Friday, November 17, 2006
4:00 pm-5:30 pm
Forum Room, Lamont Library
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA

Present: David Hirsch (UCLA) chair, Jonathan Rodgers (Michigan) sec/treas, William Kopycki (Penn), Peter Magierski (NYU), Michael Hopper (Harvard), Patrick Visel (Ohio State), Philip McEldowney (University of Virginia), Waleed El-Shobaki (University of Manchester), Joyce Bell (Princeton), Hayee Khanaka (UC Berkeley), Robin Dougherty (Texas), Hossein Kamaly (Columbia University), Kamran Arjomand (Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt, Halle), Meryle Gaston (UC Santa Barbara), Christof Galli (Duke University), Gamil Youseff (NYPL), Connie Lamb (BYU), Mehdi Rahimzadeh (Ferdosi), George Fawzy (Leila Books, Cairo), Michael Grossman (Harvard), Jodi Goodman (U Rhode Island), Ali Boutaqmanti (Harvard), Brenda Bickett (Georgetown), Mohammad al-Farouque (UIUC), Rebecca Routh (University of Iowa), Abdul Hannawai (Yale), James Gentner (LC), Judy Eckoff (CRL).

Minutes from 2005 general meeting (Rodgers)
Approved with corrections of names omitted from last year’s meeting.

Member news, brief introductions:
• University of California Berkeley: New AUL for collections who has area studies interests
• Columbia: Persian cataloguer and Armenian cataloguer, digital projects, including Iran oral history Iranian left audio and video, runs of now closed Iranian newspapers
• Halle: collection of African literature from a private library, old lithographs
• University of California Santa Barbara: The University librarian departed, and two new associate university librarians
• Duke University: Conversion of Dewey to LC
• New York University: Migration to a new system (GEAC to VTLS) has been postponed. Work continues on the Afghanistan Digital Library. The goal is to make available online the entire publishing output of Afghanistan. Web site at NYU (http://afghanistandl.nyu.edu)
• New York Public Library: microfilming of Sudanese newspapers underway, with large runs of four titles. There are also Arab-American newspapers, not held elsewhere in USA. Some newly acquired Arab-American newspapers might be included in a MEMP project, but more likely they will be filmed in-house.
• University of California Los Angeles: The Bibliography of Arab-American Newspapers online has been updated regularly.
• Brigham Young University: BYU expressed its intention to become a member of MEMP.
• University of Pennsylvania: Martha Brogan, new Associate Librarian for Collection Development & Management, formerly at IU and Yale has an appreciation for area studies; Voyager library system has been upgraded to accept unicode; W. Kopycki spent three weeks in September in Algeria working with the parliamentary librarian to identify Algerian legal materials for acquisition
• University of Illinois: There were some administrative position changes
• Georgetown University: There is a AUL for collections position vacancy which has been posted; Arabic script records in system are now viewable as such
• Yale: updates on AMEEL Oasis projects; Iraq digitization project; academic journals from Europe also included; University of Iowa is the newest member, selector for Middle East, Africa, and South Asia
• Library of Congress: James Gentner reports that Jeremy Adamson has been appointed Director for Collections and Services; there is as yet no budget, and funding continues under the continuing resolution
• University of Texas: R. Dougherty notes that a new library system to have Arabic script capability; there is no in-house filming, but film purchases with Center funds left over from Title VI
• Other remarks, introductions, etc.: Ali Boutaqmanti, Harvard, introduces self; Jody Goodman, Atiyeh Award winner as guest; Michael Grossman, Harvard, new Georgian, Armenian, and South Asian languages; George Fawzi, Leila Books

CRL Report (Eckoff)
Judy Eckoff, Project Coordinator, is introduced and attends in place of James Simon, Director of International Resources. CRL update on workshop at Library of Congress, news about which was emailed by James Simon with details; digitization at CRL is to increase support in digitization either from originals or from film; members are urged to submit questions, proposals, etc., about possible projects.
• Global Resources Network – meeting during the week after Thanksgiving to discuss the strategic direction of CRL and GRN projects
• ICON (International Coalition on Newspapers) Middle East-related projects (titles: Dunya, Anadolu – Turkey; Bourse Egyptienne – Egypt): filming has been completed: Anadolu only holdings in USA, supplements LC’s holdings. See website for holdings

