Present: Midhat Abraham (ex-officio), Robin Dougherty, Meryle Gaston, David Hirsch, Michael Hopper, Laila Mulgaokar (LC Cairo, guest), Chris Murphy (ex-officio), Marlys Rudeen (ex-officio), Simon Samoeil, James Weinberger

The meeting was called to order at 10:20 a.m.

I. Old business:

• There were no minutes to approve from the last general meeting due to technical difficulties.
• Minutes from Executive Committee meeting, 11/20/96 were examined. Michael H. moved to accept, Meryle G. seconded.
• CRL reports (Marlys Rudeen). Marlys passed out copies of the MEMP financial statement along with a list of recently filmed titles (made a part of minutes).
• Michael H. asked about how the cost of cataloging time was calculated. Marlys said it was $13/hour for professional time only, and that MEMP is not charged for clerical or para-professional time.
• MichaeI H. also asked if other microform projects had carryovers. Marlys said that MEMP's was not excessive in comparison to other projects', and that it's always nice to have some extra funds available to cover projects that come up.
• James W. asked how well MEMP does regarding MF sales. Marlys pointed out that it really doesn't have copyright clearance, so that low sales of MEMP films are not really a problem - most other projects do not have high sales either.
• Indiana Symposium update (Midhat Abraham). Midhat A. gave a brief summary of what was discussed at this summer's symposium, "Area Librarianship in Higher Education: Defining the Future," held at Indiana University.
• Report on the newspaper symposium in Washington, D.C. (Marlys Rudeen and Michael Hopper). This symposium met in D.C. for 2 days at the Library of Congress. ARL, LC, CRL, and the Commission on Preservation and Access will be working on plans to select, film and preserve newspapers. A listserv has been set up devoted to this topic.
• James W. pointed out the difficulty of achieving a balance between the high cost of fresh, current newspapers and the archival needs for such materials.
• Michael H. said that most libraries with Middle East collections in this country acquire papers for current use and are not filming for preservation purposes. Only LC and CRL are really doing this. This raises a question about which titles are not being preserved.
• Update on Chaqeri project (Michael Hopper). 816 pamphlets have been filmed, about 300 have been cataloged. Dunya is being prepared. 131 pamphlets remain, donated by NYPL.
• LC pamphlet project (Marlys Rudeen. Marlys R. got a call from Beverly Gray, Head of LC's Africa & Middle East Section, asking if LC ever got copies of films from this project. Marlys R. said that she thinks George had said that LC didn't need copies -- MEMP bylaws do say that donating institution should get a copy.
• About 79 reels, coming about $1540, are involved -- it can be done over time. Chris M. propose 3 years. LC requires sometihing in return for its efforts in collecting and preserving materials. Chris M. said that about $4,000 was left for processing and filming. CRL's cost for filming is $.28 per exposure.
• Meryle G. moved to supply films to LC over 3 years, beginning in FY 1998. Seconded by David H.
• Chris M. was concerned that funds for processing might outpace funds for filming. He will try to come up with an estimate of relative proportions of each which remaining funds will cover. He also noted that LC is committed to completing the pamphlet project.
• Library of Congress report (Chris Murphy). Chris M. distributed a list of newspaper titles currently being filmed (made a part of minutes). Aside from this, LC has managed to do away with the backlog - newspapers are being filmed up to about Mar. 31, 1997.
• Michael H. asked about possible duplication of effort - a library in the UK has a grant to film Arabic titles from the Gulf countries. He proposed posting an announcement to MEMP any time LC makes plans to film a newspaper.
• Midhat A. asked if films created by newspaper publishers themselves could be worth investigating. Chris M. said that LC would not rely for archival materials on overseas situations that are volatile and where equipment may not be well cared for. LC will take the most conservative line.
• Laila M. noted that LC will move its Cairo office within a year to another building. The plan is that the Cairo office will become a microfilming center.
• Michael H. asked Chris M. if he could approach Beverly Gray about obtaining a better- quality list of filmed titles with holdings, countries of origin and of any titles that haven't made it onto the list.

II. New business

• New members. Michael H. announced that the University of Michigan is a new member as of July 21, bringing the total institutional members to 24. He noted that there are still universities with Middle East collections that are not members!
• Fall meeting. MELA will be Friday 11/21, 1-6 p.m. When to have board meeting? Perhaps Thursday p.m. over dinner? Friday 11/21 a.m. is scheduled for the general meeting, David H. will find a fun place.
• Establishing minimum requirements for filming backfiles/current (David Hirsch). David H. asked if there shouldn't be a standard. E.g., al-Ra'y al-akhar (Sudanese opposition paper published in Texas), also al-Jadid (relatively newish) -- are these okay to film? Marlys R. said both could be done for about $400. The Board agreed to film these titles.
• Al-Ahali Group Newspapers project. A copy of the 7/21/97 memo (made a part of minutes) from David H. to Michael H. was distributed to the members of the board. Robin D. moved to buy, James W. seconded.
• Global Resources Project. A copy of the 7/20/97 memo (made a part of minutes) from Deborah Jakubs to Michael H. was distributed to the members of the board. She is looking for an ongoing Middle East project "that would both improve access for users to research materials AND use technology in some creative way."
  • Simon S. suggested working with Middle East in Microform, to update and put online. Michael H. asked Simon S. to chair a committee on this. David H. and Meryle G. volunteered to help. Simon S. will come up with a proposal and forward to Deborah Jakubs.
• Moshe Dayan Center press archive. They have published a catalog of their holdings. One of these was of "newspapers and periodicals from Jordan," available from the Moshe Dayan Center, dayancen@lccsg.tau.ac.il
• IDC/USA is interested in cooperating with the Dayan Center to produce and market films from this collection and is interested in learning if libraries would be interested in acquiring this material.
• California Newspaper Project (David Hirsch). David H. said that UC Riverside is inventorying and cataloging all newspapers published in the state of California. He has asked if they would fund filming of papers in Middle Eastern languages. He learned that it is an NEH-funded project, and that they are not interested in preserving this kind of material.
• The Executive Committee adjourned for lunch at the Harvard Faculty Club. After lunch, Laila M., the new director of the LC Cairo field office introduced herself formally to the group and said a few words. Her e-mail is lmul@loc.gov, and her phone at LC OvOp is 202- 707-5273.

Meeting adjourned at 2:45 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Roberta L. Dougherty
Middle East Bibliographer & Head, Middle East Technical Services
University of Pennsylvania Libraries

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