Seattle, Washington
Saturday, November 22, 1997, 5:00pm-6:45pm

The annual SEEMP meeting took place in conjunction with the 29th Annual Convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies in Seattle, Washington, November 20-23, 1997.

All members of the Executive Committee were present:

Allan Urbanic, Chairman (University of California Berkeley)
Marlys Rudeen, CRL Microform Projects and Preservation Coordinator (ex officio)
June Pachuta Farris, Secretary (University of Chicago)
Karen Rondestvedt, Chairman, AAASS Bibliography & Documentation Committee (ex officio)
Brad Schaffner, President, SEES/ACRL (ex officio)
Harold Leich, Library of Congress (ex officio)
Wojciech Zalewski, Member-at-Large (Stanford University)
Nadia Zilper, Member-at-Large (University of North Carolina)

Harold Leich has replaced Abby Smith as the Library of Congress representative. Abby has left LC to become Preservation and Access Program Officer at the Council on Library and Information Resources. Janet Crayne was designated by Alan Pollard to represent the University of Michigan at this meeting, since he was not able to attend.

The meeting was brought to order by Allan Urbanic.

The first point of discussion concerned the topic of whether SEEMP meetings should be open or closed (i.e. limited to official SEEMP members or their designated representatives). After considerable discussion, by a show of hands, the majority of members present voted to divide SEEMP meetings into two sections, the first being open to all interested persons and the second to members only. This change took effect immediately, and halfway through the meeting, non-members would be asked to leave.

Marlys Rudeen then presented the SEEMP financial report. (See separately submitted report.) Since we as yet have no film to sell, all of our revenues are derived from membership dues plus CRL's annual contribution.

Brief status reports on the four projects funded for 1997 were then given, as follows:

1. Library of Congress: Newspapers of the October Revolution ($500.00)

Currently being collated in preparation for filming

2. Library of Congress: OSLOBODENJE, Daily ($3500.00)

In October 1996, Predrag Pajic of LC received assurances from both the National Library in Sarajevo and the editorial offices of the paper that a relatively complete set of the daily edition of OSLOBODENJE could and would be assembled for microfilming. Since then, he has received various reports that the paper is "not yet ready" for filming and has not yet been able to contact the editors directly. The Chief of the European Division, John Van Oudenaren, is trying to follow up on this with the help of the US Ambassador to Bosnia and a report on the status of the back issues of the newspapers should be received by the end of 1997.

3. University of Michigan: Newspapers from the Former Yugoslavia ($10,000.00 this year and $2000.00 in 1998 to complete the project)

a. OSLOBODENJE (weekly): A complete run from 1994-1996 has been collated and will be sent out in December 1997 to Norman Ross Publishing, which has exclusive filming rights. The University of Michigan (donor library) will get a free copy and the CRL copy will be $80 per reel.

b. VREME: In the process of being collated. Norman Ross has exclusive filming rights; Hoover will be contacted, since they have the first 3 years of the title (1990-1993).

c. NASA BORBA: In the process of being collated. Norman Ross has exclusive filming rights. This will be the second title to be sent off for the SEEMP project.

d. HRVATSKO SLOVO: Norman Ross has requested exclusive filming rights, but this is not yet confirmed. If approved, procedures will be similar to those for Oslobodenje; if not, then there will be no free donor copy and the CRL copy will be $.15/frame and $20 for duplicate reels (approximately $1,468).

e. VIJENAC: Norman Ross has requested exclusive filming rights, but this is not yet confirmed. If approved, procedures will be similar to those for Oslobodenje; if not, then there will be no free donor copy and the CRL copy will be $.15/frame and $20 for duplicate reels (approximately $1,468).

4. University of Toronto: John Luczkiw Collection ($4825.00 per year for three years)

The project is underway; materials to be filmed in the first year are being collated and filming will begin early in 1998.

The next agenda item discussed was the election needed to fill the two one-year member-at-large positions on the SEEMP Executive Committee. In order to accelerate the process and have a full working committee in place by January 1, 1998, the chairman and secretary (Allan Urbanic and June Farris) will act as this year's nominating committee. In addition, all members are eligible to submit nominations, either themselves or other members, according to the following timetable, agreed upon by a show of hands:

December 8, 1997: All nominations due
December 9, 1997: Ballots will be sent out to all members (by e-mail)
December 15, 1997: Voting closed
December 16, 1997: Announcement of newly elected members

New proposals for the 1998 competition were the next agenda topic to be discussed. Only one new proposal has been submitted for discussion by the membership: a joint proposal by Allan Pollard (University of Michigan), Karen Rondestvedt (University of Pittsburgh) and Cathy Zeljak (George Washington University) to have 16 newspapers filmed, none of which are currently being filmed. (Eight titles from former Soviet republics and eight titles from various Russian oblasti and krai).

There was a great deal of discussion of this proposal, because of its complicated character, potentially involving one or more commercial vendors (Norman Ross Publishing, East View Publishing), as well as preservation photocopying by the Foreign Literature Library in Moscow. Questions of feasibility, price, ownership of copyright and of master negatives, availability for purchase by individual libraries were among the topics discussed, both in relation to this proposal and to other kinds of projects of similar scope and complexity.

After this discussion ended, non-SEEMP members were asked to leave, as had been agreed upon at the beginning of the meeting.

The timetable for the submission of additional proposals for the 1998 competition was then discussed. The deadline for submission is to be March 1, 1998. The proposals will be distributed to the membership by March 15, 1998.

March 1, 1998: Deadline for submission of proposals, after which they will be reviewed by the Executive Committee and any needed requests for clarification, additional information, etc. will be made

March 15, 1998: Submitted proposals will be distributed to the SEEMP membership
April 2, 1998: Ballots will be sent to out
April 15, 1998: Completed ballots due

The next topic of discussion was the actual format of the ballot itself. The secretary reported on the difficulties encountered with last year's ballot, which was complex and ambiguous, requiring a substantial number of questions (by voters and tabulators alike) to interpret correctly. Most importantly, voting only "high, medium, low" priority left considerable ambiguity in the tabulations. A significantly revised sample ballot was distributed, initiating a point system (1-9 points) which should both simplify the balloting procedure and more precisely identify the preferences of the membership. There were no objections to the revised sample ballot, so it will be used in the upcoming 1998 competition.

Next on the agenda was a discussion of procedures to follow when making a formal proposal to CRL to purchase a title which could not be funded through SEEMP. The specific example in question was the Czech newspaper Mlada Fronta Dnes. Although almost all of the SEEMP membership felt that it would be important to have at least one copy of this important title available for loan, other titles were determined to be more urgently in need of SEEMP funds. Marlys Rudeen said that SEEMP could directly submit a request to CRL that "Mlada Fronta Dnes" be on the general SEEMP purchase ballot, both for the full backfile and for a continuing subscription. However, Ms. Rudeen cautioned that this strategy is not likely to be successful on a regular basis, and should only be initiated very infrequently. June Farris volunteered to pursue this further.

The discussion then returned to the Pollard-Rondestvedt-Zeljak proposal and its various implications for almost any future filming project SEEMP might undertake. Of particular concern was the role of vendors and foreign (i.e. non-North American) libraries in any filming projects. Does SEEMP view them as filming subcontractors or true vendors from whom libraries buy needed film titles? The issue of copyright again came up for discussion. Although no firm conclusions resulted from the difficult and involved debate that took place, many important issues were discussed, as the group slowly begins to formulate its policies and procedures.

The meeting came to a close with reminders about the time frame for both the executive committee election and the 1998 project competition.

Respectfully submitted,
June Pachuta Farris
Secretary

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