African Studies Association

Africana Librarians Council

Business Meeting

Spring Meeting 2001 Indiana University

Friday, April 27, 2001

2:30-5:00 p.m.

Indiana Memorial Union, Bloomington, Indiana

Present: Phyllis Bischof (UC Berkeley), Helene Baumann (Duke), Simon Bockie (UC Berkeley), Joseph Caruso (Columbia) Jill Coelho (Harvard, Widener), Andrew De Heer (Schomburg), David Easterbrook (Northwestern), Gregory Finnegan (Harvard), Marion Frank-Wilson (Indiana U.), Karen Fung (Stanford), Miki Goral (UCLA), Marieta Harper, Patricia Kuntz (U. of Wisconsin-Madison), (LC), Deborah LaFond (SUNY Albany), Joe Lauer (Michigan State), Robert Lesh (Northwestern), Peter Limb (Michigan State U.), Peter Malanchuk (U. of Florida), Judy McDermott (LC), Loumona Petroff (Boston U.), Edward Miner (Indiana U.), Valentine K. Muyumba (Indiana State U.), Akilah S. Nosakhere (Georgia State U.), Lauris Olson (U. of Pennsylvania), Dan Reboussin (U. of Florida), James Simon (Center for Research Libraries), Paul Steere (LC Nairobi), Margie Struthers (U. of Cape Town), Gretchen Walsh (Boston U.), David Westley (Boston U.), Dorothy Woodson (Yale).

1. Welcome (items 1 and 2 10 minutes)
J. Coelho extended a welcome to all in attendance and special thanks to Marion, Dorothy, and Ann for the comfortable conference venue and all of the many arrangements that have made this meeting possible. Get-well cards were passed around for absent members, and Margie Struthers, a welcome guest from the University of Cape Town, was introduced. Changes in the agenda were announced, including the switching of agenda items 6 and 7, and time limits on each agenda item were suggested. Those presenting committee reports were asked to limit their presentation to the highlights. Small written reports may be inserted in the minutes of the meeting if desired.

2. Minutes
The minutes of the fall 2000 ALC Business Meeting in Nashville were approved as written.

3. Future ALC/CAMP meetings (10 minutes)
As for future meetings of ALC/CAMP, the requested schedule of meetings has been sent to Loree Jones, and it is identical to the schedule of the ALC/CAMP meetings in Nashville. D. LaFond announced that the spring 2002 meeting in Albany would take place either the end of April (April 25-27) or the first weekend in May (May 2-4). P. Bischof and H. Baumann expressed a preference for the first weekend in May, and this was approved. The fall 2002 ASA Meeting will take place in Washington, DC. Proposals were requested for the spring 2003 ALC/CAMP meetings. D. Woodson invited the group to Yale in 2003 or 2004. A. Kagan (absent) was mentioned as a possible meeting host at the U. of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.

4. Library of Congress reports (15-20 minutes)
M. Harper reported on activities at several Library of Congress departments. In the African Section, various visitors, including Margie Struthers, were shown around the section and oriented to its activities. The ASA Africana Children's Book Awards will take place on October 11, 2001, and funding from several sources is being pursued. One possible source of funding is the LC Center for the Book.

The LC Law Library is proceeding with the microfilming of African law gazettes to fill the gap left by NY Public's abandonment of the project. Law gazettes from Botswana are scheduled to be microfilmed first.

There are several new publications explaining some of the Library of Congress' collections, including brochures or guides on Africana, Hebraica, the Middle East, the African & Middle Eastern Reading Room, and the treasures of the Library of Congress. Development of a permanent exhibit of the collections of the Library of Congress is taking place for the
Jefferson Building. This will include revolving exhibits of the international collections.

M. Harper attended a symposium at West Virginia State College, which included participation by the University of Benin. This was part of a three-year project of cooperation among libraries to highlight issues of literacy, the condition of women, and language learning, with a special aim of collecting government documents from Benin to be carried out by personnel from West Virginia State College. Computer equipment has been sent to Benin for further development of this project.

Valerie Mwalilino's promotion has vacated her former position as Head of the African/Middle Eastern Acquisitions Section of the Library of Congress. This position will be posted but is not yet available.

James Gentner sends his regards and thanks for letters of support for the LC acquisitions programs. Clifton Gunner reported back a clean audit of LC acquisitions programs. In the past, V. Mwalilino and Ruth Thomas have sent acquisitions statistics. ALC members were asked what further information they required. Soon statistics will be available by format and country. K.
Fung requested a list of current African newspaper titles received by the Library of Congress. Further requests by email are welcomed.

