August 16, 2004
Cambridge, MA

Present: John Eilts, David Hirsch, Michael Hopper, Shayee Khanaka, William Kopycki, Chris Murphy, James Simon, Lesley Wilkins.

Member News

Stanford University (Eilts)

Hoover is moving newspapers to Green (via a temporary facility). Included were ME titles damaged in floods, mostly already filmed. Eilts hopes to have access to the material in September -- hopes this will clear up holdings mysteries. Will take over a portion of cataloged collections. Will have to do recon of those not cataloged.
Hoover discontinued all news subscriptions in 2001, theoretically taken over by Stanford. Stanford will hopefully hire staff to support collections.
Many materials still incoming (Ottoman Turkish) – will consider a proposal to digitize this material (image plus OCR).

Harvard Law School (Wilkins)

The Law Library collects official gazettes (MF or print). Have recently bought available microfilm (not all cataloged), and have also bought some CD-ROM. Do not do newspapers, by and large. Do collect some law journals. Printed Ottoman legal texts. Have 40k titles in Arabic.

University of Pennsylvania (Kopycki)

Penn has a new Vice-Provost (Rodgers) in charge of libraries. Looking for part-time Persian cataloger. IN terms of Ottoman Turkish, have 300 volumes only, some uncataloged serials. William is preparing a list of Egyptian serials (pre-1919)?

University of California, Berkeley (Khanaka)

In process of filming, discarding newspapers.
Made a site visit to Iraqi Kurdustan – witnessed many daily & weekly newspapers, in Kurdish and Arabic. Perhaps 50 newspapers in Turkish?
Visited University of (?) Library. Making a profile for the library, hoping to publish to MELA. Helpful to make visit and assess needs (example – “do not send scientific material older than 5 years”).

University of California, Los Angeles (Hirsch)

New University Librarian, in first year. A few AULs have recently changed. Arabic cataloger position posted, interviewing.
The transition to the new Voyager system is causing problems (much input has been delayed since May), but is starting to resume normal operations. Budgetary problems continue.
Hirsch reported his Arab-American periodical Web site is still being updated; he is starting a site (with William) for Persian-American periodicals.

Harvard University (Hopper)

The Andover Depository library for newspaper is being emptied. Harvard is assessing its holdings, Filming all materials not yet filmed.
Archives of Syrian-American National Federation has been filmed.
A new Arabic cataloger started in January,
Michael has list of duplicates for exchange on the Web (http://xxx.xx.xx).

Library of Congress Report (Murphy)

• There have been many administrative shifts at LC. Deanna Marcum Appointed Associate Librarian for Library Services last year. Beecher Wiggins is director of Acquisitions and Cataloging. Mark Sweeney is head of Preservation. Carolyn Brown has become director of “Collections and Services.”
  ME Section – Mary Jane Deeb has recently been appointed Section Head. She reportedly wants Chris to continue to represent LC at MEMP meetings. Division Chief Beverly Gray will retire Sept. 30.
  Hirad Dinavari has been hired as new librarian for Iran/Persian. Working with Pourhadi.
• LC is anticipating a flat budget in FY05. Probably no appropriation until after inauguration.
• For Ottoman Turkish, Chris estimates about 10,000 volumes. This includes the deposit from Yale.
• Global Gateway – international cooperative digital projects (“Meeting of Frontiers,” etc.) – is eploring a project with the National Library of Egypt. LC interested in capturing serials, they in manuscripts?
• LC is also exploring receiving legal materials via the Meclis Library in Ankara to put materials on line. This is still in early discussions.
• Chris has been given funds ($55,000) to digitize Calligraphy pieces available at LC. Will hire an Art Historian to prepare them. It is hoped they can link with other holding institutions (Freer/Sackler NYPL, Los Angeles, British Library) to reconstruct those pieces that were broken up in the 1920-30’s.
• Timbuktu Manuscripts: This project is moving forward. The Librarian of Congress is attempting to raise money to assess conservation needs, the scope of the corpus of material. Up to 1,000,000 manuscripts may be available, mostly in private hands. It is estimated that of these, 700k are in Arabic, 300k in Arabic script of local languages. Hope to travel in Dec. or Jan to work on this.
  
