1997 Annual Meeting
Rockville, Maryland
Saturday, May 17, 8:00pm-10:00pm

Chairman Dan Hazen called the meeting to order at 8:10 pm.

LAMP Business

1. Minutes: The 1996 minutes (New York) were approved without change.
   
2. New Members: Dan welcomed new member institutions: Brigham Young University (Mark Grover), University of Connecticut (Darlene Waller), University of New Mexico (Russ Davidson), and University of Pennsylvania (Joe Holub). To celebrate the occasion, new members brought refreshments. Scott Van Jacob of Notre Dame, who joined last year, complained that he still has not received his official tote bag!!
   
3. Financial Report: Marlys Rudeen summarized the financial report which was distributed in advance. New membership fees total $30,400. Business expenses include travel for Carl Deal's trip to Mexico, Pablo Fernando Filippo's fees for work on the Southern Cross, and the costs of shipping film to and from Argentina via Federal Express. Although LAMP continues to spend more than we collect in membership fees, we still have a large fund balance. Commitments for projects already approved by the membership show an outstanding balance as some projects are not yet completed. Including projected income, the available budget is $42,000 for future projects. CRL has not yet received film for Don Quijote and Variedades.
   
4. Executive Committee: There is a vacant seat on the Executive Committee which David Block has filled on a temporary basis. The only person who has expressed an interest in the vacancy is unlikely to be able to attend LAMP meetings due to the lack of travel support from his institution. David is willing to continue for a three-year term, though he and others have reservations about perpetuating an oligarchy. After asking for volunteers from the floor and hearing none, Dan called for a vote to appoint David Block to a new three-year term. The vote passed unanimously.
   
5. Area Studies Council: The Council is comprised of the heads of the six CRL-affiliated microform projects. The group meets at CRL with the goal of identifying common ground in mutually beneficial projects. Among the joint projects now under consideration are a microfilming manual for overseas projects and an effort to film newspapers of ethnic communities within the U.S. LAMP members expressed mixed feelings about entering the latter area since the Hispanic community has worked on ethnic newspapers for a long time and should continue to take the lead. The upcoming newspaper summit (see item II-B-11) presents another possible area of collaboration. Dan encouraged members to suggest ideas for projects that affect all area studies regions.
   
6. LAMP Guide: The guide to the LAMP collection is a cumulative list, supplemented annually between re-issues. Peter Johnson suggested that we sell the guide to non-members and advertise its availability on LALA-L. Further discussion raised the following points: nearly all of the titles are on the CRL OPAC (a few remain uncataloged), and the printed version quickly becomes out of date.
   
7. Listserv: Dan asked the non-LAMP members in attendance to indicate on the sign-in sheet if they wish to see the minutes and to be included on the LAMP listserv. [As usual, the sign-in sheets had vanished by the end of the meeting... -- dch]

Current and Continuing Projects

1. Memorias: Edmundo Flores gave a status report on the project. During the two year period (1993-1994) following the termination of the NEH grant to film memorias at the Library of Congress, LAMP approved a total of $15,000 to continue the work. While the filming went on, the funds were not completely spent since the department that conducts the filming had sufficient funds at the end of its fiscal year to absorb these costs.
   The leftover LAMP funds, plus some leftover NEH funds, came to about $27,000, enough for LC to continue filming memorias during 1996 and 1997. A total of eight titles have thus been completed and delivered to CRL since the completion of the NEH agreement in 1992. Four other titles are in progress.
   Even after the completion of the titles now in progress, some funds are likely to remain. Edmundo distributed a list of twelve candidate titles, some of which could be filmed during FY 1998. The membership assisted in selecting three of these: Costa Rica, Secretaria de Gobernacion (y Policia y Fomento) [1850-1956]; Guatemala, Policia Nacional [1922-1943]; and Honduras, Secretaria de Instruccion Publica [1904-1950]. Edmundo's list includes the dates of missing issues, and members were requested to check their holdings for fill-in volumes. When making them available to the project, members should also specify whether the volumes may be disbound for filming or should be returned to the lending institution intact. In concluding his report, Edmundo corrected an entry in the "LAMP - Received Since June 1996" list that was delivered with the preliminary agenda: "Uruguay, Departamento de Gobierno" should read "Uruguay, Ministerio del Interior. Memoria presentada..."
   
2. Latin American Theological Serials: Peter Johnson reported that 71 of the 134 religion titles held by Princeton Theological Seminary have been filmed in 318 reels at a cost of $62,212.88. Peter indicated that the $6,500 which remain of the $10,000 approved last year should be sufficient to continue filming this year.
   
