African Studies Association

Africana Librarians Council

Business Meeting

Friday, May 3, 2002

2:00-4:15 PM

Albany, NY

Draft: approved by membership.

Present:

Phyllis Bischof (UC Berkeley), Helene Baumann (Duke), Ruby Bell-Gam (UCLA), Jill Coelho (Harvard, Widener), Moore Crossey (Yale), David Easterbrook (Northwestern), Gregory Finnegan (Harvard), Marion Frank-Wilson (Indiana U.), Karen Fung (Stanford), James Gentner (LC), Miki Goral (UCLA), Margaret Hughes (Stanford), Al Kagan (U. of Illinois), Patricia Kuntz (Edgewood College), Deborah LaFond (U-Albany), Joe Lauer (Michigan State), Robert Lesh (Northwestern), Peter Limb (Michigan State), Ken Lohrentz (U. of Kansas), Peter Malanchuk (U. of Florida), Loyd Mbabu (Ohio U.), Alilah Nosakhere (Geogria State), Afeworki Paulos (U. of Michigan), Loumona Petroff (Boston U.), Lauris Olson (U. of Pennsylvania), Dan Roboussin (U. of Florida), Natalia Taylor (Georgia State U.), Gretchen Walsh (Boston U.), David Westley (Boston U.), Angela Williams (Syracuse U.), Dorothy Woodson (Yale), Joanne Zellers (L.C.).

Agenda

1. Welcome and Introductions.
2. Additions to the Agenda.
3. Approval of Minutes of Houston meeting, Nov. 2001.
4. Loree Jones and ALC
4a. Nominations Committee
5. Resolution re Archives (follow-up) (Kagan).
5a. 100 Best Book List event for Dec. meeting (Caruso)
6. Committee, Task Force, and Liaison Reports
a. ALC Cataloging Committee (Lauer)
b. ALC Bibliography Committee (Lohrentz)
c. Book Donations (LaFond)
d. Conover-Porter
e. Africana Librarians Newsletter (Frank-Wilson)
f. ALC List (Fung)
g. ABPR Reference List (Coelho)
h. Cooperative Projects
i. ALC Website (Zellers)
j. Archival Holdings Guide (Simon)
k. ASA Publications Report (Caruso)
7. Future meetings.
8. Institutional reports, announcements, other business.
9. Thanks to Deborah LaFond and the University at Albany.

Chair Greg Finnegan called the meeting to order at 2:10 and welcomed all in attendance. Introductions followed. The agenda was presented and an additional item (5a) was added for Caruso to announce the 100 Best Book List event at the December 2002, meeting. The minutes of the Houston 2001 meeting were presented and approved with corrections. (items 1-3)

Loree Jones (Executive Director, African Studies Association) was invited to the Albany meeting and was enthusiastic about attending. Unfortunately, she had a conflict and was unable to be in Albany. The invitation was extended to her for the spring 2003 meeting. (item 4)

The Nominating Committee needs three candidates to present to the fall 2002 meeting: Vice Chair/Chair Elect, Secretary, and Member-at-Large. Members are encouraged to nominate themselves. (item 4a)

In relation to ALC's concern about the withdrawal of government electronic resources from public use, ASA headquarters has forwarded a resolution expressing this concern to appropriate government officials and the resolution is posted on the ASA website. Kagan reported that other organizations were also interested in the same issue. Finnegan thanked Kagan and the other members who worked for this resolution. (item 5)

Caruso proposed an event at the December 2002 meeting to promote the 100 Best Books List. Zellers suggested coordinating an activity with Walter Bgoya, who presented a related paper at the recent MPALA meeting. Caruso suggested setting up a working group to celebrate the list. Other efforts could be made in subsequent years. Limb suggested an exhibit at the December meeting, and we would still have the option of scheduling something else. Walsh said that no panel proposals had been received as yet, and suggested that a panel with Bgoya could be organized. Caruso was asked to lead this effort for ALC. Easterbrook said that the Zimbabwe International Book Fair could be asked to participate. Caruso was eager to initiate something and stated that someone from the Africa-America Institute had expressed interest in the project. Easterbrook said that this might be a good way to bring other organizations into the effort. Bischof asked whether this would be a panel or a roundtable. Bischof, Limb, Walsh, Westley, and Nosakhere will join with Caruso to organize this event. Kagan mentioned that Bgoya was a critic of the list but that he had much that was positive to say about it. Limb is chairing a panel discussion about African journals, and his panel could be linked to the 100 Best Book List event. (item 5a)

