African Studies Association

Business Meeting Minutes

Spring Meeting 2000 UCLA

Friday, 7 April 2000.

Fowler Museum of Cultural History -- Eleanor Deutsch Room

2:30-5:00 p.m.

(approved at Fall 2000 meeting)

Present:

Dorothy Ansart (Indiana U), Helene Baumann (Duke U), Ruby Bell?Gam (UCLA), Phyllis Bischof (UC Berkeley), Simon Bockie (UC Berkeley), Jill Coelho (Harvard, Widener), Greg Finnegan (Harvard), Marion Frank-Wilson (Indiana University), Karen Fung (Stanford), James Gentner(LC), Miki Goral (UCLA), Al Kagan (U. of Illinois, Urbana?Champaign), Patricia Kuntz (Indiana U), Deborah LaFond (SUNY Albany), Joe Lauer (Michigan State U), Bob Lesh (Northwestern U), Ken Lohrentz (U of Kansas), Peter Malanchuk (U. of Florida), Lauris Olson (U. Pennsylvania), Loumona Petroff (Boston U), Elizabeth Plantz (Northwestern U), Bill Pidduck (Adam Matthew Publications), James Simon (CRL), Elisabeth Sinnott (NYU), Andrea Stamm (Northwestern U), Ruth Thomas (LC Nairobi), Gretchen Walsh (Boston U), David Westley (Boston U), Dorothy Woodson (Yale U), Joanne Zellers (LC).

1. Introductions
R. Bell-Gam, ALC Chair, called the meeting to order. Members and guests introduced themselves.

2. Welcome Address
R. Bell-Gam introduced Mr. Doran Ross, Director, Fowler Museum of Cultural History. Mr. Ross welcomed the ALC librarians on behalf of Dr. Edmond Keller, Director of the James S. Coleman African Studies Center (JSCASC), who unfortunately could not attend as he had a meeting in Zimbabwe and was scheduled to fly back to the U.S. on this day. Dr. Keller had approached the Getty Research Institute on behalf of the ALC and had secured for ALC the special tour and reception at the Getty on April 6. The JSCASC is also co-sponsoring the Wolf Leslau Exhibit Reception in the UCLA Research Library on April 7.

3. Approval of Minutes
ALC Secretary asked for clarification on the definition of ALC "official document." It was stated that there are no official ALC publications. There is an annual report to the ASA Business meeting, which is the only official report of ALC. Individuals of institutions produce documents for the benefit of the group but since we don't have a budget we don't have official reports. Philadelphia minutes were approved with minor corrections.

4. Future ALC Meetings

a. Fall 2000- Nashville, Tennessee.
ASA panels begin on Thursday Nov. 16-19, 2000. Considering that J. Caruso is a member of the ASA Board, members discussed best meeting dates to accommodate having J. Caruso at the ALC and CAMP meetings. However, it appears that the Board meets during ALC meeting time. Members voiced their desire to attend ASA panels and find them very beneficial for their work. Members agreed that 2 full days are needed for ALC and CAMP business. A suggestion was made that perhaps ASA needs to be contacted regarding meeting space, reminding them of the agreement resolved by D. Easterbrook in Chicago. Chairs report to ASA Board on Sunday and have an all day meeting on Wednesday.

The ASA Panel deadline has past for fall. ALC has a statutory right to put on two panels. There will be no ALC panel this year but members could start thinking about next year.

P. Malanchuk will find out the schedule for ASA Board meetings. Wednesday Nov. 15 is the tentative ALC meeting date agreed upon.

R. Bell-Gam acknowledged Karen Fung's liaison efforts to have ALC join as co-sponsor with the Electronic Technology Group (ETG), to present the Roundtable on "Dissemination and Use: Assessing the Uses of Information and Communication Technologies in Africa" at the Fall 1999 conference in Philadelphia.

b. Spring 2001 Indiana University (Marion Frank-Wilson)
The meetings will take place April 26-28. Twenty-five rooms have been reserved for the period
April 25-29 at the Student Union of Indiana University. M. Frank-Wilson will continue to add information to the Web page. The meeting will coincide with the forty year anniversary of the African Studies Department at Indiana University. M. Frank-Wilson plans to have a lecture series and other events. The "Afro-Hoosiers" will perform. This is a group of African linguistic Professors/Musicians. Other planned events include collaborative programs organized by the African Students Association.

c. Spring 2002
R. Bell-Gam asked for volunteers for hosting ALC in Spring 2002. Deborah LaFond will investigate possibilities at SUNY-Albany and will request permission to host.

