good possibility for the Mozambique project, but the detailed information needed and the closely approaching deadline make it too difficult to get a proposal together. Bell-Gam had spoken to people who have TICFIA grants at UCLA, like Tom Hinnebusch and the Latin Americanists. In the future, CAMP should start compiling the information needed to apply for grants in a timely fashion. This will bear on any future discussion of CAMP sub-committee structure. Bell-Gam also pointed out that CAMP hasn’t decided its position on digitization, and the Mozambique archives is still examining its options for a central preservation strategy. Simon reminded the group that preservation is not a TICFIA emphasis; rather, the emphasis is on innovation, although preservation is not excluded. Walsh expressed trepidation about applying for grants that force you to do things you really don’t want to do.

10. Senegal Archives Project
Serie 10D has been finished, and $120,000 is needed to continue with 11D. Caruso proposed making it part of a larger program of preservation/digitization in West Africa. So CAMP needs to think of growing the Senegal project into a larger regional proposal, with various pilot projects. A proposal (from the Archives Task Force?) is needed by Spring to begin a major fundraising campaign. Elements of it could include:

• Firstly, a major regional planning meeting in Dakar, which WARBICA might be able to organize. Might be able to coordinate with other preservation/digitization efforts. Caruso says all the archivists in West Africa will mention digitization.
• Secondly, the formation of an Advisory Committee of faculty working in the region (especially indigenous faculty) to garner interest in the project.
• Thirdly, a training workshop – Mbaye could assist with this. These three steps could lead to continued microfilming in Senegal plus maybe a regional pilot project.

11. Mombasa Times Preservation
The microfilming of the Mombasa Times is nearly complete.

12. Miso Gaa Preservation/Purchase
The microfilming of Miso Gaa is not yet an official proposal. There are scattered holdings for 1975-79 in the US. Simon has not yet contacted the Netherlands where there may be a more complete run. Ruby suggested contacting the Belgians to see if this can be done – can they film it, or can we film it with them?

13. Timbuktu Manuscripts
CRL scanned copies of the Timbuktu Manuscripts some time ago. Northwestern got a small grant from their African Studies Program to implement the digital collection, including cataloging, metadata, and display derivatives of archival TIFF files. CRL has produced a budget to do these things, which are being outsourced, with the agreement of Northwestern’s African Studies Program. Metadata should be completed soon, and will go back to Northwestern for review. Northwestern funding frees up Title VI and CAMP funds that had been encumbered for this project.

Initially the plan had been that John Hunwick would identify a student to implement the project, but that didn’t work out – hence the outsourcing. Harper mentioned that LC has scanned some other Timbuktu manuscripts from another collection. The Northwestern project focuses on just 200 manuscripts from a particular collection, and is completely separate from the major Norwegian funded digitization of Timbuktu manuscript collections.

14. O. R. Tambo Papers
We still haven’t gotten pricing for the O.R. Tambo papers. ANC permission for is needed for duplication. This acquisition was approved in principle by CAMP.

15. Lesotho Register of Electors
David Ambrose had proposed about 4 years ago that CAMP microfilm this. Ambrose has since decided that it can’t be done, so some $4,000 is freed from encumbrance.

16. CRL Purchase Proposals
Cape of Good Hope Official Publications. In e-mails after Spring 2004 meeting, it was decided we don’t need to purchase Group 1 in microfilm (which is held by members in a much better microfiche version). Bell-Gam submitted a proposal for Group 2 for the current round of CRL purchase proposals. She couldn’t get a discounted price from ProQuest, because that depended on purchasing the entire set. UC Berkeley actually has Group 2, although the online catalog record is confusing. CRL accepts proposals of $1,000 and above. Simon said that they rank proposals. Woodson noted that there are few Africana proposals – can CAMP apply for a chunk of the CRL budget? Woodson noted that this might be a solution for the Senegal funding problem. The deadline for voting on CRL purchase proposals is in December. Easterbrook asked whether bibliographers see the CRL purchase proposal ballots. Bell-Gam replied that this came up at the Spring 2004 meeting – some bibliographers see them and some don’t. It was decided at that time that there will be a point person who will forward them to CAMP and that members should talk to their Collection Development Officers about seeing them.

17. Liberian Presidential Archives
Frank-Wilson has spoken to Verlon Stone. There is an advisory board at Indiana for the Liberian project. They are still missing some (budgetary) information needed for their proposal for the Tubman Papers, but they have some information that they could forward to CAMP for discussion. Lauris said that the Hewlett Foundation has a quarterly grant cycle – and part of their program looks at collections. Bell-Gam asked that he forward that information to CAMP. Frank-Wilson also suggested the Liberian project as a candidate pilot project for the regional project proposal that Caruso had suggested.

18. Nigerian State Documents
Easterbrook said that Bischof had brought the suggestion about two years ago of microfilming Nigerian state documents. The UC Berkeley list has been supplemented by Northwestern (state by state), and is now mounted on Intraspect. The list now includes Plateau state (148 titles) and Anambra state (162 titles), from the dates of their creation to the present. What to do next? Compare this list against holdings of other institutions? Alpers said that this is a very worthwhile project, and suggested that the groundwork be continued with surveying holdings for other states. Walsh said that at least monographs should be microfilmed and missing serials issues gathered for the two states surveyed. And then make it a rolling project for the other states. Fung suggested calling for missing issues from private collections via e-mail lists. Easterbrook suggested that Northwestern identify gaps and then ask CAMP members if they can supply missing issues and also identify additional monographic titles. They can also move forward with surveying another larger state. Easterbrook proposed using the $4,000 unencumbered from the Lesotho Register of Electors towards this project. The motion was made, seconded, passed.

