Boston, MA
December 6, 2004
8:00-10:00 a.m.

Present:

Guests: Dima Frangulov (East View)

The meeting was called to order by the Chair, Janet Crayne.

I. Welcome and Introductions

II. Project business

1. Minutes
The minutes from Ontario (November 22, 2003) were approved.

2. Elections
Crayne called for nominations for the positions of secretary and member at large. Elections will be conducted after the meeting.

3. By-Law amendments report
The amendments to adjust the beginning of an officer’s term and to add digital projects to the types of projects considered by SEEMP were conducted by e-mail during the year. The amendments were approved and are available via SEEMP’s Web site.

III. Budget Report, CRL News (Simon)

1. For Fiscal Year 2004, SEEMP had a beginning balance of $31,050.62. Revenues (membership fees) were $20,400 and expenses (acquisition, travel, cataloging) equaled $28,166.58. In Fiscal Year 2005, SEEMP has taken in $17,400 and has spent only $322.29 to date. Pending commitments are $21,712.61.

2. The Center for Research Libraries has officially assumed administrative support of two additional projects of the AAU/ARL Global Resources Network – the German-North American Resources Partnership and the Latin Americanist Research Resources Project. CRL and the Association of Research Libraries have formed a compact under which CRL will provide management and operational support for the projects and also promote synergies, facilitate communications, and exploit efficiencies among and across these and existing CRL-based Global Resources projects, and other international resources projects and programs at the Center.

3. The International Coalition on Newspapers (ICON) concluded work on the 2002-04 funding period from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The grant project has completed microfilming of 21 newspaper titles, with approximately 255 reels of film produced. Recently received are several titles from Eastern Europe including Glas Slavonije (Osijek, Croatia), 1946-56; Ilustrirani vjesnik (Zagreb, Croatia), 1945-52; and Magyar nemzet (Budapest, Hungary), 1940-49, 1956-61. These titles came from the hard copy collection of Columbia University, and the microfilm is available for loan through CRL.

CRL has received a grant from NEH to continue its efforts for two more years. The follow-on grant continues to employ the successful collaborative model to undertake preservation microfilming, enhance the ICON database, and begin remote cataloging of newspaper collections held by selected ICON partner institutions. ICON will also digitize important reference texts relating to foreign newspapers to provide context to the valuable collections held by ICON partners.

4. In the FY04 CRL purchase proposal program, the Center acquired the set “Russian Archives: Cold War and the Central Committee. Series 4: Plenums of the Central Committee of the CPSU, 1941-1990.” In the most recent round, the membership approved Series 3 from the same set: “Congresses of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 1955-1986 (Fond 2, Opsi 1, 3, 5).”

5. Since Jan. 2002, when the Center initiated its program to expedite cataloging of all important collections, we have added 365,459 records to the catalog (approximately 41% of the 894,131 bibliographic records currently in the catalog) as well as to OCLC.

IV. Progress Reports on Current Projects

1. Luczkiw Collection (Stevens)
The Guide to the collection has recently been completed and is available via Toronto’s site at: http://www.pjrc.library.utoronto.ca/publications/luczkiw2004.pdf

2. Newspapers from the Former Yugoslavia / Oslobodenje (Crayne, Simon)
Crayne has identified University Press in Sarajevo which had filmed Oslobodenje, the daily paper from Sarajevo, for the period 1992-2003. SEEMP has placed the order and has received 1992-1995. Additional reels are in duplication stages and are expected to arrive shortly.

3. Newspapers of the October Revolution (Cannon)
The delay in this project continues, as they have not been able to locate all the issues in the original proposal. LC Photoduplication is seeking permission to proceed with the filming despite these losses. It is hoped the project will proceed within the next six months, and Angela Cannon will keep the membership updated.

4. Russian Regional Archives guide project (Ingersoll)
Of the proposed 250 guides, permission has been granted to film approximately 200. Over 100 titles have been filmed to date. SEEMP has not yet received any film, but this will be forthcoming.

5. Russian Regional Newspapers (Frangulov/Tabolina)
The ongoing filming of 16 regional titles (1995- ) and 8 new titles 2001-2003 proceeds apace. Of the new titles, EVP was not able to film two titles – Sovetskaia Kalmykiia segodnia ceased publication, and Tol'iatinskoe obozrenie was missing too many issues to be considered a practical title. East View suggested we could take those six film years and apply them to an extension of three other titles (2004-2005). Olga suggested Kaliningradskaia pravda, Krasnoe znamia, and Novaia Kamchatskaia gazeta. The membership suggested calling for missing issues once more before giving up on Tol'iatinskoe obozrenie.

6. Soviet Central Asian pamphlet microfilming project (Simon)
This film from NYPL has long been completed, but recent incorporation of catalog records found that the transliteration system for Chuvash adopted by NYPL was not standard LC Romanization. SEEMP’s cataloger has asked for a recommendation of whether the members wanted CRL to correct the records for the set. The Members agreed that it was important for the records to be findable and correct, despite the costs of this activity. CRL will implement the changes.