Committee, task force, and liaison reports followed. (item 6)

Lohrentz gave a brief summary of the Bibliography Committee meeting and noted that the committee did not complete the agenda. Any agenda items not covered in the meeting will be distributed on the ALC list. (item 6b)

Lohrentz reported that the Conover-Porter Committee was meeting in Albany to review titles suggested for the award. He was pleased by the number of titles nominated twice as many as the previous year as well as the geographic balance of the titles, several of which were from Africa and one from Europe. Concerning a procedural issue, Lohrentz mentioned that one of the titles nominated was compiled by a member of the committee. She recused herself from the deliberations of the committee, and Lohrentz stepped in to fill the void. (item 6d)

Frank-Wilson announced that the next issue of the ALC Newletter would appear in late May and that the publishing schedule would soon be on track. Greg F. said that the group could revisit the issue of including minutes in the Newsletter at the December meeting. Limb moved to compliment Frank-Wilson for her work on the Newsletter, and this motion was approved by acclimation. Melissa Jones also contributed to the Newsletter. (item 6e)

Speaking about the ALC list, Fung asked members to report all changes in email addresses. Bell-Gam raised the issue of allowing bibliographers to discuss issues with each other specifically intended for librarians to the exclusion of vendors. Finnegan reminded members that the ALC list is not thrown open to vendors, but that some vendors are ALC members with full access to the list. This means that at present we have no means of separating librarians from vendors on the list. Fung noted that if members wanted a separate list, it could be set up. Since it was impossible to separate vendors from librarians on the present list, a separate list is the best means to allow librarians to discuss issues among themselves. Walsh suggested that it might be beneficial for the vendors to know about complaints or problems. Fung replied that this might needlessly upset a vendor, and Finnegan averred that there were problems of civility in letting vendors know of complaints. Woodson stated that we had entertained an identical discussion at the past meeting, and this was reflected in the minutes. Fung will set up the non-vendor list. Finnegan agreed that this was a useful communication for members. Kagan agreed with both Fung and Walsh; namely, that it was useful to have a discussion about vendor problems and equally useful to have private discussions among librarians. With the two lists, Finnegan said that it was possible to accomplish both of these goals without any further procedures, and he asked for an informal resolution to reflect this. The motion to have two separate ALC lists was approved by a 15 to 11 vote, with one abstention. Suggestions on the name of the new list may be made to Fung. (item 6f)

Coelho read the names of the African Book Publishing Record (ABPR) contributors and appealed to all of the members for suggestions of titles of bibliographies or other reference works. The listing of reference works currently appears in the third issue of ABPR every year. Others were

invited to join. An effort will be made, in conjunction with Zellers, to mount the entries on the ALC website through a procite database, which allows more flexibility. (item 6g)

LaFond discussed the Book Donations Committee and strategies for raising funds. In the future, ASA will have a book donations slot on their membership form. She mentioned that an award would be made to recognize good book donations behavior. Malunchuk asked if we had any way of knowing about what kinds of books are going to Africa, beyond the activities of the Book Donations Committee. Walsh mentioned the original book donations handbook on developing a donations project, with a "success story" section to pass around information to others on successful methods of donation. Anyone can put suggestions on the ALC list. She recommended the efforts of small-scale donations, stating that the cumulative effect was superior to a mass donations project. It is impossible to measure or monitor these efforts effectively. However, you can observe the indications of individual efforts, especially if these were put on the list. (item 6c)

Lauer spoke briefly of the Cataloging Committee meeting as a work in progress. The Committee represents continuing efforts to improve access to materials and the approval of new LCSH. (item 6a)

