16 November 2001
San Francisco, CA

Present: R. Dougherty, D. Hirsch, M. St. Germain, M. Gaston, J. Weinberger, M. Hopper, John Dorr (for James Simon), B. Sulaiman, C. Murphy, Shayee Khanaka, J. Rodgers

Introductions

Minutes of the Cambridge, August 2001, are reviewed and corrected.

CRL Announcements

German (among other non-USA, Canada) dissertations are searchable on the CRL Web site <http://www.crl.edu//content.asp?l1=5&l2=23&l3=44&l4=25>; discussion of CRL foreign dissertations backlog figures; currently catalogued as they arrive.  [note: all dissertations are now being cataloged in CRL's online catalog]

CRL catalogue records are available on web site <http://www.crl.edu/catalog/index.htm>;"quick search" feature to newspapers, foreign dissertations, and other holdings <http://www.crl.edu/content.asp?l1=5&l2=23>. This is a recent development. From this page, there is a list of participating European universities depositing dissertations with CRL.

2001 Minutes are accepted as corrected.

Reports are reserved for the general membership meeting.

Proposals for MEMP projects are solicited

D. Hirsch/M. St. Germain: LC database of newspapers on film is available. It is a Union Catalogue with holdings; all newspapers currently received and on film with holdings is available

Sh. Khanaka: questions on M. Hopper's statistics project to include acquisitions, cataloguing, staff levels, etc., is more or less currently on hold.

There is an extended discussion in both the MEMP and MELA contexts on the gathering of statistics and their distribution

Proposal: R. Dougherty agrees to pursue within MEMP context but not in MELA context.

MEMP White Paper discussion

Are the early minutes of MEMP meetings probably missing for ever? This should be asked at the General Membership meeting.

The issue of MELA president as ex offico member of MEMP Executive Board

MEMP meeting held in conjunction with MESA/MELA

Cooperative ventures brought up by M. Gaston: e.g., National Libraries of Morocco Egypt Iran; Dayan Centre (not much progress in this regard)

A suggestion is made with regard to micro-filming that these institutions provide films of their holdings in exchange for technical and other assistance in projects, etc.

Iranology Institute in Tehran is suggested an another possible cooperative partner.

Cooperative activities is discussed in section D. "Middle East in Microform" serials database, a proposed project that did not yet get started, although according to S. Samoeil, Yale is ready to take it on

S. Samoeil adds that Yale is ready to begin the project but needs official word of endorsement by MEMP by 28 Nov. The proposal will be distributed among the members present for consideration and deliberation.

The question of copyright and reproduction of the original publication "Middle East in Microform" is brought up: who owns it? University of Washington, CRL, or MEMP/MELA?

The project should be a database administered by whom? It should include institutional holdings, be refreshed with updates, etc.

What will be the source of the titles and holdings data? OCLC RLIN, an original database?

Can the original be scanned and converted into a database? CRL might provide assistance and guidance, including a cost estimate for an outside contractor and student assistants

M. St Germain suggested that she can supply a rough estimate for the cost of the conversion project

It is decided to wait and direct Simon to make a proposal at the general membership meeting

Cooperation with AFLI Arab Fed Libraries in Tunis is suggested.

Strategies and directions

Poll of Board in attendance: What are member libraries doing about newspapers, with regard to filming, retaining, disposal, etc. See CLR website for the titles maintained there.

• UCLA, Berkeley: not much happening, no new projects, some filming., continue to acquire the Cairo film of al-Ahram from commercial vendors. Al-Ahram is not avail at CRL purchase commercial film
• Washington: keeps few paper, but purchase film
• NYU: 6 mo keep in print, subscriptions to film al-Ahram, IDC Palestine newspapers collection continuing subscription on film al-Quds and al-Ittihad
• Princeton: filming Iranian titles Resalat, Jumhuri Islami, Iranian opposition titles, but not full runs
• Harvard: no paper of major dailies and smaller purchase major dailies on film, Turkish in print
• Michigan: print; no filming; purchase back runs and subscriptions of film of al-Ahram, Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, etc.
• LC: films 50 arabic titles a year

Policies? In general, if a newpaper on film is available commercially, then filming is not done in house. It is suggested that collectively these be maintained by CRL for general availability and use

Discussion of other formats, e.g., motion pictures, recordings

Proliferation of CD resources, for instance, from a variety of sources has become somewhat of a nuisance but there is still the need for collection and control

Online newspapers: opposition papers only on line now marked for retention in back runs

It is agreed that MEMP needs the continued direction of its members in order to avoid duplicate efforts, aim at unique projects, distinguish the MEMP collection from others

12:00 noon adjourned

 submitted by Jonathan Rodgers

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