1998 Annual Meeting
San Juan, Puerto Rico
May 23, 1998, 7:00-9:30 p.m.

Attendance: [The membership list was updated.]

Dan Hazen, Chair of LAMP, called the meeting to order at 7:10 p.m.

LAMP Business

1. Minutes: The 1997 minutes (Washington, D.C.) were approved.
2. New Members: LAMP expects the University of North Carolina to join soon, bringing the membership to 41. Rice University also has expressed an interest in joining, and there has been a nibble from the University of Calgary.
3. Financial Report: Marlys Rudeen corrected the printed report which she distributed by mail before the meeting. To LAMP commitments, add $6,000 which already was approved for the newspaper, El Sudcaliforniano. The funds available for votes this evening are $24,754.80 plus $35,630, or $60,385.
4. Election for Executive Committee: In an e-mail vote, Peter Johnson (Princeton) was elected to the vacant 3-year term. Denise Hibay (New York Public Library) was elected to a one-year term. Dan said that the level of interest in the positions was very gratifying. The need to hold an election raised questions about the appropriate procedures for elections. Some members expressed concerns over confidentiality and about the difficulty of casting e-mail ballots. Dan received 24 ballots. It was agreed to add a provision that an electronic ballot will be held one month to two weeks before the meeting.
5. Area Studies Council Meeting: David Block attended the meeting in Dan's place. Carolyn Brown, director of area studies at LC, arranged to film with Cornell Vietnamese newspapers using LC's camera. Marlys reported that Mark Sweeney, head of the newspapers section, also confirmed that LC is interested in partnerships because they lack staff, but have money and equipment for filming. In this instance, Cornell is providing labor, and LC is providing the film and the camera.
6. IFLA provides access to translations of basic documents on preservation, such as on setting up labs. Access is available to Spanish- and Portuguese-language technical documents. Venezuela received a lot of funding from the Preservation Commission to develop the Register of Latin American Microform Masters, created mainly from information from national libraries. ABINIA was formed by the national librarian of Venezuela. The ABINIA Secretariat moved to Brazil, and later, to Chile. The national librarian of Chile, who recently resigned, was interested in preserving 19th century documents.
7. The International Coalition on Newspapers (ICON) was established last year following an all day summit on newspapers. It will define the agenda for future newspaper preservation activities. The Area Studies Council newspaper preservation project discussed the need to work in collaboration with other institutions. They discussed a thematic approach, such as focusing on political party papers. We need to make lists of what CRL has and indicate what issues are missing. The focus was more on retrospective rather than current materials.

II. Current and Continuing Projects

1. Memorias: Edmundo Flores stated that the Memorias Project refuses to die. In the last year, 37 microfilm reels were delivered to CRL. Venezuela Ministerio de Crédito Público is finished, but not yet mailed, and will be sent immediately. The titles proposed for this year have not yet been filmed. They will be contracted out. Edmundo recommends one additional title to be filmed: Mexico Secretarìa de Justicia. LC has most of the issues and will put out a call to fill in gaps. Though LC has money for preservation filming and really does not need CRL funding, having the money in the account gives Edmundo leverage to continue urging the filming of the Latin American memorias.
2. Latin American Theological Serials: Peter Johnson provided Donald Vorp's report. To date, 134 titles have been completed at a cost of $197 per reel to film. Peter projects that at the present rate of filming, the project will go into the next century. The filming operation has other commitments. Peter is exploring using an outside filmer, with the possibility of a 25% volume discount from Scholarly Resources' filmer. The project would cost $54,000 for the next 3-4 years.
3. Brazilian Digitizing Project: David Block reported for Scott Van Jacob. The governors and presidential reports are on the CRL home page. The remaining money paid for additional access with more indexing and links from contents pages. Through the project, we have learned a great deal about how to create links within documents. A monograph on what we have learned about improving links will be published.
4. Lafragua Collection: Dan Hazen reported on the project that was jointly-funded with the Fideicomiso. Carl Deal was the main contact person working with the Biblioteca Nacional of Mexico. Film has been delivered. The National Library is aware of the need for a printed guide to make the film usable and may consider an electronic product.
5. Paraguayan Newspapers: The filming is within a few weeks of being finished.
6. Aramayo-Francke Archive in Bolivia: CRL has received 34 reels of microfilm. The camera still is under police guard in Tupiza. Erick Langer, the historian who has been the person on site, will be moving to Georgetown and will not return to Bolivia this summer. He does not expect to resolve this matter until he returns so the project is stalled. Duplicate copies of the rolls we have will be sent to the Archive as a good faith gesture.
7. Critica: The Estudio Tres filmer is continuing though a little behind schedule. The Legislature took over the rooms where filming was done. The space problem is now resolved. The first 60 reels have been received.
8. Nunca Mais: Pamela Graham looked at the 12-volume set at Columbia Law Library. There is some kind of index to the set which was filmed. It is more than an index in that it contains narrative on the political situation in Brazil. Only seven sites in North America have the set. Marlys will examine it more closely and will annotate the set for film breaks
9. Variedades: UCLA is committed to finish the filming by January.
10. El Sudcaliforniano: About half has been filmed, using $4,700. We will need an additional $3,000 to finish the project.