V. New Proposals / Developing Projects

1. Koha Jonë (Albania)
Karen Rondestvedt proposed to have EVP film this title. Koha Jonë is a leading independent title and the largest circulating daily in Albania. The publishers have agreed to film this title: The paper began May 11, 1991, though Stanford holds only 1996-2003. SEEMP could look for earlier issues and could also consider ongoing filming of this title. As this proposal was submitted in time for the balloting process but never carried out, the membership present approved this proposal.

2. Pesti Hirlap (Budapest, Hungary)
This title was founded in 1841 by Lajos Kossuth, Hungarian patriot and statesman who strove for an independent Hungarian republic in the mid-19th century. Pesti Hirlap enjoyed a wide circulation and was an effective means of dissemination for Kossuth and his compatriots in the Liberal Party in favor of personal and national liberties. The title was published first 1841-1849, and another newspaper under the same name was issued between 1879 and 1944. James Simon proposed SEEMP acquire 1841-1847, already on film from the Hungarian National Library. SEEMP Members agreed this was a very important title, especially given the dearth of sources for 18th Century Eastern Europe held in the US. Kossuth had many ties to America. The membership agreed that this should be properly balloted with the other new proposals in February.

3. Other Proposals
Jared Ingersoll mentioned a long run of Uighur paper from Alma-Ata (1950-80s), bound and held at Columbia. He is “close to proposing” this title.

Angela Cannon presented a list of newspaper titles at the Library that may be candidates for SEEMP support. This list was prepared by Grant Harris. The titles were surfaced from either current loose issues or older bound volumes. Some are only scattered issues. If there is interest, Cannon can provide more details.

Patricia Thurston asked the members whether there was interest in collecting and preserving opisi (finding aids) to collections.

Janet Crayne raised the issue of consortial purchase of the Comintern Archives (available online from IDC). Is this the kind of project SEEMP might be interested in considering? A larger consortial purchase may be the only way to make this affordable.

SEEMP Members seemed skeptical that this offering was the appropriate place for SEEMP to start. However, a larger consortial beyond the traditional CIC, east and west coast ones may be appropriate under certain circumstances. CRL currently plays this role on behalf of the GNARP project and German databases. Would vendors be receptive to this?

VI. Member Reports on Preservation / Access Projects

1. Access to Russian Archives (Kansas)
This project, funded by TICFIA, seems to be back on track. In March 2004, an agreement was signed with Rosarkhiv, which administers the Russian archive system for their formal participation on this project. Kansas and East View are working on obtaining permissions, digitizing archival guides. The interface will be similar to other EV products. It is currently available at: http://online.eastview.com/projects/ticfia/index.html

2. Slavic Culture and History Project Phase III (Columbia)
Phase 3 of this project, funded by NEH, will preserve up to 7,000 brittle serial volumes (320 titles) in the subject areas of history and literature published between 1850-1960. Columbia is filming complete runs in most cases. Preservation is on schedule. Phase 4 will finish preservation of monographs and serials from these classes.

3. Library of Congress / National Library of Lithuania film cooperation
In accordance with an agreement between the Library of Congress and the National Library of Lithuania, microfilming equipment on long-term loan from the Department of Defense is being used to film late 19th and 20th century Lithuanian and Judaica periodicals in the custody of the National Library. A list of items in process is available at: http://www.loc.gov/rr/european/lithreels.html. LC receives approximately 40-50 reels/year.

Other cameras are also in operation. The camera at the Russian State Library (“Leninka”) is still producing some film for the Library (LC has received lists of pre-revolutionary monographs for consideration). The camera at the Institute of Russian Literature (“Pushkinskii Dom”) is not currently producing material. There is a camera at the Library for Foreign Literature, though no definite arrangements have yet been made.

4. Library of Congress Preservation Reformatting Plan FY2005
Cannon distributed a list of EE newspaper titles submitted for preservation from the LC European Division. It included 9 titles from Bulgaria, Serbia & Montenegro, Lithuania, Poland, and Slovenia.

5. Travels in Southeastern Europe (Michigan)
Crayne reported the availability of approximately 100 rare travel literature titles on Bosnia & Hercegovina and other regions. They can be found at: http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=bosnia;sid=cb06b443f6a95ad3ffbba54fb3f5968e;tpl=home.tpl;cc=bosnia

VII. Other Business

1. SEEMP Mission and Direction
The issues of preservation and digitization are still being discussed, and notably with the recent ARL endorsement of “Recognizing Digitization as a Preservation Reformatting Method” (http://www.arl.org/preserv/digit_final.html). There is still a question of whether SEEMP wants to facilitate projects that may be exclusively “access projects” (e.g. digitizing existing microfilm) or should be working on a different model. Simon stated that CRL stands ready to accept proposals, and can play host to AMP projects if the long-terms cost implications are fully explored.

2. Introduction to Intraspect
Simon introduced the collaborative workspace in use by SEEMP. This site, http://intraspect.crl.edu, will be used for discussions, document posting, and project voting. Each official member of SEEMP has a username and login.