DRAFT

MIDDLE EAST MICROFORM PROJECT
Summer Executive Board Meeting

MINUTES

Monday, July 30, 2007
Widener Library
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA

In attendance: Brenda Bickett, Peter Magierski, David Hirsch, Michael Hopper, Judy Eckoff Alspach, Jonathan Rodgers, Christopher Murphy

I. Minutes from 2006 board meeting (J. Rodgers, Michigan)
minutes accepted

II. Member news
1. Brenda Bickett (Georgetown): The library appointed a new associate university librarian for collections in September, John Buschman. There is a new Middle East Librarian, a cataloguer with a 1-year temporary position for Arabic and Hebrew: Mark Muehlhaeusler. Update on the Georgetown Qatar campus library <http://www.library.georgetown.edu/dept/admin/librarynews/2005/7-27-05news.htm>.

2. NYU has been approached by one of the Gulf States, not yet named, for the establishment of a branch campus. Official announcement is expected shortly. The work on Integrated Library System migration continues. Under the Afghanistan Digital Library project, funded in part by NEH grant, a digital preservation specialist, conservator and librarian traveled to Kabul in April to set up a digitization project and train staff of National Archives in Kabul. Additionally, some books and posters were acquired during the trip. The soon to be launched web site has over 35,000 images.

David Hirsch (UCLA): The Arabic cataloguer resigned to follow her husband to a new job. There is a question concerning the possibility of a replacement, and a “block” search for a non-roman language cataloguer is now in process. The search for an AUL for Collections and TS continues. A grant from the NEH won to digitize and catalogue the Islamic manuscripts collection. Currently, there is no cataloguer. UCLA library has joined the OACIS project. Trip to Kuwait was cut short by family health issue. Update on the August 2007 Islamic manuscripts conference funded by Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation: The Islamic Manuscript Association Third Islamic Manuscript Conference <http://www.islamicmanuscript.org/ThirdIslamicManuscriptConference.html>.

Michael Hopper (Harvard): Tech-Pro, Inc. cataloguing project for Arabic materials: funding obtained to complete; the project will search the Arabic backlog Marcadia. The Arabic manuscript cataloguing project is underway, and W. Heinrichs is involved as an advisor. The cataloguing staff is not adding Arabic script to records but is accepting catalogue copy with it. A serial records file has been added to the OACIS database as a test file now. Robert Haddad’s father, Nasib, has donated his collection. There will be duplicates, especially among journals, and Harvard is willing to share the duplicates with other collections. James Kockley in Near Eastern Studies and the Library has volunteered to catalogue Syriac materials.

Jonathan Rodgers (Michigan): The Library has a new University Librarian, Paul Courant. Irvin Schick has proposed a project in which Ugur Durman will obtain funding to travel to Ann Arbor to catalogue more of the Islamic Manuscripts Collection. The editor of MELA Notes will end his 10 years as editor with the current issue due to appear in October. Two staff retirements has presented staff change opportunities in Arabic and Hebrew in the near future.

Judy Eckoff Alspach (CRL): There is a side-note and discussion on film and digitization in MEMP.

III. CRL Reports (J. Alspach, CRL)
CRL Update: James Hill is moving to a Public Library in Minnesota, and interviews for replacement are scheduled.

Global Resources Network: The project is now under CRL. There will be a GRN conference on Human Rights at Columbia in October 2007
Groups under the GRN umbrella include: GNARP (the German language group); LARRP (the Latin American group); and CIFNAL (the French group) which are all continuing their work on access to materials in their respective areas of interest.
World News initiative: proposals have been received for the digitization of newspapers. The focus is on Latin America now.
CRL is moving ahead with digitization projects but will not drop film entirely. Scanning on demand, e.g., ILL is planned. Scanning out of copyright materials; grant funded scanning, e.g., World News
MEMP dues have been raised to $750.00 for FY08 by the vote of MEMP members in November 2006
CRL MEMP Budget:
Refer to the handout: positive balance of $7,700
There was a discussion of Middle Eastern origin dissertations and whether we should try to acquire them What institutions to be included needs to be discussed and decided. CRL can purchase specifically requested dissertations on demand for its members. See http://www.crl.edu/content.asp?l1=3&l2=60&l3=148