5. Committee and Task Force reports

a. ALC Cataloguing Committee
J. Lauer, chair of the Cataloguing Committee, reported that the minutes will be coming out soon and since most members were present there was no need to report.

b. ALC Bibliography Committee

K. Lohrentz, chair of the Bibliography Committee, reported that there were good discussions at the Bibliography Committee meeting, particularly on cooperation projects. Phyllis Bischof had moderated a discussion on bibliographies of microfilm collections. Aspects of the challenge were discussed and the group decided to place the topic on the CAMP agenda to consider possible CRL involvement.

c. Book Donations Task Force
A. Kagan, chair of the Book Donations Task Force reported on the meeting. He raised the consideration as to whether the Task Force should more accurately be considered an ongoing committee. G. Walsh addressed some of the history of the group, and its institutional provenance. Though this is not a recognized ASA committee it is funded by the ASA Endowment and the fact that this is an ongoing effort much like the Conover-Porter committee. A greater percentage of ALC members have contributed to the ASA Endowment and it is an ALC initiative. The group revises the Book Donation handbook and Directory, and reviews applications and recommends recipients to the ASA. The group is made up of volunteers versus officers.

Point of clarification was raised regarding Section 7 of the ALC bylaws which states that there must be discussion at the Executive meeting before coming to a vote on forming a committee and must be approved at the fall meeting. Approval of the Executive will be approved by members present at the annual fall meeting. A. Kagan noted that this was discussed at the earlier Executive meeting on April 7. J. Lauer raised that it is not necessary to change the by-laws to make a new committee.

A. Kagan reported that there will be a notice in the ALN and the ASA News on awards that were approved in January by the ASA. To prevent future miscommunication, the ASA Board will invite the Chair of the Book Donations committee to come and present to the board next year. The Book Donations Handbook and Directory will begin to be compiled on May 15, deadline for submissions. This provides information for anyone who wants to do this. The earlier publication (1992 version) it was published in ASA News so we hope that it will be published by ASA and it will be added to the ALC Web site.

To provide more opportunities for book donation collaborative efforts the group agreed that an increase in the amount of money available for the awards is needed. Motion carried approving that A. Kagan draft a proposal to ASA requesting an increase the book donation awards by $1000.00. A. Kagan will copy R. Bell-Gam and the Executive Committee. The letter will be addressed to the President of ASA and copied to Loree Jones. Question was raised as to what name should appear on the letter.

R. Bell-Gam suggested that the Executive Board consider this at the meeting and conduct a vote by e-mail. However, motion from the floor carried to allow the title Book Donations Committee pending confirmation of members present at the fall meeting.

d. African Database Connection

G. Walsh reported on the African Database meeting. This was an enormously fruitful meeting. G. Walsh thanked UCLA for setting this up. The group met in the electronic classroom. Two visitors, Eudora Loh from the Latin ARL Global Resources Americanist Research Resources Project and Barbara Valk from Hispanic American Periodicals Index HAPI showed ALC their respective projects, talked about problems they encountered and the ways they have organized their work. Global Resources Program is a table of contents project for 400 Latin American journals not indexed by HAPI. The former focuses on Latin American journals not indexed by HAPI. While there is no extensive authority work, subject terms or thesaurus and it is not a complete index, it does provide a way of getting the contents of research journals out to the research public in an expedited way. HAPI is a fully indexed product, has a thesaurus and is carefully edited. Both efforts are distributive cooperation projects.

This dialogue provided the group with good models of what could be done. This session confirmed the belief that area studies projects should learn from and build upon previous projects such as these, especially when considering software/hardware applications. Through cooperation the vehicle chosen can be much improved. The group was quite energized by the seminar.

Though in very initial stages, the group is still pursuing the idea of consolidating periodical literature from Africa and to an extent material published elsewhere about Africa with the emphasis materials not already indexed.

