April 5, 2006
Marriott San Francisco
San Francisco, CA

Attending: Larry Ashman (Wisconsin), Fred Benson (North Carolina - Greensboro), Phan Chan (Harvard), Kuei Chiu (UCLA-Riverside), Elizabeth Darocha-Berenz (CRL), Jeffrey Ferrier (Ohio), Lien Huong Fiedler (LC), Fe Susan Go (Michigan), Greg Green (N. Illinois), Judith Henchy (Washington), Judy Lu (LC), Raymond Lum (Harvard), David Magier (Columbia), Christopher Miller (Arizona State), Royati Paseng (Hawaii), Jeff Petersen (Cornell), Hao Phan (UCLA), Dorothy Rachmat (Yale), Allen Riedy (Hawaii), Riche Richie (Yale), Ch’ng Kim See (ISEAS), Jeffrey Shane (Ohio), James Simon (CRL), Mel Thatcher (Gen. Society - Utah), Roger Tol (KITLV), Will Tuchrello (LC)

The attendees introduced themselves and the minutes from the 2005 SEAM meeting held in Chicago were approved.

CRL/LC Meeting - James Simon reported on the joint CRL/Library of Congress meeting recently held in Washington. The challenges of acquiring foreign materials were discussed.  Much of the focus was on the importance of digitization efforts.  There was concern expressed that if libraries and universities don’t pursue digitization initiatives, they will soon be left far behind by commercial interests. While microfilm is still viewed by many as an important preservation medium, CRL members are asking for easy access. James noted that CRL plans to continue to support microfilming projects, but will assist projects in the transition to digital as the opportunity arises.

CRL Digitization Efforts - James noted that CRL is pursuing the digitization of foreign newspapers and are approaching commercial groups to see if they have any interest in the project. The plan is to use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) when feasible. The initial efforts will most likely start with Latin American resources.

David Magier asked if CRL will partner with other institutions that already hold wanted titles on microfilm.  James replied that CRL is interested in digitizing other resources beyond those at CRL.

Susan Go asked what should be the role of SEAM in this process. How can SEAM promote efforts to include titles from Southeast Asia? Ray Lum asked which “AMP” group would get priority.  James suggested that SEAM lobby if interested in CRL’s efforts and identify important needs.  Will Tuchrello said that he would be willing to contact publishers in Indonesia to see if they were interested in contributing content.

Judith Henchy asked if there was any concern that SEA funded microfilm titles, may later be digitized and resold as a separate product by a private publisher.

Center for Khmer Studies Proposal – The Center provided a proposal for SEAM’s consideration asking for funding to support the digitalization of 300 “rare” items from the collections of the National Library of Cambodia in Phnom Penh.  These items cover the colonial to pre-Khmer Rouge eras.  Included are monographs, maps, and periodicals.

Susan Go noted that she had requested a list of titles of the materials but this has not been provided. Allen Riedy asked if any of these materials had already been microfilmed.   Ray Lum wanted to know what would be the advantage to SEAM in participating in this project. What will be the final product? Mel Thatcher stated that if these materials are already held in France, they may be digitized in any case.  Rich Richie concurred that a list of materials is critical to our ability to evaluate the value of the proposal.  There was a general consensus that SEAM does not currently have enough data to evaluate the proposal properly.  The proposal may be re-evaluated after gathering more information.

A discussion ensued regarding whether digitization efforts are consistent with SEAM’s mission.  Allen Riedy suggested that the focus should be on the preserved product, whether this is digital or film.  Ray Lum stated the belief that we really need to ask, “what should SEAM be doing” with regard to preservation.

Susan Go mentioned the need to train Cambodian Librarians for filming and digitization efforts. Kim See suggested that it may be cheaper to train the Cambodians in Singapore due to proximity with their home country rather than the U.S.

LC Preservation Project and LC News – Will Tuchrello reported that preservation efforts previously conducted in New Delhi are now being carried out in Jakarta. It is possible that the Burmese office will be transferred to Jakarta – a study is now in progress.

Will reported that he is examining Intellectual property and copyright issues for each SEA country.  Indonesia has changed its law related to copyright and it is now more restrictive for educational institutions.

The Berita Negara (Indonesian Gazette) was switched from microfilm to microfiche format. LC may work with Roger Tol and KITLV to avoid duplication and improve quality.  Since other organizations are doing a fine job in filming periodicals and newspapers LC is considering “getting out of the business”.  There is a private collection of Chinese genealogical (clan) records from Manila and also a newspaper clipping file concerning the Chinese community in the Philippines. There is a similar private collection in East Malaysia.

Genealogical Society of Utah – Mel Thatcher reported that the GS in Utah is working hard to go digital.  They are renegotiating old contracts to enable digitization of documents.  GS is trying to get the rights from the Bishop to gain access to church records in the Philippines.  GS has obtained the rights to the Spanish National Archives.

Mel reported that birth, death and Marriage records are currently being scanned in Manila.  There are still some questions regarding when these records can be made available to the public.  GS is approaching the Indonesian Council of Churches in an attempt to get cemetery records.

Mel reported that advances in scanning technology now allow an image to be scanned for 1/3 the previous cost. New software, Metacreator, allows for the insertion of metadata.

Proposal to Increase Membership Fee – A suggestion was made to increase the SEAM membership fee from $800.00 to $1,000, in part to allow digitization efforts.

James Simon distributed a handout that summarized issues related to the LC Fiche Program for SEA.  The cost has dramatically risen in the last few years. It is estimated that the SEA fiche for 2004 would cost about $22,000.  Jeff Ferrier reported that Ohio University has recently ended its participation in the program due to the high costs.  Currently Cornell, CRL and LC are receiving the SEA Fiche.  Both LC and Cornell said that they will loan to other institutions.  However, it was reported that LC only loans out a positive copy and currently only has the negative.  So, Cornell may be the only institution that can loan the fiche.

Susan Go asked if Cornell does not continue to receive the fiche in the future, would SEAM be willing to assist in paying for participation in the program to ensure there is 1 copy available for loan. Susan suggested that this discussion be tabled until next year.

Current Projects  and Other News – Yati presented a proposal to film Suara Maluku.  According to a recent list KITLV is not filming this title. This project was approved.

David Magier provided a summary of the various Indonesian papers being filmed at Columbia.

Roger Tol reported that KITLV has filmed an archive of records from an orphanage that had been stored in Lieden that covered the years 1880-1942.  Sino-Malay literature titles from Indonesia have also been filmed.

Ray Lum reported that a Harvard graduate student had identified an archive of records at a Catholic School in Kuala Lumpur.

Elections - Hao Phan of UCLA was elected as the new SEAM representative.

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