IV. Library of Congress Report (C. Murphy, LC)
General News
Ongoing and upcoming projects

C. Murphy was promoted to Head of the Near East Section.
News of Section: promotion of staff issues
Fawza Tadros is interim Field Director in Cairo and probably will stay, but the Chief Overseas division, James Gentner, will probably be selected as permanent.
Fawzi’s departure means only one on staff currently. [?]
I. Pourhadi still on staff and will be 90 next year.
H. Dinavari has taken on Central Asia as well as Iran.
Levon is on staff for Armenian.
Mike Miller assumes responsibility for Turkish
C. Murphy is still doing Turkey.
The Division will ask for FY08 a new Arab reference librarian; a new third desk attendant; and Africana and Hebraic section heads.
The budget will be tight to appoint four, so more likely two positions will be filled.
Turkish will need to wait to FY09.

There is a pause for break to John Eilts’ presentation: the Web at risk project.
California Digital Library Project is archiving websites, and John Eilts will concentrate on the Middle East.
e.g., ME Political Web pilot project.
Websites and their content often go away and vanish forever and must be preserved.
California Digital Library Project Web Archiving Service uses open source software for capturing, crawling sites, organizing, preserving, managing, etc.
http://wiki.cdlib.org/WebAtRisk/ (USER name and PW required)
(The Naval Post-Graduate School in Monterey website is tracking terrorists web sites: see <http://www.nps.edu/Library/Research/SubjectGuides/SpecialTopics/Terrorism/TerrorismSubjectGuideEssay.html#WebSites>)
MELA Notes editor asks Eilts if a piece on this endeavor might be ready for MELA Notes for October? Background, descriptions, product, promotion, etc.

LC Continued: Iranian blogs archiving with LC is involved.
LC still does micro-reformatting into film, and the Hebraic section does its own but includes as well ME, Turkish, etc.
Non-roman in local languages materials: received approximately 106 titles; the NE Section films 56 titles per year; expanded newspapers (Iranian) through Islamabad and 11 go to New Delhi, while 20 come to LC in Washington.
As budgets are flat, more off-shore activity goes to New Delhi with more work is accomplished for the same money.
Digitization projects: more and more calligraphy sheets are being included in the second iteration. In the fall 400 item will be accessible.
The Mali web site with Timbuktu is expanding <http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/mali/>.
"Islam and Science: A History in the Manuscripts of the Library of Congress and the National Library of Egypt:" 60 scientific manuscripts held by LC and 60 by Dar al-Kutub are included. In the LC-UNESCO joint project digitized manuscripts will be accessible after the first of the year <http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0703/egypt.html>.

The last of the digitization projects in World Digital Library involves Saad Eskander and the Iraqi National Library and Archives and provides scanning equipment and training in Bahrayn. The project will scan older unique Iraqi serials. They will be to be mounted on the World Digital Library site. The serials are held by national library are long runs and are organized.
LC filming projects can be requested on rush basis. C. Murphy is in charge of filming, although Mary-Jane signs off on them.
A list of the LC filming queue will be provided.

V. Nominating Committee
For three board positions whose terms expire. (D. Hirsch, J. Rodgers, P. Magierski)
Need two volunteers to serve as Nominating Committee.
Two appointed to nominations committee: Brenda Bickett and Michael Hopper.
All three current members whose terms expire are willing to run again.

VI. Old and Continuing Business

Budget (J. Alspach, CRL)
copies are handed out
MEMP received list handed out includes the received back from filmer list.

Recent Receipts and Project Updates (no action required) (J. Alspach, CRL)

Aljadid
Beirut Times
Al-Ittijah al-akhar
Subh-I Iran (daily paper published in Los Angeles - who has holdings? Sent to California Newspaper Project filmer but some boxes did not arrive not sufficient numbers to film. We need to reconstitute and assemble additional issues and film. Harvard has some but wants paper copies returned and will negotiate. It will be either a California project or go to MEMP)

Turkish Newspapers (Vakit, Milliyet, Her Gun)

Approved Projects (action items):

Arabic Pamphlet Coll. (J. Alspach, CRL) materials at CRL. We need to locate a student to review and sort.

