Chicago, Illinois
Wednesday, March 12, 1997, 7:00pm-9:00pm
Center for Research Libraries

CORRECTIONS TO 1996 MINUTES:
Minutes should read 1996 not 1995.

Kent commented on the number of unresolved questions in the minutes.

The membership reported that Bintang Timoer has been filmed. [May 1996 note from LC: Southern Asia Section has Bintang Timur on microfilm from 9/58 to 9/65.]

Clarification of point 4: Ayala Foundation has a photograph collection. Santo Tomas has a manuscript collection.

Balinese video project: There was to be a survey of interested libraries. Allen Riedy added that the project seems to have collapsed, possibly as a result of lack of financial support from US libraries.

Three newspapers to be filmed by CRL are: Sriwajaya Post; Manuntung (Kalimantan), Lampung Post. These were selected from the following lists:

From Riedy:
Sriwijaya Post (Also Kohar's choice), Harian Pagi Akcaya, Jaya Karta, Lampung Post, Manuntung, Suara Merdeka, Republika (Not sure about LC's intention to film).

From Lan char's list:
Manuntung, Suara Timor Timur, Phnom Penh Post (now filmed by UW)

FINANCIAL REPORT

See attached report from CRL.

CRL does not charge for para-professional cataloging, only professional.

Additions to the SEAM holdings include contributions from the NEH-funded Great Collections project: 1 copy of the Echols collection deposited with SEAM. Includes Burma, Cambodia. CRL OPAC includes a lot of Cambodian.

On order, Sin Chew Jit Poh

Current commitments $9,200. March received 600 reels of National Library and 250 FSUI manuscript collections.

FY96: Balance $3870 making total of $44,080.

ELECTIONS:

Kent reporting on Elections. Still in need of faculty representative. Carol offered to continue but we need only two others. Nominated: May Kyi Win and Yati. Voted on by acclamation.

We need a faculty representative who is appointed by CORMOSEA.

OLD BUSINESS

Indonesian Projects:
Sundanese Project: LC shipped 50 reels 16 mm film but never arrived. We are trying to make an additional copy. The institution wants to be paid in rupiah cash for an additional copy, but this is not possible. Have bought raw film stock for Archives, but now appearing to be wanting to overcharge. No guide has been produced. We should try to go through the Ford office as an intermediary, or ask EFEO if we can get a positive from them.

Indonsian Projects. We are not sure if once they have finished the manuscripts they will continued with newspapers.

Testing:

The policy has been to have Ohio test reels of film before lending. Testing is finding that recent materials have been up to density and resolution standards. This may be due to newer equipment and better training. Testing began when the film came back with bad film quality. Kent thinks there is no need to continue to test the films coming out of Indonesia.

CLR will attempt scanning and to distribute the materials on the web. Kent will email the introductory text for creating web page. Check with Tim (Kent) about getting his articles, etc. to create a set of pages.

VIET NAM PROJECT

SEAM is supplying film and chemicals [from the Henry Luce grant]. Appendix 2: Filmed or to be filmed of the General Sciences Library. SEAM will request copies of anything not already filmed. The French titles may not be in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, since legal deposit was not efficient, and many Vietnamese imprints were not deposited. ACRRP may have filmed some of these titles already, and we will not be requesting these. The General Science is technically supposed to reimburse us for the film used on titles that do not fit our priorities and for which we do not request copies. The National Library in Hanoi has both the ACRRP catalog and the fiche catalogs of the Fonds Indochinoise, so they are not duplicating materials filmed. Judith will explore exchanging materials from France that have been filmed with the intention of getting more original filming done. SEAM does want copies of materials that have never been filmed. [Henchy has consulted with Hue Tam Ho Thai and Hy Van Luong about the value of titles on the filming lists.]

CORNELL has bought everything from ACRRP that is available. Allen will check the General Sciences list list against RLIN. Judith has already checked against OCLC, and will fax Allen the list of titles not yet identified as being in the US.

Judith will be in Viet Nam for summer to oversee the project. 24 reels have been sent by the National Library in Ha Noi, but have not yet been received. SEAM is receiving a duplicate negative, but we do not have rights to sell copies of the set from this negative. Duplicating rights belong to the holding library, and their permission is required. Possibly CRL could do the duplication with the permission of the holding libraries and at whatever royalty they request.

While in Vietnam, Henchy will look into filming of "current" newspapers, particularly provincial newspapers.

There remains problem of getting materials out, since Culture Ministry permission is required.

LANDE ELECTION RETURNS. Will wait until there is curator at Yale.

SIDDHATHA COLLECTION.

