March 3, 2004
Town & Country Resort, Stratford Room
San Diego, CA

Present:
Shintia Argazali-Thomas (Cornell University), Jim Armstrong (Library of Congress Field Office, Jakarta), Larry Ashmun (University of Wisconsin, Madison), Rohayati P. Barnard (University of Hawaii), Fehl Cannon (Library of Congress), Kuei Chiu (University of California at Riverside), Jeffrey Ferrier (Ohio University), Fe Susan Go (University of Michigan), Greg Green (Northern Illinois University), Judith Henchy (University of Washington), Raymond Lum (Harvard University), Lian The Mulliner (Ohio University), Kent Mulliner (Ohio University), Hao Phan (University of California at Los Angeles), Fred Protopappas (Library of Congress), Dorothy Rachmat (Yale University), Richard Richie (Yale University), Allen Riedy (University of Hawaii), James Simon (Center for Research Libraries), Virginia Shih (University of California at Berkeley), Mel Thatcher (Genealogical Society of Utah),

I. Introductions.
Each member and visitor attending the meeting introduced him or herself and provided their library affiliation for the benefit of both new and old members as well as visitors. Several members of SEAM had changed their affiliation.

II. Approval of Minutes.
The minutes of the 2003 meeting were approved, with one request for revision. Virginia Shih asked to have the 2003 minutes updated to indicate that she had not gone to Vietnam as indicated in Section E.1.

III. Demonstration of Intraspect.
James Simon presented an introduction to Intraspect, the collaborative software utilized by the Center for Research Libraries and introduced to the committee before the meeting. Intraspect will serve as a central repository and working space for SEAM business throughout the year. Members of SEAM were encouraged to explore, add, and collaborate on messages or documents by contributing them to the Intraspect repository. Members expressed interest in using it for making documents available before the meeting and storing information. However, there were reservations about making some material contributed to the repository viewable or available for public display. There were other concerns expressed by members on how long archived material would stay in the repository and how long funding would continue to fund Introspect, after the grant funds provided had been expended.

IV. Election of SEAM
Rich Richie, outgoing member of the executive committee was reelected for an additional term.

V. Discussion Points

1. CRL and LC Fiche from SEA (James Simon reporting)
As was discussed during the past year, the Center for Research Libraries has been purchasing a complete set of the microfiche produced by the Library of Congress Field Office in Jakarta. But due to cost increases levied by the Library of Congress in 2003/2004, the Center for Research Libraries can no longer support this ongoing acquisition of both the backfile and current microfiche being created. James Simon presented a summary and survey relating to this topic. James Simon and the Center for Research Libraries asked for the SEAM members’ recommendations on the value of this collection and whether the increased price was worth the continued collecting efforts by the Center.

Comments were then taken from the members. Shintia Argazali-Thomas noted that Cornell has cataloged the majority of its fiche. From her experience, patron use of this material increased dramatically once the material had been cataloged. Rohayati P. Barnard noted too that usage had increased dramatically at Hawaii too, once the fiche were cataloged. In performing cataloging searches, it was found that almost 90% of the fiche had some records, although Lian The Mulliner from Ohio University noted that many of the fiche created by the Library of Congress were not included in the Cornell University Library catalog.

James Simon noted that the Center’s fiche collection does not include Thai or Burmese fiche, with the exception of an occasional Burmese title filmed by the Library of Congress Field Office in New Delhi.

Since it was noted that the Library of Congress does not lend its fiche, Raymond Lum from Harvard University suggested that individual member libraries could be selective in their purchase of particularly valuable research resource titles from the Library of Congress fiche collection.

Fred Protopapas from the Library of Congress noted that the lack of an accessions list is a concern to all, and suggested that in order to offset the price of buying large sections of the fiche collection, they might consider acquiring the backfile in smaller sections over a period of several years.

After comments from SEAM members, James Simon asked members to please complete the survey and return it to the Center for Research Libraries to assist in making a decision on this issue.

