- Introductions & Attendance
- Comments on minutes from 1998 meeting

Continuing Business

I. CRL Report (James Simon):

James Simon introduced himself as the new Program Officer (Area Studies) for CRL. He thanked Marlys Rudeen for her years of service to the project and hoped to continue the good relations with the groups.

Simon presented the MEMP Budget. At the beginning of the Fiscal year (July 1, 1999), MEMP had a fund balance of $30,556. Last year’s expenditures for library materials included copies of microfilms for the Library of Congress for the Arabic Pamphlet project and costs to purchase and film Liwa al-Sadr. As of October 30, MEMP had a fund balance of $38,751, which (with current commitments and encumbrances) leaves the MEMP committee with $10,984 in available funds to use for new projects.

Simon Reported that Donald Simpson retired from CRL as of October 29. Beverly Lynch, Professor of the University of California at Los Angeles’ Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, will serve as Interim President for the year 2000.

CRL submitted a grant to NEH on behalf of the International Coalition on Newspapers (ICON), an initiative created to resolve the increasing problems of foreign newspaper availability. Growing out of a 1997 conference co-sponsored by leading library organizations, ICON seeks first to create a fuller awareness of extant newspaper collections and their preservation status by developing with OCLC a union list of newspapers. This union list builds on the extensive holdings of CRL, the Library of Congress, the British Library and other charter ICON participants. The second ICON task is to use the union list to select newspapers for preservation microfilming.

A new holdings list for MEMP will be issued at the next annual meeting.

Simon was asked why CRL chose to remove the Middle East newspapers page from its Web site. Simon replied that flat newspaper pages were replaced by the on-line database of foreign newspapers. If MEMP wished the page to be reinstated, it may be possible to retrieve it and list as a MEMP page.

II. LC Report (Chris Murphy)

Murphy reported that microfilming backlogs were essentially non-existent. Much of the material that arrives from Cairo is filmed. For FY 99-00, LC has filmed approx. 50 titles from the Middle East. M. Hopper would reproduce a microfilm list provided by Murphy. Murphy also had a partial list for FY 99-00, sans Arabic material.

LC has been purchasing microfilm material from commercial publishers, including the Storrs collection, IDC Arabic microfiche, and all commercially available microfilm for Georgia, Armenia, and Central Asia. Also, LC acquired the microfiched card catalogs (IDC) from the National Library of Russia for Middle East collections (Arabic, Armenian, Turkish, Georgian, Persian).

A question was asked about access to records for LC microfiche. As of now, there is cards-only access to pre-1993 microfiche. LC organized the cards and now are organizing the microfiche. Post-1993 are available on the utilities.

LC Arabic Pamphlet Update: Under George Selim’s direction, a grad student has organized the 3800 pieces of the pamphlet collection by country, then by subject within each country. The material is ready for filming, though targets have not been produced. Murphy hopes the project can be completed soon. LC received the first batch of early duplicates from CRL. Murphy estimates that LC has approx. $1571 left in MEMP funding for the project (processing).

MEMP has a list of the Arabic pamphlets filmed to date on its Web site. It was asked if it were possible to provide access to LC Arabic pamphlet targets on the Web site, to provide better access to the collection. J. Simon will look into this.

III. Cairo Office report (Laila Mulgaokar)

LC office in Cairo is in a dangerous part of the embassy.

Mary Jane Deeb project, George Selim update. Inform AMED which issues are missing. 9 or 10 titles sent to Delhi for filming. Simon Samoeil suggested update list on line. GS idea to put LC holdings online. Periodicals also an interest.

IV. Previous Project Updates

Ahali Group Newspapers (J. Simon) – MEMP has received the microfilm and an electronic copy of the 1646-page index on disc. The index was made in Word for Arabic. The costs to photocopy the index for MEMP members would be prohibitive. Brenda Bickett inquired whether MEMP could put the index on the Web site. Mary St. Germain asked whether the information on the disc could be searchable. MEMP will look into this further.

Al-Hatif (J. Wienberger) – This is a Shiite paper published in Baghdad. It will be filmed at Princeton and is in the queue. However, it should not be completed anytime soon.

Kuwayt al-Yawm (M. Hopper) – this official gazette from Kuwait is held by the LC law library. Mark Stratner (LC) reported that the material is still being received, but processing is sporadic. Murphy believes that LC will film this material. Murphy will double check whether 1954-69 is going to be filmed by LC.

Beirut Times (M. Hopper) – This title is being filmed commercially by Bay MF. They have filmed 8/84 to 12/98. The backfile will cost $840. An annual subscription for current years is $100. MEMP approved $940 for the backfile and 1999, with an open subscription for all future years.

MEMP Executive Board Election

The terms of Meryle Gaston, Jonathan Rodgers, and Simon Samoeil were expiring. For the vacancies, the nominating committee chaired by Dona Straley put forward the names of the three incumbents for reelection as well as the name of Mary St. Germain as an additional candidate. Ballots were distributed before break and tallied during the break.