Paul Steere, the new head of the Nairobi Field Office, was introduced. He is the only U.S. national employed in the Nairobi office. The thirty other employees (22 in core group and 23-24 part-time contract employees on location in other countries) are foreign nationals and are employed by the Dept. of State through the Nairobi Embassy. As head of the Field Office, he deals primarily with L.C. regulations, the Dept. of State, and the local embassy, and he is responsible for paying people on time and collecting money owed. He is also in contact with L.C. acquisitions librarians and area specialists who travel to target countries. He carries on extensive correspondence to coordinate the activities of the Field Office. As items are ordered, a brief record is created; this record is enhanced when the title arrives and is then forwarded to descriptive catalogers. P. Steere is engaged in efforts to improve the efficiency of the organization, and his brief tenure has been smooth. He quoted U.S. Ambassador Johnny Carson as saying that the objectives of the Nairobi Embassy are the promotion of democracy, AIDS education, and services to the American community. The operations of the Nairobi Field Office fall into this last category. J. Carson feels that the operations of the Field Office provide the U.S. with the where-with-all to solve future problems arising in Africa.

M. Harper announced L.C. acquisitions trips to São Tomé, the Central African Republic, and Equatorial Guinea. She also announced the retirement of Kay Elsasser in June.

5. ASA Board report (15 minutes)
In a follow-up to the discussions at our last meeting, D. Easterbrook reported numerous converstions with Loree Jones concerning the ASA Annual Meeting papers. L. Jones has agreed to allow CAMP to make copies of the papers on a CD-ROM, and the Board will discuss the issue of encouraging scholars to submit papers to ASA. J. Caruso suggested presenting an award for the best graduate student paper submitted in advance, and re-affirmed that the Board will take the problem of submission of papers more seriously in the future. G. Finnegan suggested presenting an award for the best paper from an untenured faculty member, and J. Caruso will make this suggestion. M. Harper raised the issue of whether the chair of each
session has an obligation to collect the papers. J. Caruso said that in the past there was an announcement to all of the presenters. G. Walsh stated that ASA must be reminded of the importance of collecting papers and emphasized the utility of these papers as examples for other researchers to follow. Moreover, the papers must be available for citation by scholars. She suggested that the submission of papers should be included in the guidelines for panels and chairs. P. Limb suggested that papers could be available on a webpage, but that some scholars may be reluctant to release their research in this manner. J. Caruso will take these suggestions to the Board, mentioning that it would be good to add a set of ethical guidelines. G. Finnegan stated the importance to getting research back to Africa by sending a set of copied papers.

D. Easterbrook brought up the topic of Northwestern as the depository of ASA archives. This was originally an informal agreement, and he suggested that we should begin a formal arrangement with a deed of gift form submitted to ASA. This is not a high priority issue, and he feels sure that we will come to some eventual agreement. The ASA Secretariat is concerned about revealing any financial information. There is no answer as to whether further materials at Rutgers await deposit at Northwestern. The last materials sent date from 1994, before the last director stepped down.

P. Bischof made a motion for a joint invitation by ALC and CAMP for L. Jones to attend our fall 2001 meetings in Albany, and the motion carried.

6. ALC On Line (30 minutes)
J. Coelho raised the issue of paying $100 for the inclusion of ALA listing of Robert Balay's Guide to Reference Books on the ALC website. Should we consider the imposition of dues for this purpose or make a request to ASA for the sum? J. Lauer suggested that the inclusion of the ALA listing was not essential. There are many other things to spend money on, and we
should look into the broader issue of dues. P. Limb rejected the idea of paying ALA for this information. We could simply ask the authors to update their texts and put these on the website independent of ALA. P. Bischof advised against revising the ALA materials, and G. Walsh, uneasy about the legal issues, suggested that we should just pay the $100 and forget about the revision. P. Limb stated that in the future authors could hold the legal rights to the information themselves. L. Olson asked if the $100 was a onetime payment or an annual payment, and he suggested asking for the terms of an agreement. Individual institutional members of ALC could pay the money. Valentine Muyumba will contact AMES to ask about paying for the
ALA listing.