2. Thai National Collection Title VI Program (James Simon reporting)
The Center for Research Libraries has been processing the material received as part of the Thai National Collection from the Library of Congress Field Office in Jakarta. The building of this monograph and serial collection has been problematic due to the familiarity of the Thai language required in order to resolve issues of irregular receipt and the lack of existing catalog records for much of the material. During 2002/2003, the Center hired a Thai language speaker to take care of cataloging some of this material. During the past year the remaining material has been sorted and cataloged when possible, then integrated with the Center’s main collection. James Simon, noted that as of today’s meeting, over 400 monographs and over 400 serials including samples, discontinued, or continuing titles have been cataloged. The remaining uncataloged portion of the collection includes approximately 500 to 600 titles including new receipts. The Center for Research Libraries has hired a company in Australia named CAVAL to catalog this remaining material and provide full level catalog records including subject headings and classification. To do this cataloging, CAVAL is working from digital images of the primary sources of information from each monograph or serial to do cataloging. They are not working directly from the piece in hand. In other words, CAVAL receives scanned images of title pages, versos, contents, etc. in order to create catalog records. The test set produced acceptable quality records, and CRL is continuing with ongoing cataloging of 50 titles at a time.

James Simon noted that this collection would benefit from professional review to assess its quality for scholarship, as portions of the material appear to be aimed at the mass market or non academic audience rather than a scholarly community. James Simon went on to ask members if they had a sense of how much material is being duplicated by their own or other institutions. Fe Susan Go presented a combined list of serials collected by various institutions or SEAM member libraries. James Simon noted that this list needed to be corrected in the future to indicate which titles are truly currently received at each library and which titles have been cancelled or are ceased titles. Jim Armstrong noted that he would like to meet further with participants later in the week to become more familiar with this program which is conducted through the Library of Congress Representative Office in Bangkok.

VI. New Projects Under Consideration

1. Philippine Election Materials (Fe Susan Go reporting) - $5590 requested.
Professor Karl Lande’s election material eventually found its way to the Institute for Popular Democracy. In the past, $4000 was approved by SEAM members to film this material. The Institute for Public Democracy offered to encode this material at a price of $5000. This digitization project would cover both the existing microfilm collection as well as additional print material. Access would be provided to this digital collection by providing each SEAM member with a CD containing the election material. One SEAM member asked about the historical permanence and validity of digitizing this material rather than just filming the material. It was decided by the group that the additional material would also be filmed. Susan Go offered to negotiate further with the Institute for Popular Democracy and to find out whether SEAM could host the digitized material from a CORMOSEA or SEAM website.

2. History of Pegu (Fe Susan Go reporting) - $1000 requested.
This Mon language text with a rather narrow focus was proposed to SEAM by Dr. Sun Laichen, Assistant Professor at California State University, Fullerton. Ms. Go noted that this would be an interesting resource for those interested in Burma Studies. She also noted that the actual cost of this filming project would be $1000, not the original $600 as suggested.

3. Myanmar Book Center (Fe Susan Go reporting) – Funding request amount yet to be determined.
Fe Susan Go noted that this proposal was more of a solicitation from the Myanmar Book Center than a proposal. The Center is offering films of newspapers and parabaiks (religious palm leaf manuscripts often with excellent historical information). The newspapers being offered are in the Burmese language. Ms. Go noted that the filming quality was of unknown quality, but that the Center for Research Libraries would be receiving test film to check for quality of the filming product. Ms. Go noted that she would send Greg Green at Northern Illinois University with the Burma Studies Center, the full list of titles offered for evaluation. Ms. Go offered to contact the Burma Studies Group for funding support.

4. Cornell Newspaper Project. (Shintia Argazali-Thomas) - $69,980 requested.
Shintia Argazali-Thomas from Cornell University Library noted that there were approximately 30 reels left to film plus unprocessed material. Cornell has added Vietnamese press material to the project including many titles including a bi-daily edition of a newspaper. This total project would include approximately 284 reels of material, and were not part of the earlier National Endowment for the Humanities grant as suggested earlier. Dr. Raymond Lum distributed a list of Vietnamese newspaper titles held by Harvard University that might be filmed and included as part of this Vietnamese newspaper project. It was noted by one SEAM member that many of these titles had already been filmed elsewhere.

5. Thammasat University Uprising and Massacre on CD-ROM (Fe Susan Go reporting) - $6400 requested.
Professor Thongchai Winichakul, from the History Department of the University of Wisconsin, Madison proposed this project to SEAM through Fe Susan Go. This proposal would support the creation of a CD-ROM containing documents concerning the demonstration and subsequent massacre of Thammasat University students in 1976. The material for this CD-ROM would come from documents held by the Thai State Attorney Museum in Bangkok. After further discussion, the SEAM membership agreed that this would be a worthy project but several members questioned the usefulness of this format. Ms. Go noted however that the Thai government would only agree this format and no other.

