Sunday, 17 November 1996
8:00-9:30am

The first meeting of SEEMP took place during the 28th Annual Convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel.

1. Introductions
Allan Urbanic brought the meeting to order and introduced SEEMP's newly elected Executive Committee:
Allan Urbanic, Chairman (University of California Berkeley)
Marlys Rudeen, CRL Microform Projects and Preservation Coordinator
June Pachuta Farris, Secretary (University of Chicago)
Karen Rondestvedt, AAASS Bibliography & Documentation Committee representative (University of Pittsburgh)
Abby Smith, Library of Congress representative
Wojciech Zalewski, Member-at-Large (Stanford University)
Nadia Zilper, Member-at-Larger (University of North Carolina)

2. Financial Report

Marlys Rudeen distributed SEEMP's financial statement as of November 17, 1996, and gave an explanation of each entry. To date, SEEMP has 27 members and an annual membership fee of $600.00 per member.
Major categories of the financial report include:

Revenues (membership fees, other fees, CRL seed money, sales)
Expenses (for materials and non-material expenses such as travel, cataloging, etc. CRL does not charge area studies projects for copy cataloging and the fee for original cataloging is currently $13.00 per hour.)
Commitments (Materials "on order/funds encumbered" and "materials approved/funds committed").

Fund balances are carried over from year to year.

3. Project Proposals

In general, all proposals received by the Executive Committee during the previous year are reviewed and discussed at the annual meeting, then voted upon and prioritized by the membership. However, although several ideas for projects have been suggested, no formal proposals have yet been received. For example, Alan Pollard (University of Michigan) suggested that SEEMP attempt to film and/or purchase one newspaper from every region of the Russian Federation and from each of the independent states of the former Soviet Union.

There followed a lengthy discussion of various kinds of proposals, the format of proposals and the procedures for their submission. The problems and advantages of purchasing already existing film versus original filming were discussed, as well as filming which can be done by CRL or other SEEMP member institutions versus filming on site in Eastern Europe or the former Soviet Union. Norman Ross (Norman Ross Publishing) spoke briefly about various filming projects of his company already underway in regional libraries and also mentioned filming projects now being undertaken by the Vserossiiskaia gos. biblioteka inostrannoi literatury (Moscow), now a regional preservation center for IFLA. Galina Kislovskaia, BIL's Deputy Director, is spearheading BIL's efforts to become a full-blown micrographic unit; she is currently in charge of their cooperative preservation microfilming project with the Library of Congress. Abby Smith noted that in the future, we may be able to commission BIL to do selected filming projects for SEEMP. She also suggested that we consider inviting the newly-formed Russian Library Association (for which Kislovskaia is heading their committee on preservation) to become an associate member of SEEMP.

Marlys Rudeen noted that SEEMP has as broad a scope as possible in the kinds of projects it can consider, whereas individual institutional members of CRL can only petition CRL to purchase already existing microform, but cannot petition CRL to pay for original filming. Categories for projects are not limited to serial publications, but can include any type of material or unique collection. She encouraged SEEMP members to compile desiderata lists of titles they would like to have filmed from material they have "donated" to CRL. Likewise, proposals can be made requesting that SEEMP provide archival-quality film from unique film holdings that need preservation. The question each member should ask is "What is in my collections that needs to be filmed?"

Alan Pollard spoke briefly on the need to preserve the many short-lived independent Russian publications of the early 1990's.

Luba Pendzey (University of Toronto) spoke briefly about several collections of unique Ukrainian materials at her institution which were in need of preservation and likely candidates for proposals.

Robert Davis (New York Public Library) suggested that filming unique material in private collections may also provide projects for SEEMP.

Abby Smith, through her experience with Library of Congress filming projects, noted that when filming is done abroad, particularly in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, issues such as quality control become much more complex and problematical. Marlys Rudeen concurred, encouraging the membership to begin with projects based on collections and materials in North American institutions.

The question of whether SEEMP should focus on acquisitions projects or preservation projects was then discussed, with the membership concluding that there was no need to give priority to one kind of project or the other--both are equally suitable components.

Regarding the format of proposals, no one format or special application form is required. Proposals should be as complete as possible, with cost estimates for filming, purchase, etc. Marlys Rudeen can be contacted for guidelines to determine costs of original filming and copy filming, cataloging, etc.

June Farris noted that some clarification of procedure seemed to be needed, in that it is not the function of the Executive Committee to actually write the proposals based upon suggestions and ideas brought up by the membership. Each individual member or group of members is responsible for submitting a proposal for any project they choose. The Executive Committee will review and carry the project to completion once it has been approved by the full membership of SEEMP.

Janet Crayne (University of Michigan) suggested that a later, one-time deadline be designated, in order to give members further opportunity to submit proposals during this fiscal year. June Farris suggested March 1, 1997, as a deadline. After a brief discussion, the deadline of March 1, 1997, was accepted.

4. SEEMP Website

Marlys Rudeen announced that as part of the CRL Home Page on the World Wide Web, each of the various area studies filming projects, including SEEMP, will have its own webpage. On it will be a list of members, the Executive Committee, minutes of its meetings, various other reports, a list of projects and their status, any guides that are compiled for individual projects and any other information useful to the project's membership.

5. Meeting Schedule

The next meeting of SEEMP will take place in conjunction with the 29th Annual Convention of AAASS, which will take place in Seattle, Washington, November 20-23, 1997. As SEEMP chairman, Allan Urbanic will be responsible for scheduling the SEEMP meeting with AAASS, and will try to get a day and time that is not in conflict with other library and archive related panels or the meetings of the Bibliography and Documentation Committee and its various subcommittees. This may prove to be difficult, if not impossible, given the number of panels, roundtables and meetings in which SEEMP members participate.

6. Other

In the time remaining, further discussion on a variety of issues continued.

There was discussion and need of clarification on the "members abroad/associate members" category. These will be non-voting members who receive the minutes, lists of projects, etc., but who cannot submit independent proposals to SEEMP.

Another topic of discussion centered around the possibilities for expanding the base of available project funds beyond that of just membership fees. This is primarily done through grants from outside agencies. Marianna Tax Choldin (University of Illinois) noted that grant proposals in which associate member institutions are participants might increase the probability of receiving outside funding. Marlys Rudeen is responsible for coordinating any grant proposals submitted by SEEMP, since CRL is the legal entity behind any SEEMP project.

Miranda Beaven Remnek (University of Minnesota) asked about guidelines for the treatment of materials being filmed (materials returned to owner, discarded, etc.). Marlys Rudeen noted that none of the other area studies filming projects have general guidelines, but develop specific guidelines for each individual project undertaken.

There was also some discussion about the filming of manuscripts. As stated in the SEEMP by-laws, SEEMP keeps the negative film plus one copy; the institution holding the manuscript receives one film copy and the return of the original manuscript.

When filming serial titles, filming can be done on incomplete holdings.

After a reminder of the March 1, 1997 deadline, the meeting was adjourned at 9:30am.

Respectfully submitted, June Pachuta Farris Secretary. SEEMP Executive Committee