3. Brazilian Digitizing Project: Scott Van Jacob reported that the project is 90% complete, and he expects it to be successfully finished on schedule in Fall, 1997. This major digitization project covers three groups of materials, including in the first place provincial "Presidential reports" from 1822-1889. The national presidential messages for 1890+ already are on the Web. The scanned ministerial reports are being loaded and still need to be evaluated. Scott is developing a new home page on CRL's server which will provide information on the project and will describe the relationship between Ann Hartness's guide to statistical information in the provincial reports and the page images. About 30% of the links from the guide remain to be completed.
   Some grant funds from the Mellon Foundation will still remain after all this work is complete. More materials, such as the almanac published by the court from the 1840's on, could be digitized as a possible add-on project. Another option would be to improve the indexing, since Ann's guide only covers the provincial reports.
   
4. Argentine and Mexican Presidential Messages: Dan reported that Preservation Resources completed both the filming and the digitization of these reports. LAMP supported the filming and the AAU/ARL Latin Americanist Project paid for the digitization. The Government Documents Working Group of the ARL Project, chaired by Barbara Robinson, is reviewing the digitized files to identify problems and examples of what does not digitize well. Dan noted that we have learned new lessons with both our own project and that developed within the ARL initiative.
   
5. Lafragua Collection, Biblioteca Nacional, Mexico: The Lafragua Collection of pamphlets, comparable to the Sutro Collection for its range and depth, is considered to be without peer for the study of early 19th century Mexican intellectual history. Carl Deal reported on the successful negotiation with the Biblioteca Nacional to film it, utilizing $10,000 of LAMP's funds and a matching $10,000 from the Fideicomiso. Despite a number of delays, the project has been successful because of the high levels of interest on the part of both LAMP and the Biblioteca Nacional. Senior staff at the BN have been working on the project and have administered the grant superbly. Both LAMP and the Biblioteca Nacional will receive a print master and a silver copy. The filming has been conducted in conformity with international ANSI standards. The targets are not up to RLG standards, but four printed guides provide bibliographic access. The project, which should be completed by September 1997, will consist of 236 reels. Carl suggested that LAMP have a sample convenio to expedite future collaborative projects and also a manual for filmers on how to obtain supplies.
   
6. Paraguayan Newspapers: Peter Briscoe reported that UC Riverside has added Andrew Nickson's collection to its already strong holdings. He is still seeking missing issues from other institutions. The material is being collated and will be filmed at the Southern Regional Library Facility of the University of California.
   
7. Aramayo-Francke Archive, Tupiza, Bolivia: Dan recounted the disastrous saga of the Aramayo-Francke filming. Everything that could possibly go wrong, went wrong. The filmer's agents were robbed in the train station. Their equipment failed at the filming site due to electrical problems. Materials were thrown out. The town fathers halted the filming when they learned that that the film would be sent to North America, threatened to arrest the filmers, and confiscated the equipment. Despite all the obstacles, some film has been received and Jimmy Saldivias is still interested in continuing the filming.
   
8. Critica: Pablo Fernando Filippo in Buenos Aires worked with the Biblioteca Nacional (BN) to draw up a convenio to film this title. However, when the administration of the BN changed, the understanding fell apart. Dan met with the director in Buenos Aires last week to pull together an agreement. He proposed that LAMP put up $15,000 to start. The BN is trying to fill in the holdings and the title will be filmed in Buenos Aires, after which the film will be shipped to the U.S. for duplication. The remaining $3,000 of the original commitment of $18,000 will be used for shipping and copying expenses. The BN should be responsible for paying any customs duty. More money will be needed to complete the project. In addition, a positive copy of the 1940-1949 film should be made available to both CRL and the BN, although this was not part of the original proposal. Dan proposed that the funds previously committed for La Protesta be shifted to complete the filming of Critica through the Depression, and that an additional $2,000 be allocated. Both proposals were approved.
   
9. Nunca Mais Indexing: Marlys Rudeen reported that the film set has no guide and is impossible to use without one. Columbia University's Law Library has a hard copy guide. Pamela Graham of Columbia was introduced and was volunteered to investigate how the guide links to the film collection.
   
10. Variedades: Dora Loh reported that the filming has not been finished due to staffing and other problems.
    
11. Don Quijote: Nelly Gonzalez indicated that the filming is complete, including the 16 additional issues that were purchased with LAMP funds. The film will be mailed to CRL soon.

Project Reports: Proposals, Possibilities, Nibbles

1. Cuba: Peter Johnson has had preliminary discussions with Luis Serrano Perez regarding the filming of holdings at the Instituto de Historia de Cuba (a dependency of the Central Committee of the Communist Party). He also carried on conversations at the Biblioteca Nacional and the Instituto de Literatura y Linguistica, the latter especially rich in 19th century materials. Foreign funding is now particularly difficult in the Cuban political environment, since such resources are supposed to carry potentially dangerous influences as well. Peter will continue his explorations.
   
2. Archivo Municipal de Granada, Nicaragua: Dan reported that the Archivo was awarded a grant under the Program for Latin American Libraries and Archives, administered through Harvard. A LAMP project might most effectively piggyback on this grant.
   