Break

V. Arabic Press Archive (Dr. Yehudit Ronen, Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies)

Dr. Ronen spoke to the committee about the Center and its collections. The Moshe Dayan Center holds a very large collection of Arabic press for the period 1950-present. As this collection is effectively the depository for the State of Israel, it represents an investment on a scale that no university library could hope to approximate. The newspapers are nearly all in hard copy. The Center has now published three country catalogues of newspapers and periodicals for Jordan, Syria, and Iraq. The Center is interested in a link with MEMP, which would allow them to begin to address growing preservation problems.

Simon Samoeil asked Dr. Ronen what specific type of cooperation the Center envisioned. Dr. Ronen responded the Center needed funds for preservation.

M. Hopper appointed a committee of three people to review and propose some titles from the published lists as a test project for MEMP cooperation. Mary Jane Deeb, Meryle Gaston, and George Selim will review [Upon George Selim’s retirement, David Hirsch agreed to serve on this committee]. Report by March 1 on findings.

New Business

VI. MEMP Web page Update (Simon)

The MEMP Web site has expanded to include a list of recent projects and proposals. Please review changes at http://www.crl.edu/areastudies/MEMP/index.htm

VII. IFLA Jerusalem Panel on development and management of manuscript collections relating to the Middle East

J. Simon received a request from a scholar seeking panelists that could address the above topic at IFLA in Jerusalem. The location of the conference has caused some political concern.

VIII. Additional ME titles for CRL to film (non-MEMP)

IX. al-Ahram joint CAMP/MEMP proposal (Simon/Hopper)

CAMP members were proposing that CAMP and MEMP purchase the backfile for al-Ahram. M. Hopper recalled that MEMP had previously looked into holdings of the material. The consensus was that sufficient numbers of institutions (Chicago, LC, Yale, and NYU) held the earlier material, and MEMP was not interested in purchasing at this time. See agenda attachments for a summary of holding institutions.

XI. Filming Proposals

1. Tus, Ruznamah-I Zan, Nishat (Hopper) – See proposals attached to agenda. Three Irani opposition titles, all published for a brief period of time. Are any of these collected by other institutions? MEMP approved funds to film all three titles at Harvard.
2. Al-Waqai al-Misriyah (Hopper) – Began on Dec. 5, 1828. Holdings in this country do not include 1828 to 1880. (Only existing copy of these years is in Dar al-Wathaiq on the corniche in Cairo in Bulaq). The suggestion was made that MEMP and LC-Cairo explore the possibility of cooperating on a film project to film these years. Laila Mulgaokar (LC-Cairo) will make inquiries and report back at the next annual meeting.

A possible filmer may be the Al-Ahram Organization which now microformats a number of Egyptian serial titles. LC is in the process of examining microfilm from Al-Ahram to see if they are meeting professional standards. LC will report at the next annual meeting on their findings.

3. Others – Simon Samoeil suggested the title al-Munazzam, but noted this would be raised at the next meeting.

Hopper reminded members that MEMP institutions can make on demand purchases for material of $600.

XII. IDC Offer (Hopper)

IDC has become the North American distributor for "Arabic Manuscripts in the British Library." This collection is comprised of 15,000 manuscripts from 1753-1996. See agenda for details of the collection. The costs of acquisition would be around $70,000. This is quite a large purchase for MEMP, and LC may purchase. No action to be taken at this time.

XIII. Global Resources Program Proposal (Addition to Agenda)

Simon Samoeil described the Yale proposal submitted to the AAU/ARL Global Resources Project that, unfortunately, was not successful. DOE grant rejected. The proposal would have put Middle East in Microform on the Web. Want to consider expanding MEM to include print and non-print serials.

M. Gaston noted that MEM needed updating. Each institution enters its own holdings. C. Murphy commented that a master list is still not possible without necessary staff. Joanne Zellers (LC) suggested that a ProSite database may be an option for this type of project.

J. Simon related the experience of the Africanists in developing the African Newspapers Union List (AFRINUL) for GRP. The group is taking a two-step approach, setting up the database and developing a process for input. Then information and holdings can be added over time. No one has funding support for holdings input, so it must be dome within volunteer constraints.

J. Rodgers noted that the main point of the project would be to get MEM in electronic format so it can be searchable (whether on the web or not). A pilot project helps convince funding agencies of additional support.

A committee of Simon Samoeil, Brenda Bickett, Jonathan Rodgers, and James Simon agreed to review the proposal and see if it could be developed into a better proposal for GRP. S. Samoeil will send a copy of the proposal to committee members for review.

XIV. MEMP White Paper (Addition to Agenda)

M. Hopper described the conversations of the Executive Board in developing a MEMP "White Paper." MEMP has been in existence for 13 years, and it might be a good time to explore what we have done, where we are going.

A committee of Ed Jajko, Chris Murphy, James Simon, Michael Hopper, and Mary Jane Deeb agreed to produce a draft of the paper by June 1 [for review by the Executive Board]. A full report can be made at the next meeting.

XV. Announcement of Election Results

Jonathan Rodgers and Meryle Gaston were re-elected to the Executive Board. New member is Mary St. Germain. The Executive Board will meet on June 26, 2000 at Harvard.

Submitted by Jonathan Rodgers, with input from Michael Hopper and James Simon

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