G. Finnegan brought up the subject of the ALC website and directory. J. Zellers, who is responsible for operating the website, disavows any gatekeeper functions. K. Fung mentioned the issue of policy regarding vendors on the ALC discussion list. Vendors, who are likely not ASA members and have not attended meetings, have asked to join the list. In addition, should vendors be posting lists of books on the ALC list? Isaac Ntiakulu has asked J. Coelho about inclusion on the website, and she
reiterated that we are in the business of helping the publishing industry. D. Woodson stated that we occasionally need to "shop talk" about vendors. M. Goral said that the vendors should contact us individually about their book lists and felt that there was no problem in letting vendors hear our complaints L. Olson said that if the vendor is a member of ASA, they should have an equal right to post information. He did not feel that the burden of email was too crushing at present. G. Walsh felt that vendors who are members and attend meetings should be allowed to post, but not outside vendors. D. Reboussin said that vendors can get email addresses from other sources and can construct their own email lists. We might request that vendors not use the ALC listserv for book lists. G. Finnegan argued in favor of allowing vendors equal access and mentioned that others had been added to the ALC listserv by special request. K. Fung said that some overseas participants were not ALC members and that we will
continue to get requests to join the listserv. L. Olson and P. Bischof felt that we should let others join as they will and that we must reach out to African librarians. S. Bockie asked how many vendors were part of the listserv, and K. Fung named Clark's, Thorold's, Boyd, and ABC, among others. H. Baumann said that she was happy to get messages from vendors and dealers.

G. Walsh moved to open membership on the ALC listserv to non-U.S., non-ASA librarians worldwide. The motion passed.

It was moved to open membership to non-ASA librarians from the U.S. G. Finnegan said that in the past library students were included in the membership out of concern over the graying of the profession. The motion did not pass.

It was moved to include on the list all ASA members, including vendors, as is our current practice. Non-ASA African vendors will also be included on the list, with proper notification. The motion passed.

It was moved that non-African vendors who are non-ASA members be excluded from the list. The motion passed.

7. Committee, Task Force and Liaison reports (6 minutes each)
J. Lauer reported the discussion in the Cataloging Committee on asking the Library of Congress, via the subject funnel, to discontinue the use of "Bantu-speaking peoples" as a see-also reference and as a subject heading for the people of a single country where the majority of the population consists of Bantu speakers. It was also agreed to post a directory of individuals willing to assist in the cataloging of African language materials.

P. Bischof requested nominations for the Conover/Porter award. She also requested that lists of microform collection holdings from Africana colleagues around the country be sent to James Simon. He has begun a bibliography of such holdings, starting with CRL's holdlings. Please see Bibliography Committee minutes for a fuller description of this project.

D. LaFond reported that the Book Donations Committee had met and that strategies for the future were discussed. A request for further funding had been denied, and the group agreed that the Committee chair should send a letter to the ASA Board and to Loree Jones to remind them that the ASA Endowment International Fund was set up for outreach and interaction with foreign counterparts, book donations and to address the ASA strategic plan. There will be an update of the Book Donations information on the webpage. The Book Donations Committee looks forward to the next batch of proposals, hoping that they will get the proposals in a timely fashion. G. Walsh sent a letter to Loree Jones, sharing her new checklist for selection proposals. The title "Book Donations Committee" will be retained, but "library materials" will be added as items to be considered in proposals. It is the obligation of the recipient to notify the donor of any shipping and duty charges. D. LaFond has found Loree Jones responsive to the needs of the Committee. ASA requested that the Committee prioritize academic institutions for donations in its request for further funding. J. Lauer recommended sending a letter to the ASA Board to establish an endowment earmarked for such projects.

J. Coelho reported that she, Ruby Bell-Gam, and Joanne Zellers will serve on the Conover/Porter Awards Committee.

D. Easterbrook invited members to the CAMP meeting for further information on the African Newspapers Union List.

G. Walsh reported continuing discussion on indexing and bibliographic instruction cooperative projects. J. Coelho stated that the decision had been made to make the group a Title VI-Plus group.

M. Frank-Wilson said that the next issue of the ALC Newsletter would be coming out in May. There is a problem paying for postage as there is no more funding for this purpose. There are currently 500 newsletter subscribers, and some could possibly be removed. L. Olson asked for the number of institutional subscribers. This issue will be brought up in the future. M. Goral suggested that we mail each subscriber a notice to find out if they are interested in continuing the subscription, with a return
notification requested. D. LaFond reported that in her recently concluded African trip, five libraries showed her the ALC Newsletter. P. Malanchuk mentioned that we could reduce the cost of the newsletter by sending it out on the webpage or on email. M. Goral suggested a postcard mailing to request email addresses. M. Frank-Wilson will bring up these possible
solutions to the funding problem with the Executive Board.

P. Malanchuk requested suggestions for ASA publications, which he would carry to the ASA Publications Committee. J. Lauer said that he would contact David Wiley to find out the current status of Muse.