The group is looking at methodologies that would provide a one step search process through an amalgamation of several indexing services.

e. Title VI
G. Walsh reported that Title VI discussion was brief as it is not known which institutions will be receiving the next round of grants. There was continued discussion of cooperative microfilm collection projects which P. Bischof had raised earlier at the Bibliography committee.

The group discussed ways to focus on projects that could realistically be completed. J. Lauer asked if other vendors were contacted. G. Walsh welcomes from notices of vendors and other databases or projects that may assist in this process. J. Lauer commented that MSU has done considerable work to develop a mainframe. R. Bell-Gam asked G. Walsh to submit a report on this meeting via e-mail.

f. Union List of African Newspapers (ULAN)
James Simon reported that there have been updates in the last 6 months. Representatives met in Washington, DC for a meeting with all ARL Global Resource Program participants to discuss projects, progress and next steps. At the meeting there was discussion on communication efforts and the need to create a listserv between project directors. The goal is not to duplicate efforts between programmers.

There is closer cooperation on getting South and South East Asian vernacular scripts displayed through the Bibliography of Asian Studies. ULAN is a bit behind schedule. However, the Union list is at the Programmers Office. Within 6 months there will be another Union List. At minimum, it will include M. Shayne's current newspapers list and more. Participants were surveyed to find out what will be included. Responses have not all come back yet. In addition to Windows NT, an order for a new server has been placed. The LINUX server will be utilized for other projects as well.

R. Bell-Gam was part of a conference call with James Nye of the University of Chicago which Rebecca Aiken arranged. R. Aiken is very proactive about getting initiatives started and carrying them through. J. Nye and R. Bell-Gam spoke at length about technology developed by ARTFUL, a cooperative project based at the University of Chicago. R. Bell-Gam commented that J. Nye has a wealth of experience and may have much to share with ALC. R. Bell-Gam recommended that J. Simon consider contacting him. R. Bell-Gam was impressed by work on South Asian projects using this technology. The ARTFUL database is a potential source for technical knowledge. James Simon shared information on ARTFUL . He noted that it is an exciting development especially with regard to fonts, photographs, maps and unacode and may be compatible for this project.

H. Baumann asked, if ALC ever received funding from ARL? James Simon replied that ULAN funding is still secure.

g. Africana Libraries Newsletter (ALN)

Marion Frank-Wilson, ALN editor reported on the upcoming ALN issues. The next issue is targeted for June with a May 1st deadline, another issue is targeted for September and December.
Dorothy Ansart, her assistant contributed greatly and placed the issue on the Web. Summaries of minutes and opinions are welcome. It was noted that ALN doesn't have full minutes, they are abbreviated minutes. Draft minutes are placed on the ALC Web page until approved by members. After this, minutes are updated on the ALC Web page. The question was raised, how many meetings will be posted on the ALC Web page? No decision was made, however, the full print versions of minutes are said to be archived at Northwestern U.

The ALC Web page will have a link to ALN from Indiana. The ALC Web page was updated up to March 30, 2000. R. Bell-Gam requested that as J. Lauer brings up more back issues on the Michigan Web site, that M. Frank-Wilson to link them to the Indiana ALN page.

Congratulations were given to M. Frank-Wilson from ALC members for the wonderful work she has done on ALN.

h. ASA Publications Committee

P. Malanchuk, ALC liaison reported on the difficulties in getting recognition on the ASA publication committee. Publications committee will raise issues discussed in previous business meeting minutes from Philadelphia. P. Malanchuk will find out what has been done since the last meeting. P. Malanchuk expressed that he feels a bit outside the information loop. G. Walsh suggested that a 3-point communication effort between Loree Jones, ASA, ALC Chair, and D. Henige, editor. Members expressed that it is important for ALC representative to get a higher profile. L. Olson raised the point that librarians could serve the interests of the group especially with regard to JSTOR and electronic subscription products. R. Bell-Gam asked if the ASA Publications Committee is interested in librarians as potential customers?
As a good outreach effort, G. Finnegan suggested that ALC put on an ASA panel on "What happens to you after you get published?" or how the world finds out about what one publishes, addressing the marketing side. R. Bell-Gam would like members to consider how to support and strengthen P. Malanchuk's function.

