Adam's Mark Hotel
St. Louis, Missouri
Friday, November 19, 1999, 10:15am-12:15pm

The annual SEEMP meeting took place in conjunction with the 31st annual Convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies in St. Louis, MO, November 18-21, 1999.

Executive Committee present: Michael Biggins, Past Chair (University of Washington); Murlin Croucher, Member-at-Large (Indiana University); Larry Miller, Chair (University of Illinois); Michael Neubert, Library of Congress (ex officio); Bradley Schaffner, AAASS Bibliography & Documentation Committee (University of Kansas; ex officio); Nina Shapiro, Member-at-Large (Princeton University); James Simon, (CRL Program Officer for Area Study Programs), ex officio; Patricia Thurston, Chair SEES-ACRL/ALA (Yale University; ex officio)

Executive Committee member absent:  Karen Rondestvedt, Secretary (University of Pittsburgh)

About forty SEEMP members and guests attended.

I. Introduction of James Simon and new committee members.

James Simon became Program Officer for CRL’s Area Studies Program in December 1998. James came to CRL from the International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX).

James recently revised and expanded SEEMP’s web pages to include detailed updates on the progress of earlier projects and full text of recently approved proposals: http://newsite.crl.edu/areastudies/SEEMP/seempprojects.htm

Nina Shapiro and Larry Miller were recently elected as the SEEMP Executive Committee's two new members-at-large. Nina and Larry replace Alan Pollard and Mike Biggins. Mike Biggins takes Allan Urbanic's place as immediate past chair. Thanks are due from us to Alan, Mike, and Allan for their contributions to SEEMP over the past year.

II. Financial report, report on ICON submission and other news from CRL (James Simon).

James distributed an information packet which included the SEEMP financial statement and a list of materials received for the "Russian Regional Newspapers" project.

In the financial statement James reviewed the projects and the financial commitment made to each project.

The "Russian Regional Newspapers" project list contained information relating to the receipt of microfilm reels for 14 titles. In addition, 103 newspaper titles from the Russian revolution are on order for the "Newspapers of the October Revolution" project. 140 titles are on order for the "Russian right wing extremist press microfilm collection" project. Click here for Collection Guide.

In July 1999, CRL submitted a project application to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) on behalf of the International Coalition on Newspapers (ICON). The project will produce a union list of non-US newspapers held by CRL, the Library of Congress, the British Library and other participants in the program. The project will then use the list for selecting newspapers for microfilming and digitizing.

In early June, CRL submitted as part of the proposal to the NEH ("Brittle Books" project) funding to support the microfilming and cataloging of several East European newspapers. The proposal includes a paper from Warsaw (Wspolnota), held at U of Illinois, Urbana, and several Romanian newspapers held at the Hoover and in scattered issues around the US.

III. Progress reports on currently funded projects.

A. Luczkiw Collection (Simon reporting for Mary Stevens): This project continues to lie dormant.

B. Newspapers from the Former Yugoslavia (South Slavic Microfilming Project) (Janet Crayne): Filming is completed. They filmed 4 of the 5 newspapers. The expense of filming the fifth newspaper would have gone way over the projected amount. Titles filmed:

Nasa borba (Belgrade) - 1995-1996
Hrvatsko slovo (Zagreb) - 1995-1996
Vijenac (Zagreb) - 1993-1996
Oslobodenje (Ljubljana) - 1994-1996
Vreme (Belgrade) - 1990-1996 would have been costly because they would have had to film bound volumes from the Hoover.

C. Newspapers of the October Revolution (Michael Neubert): The $500 given was not enough. The price escalated. The 1918 titles are nowhere to be found. The 1917 titles are targeted and ready to go. However the LC division is short-staffed just now. LC estimates the cost will run closer to $1000.

D. Oslobodjenje (Michael Neubert): Predrag P. Pajic, South Slavic Reference Librarian, is in charge of this title. He is still hopeful he can complete the set. Janet Crayne told about a scholar at the U of Michigan who has a full fun (1992-1998), except for some from 1992 and 1993 that got lost in shipping. When he completes his research project he plans to donate his holdings to the U of Michigan library. U of Michigan plans to donate them to SEEMP.