Nominating Committee (Eilts and Rodgers)
Presentation of slate of candidates for three board positions which expire, replacing four (Eilts, Gaston, Hopper, and Kopycki) due to previous tie.
New slate: B. Bickett (Georgetown), R. Dougherty (U Texas), M. Hopper (Harvard), H. Kamaly (Columbia), W. Kopycki (U Penn), S. Samoeil (Yale).
Additional nominations to be accepted from the floor at the General Membership meeting.
Vote for three of six--ballots distributed collected, and the winners are:
1. Robin Dougherty
2. Michael Hopper
3. Brenda Bickett

Old and Continuing Business

Budget, recent receipts (Eckoff) distributed during the vote

Project Updates (no action required) (Eckoff)

Approved Projects (action items):
• Arabic Pamphlet Collection (Eckoff)--material needs Arab-speaker who can organize the collection.
• Chaqueri Collection (Hopper)
• Continued discussion of Hoover Iranian opposition materials
• Irani Opposition Papers II (Nawruz, Khurdad, Hambastagi, ‘Asr-I Azadagan) (Hopper)
• al-Ittijah al-akhar (Hopper)
• al-Quds al-Arabi (Hirsch)
• as-Sameer publicity update (Hirsch)
• Web site (translation into Arabic: Volunteer from members or contract out?)

Pending Projects
• Kamaly Proposal (Hirsch)
• Subh-I Iran (Hirsch)-- The CA Newspaper project will film this title.

Filming Proposals
• Tangier Gazette (P. Magierski, NYU) proposed amount = $2,000 Approved. Should be ordered from British Library.
• Funun (Hirsch, UCLA) proposed amount = $939 Approved. It is appropriate for Montreal MEMP meeting in Nov. 2007, since it is a Canadian-Arab newspaper.

• al-Mu’tamar (S. Khanaka, Berkeley)--LC Cairo should be contacted for confirmation of filming plans, according to James Gentner of LC.
• MERJ titles: Updated proposal (Eckoff, CRL): update info: MEMP members and everyone else has access, regardless; titles are now reduced to 5 from 6. The consensus is we will not fund, but we are still interested anyway in continuing relations that might lead to other projects, but this one is not really worth $2400.
• Waqa’i Iraqiyah (Hirsch, UCLA): Additional information needed.
•Stanford/Hoover Newspapers (Eilts, Stanford): Additional information needed.

Newspaper Survey Update (Hopper) nothing new

Other Business

Potential projects (Hopper)

Dues increase: board voted $750 from $500, and the membership needs to vote. There is discussion: it’s up to the membership, and dues have not changed since 1985; will members depart, should it be instituted as graduated change? Or just one increase to justify to administration
Vote: $750 11 votes - $650 2 votes
The bylaws will determine the correct voting procedure.

Elections

Islamic Manuscripts Assn. and Conference – Cambridge, UK (Hirsch)

Library of Congress Report (J. Gentner): Acquisitions and cataloguing are to be combined into the same section. There will not be much impact for AMED, but in other divisions the change will have an effect in producing more efficient workflow. Every ten years there is a re-organization, but this one is real, not just recalling the past organization; training with distance training for materials from Cairo, which will come fully catalogued and shelf ready.
There are rumors from Congress that the budget will not be decided by this Congress but the next Congress in January. This is, in effect, a freeze.

Gamil Youssef of NYPL announces the link to newspapers as a work in progress for Asia, East Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East.

University of Southern California and Iowa are new members, so there are now 26 members in MEMP.

The MEMP General Membership meeting adjourns at 17:25

Executive Committee short meeting:
David will continue as chair of the MEMP Executive Committee
There next Executive Committee meeting will be in the summer as usual in Cambridge, and Harvard will host again.