As many members were not available to attend the meeting, it was decided to conduct the voting for these proposals by secure online ballot. Some of the proposals it was suggested could be revised and represented prior to the voting process.

VII. CRL News/Updates

1. Political User Survey (James Simon reporting). This topic was not discussed as the survey deadline had already passed.

2. Financial Report. James Simon distributed the financial report for SEAM and discussed expenditures and receipts during the past year.

3. Change/Addendum to SEAM bylaws (new formats). This discussion was deferred.

4. Continuing SEAM Projects
a. SEAM/Luce Vietnam Project. (Judith Henchy reporting)
Ms. Henchy reported that a reader/scanner had been purchased for use at the National Library in Vietnam. There have been continued difficulties at the National Library of Vietnam in getting chemicals and this has slowed and hampered the processing of film. Ms. Henchy noted that she would be exploring negotiations with Kodak to to provide chemicals on a regular basis. Once the chemicals have been received there are approximately 100 reels of film to be processed and produced.

b. Indonesian Political Tabloids (James Simon reporting)
This filming has been completed and the Center for Research Libraries continues to work on acquiring full records for all the titles in the film tabloid collection.

c. Yale / Documentation Center of Cambodia (Rich Richie reporting)
Rich Richie noted that the Documentation Center of Cambodia in Phnom Penh was still filming on an intermittent basis. To date approximately 400 reels of film have been produced by the Center but some of this film has needed to be reshot. Most of this reshooting has been completed and the resulting final negative reels are being reproduced in positive format for SEAM, Cornell University, Yale University and the Documentation Center itself. Mr. Richie suggested that the filming project might take approximately 6 more months to complete, including the final collection of Renakse material. The log books of the filming process is in Rich Richie’s possession, but requires a Khmer language reader to convert the handwritten text to a digital typewritten format in order to create some sort of guide. It was suggested by one of the SEAM members during this discussion to work together with the Center for Khmer Studies to reformat the log book into a useable guide.

d. Cornell Newspaper Filming (Shintia Argazali-Thomas reporting)
Ms. Argazali distributed her report on this project, noting that about $2700 remains in her budget for this newspaper filming project. Approximately 58 reels of film have been created so far.

e. Heder Cambodian Election Material (Judith Henchy reporting)
Ms. Henchy reported that the filming of this election material has been completed. A guide for this collection has also been completed and is mounted on the SEAM website.

VIII. Other Reports – News from the Field

1. Library of Congress (Jim Armstrong reporting)
Mr. Armstrong noted that film and fiche production is up 20% for fiscal year 2003 at the Library of Congress Field Office in Jakarta, although the actual number of titles filmed or fiched has decreased. Approximately 6025 fiche have been produced in the past year with staff running three fiche cameras full-time. One title alone for the Official Gazette for 2002 came to 16,000 fiche alone. Such large projects are tough to manage. Microfilming being done by the Library of Congress Field Office in Jakarta has increased to 186 reels, primarily for Indonesian newspapers. Mr. Armstrong provided SEAM members with a list of current titles filmed. SEAM members noted that there is some duplication of filming efforts taking place for some titles. For instance, KITLV is filming 14 titles of newspapers, some of which are also being filmed by LC. Further redundancy in filming efforts could be taking place with IDC and Ateneo de Manila filming some of the same material as the Library of Congress Field Office, and should be investigated. Mr. Armstrong finished his report by noting that there would be upcoming elections in Indonesia and that these election materials would be collected for participants.

2. Genealogical Society of Utah (Mel Thatcher reporting)
Mr. Thatcher reported that the Genealogical Society of Utah had finished filming marriage and deaths records from National Statistical Office of the Philippines. These records are complete through1996. The Attorney Generals Office of the Philippines has cleared and approved this filming effort. The Society is also working with Roman Catholic parish registers in the Philippines and has received permission and access to new regions including Davao in Mindanao. The Society hopes to finish this filming project by 2005. Mr. Thatcher also noted that the Society is working in cooperation with the Library of Congress to film Chinese community records in the Philippines as well as Chinese cultural records in Sarawak, Malaysia.

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