E. Russian Regional Newspapers (1991-1995) (Olga Tabolina): Started filming in 1998. 12 out of 16 titles have been filmed. 11 of the filmed titles have been sent to CRL already. They plan to finish on time, April 2000. Currently the project is closed to new titles, but could be expanded later.

F. Russian Right-Wing Extremist Press (Miller, Urbanic, Simon): Allan Urbanic’s database of Newspaper titles made the project possible. The newspapers were collected by the University of Illinois, Urbana and University of California, Berkeley. The combined holdings resulted in many substantial runs. The papers were sent to CRL where Simon collated and sent them out. There will be around 19 reels of film. A reel guide will be included on the reels as well as on the website. The cost estimate came back lower than the amount of money allocated for the project. Allan noted that Berkeley has many other titles for this time period. These titles could be included in a proposal and the project expanded. Larry was also in favor of a supplement. Everyone agreed the project could be cataloged as a set by either Illinois or Berkeley. The record would point to the website for the list of 170 titles.

G. Soviet Eurasian Pamphlet Microfilming Project at NYPL (Simon for Rob Davis): NYPL is finishing another project that has time constraints on the funding. Afterward they will work on the SEEMP project. The project should be completed by Spring 2000.

 IV. Revised guidelines for proposals (June Pachuta, Mike Biggins)

The Projects Proposal Form (labeled "Purchase Proposal Form" on the SEEMP home page) was discussed. People seemed to agree that a second form would be a good idea for proposals. James would have no problem putting it on the website. The current form is not active (one cannot push a button and send the form electronically over the web). They haven’t seen much use of this form. Most people write out the proposals [ed note - the form is now active and is being used for proposal submissions].

The draft for submitting project proposals to SEEMP was discussed. June Pachuta Farris and Alan Pollard were appointed to review the guidelines and this document is the result of their efforts. Additional wording was suggested and discussed for section II:B. The new statement will read: "Uniqueness, value and/or research significance of the material to be preserved and made accessible to SEEMP members. Be as specific as necessary in describing the material in order to convey its importance."

Larry will send announcements reminding people about formal proposal deadlines. Draft proposals should be submitted to the membership at least two weeks before the SEEMP meeting. Members can then supply comments and suggestions, and the proposal can be discussed at the meeting before voting takes place.

These guidelines will be posted on the website.

 V. New proposals from the floor.

Murlin Croucher announced that Indiana has started negotiations with Cluj to film Universul. If the negotiations fall through he will propose the project to SEEMP. They are sending cost estimates now.

Mike Biggins commented on the usefulness of the Russian Regional Newspapers project to students and faculty at his institution, and suggested that, if other members concur, a continuation of the project through the second half of the 1990s could ensure the success of SEEMP efforts among a wide range of users nationally. Titles to be targeted for continued filming could be selected using recent studies that provide qualitative assessments of individual Russian regional newspapers, user demand, and other criteria. Cathy Zeljak mentioned the value of looking to other regions. Cathy and Mike will get together to propose some new titles.

Janet Crayne asked whether CRL could accept 16mm film from another filming project. The answer was that CRL could accept 16mm positive, but not 16mm negative.

The group briefly discussed digitization. CRL currently only produces microform. Digitizing is currently very time-consuming and involves serious copyright issues.

James Simon mentioned a South Asian project proposal recently submitted to, and approved by, the Dept. of Ed. The budget includes around $540,000 for a three year effort to microfilm and digitize material. This project is relying heavily, but not exclusively, on material out of copyright. Some material will be digitized with copyright permissions (photographs from the British Library, for example). CRL is working with a subcontractor for digitization.

VI. Other business

Donald Simpson, CRL President, announced his retirement after 20 years of service. Beverly Lynch of UCLA will succeed him as interim President for one year.

Respectfully submitted,
Patricia Thurston
Team Leader, Slavic & East European Cataloging Team Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University

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