Concerning the ALC Handbook, G. Finnegan asked members what they wanted to see on the webpage. He has not followed up to see if the ALC Handbook would be a useful component for the website. He will see to this soon. J. Lauer said that the Handbook was out of date, and it should be pulled from the website. J. Coelho stated that we should all look at it. After a poll
of the members, she could ask J. Zellers to pull the Handbook if it is so decided.

G. Finnegan will call Loree Jones to find out if a fall ALC roundtable can still be scheduled despite the passing of the April deadline for the scheduling of such events. Once this is determined, he and L. Olson will schedule speakers.

8. Institutional Reports (15 minutes)
R. Lesh reported that Shoshanah Seidman has joined Northwestern as an Africana Cataloger.

J. Coelho announced that Paul Vermouth is a new bibliographer at Harvard.

J. Lauer stated that Peter Limb had joined the staff at Michigan State University and will be coordinating a grant project for electronic journals from Africa. P. Limb said that the selection of African journals will be made in June. P. Limb also mentioned a proposed new H-Net listserv on Lusophone Africa and the further development of the MSU African Connectivity Project. J. Lauer reported that the African Digital Library: West African Sources Project has begun the process of identifying American
and Senegalese historical resources to be scanned and put on the web. MSU staff are working closely with the West African Research Center and other units in Dakar, and trips are planned.

D. Roboussin reported on his visit to the Schomburg Center, where he observed a digitization project on African sources. They are developing expertise in streamlining technology.

P. Bischof noted important archival donations to UC Berkeley and Stanford.

P. Malanchuk reported that the new University of Florida president is from UCLA. There will be a general reorganization of their collections following the completion of a new book storage tower. The social sciences and humanities will be particularly affected by the reorganization, which includes a new floor within the library dedicated solely to the international area studies collections, exhibit areas, seminar and instructional classrooms, and their respective professional librarian services staffs, including African studies. There was a Gwendolen Carter lecture series held at the U. of Florida during April, 2001, on the theme of higher education in Africa. The invited presenters included five vice-chancellors from African universities.

A. De Heere announced further development of the Schomburg's collections on Africa, the Caribbean area, and South America. The collection of African language materials is very strong, and many of these items are being cataloged, relying on the Schomburg's program of electronic cataloging.

J. Simon announced personnel changes at the Center for Research Libraries.

D. Woodson revealed that Scott Bennett will step down as Yale's library director, to be replaced by Alice Prochaska from the British Library. Recon records are being added to the online catalog at a fast pace. The Yale offsite storage facility for 2.5-3.0 million books is now full, and a new facility is needed. Many of the papers of the Washington Office on Africa (WOA) have been accessioned by Yale; they are briefly cataloged and not in full online records. Yale will receive the remainder of the WOA papers. Other papers accessioned include James Duffy's papers. There are now provisional online records for many of Yale's
African language materials. Visitors from Rwanda are expected to help set up a genocide database on Rwanda. There are two post-doctoral fellowships on Rwanda available at Emory. The African Art Database is now linked to Yale.

P. Kuntz stated that the Children's Book Award Selection Committee will move to the Library of Congress. Loree Jones will send word of this relocation to publishers. There are problems in funding since many of the Title VI centers do not designate awards for children's literature and outstanding books. Wendy Simons will organize a course on library issues. There is a reference librarian from Cameroon in Namibia to work on an oral history project in cooperation with the Schomburg Center.

D. Easterbrook announced that Northwestern is a lender to a major exhibit entitled: The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa, 1945-1994. The Northwestern loans consist of liberation posters and periodicals. John Hunwick is the recipient of a $1,000,000 grant to reformat and preserve manuscripts from Timbuktu and Zanzibar. There were
visits to Northwestern by representatives from the P.B.S. American Experience Series concerning Melville and Frances Herskovits.

D. LaFond spoke in favor of funds to support cooperative projects in Africa.

G. Walsh reported on the Boston University African Presidential Archives and Research Center (APARC), which was founded by Charles Stith, former U.S. ambassador to Tanzania. The Center will help to create and define a continuing role for former heads of state, and the archives will assist African nations in creating a tradition of presidential libraries. ASL staff members have talked with Ambassador Stith, and are pleased that he shares our concerns about migrating archives. The Center is still in a fund-raising stage. More complete information will be forthcoming as the Center develops. Both the Library and the African Studies Center are redesigning their websites.

M. Goral reported problems at UCLA with their new online catalog.

M. Struthers gave thanks to the Africana librarians who are showing her the workings of Africana librarianship in the U.S. She sees the importance of starting a listserv.

The meeting was adjourned.