Filming this collection by LC needs to be deferred until fiche backlog is cleared. There is 7000 piece backlog at Library of Congress. Kent will follow up with Siddhatha to see if she willing to allow a commercial vendor to film the materials, or whether she will only allow filming if LC can do it. SEAM committed to $2000 a year to the Colloquial Malay project under which these material were first brought up, therefore there should be no need to re-ballot for the resources to film the collection. Range of $4000-$6000 for entire collection. This collection is historical collection of colloquial Malay materials from the turn of the century.

CORNELL NEWSPAPERS

SEAM filming at CORNELL. 45 titles sent to SEAM already. $5000 per year for four years was allocated at the last meeting. 320 titles have already been filmed, some 130 titles through UMI; the remaining 200 plus through SEAM and Cornell will be deposited at SEAM.

FUTURE OF FILMING

Kent raised the question of Ford needing official reports and feedback on the projects. Jennifer Lindsay at the Ford Foundation believes that filming has value, but needs evidence to help support this view before the Ford administration. Anecdotal and statistical evidence

Toyota Foundation. Susan and Ray will look at trying to find out what Toyota Foundation is filming or intending to do in this area of cultural preservation.

This raises larger question of value of all filming programs (LC, Toyota, Ford) which we discussed at the pre-CONSAL meeting.

SEAM members will collect anecdotal evidence; Marlys will collect information about use for research with the possible goal of a conference to discuss the enduring value and research importance of the filming that has been done to date.

Kent believes Ford would be interested in international conference on filming. One possibility would be session at 1999 Bangkok IFLA. Kent and Henchy will follow up with various Ford offices.

Issues to be raised would include: What is the role of international organizations on filming/preservation. What kind of followup is required to ensure access, quality control and storage.

Will reported that filming of the American Historical Collection is complete. LC is refilming some titles.

NEW PROJECTS.

Henchy raised the question of the 25,000 Thai funeral volumes reported by UW faculty John Butler at Wat Bowonniwet (see article by Grant Olson in Asia Folklore). Do we need to check holdings against various collections in US: Cornell (8,000?), NIU, LC fiche.. Peter Skelling would be a good person to contact. Henchy spoke with Thongchai about the project, and he will also check with his contacts when his is in Thailand in June. Will could contact Peter Skelling.

[A working group of Will, Judith, Carol, Thongchai and John Butler met later to discuss tactics. Thongchai will proceed in June on the basis of information provided by Henchy and Mitchell; he will contact people who can approach the abbot about the feasibility of such a project. Technologies were discussed and it was agreed that such a volume of materials might be easier to scan than to film. Mitchell reports that this might also be prohibitively expensive for a quality product. Rough estimates are that filming would require at least $100,000 for filming supplies alone. Mitchell will talk to Kodak about sponsorship of such a product; Butler also had ideas about corporate sponsorship. We could focus initially on the oldest materials which are the slimmest volumes and the most endangered from a preservation standpoint.]

Santo Tomas: Susan reported that they will make copy of inventory, but are resistant to having the collection microfilmed.

There are Philippine radical materials at UP which might be candidates for filming; we need to check on what Berkeley filmed under the Luce grant. Virginia will check on this. [Virginia has reported that a print volume was published as a result of the project. We hope that this includes inventories of the materials filmed?

Anderson, James N. Critical issues in Philippine research : a selected and annotated literature review on the women's movement, conflict in Luzon's Cordillera, Muslim autonomy, and recent political resistence. Berkeley: Centers for South and Southeast Asia Studies, University of California, 1996. Occasional papers series ; 19]

Question. What happened to the Agent Orange materials. Henchy thinks they went to Vietnam Veterans Against the War in Boulder CO. [Henchy has searched on the web, but has found no mention of these materials; she has emailed VVAW about this collection, and the Vietnam archive of the former Indochina Resource Center, also thought to be in their custody.]

The collection of gay Filipino drama was proposed by Allen, but the collection would be relatively small, and may not require the assistance of SEAM funding.

[The meeting did not cover all agenda items, and the Chair suggests that other pressing items be discussed over email.

The Chair welcomes comments of the following items which were not addressed

5. LC's newspaper scanning project (Tuchrello update).

6. SEAM and the electronic age.

Role of SEAM in ARL and CRL projects.

7. CRL purchase requests.

Process and suggestions (I have heard that the PDH collection was approved, but was given a high priority, which means that we may have to wait and purchase it in small increments. The MMF collection was also approved.)

8. CRL's role in newspaper preservation. Proposed National Newspaper Symposium (See previous email).

9. Report of Area Studies Council meeting (Mitchell)

10 CRL Microfilm Projects Home Pages - [Please make your comments available to me and to Marlys. I think we should also thank Marlys for what I think is an excellent start on the page]

11. SEAM Brochure [Copies of the CAMP brochure were handed out. Henchy will work on drafting something for consideration by the membership before the next meeting.]