Fall Meeting,
Tuesday, 5 December 1995
Lauringer Library, Georgetown University,
Washington, D.C.

The meeting was called to order by chairperson Michael Hopper.

Elected members present: Robin Dougherty (University of Pennsylvania), Meryle Gaston (New York University), David Hirsch (UCLA), Michael Hopper (Harvard University), Fawzi Khoury (University of Washington), Dona Straley (Ohio State University).Gamil Youssef (New York Public Library)

Ex-officio members present: Midhat Abraham (MELA President), Chris Murphy (Library of Congress), Marlys Rudeen (CRL). Guests: George Fawzi (Leila Books)

I. Old business:

• Minutes from the 23 June 1995 meeting at CRL in Chicago were reviewed. The following corrections and additions were made: in para. 9, the sentence "M. Rudeen annotated the list with titles that CRL is filming" should read "M. Rudeen annotated the list with titles that CRL is intending to film." Also, in para. 11, the line "D. Hirsch said he would contact the National Library of Algeria" should be inserted after "G. Atiyeh provided the Board with a list." Finally, in para. 14, the line about putting MEMP information on the MELA homepage should be deleted because it came under the heading "New Business." F. Khoury moved to accept minutes as emended.
• CRL News and MEMP financial report: M. Rudeen presented a copy of the MEMP financial statement dated 7 December 1995 (see attached copy). She also distributed a list of serial titles that were filmed at CRL, a list of titles currently at the filmer, and a list of titles received since November 1994. Cornell University was announced as a new member. Other potential new members were suggested by D. Hirsch: Emory, McGill, University of Toronto.
• LC pamphlet project: This was not discussed because G. Atiyeh was not present.
• Foreign newspapers project: M. Rudeen reported that 5 boxes of Sudanese newspapers had been received. Todd Thompson (NYPL) sent only those titles not filmed by LC. These have not yet been sent to the filmer. C. Murphy reported that nearly all newspaper backruns are ready for filming and estimated that within 1 year LC may be caught up on its filming with no more than a current-year backlog. LC films everything it used to film that is currently received at LC, plus other materials that are not currently received. M. Rudeen noted that Preservation Resources turn-around time has been getting longer. C. Murphy noted that LC generally takes the path of least resistance--if money is available, they film, although it may prove cheaper to buy from a vendor like Norman Ross. G. Youssef said that he's still keeping many boxes of Sudanese newspapers in case LC doesn't have them. He wanted to know how long he should continue to do this before sending them on to CRL, because space is at a premium. M. Rudeen also reported that the Algerian newspaper al-Watan is already received.
• Shakeri project update: M. Hopper reported that Nasrin Dadmehr had cataloged 322 titles (about 30 percent) in 128 hours, at a total cost so far of $1600.00. There have been delays in filming the collection because of staff illnesses at Harvard's photographic services. Preservation Resources was suggested as a possible alternative for filming. It is hoped that filming can begin in April, and M. Hopper estimated it would take about 6 months to finish.
• Algerian newspapers: D. Hirsch said he had written to the National Library of Algeria as he had promised at the June meeting, and after a long delay had finally gotten a response. They have 42 Arabic periodicals (oldest dated 1880) and 109 in French (oldest dated 1912). It should be pursued whether to acquire any titles that are not filmed by LC. Most of them seem to be on silver halide film. D. Hirsch also pointed out that the University of Jordan also has a list of films available and wanted to pursue the possibility of acquiring some. M. Hopper said that when he had cataloged some of these titles for MEMP they had been of very bad quality.
• Central Asia committee report: Postponed until next year because of illnesses among committee members (E. Jajko, G. Atiyeh). C. Murphy pointed out that Eastview in Moscow has been an extremely useful source for Central Asian serials. Because Norman Ross has been filming at St. Petersburg and a complete set of these films is being deposited at the University of Wisconsin, LC has decided not to acquire them. LC has sent between 9 and 11 recent Central Asian titles to Preservation Resources for filming. MEMP should check with LC before choosing titles to film.

II. New business:

• Union list of member titles: It is very important to develop this. C. Murphy noted that LC was able to take advantage of fiscal windfalls, which was probably a one-shot deal. Films made by outside contractors should be available for borrowing at least, if not for sale, due to Berne Convention.
• M. Hopper asked MEMP committee members to check if anyone has any parts of the title requested by Mette Shayne at Northwestern University (copy of communication to her from ACRPP in Paris attached).
• Scheduling of time for 1996 meeting: D. Hirsch moved we meet again at ALA this summer in New York. It was suggested to bring this up to the membership at the general meeting.
• Visit from the National Library of Morocco: M. Hopper announced that this institution is interested in a cooperation with MEMP. NLM is looking for funds to film some materials held there and for updating equipment and checking filming standards. Their library has good holdings of newspapers and has filmed none.
• Middle East at Harvard excerpt: M. Hopper said that the owners of the collection are interested in having it digitized and would MEMP be able to assist? D. Hirsch noted that the French Institute in Damascus has digitized 2 titles on CD-ROM and are willing to digitize others. A new title would cost about $1,000 to produce on CD-ROM, reproducing an existing CD-ROM would cost less. D. Hirsch said he would send information about the Syrian titles to MELANET.
• Election terms of board members (cf. MEMP bylaws IV.C.l): M. Abraham and F. Khoury suggested term limits. D. Hirsch pointed out that the group is very small. M. Rudeen noted that not many of the other executive boards grant the power that the MEMP board has. D. Straley asked that this issue be summarized and presented to the general membership for a discussion.
• National Library of Egypt: G. Fawzi has been in contact with the director of the National Library of Egypt, who is interested in the work of the committee. D. Hirsch said he will meet with the director on behalf of MEMP and asked the board to suggest titles for filming. R. Dougherty suggested the titles included in Beth Baron's recent book about early women's serials in Egypt. MEMP will also contact Gene Smith about this initiative.
• Filming at LC Cairo: C. Murphy said a camera is in place at the LC Cairo office but there are no funds to pay for a Foreign Service national. There remains a commitment to filming at LC Cairo. Some uncertainty about the availability of filming equipment in Cairo was expressed. Al-Ahram uses a commercial vendor.
• MEMP on the World Wide Web: CRL should learn to FTP a list of MEMP titles to F. Khoury for mounting as a subpage for MEMP on the MELA homepage.
• Israel/Palestine Report archives: F. Khoury noted that Maxime Gilan, editor of the Israel/Palestine Report, would like to sell his archives, preferably to an institution so they would be publicly accessible. Gilan wants $350,000 for his archives and says he has a buyer. F. Khoury suggested borrowing the archives for microfilming and then letting Gilan sell to his buyer. He said he would discuss this possibility with Gilan when he sees him in Paris.

The fall meeting of the Board was then adjourned.

After the annual meeting of the MEMP Committee on Thursday, December 7,1996, the Executive Board met briefly. M. Hopper agreed to serve as Chairperson for the coming year.

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