• The transfer of the Middle East collection material from the Adams to Jefferson buildings continues. Currently completing the final 10,000 items in Hebraic section.
• Iraq – Fall 2003 trip has been followed by efforts to organize LC acquisitions, and assistance for Iraq (hope to arrange a visit from librarians). Mary Jane Deeb has raised $25,000 for to support the collection of Iraqi materials. Will make an effort to collect retrospectively as well as current material. The Cairo office is working with authorities in Iraq to ensure delivery. Not currently working with vendors.
• CM provided a partial list of newspapers that have been cataloged and whose records are available in LC's OPAC with holdings. This list is still under development. LC is still filming about 100 titles (Arabic, Persian, Central Asian, etc.). Have filmed basically up through the year 2000, trying to film 2001-02 in house. 2003-04 will go the Preservation Resources (funding dependent).
• In 2005, filming arrangements will likely be as follows: Cairo will ship a dozen titles to New Delhi for filming. Post processing will be done in DC. LC Photodup will handle difficult language materials, while Preservation Resources will handle more mainstream materials (e.g. Turkish newspapers).
• All materials being sent for filming are being cataloged. Entries also have holdings statements. While statements seem reasonably complete, there are occasional gaps not listed. Handout: List of Law CDs available from LC. Provided by James Gentner. Available from MECAP.
  Digitization of Egyptian official gazette.

CRL Report (Simon)

• Simon focused on highlights from the CCDO Report covering Jan – June 2004.
• CRL has received $350,000 from NEH to continue ICON activities. Preservation microfilming will likely include three ME titles:
  Anadolu (Izmir, Turkey) [1950-1954]
  La Bourse Egyptienne (Cairo, Egypt) [1929-1963]
  Dunya (Istanbul, Turkey) [1952-1962]
• CRL recently issues a newsletter devoted to Middle East collections: see:
• Foreign dissertations cataloged have exceeded 300,000. These can be searched in CRL’s OPAC (see Advanced search, with type of publication “dissertations.”
• CRL has assumed administrative responsibility for two Global Resources Network project: the Latin American Research Resources Project and the German-North American Resources Project. This will bring CRL’s resources to bear on these projects and promote synergy among GRN projects and other CRL activities.
• The Political Communications Web Archive project has come to a close, and a report will be issued shortly. Next steps are dependent on the results of the NDIIPP awards (still unclear).
• MEMP Board is strongly interested in Web archiving and would like to pursue a collaborative project. Stanford has been doing some dabbling in this effort, offering to set up mirror sites for organizations. This would include an archive component. This proposal is still in the works. In the meanwhile, have preserved many PDF files, though these have not been cataloged. Is this a prospective cooperative activity?

MEMP Report. (Simon)

1. Algerian Newspapers:
   Last two major titles submitted 8/04. Scattered smaller runs also in the works…
   Al-Nasr [June 1991 – June 1993] 2 reels
   Al- Salam [Apr. 1991 – Aug. 1993] 7 reels
2. Aljadid
   Los Angeles, Calif. : Nagam Cultural Project, 1995-
   Last Issue Received: vol. 8, no. 40 (Summer 2002) - will continue to film as issues amass.
3. Arabic pamphlet Collection
   No news to report. Searching for assistant with Arabic to help sort.
4. al-Balagh (San'a', Yemen):
   Received 1990-2001 from UCLA. In process (Searching for assistant with Arabic to help sort)
5. Nawbahar
   Awaiting from UCLA
6. Opposition papers at UCLA
   Bareed al-Janoub - Filming Complete.
   Iraq al-hurr. Filming complete. Partial holdings at BL, NYPL has early film.
   We could commission BL to film 28 to 56, purchase 1-27 from NYPL.
   Al-Sahwah Filming Complete.
7. Turkish newspapers
   2 titles submitted for filming in 8/04.
   Gece Postasi [1950-Nov. 1955]
   Halk. [1950-Aug. 29, 1953]
   ICON also filming Anadolu and Dunya.