Chaqueri Collection (M. Hopper, Harvard)
Continued discussion of Hoover Iranian opposition materials

Funun (D. Hirsch)

Irani Opposition Papers II (Nawruz, Khurdad, Hambastagi, 'Asr-I Azadagan) (M. Hopper, Harvard)-to be released. Filmed by Princeton. J. Eilts had list of materials, and St Germaine (Washington) also contributed.

al-Quds al-Arabi (D. Hirsch, UCLA) filmed four months (Mar.-June 2003) from Yale [see MEMP report for additional details missing issues inventory of what has been filmed etc] film what we have or wait for location of issues;
investigate holdings in UK. British Library will not lend but would film in-house.

Tangier Gazette (P. Magierski, NYU). Colin Baker at BL will be queried to locate more issues BL will not reproduce for institutions, but only for individuals.

Iraqi Journal Digitization (D. Hirsch, UCLA): A proposal has been submitted to NEH without success. We might send the NEH proposal to another organization: US Civilian Research and Development Foundation

MEMP Web site (translation into Arabic: a volunteer from membership will be solicited)

VII. Fall Meetings
Times for Fall Executive and General Membership meetings.
MEMP Board meeting proposed for Wednesday 14 Nov. In the evening, perhaps a 6:00-7:00PM meeting followed by dinner 6:30- PM.
MELA Board meeting time to be determined.

VIII. Filming Proposals

Al-Watan, Damascus, Syria (S. Samoeil, Yale): depending on LC filming schedule, C Murphy will look into the schedule or move up as needed and locate further holdings to fill in gaps – the Board would then approve.

al-Muntada, London (D. Hirsch, UCLA): Iraqi Community Association in London. There are some gaps I coverage in 2000-2007. It is also accessible in an online version on the website. Should it be digitized? Should this be a digital pilot? Can Michigan store and provide access? These questions will be answered in time for the next meeting.

Qenneshrin, Sweden/Germany (D. Hirsch, UCLA): also this one might be appropriate for a digital pilot 2005-2007.

Mu'tamar (S. Khanaka, Berkeley/M. Hopper, Harvard): 2 reels (Apr. 1996-June 2003) received from the filmer Nov. 2006. Proposal for 2003-2004 was tabled last year. Is LC going to film? Decision pending as the answer is forthcoming.
Discussed again: LC is acquiring it from the beginning, but has not shipped it. Chris Murphy will look into the matter again to confirm and update this. Is the Iraqi edition at Cairo-LC office?

Waqa'i Iraqiyah (D. Hirsch, UCLA)
Kamaly Proposal (D. Hirsch, UCLA)
Stanford/Hoover Newspapers (J. Eilts, Stanford)

Algerian Office Documents 1956-1962 (J. Alspach, CRL): can anything be added to this very small collection to build to a project to film? Look around to see how and if this material is unique.

History of the Arab Press has been filmed by Princeton and is public domain? It is for ICON to determine, not the MEMP Board. Will approve with some copyright reservations.
Also the Middle East in Microform by MEMP. We need to ask for copyright clearance from University of Washington Library and ask Mary St Germain for advice and if UW will mount.

Brenda: observes that no Egyptian newspaper in newspaper databases like Newspapers Direct.

M. Hopper: Resumed publication: Harvard Middle Eastern and Islamic Review (Cambridge, MA : Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University, 1994-? – ISSN: 1074-5408; LCCN: 94-648524 ; sn 94-2437), with no. 7 (2006).

IX. Other business
other possible projects: M. Hopper suggests one institution each to become responsible for a title and digitize it and produce electronic TOC, etc. E.g., conference proceedings in Arabic with analytics entered in a bib. record, and journal indexes multi-part monographs analytics.

Send an email to Simon with query about AMEEL titles included in the project.

Meeting adjourned at 4:00PM.