Project reports: Proposals, possibilities, nibbles

1. Chile: No report .
2. La Prensa (Honduras): Founded in 1964 in San Pedro Sula, it has the largest circulation and is the main independent voice in the country. The newspaper has never filmed and has no capacity to film. The first 20 years are in bad shape, with 1964 to 1979 in greatest jeopardy. This portion equals 235,000 pages requiring $35,000 to film. We would need a LAMP consultant and a liaison to nail down details. Frank Fonseca of Princeton might be able to serve as the consultant.
3. Revistas Literarias Argentinas: Ricardo Piglia of the Universidad de Buenos Aires selected important titles that are not widely held from a bibliography. We agreed to check for holdings and David Block will compile the information.
4. Argentina Libre: This title deals with WWII-period opposition to Fascism. We will check for holdings.
5. Regulatory Agencies' Publications and Documenting the Privatization Process: Privatization of many state functions raises questions about how they are they being regulated and how key sectors such as water, telecommunications, electric industries, and sewage treatment are evolving. In Brazil, there are 3 new agencies. Peter Johnson observed that they will begin publishing in the next year. This is a new form of documentation in Latin America. The LC Rio Office will be adding these publications and may include them in BPG for the year 2000. There are popular pamphlets for consumers and documents from consumer organizations.
6. La Protesta: When Crìtica is finished, we will be able to move the $10,000 that we diverted back into the active column. UCLA will report on its detailed holdings.
7. Other Proposals: Pamela Graham inquired if LAMP can fund duplicating film that are in Latin American archives and was informed that such projects are eligible for consideration. Pamela noted that there are 1,100 reels of the Fondo Justicial de Yucatan. There is no indexing available. There is deteriorating microfilm in Latin America.  Consensus was that duplicating such filmed holdings could certainly be considered by LAMP.

Summary of Proposals (the following were approved):

• $3,000 for El Sudcaliforniano
• $12,000 Princeton Theological Serials
• $8,000 for Protesta
• Total $23,000 New Commitments

Other Business

1. Alfredo Montalvo and Newspapers of South America: Alfredo is setting up a microfilming factory in Miami to film South American newspapers in a timely way to reduce the need for subscriptions to paper copies. LC has lent him a camera. He has developed a list of newspapers willing to give him copyright permission to film. The list includes El Mercurio. He hopes to begin filming in September.
2. Norman Ross: Bill Nañez Falcon reported that Norman Ross recently established a preservation project at Tulane and filmed two collections. The William Walker papers already have been filmed, and several additional projects are in the queue with Bill deciding on the priorities.
3. El Democrata: "Lo Que Es Mèxico": Eudora Loh is considering making an archival photocopy of the New Year's Day 1926 supplement on the states of Mexico, and asked if any other institutions would be interested in a copy to consolidate an order. The originals are very fragile. Anyone interested can contact her.
4. Escuela de Plata (Cuba) 1938-1944. Princeton has filmed this title.
5. NYPL: NYPL has applied for an NEH preservation grant to film 19th and 20th century pamphlets and serials, and Cuban titles published in NY.
6. Harvard is spending several millions of dollars for the Library Digital Initiative. Dan reported that one project under consideration is the digitization of 5,000 Latin American pamphlets and creation of full cataloging records. This will allow minimal demand on the originals which then can be kept in controlled storage.
7. 700 Brazilian State Histories. The preservation project has been renewed.
8. Policy questions: Should LAMP use its funds to purchase expensive manuscript collections in order to microfilm them? There was an overwhelming consensus that we should not use LAMP resources in this way. The membership agreed that the focus should be on reformatting rather than on purchasing original materials. There also was consensus that we do not want to be rushed in decision-making. A purchase should not be contingent upon LAMP’s intention to microfilm it. There are sufficient alternatives available.
9. LAMP's Mission: Do we want to frame the future in a particular way? With projects coming in an ad hoc manner, should we set aside some money for targeted efforts? Should we go after grants? The Brazilian experience taught us a great deal and Mellon was pleased with LAMP's product. How about digitization of statistical information so the data could be manipulated? How can we be innovative? The Memorias project was funded 20 years ago. Can we define a new NEH microforms project?

With these questions and challenges to think about, the meeting was adjourned at 9:30 p.m.

Submitted by Eudora Loh, Recorder

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