Continuing Business

1. Shakeri Collection
   Collection of Irani opposition group material. Small pamphlets, ephemera, etc. Filming has been completed (31 reels, over 800 titles). Cataloging is also complete (in Aleph). These should already be loaded into OCLC and RLIN? Has created a local series (“Cosro Shakeri collection”… and “MEMP shakeri project”). Systems office will work to get us records.
   • Reels do not yet have contents at beginning. Can splice in contents at beginning of each reel (though not in between titles). MH provided a sample (Author, title, reel numbers). This should prove sufficient, esp. if catalog records contain reel numbers.
   • MH also has a supplemental collection of 101 titles from NYPL. Can send to CRL for filming. Is this desirable? The committee greed that this will add value to the current collection, and other collections should be considered for future projects as well. Even items that are translations, as a part of the whole collection, are important. Agreed.
   • How to pull together? A series title was proposed: “MEMP Collection of Iranian opposition pamphlets” with additional description of provenance (Shakeri, NYPL, etc.)
2. Dunya (Hizb-I Tudah-I Iran)
   Originally pt of Chaqueri project. Harvard has filmed. Send to CRL? Or drop from consideration?
3. Irani Opposition Papers (Harvard)
   Michael needs to poll for holdings; send to CRL for filming
   Tus (42 issues, 1998) $296.80
   Nishat (149 issues, Feb. 18, 1999 – Sep. 3, 1999) – $973.60
   Nawruz (issues 1-381, 2001-2002)
   Khurdad
   Hambastagi (issues 1-804, 2000-2003)
   ‘Asr-I Azadagan (issues 8-152, 1999-2000)
4. Ayntabi Collection of Arabic Press (Hirsch)
   UCLA continues to assess holdings in this collection. David passed out handlist of reels 1-12, 21-25. Wonder which are being held in other libraries. Will probably not do full cataloging of these titles. No action needed.
5. Sawt al-Muhajir & Sudanese newspapers. (Simon)
   Correspondence indicated MEMP could film and retain masters if it handled these titles. No word from NYPL whether this project will continue.
   Recently discovered that NYPL did not receive copies of Sudanese newspapers filmed by MEMP from NYPL’s collection. 6 titles take up 31 reels total (which will cost about $1000 to duplicate). Exec agreed to send copies to NYPL as funds allow.
6. Tatar Serials
   Iman and Iman Nury -- CM cannot find copies of these at LC.
   MH will send on to CRL for filming
7. As-Sameer
   Shipment packed and picked up by OCLC. In process of collation.
   Material needs to be disbound and re-sorted (bound as a Western language book). Price Estimate was higher than anticipated -- $21900. Decided to expend up to $10,900 and seek additional approval.
   The MEMP committee agreed a special ballot should be issued to resolve this.
   Also, this title may be supported by additional sales. We should publicize its availability in hopes of selling copies. Frankfurt Book Fair in October? MELCOM in Alexandria in May?
8. Iraqi newspaper at Dayan
   Little has progressed on this project. The Center has scanned al-Zaman for the years 1946, 1950-63. These are on 22 CDs and are being offered at $6000. As reported at the last meeting, al-Thawrah is on film (1959-64, 1968-89: 80+ reels) and can be purchased for $7500.
   • Is MEMP interested in pourchasing CD copies? Due to the fact that this is an unstable medium, the MEMP Exec recommends microfilm as the medium of choice.
   • Minutes from 11/03 indicate CM to provide information on al-Thawrah from LC. JS reports that the British Library Web site lists the following holdings:
     Al-Thawrah
     1/1962, 12/1976-9/1982 [incomplete]
     Notes: Supplements 21/9/1978 (no.5) - 8/1/1979 not on microfilm (ie. in hard copy only)
     Microfilm no.: OrMic11517 (19 reels)
     Hard copy pressmark: OP587
9. Beirut Times
   LIR December 2002, providing a complete run from Aug. 31, 1985. The title started in year 5 (1985), as the title originally published as al-Ittihad.. DH is trying track a holding institution of the earlier title.
10. Ufuq al-‘Arabi
    Appoved (demand purchase) at last meeting. Hirsch will send to CRL.

New Proposals

1. Quds al Arabi (Samoeil)
   Simon proposed to film Yale holdings of this major Arabic daily from London. Yale holds incomplete issues for 2002-2003.
   The British Library reports holdings from May 1995- . They could film for us, but will not let the deposit out of the library.
   Need to consider additional holdings of this title. JE will check Stanford’s holdings, CM to check LC.
   Possibly Film this as FNMP title at CRL??
2. al-Masar (Samoeil)
   Paper from Ram Allah. Yale holds [no. 63-118] (1999-2001).
   Small proposal – demand purchase. Approved. Check Holdings
3. al-Nur (Samoeil)
   Paper from Damascus. Yale holds [no. 16-135] (2001-2004. Approved. CM, JE to check holdings
4. al-Ittijah al-akhar (Samoeil)
   Syrian (Iraqi?) opposition pub in Holland? David will confirm origin. Yale holds [no. 46-174] (2001-2004). Approved. Check holdings.
   ULCA has 27, 31, 33, 36
5. al-Rayah (Eilts)
   Islamic weekly from Morocco. Holdings are complete (1990-1997)? In good shape. Approved.
6. Turkish opposition newspapers (Khanaka)
   Mostly Khurdish opposition. Some are leftist, some are Khurdish.
   Roj (6/1995-8/1996) LC and Harvard have additional?
   Nu Roj (8/1996-2/1997) LC and Harvard have additional?
   Serwebun (12/86-11/96
   Berxwedan (1/1987-5/1995)
   Newroz (5/1994-4/1995) Harvard have additional?
   Ogur Ulke (12/1993-4/1994). Havard has?
   Ozgur Gundem (6-9/1994) Harvard has?
   All members check holdings. Approved
7. Iranian Opposition Pamphlets (Hopper): See above.