3. Chile Underground Materials: A recent Harvard graduate is exploring his contacts to gain access to a collection of ephemera, built in Concepcion, from the Pinochet period. The materials would be filmed at Harvard and could then be made available to LAMP and/or to Scholarly Resources.
   
4. El Sudcaliforniano: Karen Lindvall-Larson shipped UCSD's holdings to CRL last summer. These appear to be the only copy in the U.S. Karen estimates that it would cost $6,000 to film the run covering 1986-1991. A volunteer at CRL has been collating and wrapping it. There was discussion about whether to film right away or to wait, since the paper is not really brittle. Peter Johnson cited the importance of provincial/state coverage. A more accurate cost estimate will be available when the collating is completed. The membership approved up to $6,000.
   
5. La Prensa (Tegucigalpa): Grete Pasch, a doctoral student at the UT- Austin Library School, has a contact at La Prensa through her husband. La Prensa is an independent newspaper that has been in publication for more than 32 years. The paper is in reasonable condition, consists of approximately 600,000 frames, and the filming could be done by the owners. Peter Johnson will investigate the paper's importance before we proceed.
   
6. University of Florida Newspapers Project: UFL is in the second year of a three-year, Mellon-funded project to digitize newspapers from the Caribbean region. Richard Phillips plans to digitize Haiti's Le Nouvelliste from 1899 on, though Florida's holdings are incomplete. While the missing decade, 1914-1924 is available in a monastery in Haiti, the monastery has not yet granted permission to send these holdings off-site. The second title to be digitized is Cuba's Diario de la Marina, for the period 1945-1961.
   
7. Argentine Pamphlets: Last year, the mid-19th century pamphlets of the "Biblioteca Publica" of the Universidad Nacional de la Plata came to our attention as a possible project. Dan reported that Justo Bao, Director of the Buenos Aires microfilming firm "Estudio Tres," is willing to take over the coordination of this project from Pablo for the same level of compensation. An appropriation of up to $2,000, to be drawn upon as work is performed, was approved.
   
8. NEH Preservation Program: The NEH budget is expected to increase this year, resulting in more funding for the Preservation Program. The timing is good to obtain federal funds to preserve endangered resources. Dan suggested that LAMP consider making modest proposals of less than $250,000. Projects must focus on institutions within the United States: perhaps a consortium of libraries in the United States could film its pamphlet holdings. Guides might be digitized to improve access. Dan asked for input and offered to post ideas to the LAMP list as they are received.
   
9. Program for Latin American Libraries and Archives: The third application deadline has closed for this Mellon-funded program administered at Harvard by Dan. The awards have varied in their terms, including such categories as supplies for microfilming equipment, shelving, and support to organize and describe some collections.
   
10. Fundacion Historica Tavera: Dan reported on the ambitious plans of the Fundacion to unleash digital cameras upon Latin America to produce images that would be sent to Spain for processing at a reported cost of $0.10 per image. There also is an interest in digitizing finding aids. A panel on Monday at this SALALM will highlight some of the Foundation's ongoing projects.
    
11. International Newpapers Symposium: Marlys announced the global newspaper summit that will take place at the Library of Congress on May 27-28. Sponsored by CRL, ARL, LC, and the Council on Library and Information Resources, the meeting will bring together faculty, librarians, and micropublishers to examine and discuss possible structures and partnerships to extend the coverage of newspaper resources from all geographic areas. A Monday session at SALALM will also address newspapers.
    
12. SOLINET Preservation Microfilming Project: Guillermo Nánez-Falcon reported that Tulane has filmed 7,000 Central American and Mexican books and pamphlets since 1990. The records are cataloged and appear on OCLC. William Walker material was not filmed.
    
13. Latin American Register of Microform Masters (LAROMM): Dan mentioned a project underway at the Biblioteca Nacional de Venezuela to create a database of catalog records for preservation masters held in Latin America, in its first phase to include 18,000 records from Venezuela, 1,000 from Chile, and 1,000 from other areas. Unfortunately, the records do not necessarily represent material filmed to current standards.
    
14. Foreign Official Gazettes: Marlys reported on the CRL Task Force that includes NYPL, Harvard's Law Library, Michigan State, and the Los Angeles County Law Library (LACLL). The goal is to build a retrospective collection of gazettes. Film is deposited if available, and hard copy is accepted when there is no film. A list of all deposited gazettes with the country as author will be placed on the web. NYPL has retained holdings for some countries such as France, Great Britain, the Vatican, Cuba, and Hong Kong. The question of who will collect current gazettes still remains.
    
15. Thanks: The group thanked Darlene for refreshments.
    
16. Adjournment: Dan adjourned the meeting at 10:30 pm. Whew!!
    
    Submitted by Eudora Loh, Recorder

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