Concerning cooperative projects, Limb mentioned that Michigan State and the University of Michigan had a program in the works on the Horn of Africa involving both faculty and bibliographers. (item 6h)

Speaking about the ALC website, Zellers said that the website reflected all material sent in to date. For approval of materials for the website, Zellers suggested contacting the appropriate committee chair with reports or updates. The chair would forward any changes or additions to Zellers. The committee chair would also ask if there were any pending updates. For corrections, members may contact Zellers directly. Names and addresses have recently been updated, and there are improved searching capabilities by name and institution to be instituted. Initially, these changes will appear on a test site and afterwards moved to the ALC website after suggestions are received. Finnegan thanked Zellers and L.C. for doing us a great favor in maintaining the ALC website. The members are responsible for the content of the website and must cooperate by supplying Zellers with material on a timely basis. The improved membership information on the test site was intended to work out kinks and improve it. (item 6i)

Simon reported on the guide for microforms holdings and would send out a summary. He asked members to let him know if they could not contribute. Bell-Gam mentioned that she had submitted a preliminary list to Simon and would update it in the future since UCLA was making progress in processing its microform lacklog. (item 6j)

In his ASA publications report, Caruso noted that JSTOR has agreed to offer back issues of African Studies Review by the end of 2002. On Tuesday (May 7, 2002), he will represent the ASA in a meeting with JSTOR. Caruso mentioned that there is also some progress being made on the MSU/ASA-sponsored African e-journals project through the Johns Hopkins University Press' Project MUSE, a subscription-based, full-text humanities e-journals service. However, the MSU/ASA project is supposed to make the selection of journals from Africa and (eventually) those of the ASA available free-of-charge to those African universities who sign up their journals in the project. Thanks were given to ALC members for bringing the issue of online availability to ASA publications to the fore with ASA. ASA publications will be available online. Malanchuk wondered if there would be any monetary benefit to ASA. Caruso does not know the details of the arrangements, but he assured members that the materials would be made available for free in Africa. Limb said that sample issues of the journals had been forwarded to MUSE, and that Muse lists the first three African journals on their website. Hopefully, ASA publications will not take so long. He foresees no special problems. There is an estimated return to the journals of approximately $10,000 per year per journal, based on an average journal. After attending a small regional conference for academics in African studies, Malanchuk reported that knowledge of JSTOR was not universal. However, access opportunities were enormous, and we have come a long way. Finnegan observed that the critical mass was growing but that some organizations are dithering. Woodson asked why JSTOR doesn't have something on geography. Finnegan wondered if ASA was withdrawing from the publishing arena. He mentioned that ASA would not be publishing Janet Stanley's bibliography. ASA is no longer publishing monographs. Caruso said that ASA can no longer afford to publish single monographs, and this was the reason for their declining to publish the Stanley bibliography. Finnegan noted that this would raise another issue for ALC: How can we replace things that no longer exist? (item 6k)

Limb stated that M.S.U. continued its relationship with the University of Zimbabwe on dissertation exchange. Concerning the African E-Journals Project (AEJP), he reported that three African journals are currently being digitized, and several other journals have signed contracts or are under consideration. The AEJP website is at http://www.isp.msu.edu/AfricanStudies/aeip/. The Project is working in cooperation with INASP. Also included in the Project is a database of African and Africanist scholarly journals. This is based at the MSU African Studies Center and is rapidly growing but still under construction and not yet public. The database will contain all available material on journals (including library holdings). There could be problems maintaining the database when the grant runs out, but other grants may be secured or cooperation sought. Zellers asked about overlapping with serial supplements, and Limb admitted that there was some overlap. On an historical note, Zellers mentioned a 1970 African serials project done at L.C. Perhaps they would want to look at the older projects to see how they compare.