Other proposals

• Lesley Wilkins inquired whether anyone was receiving the English paper from Lebanon, the Daily Star. Paper was founded in 1952, suspended with the outbreak of war. After several starts, published again in 1996 by Dar al-Hayat . The MEMP committee agreed to report its holdings.
  Additionally members, were encouraged to report which English language titles they collect. Also French?
  CM recommended MEMP check LC’s list of currently received material, on Web from Mark Sweeney.

Newspaper survey

• Michel Hopper was interesting in pursuing information on which titles were currently subscribed, retention policies, filming efforts. Hopes to do this before fall meeting.

OACIS report

• William Kopycki updated recent developments. Current participants are Cornell, Michigan, Ohio State, Pennsylvania, Princeton, Texas-Austin, Halle, U. Jordan, Washington, Yale, and Tishrin. Total records approaching 20,000? Princeton has 4492 records, Mich 3131, Yale 3087, Tx 2289, Wash 2259, Penn 1399, Cornell 1282, Halle 1229, OSU 675, Jordan, 12.
• The MEMP committee reviewed the database and asked several questions. Is there a possibility of clustering records for the same title? Is there any way to normalize different subject headings, place names, transliteration schemes? Any plans or hopes for standardization of holding records statements?
• Kopycki demonstrated the database extract specifications. An original load of records is done through this extract, and each update is a re-load of all records. Participants are expected to supply quarterly. Discussed making links to MENA contents. Difficult (MENA using Java, difficulties in interface)
• Goals – facilitating interlibrary loans. ME not in existing ILL framework, interested in doc delivery.
  Possible digitization of materials out of copyright. Gazeteers? Censi?
• Biblioteca (?) discussed its digitization activities. Scans – using DEJAVü rather than Adobe (more popular in ME). Using SAKHR to expand on their font libraries in OCR.

Dissertations

• A general discussion about interest in ME dissertations ensued. These materials are of interest to many MEMP member, but it is important to consider the general quality of dissertations. There is also a lamentable trend of plagiarism in some institutions. Selections of dissertations is probably preferable than full-out exchange. Consider subject parameters? Or recommend institutions with a reputation for quality dissertations to work with? CRL is open to ideas, but also need to discuss funding mechanisms.
• In Egypt, Ain Sham University is working on a dissertation listing ffort. William got conflicting reports on the progress. Also, George Fawzi has been producing lists of available dissertations – there was some concern from the group about how these were acquired and whether Fawzi has permission to sell copies.
• * Harvard collects Israeli dissertations “comprehensively.” (Collects cyclically and attempts to get all available).

Other Business

• Missing issues:
  
  • Should MEMP be concerned with filling in missing issues from its earlier filmed collections?
  • What about those that MEMP acquired but did not film?
  • Ex. Lataif -- Penn had a full set (from Leland? possibly in photocopy),
  • Ex. Manar -- Penn has from issue 1.
• Simon recommended that only a certain number of splices (6) can be done to a reel before its archival value diminishes. MEMP Might consider splicing in all fill-ins at end or at beginning of a reel. Or, could do a supplementary reel. This is a good idea, in principle, though it depends on how significant the gap is and how comprehensive the fill-in. Simon asked Kopycki to provide more details of its holdings.

Nominating Committee

Hopper, Eilts, Kopycki (for Bickett) terms ending. David and Shayee will be nominating committee.

Fall Meeting

MEMP Business meeting is Saturday, 11/20/04, 9:00am-11:00am (Seacliff B, Bay Level, San Francisco). The MEMP Exec will meet Thursday night (11/18) for dinner

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