19. German Colonial Archives
Baumann asked if this should be a CRL purchase proposal. Bell-Gam asked about the advantages of silver vs. diazo. Simon replied that silver is all CRL takes. Diazo is not archivally stable. SEAM is not interested in this purchase, but the German project is. Baumann would want to work out a payment plan over several years. CAMP could put in some money. Simon noted that a shared purchase proposal if possible, involving CRL and individual institutions – one possibility if a regular CRL purchase proposal is turned down. Member inquired if CAMP contributes a small amount, does it gives complete access to purchased copy to all CAMP members? The next CRL cycle closes next Fall, and in principle this is something CAMP has agreed to find a way to acquire.

20. Swahili Manuscripts
The prepublication price from Adam Matthew was $3,000 for 20 reels – but since they started microfilming, it has been discovered that there is more material than anticipated. The total final price for Part 1 (21 reels) and Part 2 (24 reels) will be $6,800. Bell-Gam stated that a small meeting had reached a consensus that CAMP (rather than CRL) should get it because of its very narrow interest. Easterbrook moved that CAMP purchase it, Walsh seconded, and the motion passed, for $6,800, parts 1-2. Bell-Gam will submit CAMP purchase proposal online.

21. CAMP Purchase/Preservation Proposals
Due to lack of time, it was suggested that the various newspaper ideas be discussed online. Simon noted that there are no prices obtained for any of them, so we should hear any objections to them now, before voting for them online later. The Eritrean newspaper will be covered by ICON. For the Eastern Nigeria Guardian, we need to find other holdings – the only known holdings are at LC and CRL. CRL hard copies no longer circulate because of their brittle condition. Bell-Gam doubts that we would find copies in eastern Nigeria, but we could pursue holdings through the National Library of Nigeria.

22. CAMP Organization Structure
There was discussion about whether CAMP needs a functional sub-committee structure to more systematically cover its activities and collections. Bell-Gam had sent an e-mail to the Executive Committee on October 22, 2004, in which she outlined some ideas for possible functional sub-committees. This e-mail had then been forwarded to the entire CAMP membership for discussion. The functional sub-committee categories mentioned in Bell-Gam’s e-mail included:

A. African and Africa-Related Archives
B. Investigating Newer Technologies (currently, digitization)
C. Grant Preparation
D. Membership Recruitment
E. Bibliographic Access
F. Newspapers (or newspapers and periodicals)

One member had suggested to Bell-Gam that digital preservation should have its own sub-committee. Bell-Gam stated that we need a more systematic survey of newspapers required so that there is more regionally balanced collection. Right now CAMP purchase/preservation activities are driven largely by specific faculty needs and wherever we happen to have traveled. Alpers endorsed categories A, B, and C, commenting that he is less familiar with D. Coelho voiced concern that there be a mechanism to ensure that people are talking to each other across sub-committees, that we not end up reinventing the wheel. Bell-Gam recalled another member comment that the proposed structure would fragment group activities too much. Bell-Gam agreed, saying that we are too slow in moving things forward. Maybe working in smaller groups through the year would get more done. Bischof asked Simon what other AMPs do. Simon replied that they do not typically have a formal sub-committee structure – except that SAMP has a newspaper group. Walsh asked how other AMPs get and implement major grants – Simon replied that it is accomplished through strong leadership. Bell-Gam noted that MELA has talked about a sub-committee structure and that she had received a request to have the CAMP proposal forwarded to MELA. She didn’t know what has come of that. Goral thought that sub-committees wouldn’t change things much. Miner expressed approval of the way that sub-committees might funnel the right people in a committed way to the right projects. Bell-Gam suggested that B and E can be combined. Walsh voiced support for emphasizing A-C. Bell-Gam added that F could perhaps be folded into A. Simon noted that sub-committees in other AMPs come and go, but agreed that a structure is needed in order for some specific important tasks to get done. Bell-Gam said that this is also needed to take work off Simon. Caruso agreed that we should have at least A-C, see who will chair them, and then move forward. Lorentz added that Bell-Gam’s proposal has promise in how it could dovetail assignments with interests.

Bell-Gam encouraged people to make more active use of Intraspect. Alpers moved that we set up A-C, and populate their members through e-mail. Walsh opined that people’s engagement will have to do with initial sub-committee charges. Bell-Gam asked for a show of hands of people who might be interested in different areas. It was moved that CAMP agree in principle that a sub-committee structure be created, and that the new Chair and Executive Committee will write sub-committee charges and populate their membership in the next few months. The motion was seconded and approved.

23. Mellon/Aluka Initiative
Mellon has committed to fund Aluka’s proposal for their second module, World Heritage sites. The proposal is to make the product freely available to African universities, but have western institutions pay for access. The Aluka contact has asked Bell-Gam for advice on pricing. Bell-Gam has told her that such advice is hard to give when you don’t know what the product will contain, but that ALC/CAMP will be very interested in selection criteria and development of the project. It is hoped that the contact will come to Spring 2005 meeting. The product will be ready to go live in mid 2006. If we are in discussion with them from now, we can provide some guidance. Olson said that ALC might be the better point of contact than CAMP when it comes to giving advice about pricing (Bell-Gam acknowledged that it is an ALC issue). Bell-Gam will write up her notes and send them out to interested people. Easterbrook and Alpers attended an initial Aluka meeting about a year ago – when discussion was on preservation issues. Bell-Gam got the impression that Aluka is now thinking about preserving and availing entire collections vs. creating teaching modules with selected primary documents. Bell-Gam told the Aluka contact that they can do both. Bell-Gam also told her that interest in tutorials might be short-lived.

Alpers moved a vote of thanks to Ruby for her service. The motion was seconded and approved.