The suggestion was made to amend the bylaws to accommodate the Book Donations Committee. Baumann will take on the task of wording the amendment. Zellers mentioned that a vote was taken two years ago to put the Book Donations Committee into an official amendment, but this change was never added to the bylaws. (item 6B)

Finnegan suggested inviting the MPALA, the new Africana group that Lohrentz is involved with, to attend the ALC/ASA events in December 2002. (item 7B)

Concerning the December meeting, it was suggested meeting a day ahead to maximize meeting time. Liz Plantz invited the group to visit the National Library of Medicine (NLM) in December, and she would serve as guide. The NLM has resources that would be of interest to researchers in African studies. Finnegan mentioned that the ALC group brought up the issue of health statistics and wondered if anyone was collecting these statistics on Africa. The NLM also uses some of the same resources in collecting, such as Hogarth. We could investigate once again if a major body of information is falling through the cracks. Bishof mentioned that we could ask other national libraries to tell about the range of their activities concerning Africa and possibly open new channels for purchasing books. Limb thought that we might need to meet two days in advance of the ASA meetings. Caruso mentioned that we could not get the hotel discount if we met two days in advance. Walsh expressed a concern about a public service gap at her library if we met two days in advance. She asked if we could meet very early on the first day. Bell-Gam suggested that we organize a panel featuring each national library to discuss the African scope of their activities. Zellers suggested meeting early on the morning of Wednesday, December 4, 2002. We might also meet in the evening on Wednesday. Kagan called for a vote on Joanne's motion to meet on Wednesday, December 4, and cover what we normally do on that day. The motion passed. The Executive Committee will take up the planning of the spring meeting. Bell-Gam wondered whether we would find the time to go to the National Library of Medicine or whether they would come to us. (item 7)

Woodson issued a formal invitation to come to Yale in the spring 2003 meeting. Crossey has also offered his help in planning this meeting. If not in 2003, she also offered to host the meeting in 2004. Paulos offered to host the spring 2004 meeting at the U. of Michigan. (item 7)

The ALA decided to end its association with the Zimbabwe International Book Fair (ZIBF) as a cost cutting measure. ALA was also ending its association with the Hong Kong Book Fair. Due to long-term commitments to the Guadalajara Book Fair, ALA will maintain its association with Guadalajara for the term of the commitment. Easterbrook was asked to compile information on benefits to participants. The ALA/ZIBF association has lasted for three years, and several groups went as delegates. Reports from the last year were far less positive than earlier reports. There will be more information on the ALA/ZIBF relationship. Bell-Gam asked Easterbrook if there was a political consideration in ending the ALA/ZIBF relationship. Easterbrook admitted that political considerations played a small role in this, but the chief consideration was budgetary. (item 7 bis)

Many thanks were expressed to LaFond. The minutes will express our thanks to LaFond personally and to the U-Albany Library for all of their work and efforts to create a grand occasion. (item 9)

Institutional reports (item 8)

Speaking for L.C., Zellers drew attention to the AMED website, the third busiest website. Feedback on websites may be given online. There are new websites for African countries. Websites for global legal systems have been developed, for an example look at the website for Madagascar. Websites on Muslim societies will be developed under a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. Beverly Gray serves on the local arrangements committee for the ASA December 2002, meeting. The ASA workshop on the book award will be held on Saturday.

Gentner stated that the L.C. Nairobi Office had uploaded 1,000 serial records onto OCLC, and these serials may be available in microform. An index will be available online. The construction of the new facilities for the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi is ahead of schedule. The new Embassy is near the airport and will open in late 2002. The L.C. Nairobi Office will move into the new facilities, and some disruption in activities may be expected because of this move. Woodson asked about James Armstrong and the Islamabad Office. Gentner reported that the office has been evacuated from Islamabad to Washington, D.C., and that everyone in the office is fine.

Limb reported that a multimedia digitization project is making progress at Michigan State, working with the National Archives of South Africa and the ANC Archives.

Caruso said that the Columbia CD ROM project has been completed. A larger project is being planned (if funding can be obtained) to begin in Dakar, Senegal.

Bell-Gam reported that UCLA is planning several cultural events and exhibits involving the African Studies Center, the library and the Fowler Museum.

Olson mentioned the summer program at the U. of Pennsylvania on the Indian Ocean region. Survey data sets on the criminal experience of violence are available for about 12 countries.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:30.

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This page was updated January 8, 2003.