A. Kagan raised "privatization" issues. G. Walsh stated that though this issue was tabled for now, it will come up again. Some members thought that the publishing philosophy was not clear and that marketing is not strong and publications are too inexpensive. D. Woodson raised a question about choices people make when recommending publications to editors. When editors are scouting for good publications, do people recommend, for instance, a University Press that may have better marketing? or do people recommend a publication to a professional organization which may have less marketing strategy?

i. Conover-Porter Award
J. Zellers reported on the committee (D. Easterbrook, R. Bell-Gam, J. Zellers)
J. Zellers will ask D. Easterbrook if he can stay on the committee. If he declines, J. Zellers will ask K. Lohrentz to join the committee. Final award decisions are to be submitted to the ASA Board in May 2000. J. Zellers thanked K. Lohrentz for all of his assistance.
Procedures are now posted on the ALC Web page. Reporting that the winners have been chosen will be reported to the Executive committee but the names will not be announced until the ASA meeting. Bibliography Committee chair is responsible for submitting press release for winners of Conover Porter so that ASA can notify award winners.

j. ALC Handbook Review

G. Finnegan reiterated assumptions on the role of the committee (P. Bischof, M. Goral, G. Finnegan, J. Lauer) provided in the Philadelphia minutes. G. Finnegan raised the question of whether we need to consider a by-laws review. G. Finnegan will send out a report summarizing the considerations of the committee.

6. By-Laws review
H. Baumann reported on considerations of the by-law review. She suggested that the "Purpose and Aims" section on the ALC Web site needs to be addressed. She recommended that draft agendas, clarification of ALC documents and publications might be addressed in the by-laws. R. Bell-Gam asked members to look at the by-laws and send suggestions to H. Baumann.

7. ALC Web Page
J. Zellers has been responsible for maintaining the ALC Web page at the Library of Congress as of December 1999. J. Zellers asked Secretaries of committees to send final drafts of minutes after committee Chair approves the minutes. It should be clarified which version of minutes are being sent. J. Zellers reported that the Spring 2001 page is now on the Web page. J. Zellers has not received reports on conferences or acquisition trips. M. Goral and K. Fung will be assisting J. Zellers with the ALC Web page. The Library of Congress AMEAD Reading Room's Web pages are expanding as of April 24, 2000.

8. ALC Directory
G. Finnegan called on members to consider an alternative to the current moderated listserv. Harvard does not have the IT support to offer an automatic listserv that would not need moderating. G. Finnegan reported that there was a suggestion to open up the listserv to non-ALC members and asked members to consider this. Do we need to be in the paper business? Can we do this in a more secure way on the Web? J. Zellers made a motion to put the ALC Directory up on the ALC Web page after consulting each member. Vote carried in favor.

9. Library of Congress Reports
LC Nairobi continues to do a wonderful job collecting materials in Somalia. J. Gentner reported that the New Delhi office has successfully finished 491 fiche pages of the Somalia Reports part 2, 3. The Somalian reports are now available from LC Photo duplication service, however there is no longer a group rate. $2021.00 is the cost for the entire fiche set and this includes postage. Bibliographic data samples were distributed. Prices per set are listed. J. Gentner encouraged members to respond to survey sent by J. McDermott. The LC is required to submit an audit report each year to Congress and needs responses from participants.

Ruth Thomas reported that the Nairobi Office continues the work of preserving African newspapers through the filming services of the LC New Delhi Office. A new integrated software package (IFOS) is being installed; many problems are being experienced. The Office will have a wireless connection to a satellite installation at the Kenya Medical Research Institute. This should greatly improve connectivity of the Office and make possible much more activity on the Internet. Auditors will be coming during the first week of May.
In late 2002, the new home of the Nairobi Office will be within the US Embassy compound. Since 1966 when the Office was opened, the location has been separate from the Embassy.

We continue to see a flourishing of newspapers when countries are under great stress, as is the case with significant number of countries in the region covered by the Nairobi Office. For example, since 1998, 16 new newspaper titles have been published in Ethiopia, 5 in Eritrea.

Titles of the Nairobi Office in-house publications have changed. The new titles: Accessions List of the Library of Congress Office, Nairobi, Kenya and Quarterly Index of Africana Periodical Literature.

J. Gentner reported that the South Asia (MIPP) project has come to a halt. The plan is not to shrink preservation in New Delhi but to expand microfilming more material for the Cairo and Nairobi Offices. Titles of Eastern African publications are changing. The official Nairobi Web site is planned to be available soon.

Announcements:

**ALC gave a tribute to Ruth Thomas who is retiring from the Library of Congress Field Office in Nairobi at the end of June 2000. P. Bischof announced that ALC members represented by an ad hoc committee, P. Bischof, K. Fung, and G. Walsh and assisted by J. Armstrong who wanted to recognize of Ruth Thomas's outstanding service. P. Bischof read the following resolution, signed by the ALC chair and presented to R. Thomas, along with a card signed by ALC members. The committee is collecting monetary contributions to be presented at a future date to an organization of R. Thomas's choosing, in her honor.

AFRICANA LIBRARIANS COUNCIL
African Studies Association

WHEREAS Ruth Thomas has served as Field Director in the Nairobi Field Office of the Library of Congress 1990 - 2000, and earlier as Assistant Field Director for Bibliographic Services, and has performed with dedication and the highest standards of personal and professional judgement, she is therefore deserving of heartiest congratulations and highest commendations; and

WHEREAS Committed to making the publications of the area better known in Africa and to the Africana community as a whole, Ms. Thomas has created substantial, solid bibliographic tools of enduring value; and

WHEREAS She has contributed to and directed The Accessions List: Eastern Africa, conceived and executed on a more ambitious plan than the accessions lists of other LC field offices, in that it includes a serials supplement, and a publishers directory and an annual index; and she produced CD-ROM versions of the Accessions List 1992-96 and the Serial supplement for 1995-96; and she successfully fought to retain this valued publication while other Field Office Accessions Lists ceased publication; and

WHEREAS She initiated The Quarterly Index to Periodical Literature in Eastern and Southern Africa (1991-), a uniquely current index for the region's journals issued in print and online at www.icipe.org/LOCNairobi/QuarterlyIndex/index.html; and

WHEREAS She created The Weekly Review Index, 1975-1989, a massive, essential compilation for anyone doing research on Kenya and East Africa during the period; and

WHEREAS She extended the geographic coverage of the Field Office and also much enlarged a cooperative acquisitions program, thereby enhancing the collections of Eastern and Southern African materials held by American research libraries; and

WHEREAS She established invaluable communications links amongst Africana librarian colleagues everywhere and has kept the Africana Librarians Council apprized of Eastern and Southern African information, conditions, and possibilities for action; and has promoted productive interactions with colleagues at home and abroad; and

WHEREAS Her achievements in Africana librarianship have greatly benefited research libraries everywhere, as well as the people of Eastern and Southern Africa, and exemplify the best in Africana librarianship and responsible professional leadership;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED BY THE AFRICANA LIBRARIANS COUNCIL that the Members take pride in congratulating Ruth Thomas for her outstanding contributions in Africana librarianship, commend her exemplary display of sustained excellence in service to the profession, and extend best wishes in her future endeavors; and be it further

RESOLVED that a suitably prepared copy of this resolution be transmitted to Ruth Thomas and to the Board of Directors of the African Studies Association.

Approved by the Africana Librarians Council
This 7th day of April 2000, Los Angeles, California

Motion adopted by unanimous acclamation.

Ruby Bell-Gam, Chair

R. Thomas expressed her appreciation of the ALC recognition, praising the work of the staff at the LC Nairobi Office.

**R. Bell-Gam and M. Goral were congratulated for the outstanding job of organizing the meetings at UCLA.

**R. Bell-Gam appointed an elections committee. (Andrea Stamm, Dorothy Woodson) R. Bell-Gam will forward a charge to the committee by e-mail.

**University of Illinois African American Studies Librarian position deadline is June 1st, 2000.

**Michigan State University is interviewing for an Africana Studies Librarian

**LC is interviewing for a new Field Director in Nairobi.

**ABPR group will meet at the Research Library after the Executive Meeting.

Motion to adjourn 5:30 pm

Respectfully submitted by Deborah M. LaFond
May 3, 2000 version, corrected August 4, 2000
Approved Thursday, November 16, 2000