Africana Librarians Council
African Studies Association
Business Meeting
Thursday, November 16, 2000
9:15-11:45 a.m.
Renaissance Hotel
Nashville, Tennessee
(approved at Spring 2001 meeting)
Present:
Helene Baumann (Duke U), Juilanne Beall (LC), Ruby Bell-Gam (UCLA), Phyllis Bischof (UC Berkeley), Simon Bockie (UC Berkeley), Jill Coelho (Harvard, Widener), Moore Crossey (Yale U.), Henrietta Dax (Clarkes Bookshop), Greg Finnegan (Harvard), Theodore S. Foster (Ohio University), Marion Frank-Wilson (Indiana U.), Karen Fung (Stanford), Beverly Gray (LC), Miki Goral (UCLA), Marieta Harper (LC), David Hogarth (Hogarth), Margaret Hughes (Hoover Institution), Al Kagan (U. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), Deborah LaFond (SUNY Albany), Joe Lauer (Michigan State U), Bob Lesh (Northwestern U), Liz Levey (PIAC, Nairobi), Margaret Ling (ZIBF, London Office), Ken Lohrentz (U of Kansas), Peter Malanchuk (U. of Florida), Wonki Nam (Central State University), Edward Miner (Indiana U.), Valerie Mwalilino (LC), Lauris Olson (U of Pennsylvania), LaVerne Page (LC), Afeworki Paulos (U. of Iowa), Loumona Petroff (Boston U), James Simon (CRL), Elisabeth Sinnott (NYU), Gretchen Walsh (Boston U), David Westley (Boston U), Dorothy Woodson (Yale U).
1. Welcome
ALC Chair R. Bell-Gam called the meeting to order and welcomed the ALC group.
Revision of agenda order 8h(ASA Publications Committee) will be discussed under
#7 (ASA's lack of response).
M. Goral was taking a collection of donations on behalf of ALC for a gift to honor L. Plantz. M. Goral announced L. Plantz's move from Northwestern University to the National Library of Medicine. G. Walsh spoke to the group announcing her early interactions with L. Plantz when she worked at Boston University. She remarked that she was a truly wonderful cataloguer and how she left her impression on BU and on G. Walsh. One of her most important contributions to BU was that she was able to articulate how reference service and cataloguing service standards can be reflected in the catalog. She remarked on her yeoman service as Chair of the ALC cataloguing committee and on the Africana Subject Funnel Project. Greater access has been given to researchers because of her coordination. Her good humor will be missed at BU and at ALC. The group commended a vote of sincere gratitude.
D. Easterbrook concurred on all the previous statements. He reminded the ALC group that there is a current vacancy announcement for her position.
2. Approval of minutes of the Spring 2000 meeting, UCLA
Motion to approve the minutes as corrected.
3. Elections (Woodson/Stamm)
D. Woodson announced that A. Stamm was unable to attend the meeting due to her
recent recovery. Call for nominations from the floor was made. Previous nominations
included G. Finnegan for Chair/Elect, R. Lesh for Secretary, Andrew De Heer
and Loumona Petroff for the At-Large seat.
D. Woodson admonished the group to use care in voting with the "butterfly
ballot" she had created.
Election Results: G. Finnegan, Chair/Elect, Loumona Petroff, At-Large, R. Lesh,
Secretary
5. Future ALC/CAMP meetings
a. Spring 2001 Indiana University (M. Frank-Wilson)
April 26-28, 2001 are the reserved dates for the Spring meeting in Bloomington
Indiana. M. Frank Wilson announced that there is a Web site <http://www.indiana.edu/~libsalc/african/alc/>.
The Memorial Union is reserved must reserve by April 11. Rates will be added
to the Web page in January.
5b. Spring 2002 proposal (LaFond - SUNY-Albany offer) to be discussed by
ALC Executive meeting.
5c. Fall 2001 announcement Houston, Texas ASA meeting site.
6. ALC By-Laws revision (Baumann/Goral)
H. Baumann and M. Goral invited questions and comments on their revised draft
sent over the e-mail and distributed at the meeting. Vote carried to approve
revision with changes in Section IV. G. discussing Ex-Officio members. M. Goral
will send out revised version once again over the e-mail. Members commended
Baumann and Goral on their work on this project. In discussion of the by-laws
comments and questions arose. A. Paulos asked the group to consider, "How
can we include members in Africa?" Members agreed that this is important
and clarified and confirmed that all ALC meetings are open. To vote, one must
be a member of the ASA.
7. ASA Board (Easterbrook)
D. Easterbrook addressed the ASA Board's lack in publishing ASA papers. It has
been 2 years since this issue has been raised with the Board. He suggested that
perhaps there be a microfilm edition for sale and purchased by CAMP. ALC had
asked ASA to resume publication. CAMP is interested in purchasing and making
this available. ILL-Northwestern will not copy or lend. Northwestern U is the
official archive. Eddy Bay has left ASA, and since she left (5-6 years ago)
nothing has been deposited. Do we wish to raise this issue again? What should
our strategy be? J. Caruso is on the ASA Board, P. Malanchuck is the ALC representative
to the Publications Committee, D.Wiley is Chair. Only 12 papers were submitted
from the previous conference. At the Publications Committee meeting, P. Malanchuck
was asked what the costs would be for doing abstracts, ie instead of full papers.
Apparently, D. Wiley indicated this should be considered. What are the preservation
concerns here?
Members discussed the possibility of sending another letter from ALC. P. Bischof
remarked that this is an extremely important record, that this is an important
mechanism for getting research data back to the African continent and suggested
that a joint concurrent resolution from ALC and CAMP might be appropriate. G.
Finnegan discussed "repatriation of information" service to individual
scholars and that it is not unreasonable for a forum such as ASA to have an
obligation to scholars. Circulation of research findings should be brought up
in as many places as possible.
A suggestion was made that ALC might meet with Loree Jones asking that ASA paper
submissions be firmly required. Members concurred that this is a source frustration
for researchers and that librarians are in a position to witness and bear the
brunt of this frustration by researchers. Members are concerned that this is
the heart of the academic research component of the ASA.
Members discussed this problem as indicative of a structural problem within ASA. Loree Jones is very willing to listen and has a receptive ear. A concurrent resolution with CAMP was suggested. D. Easterbrook commented that he has extensive commentary and letters on this topic and could resubmit early letters with new cover letter. P. Malanchuck suggested that ALC copy the Publications Committee Chair.
L. Olson asked if ALC should respond to the ASA Board with cost information of microfilm etc.?
R. Bell-Gam will raise this issue to the ASA Board meeting on Sunday.
P. Malanchuck reported on Publications Committee meeting. The themes of the
December publication of "Issues" will address: Witchcraft in the Diaspora,
Higher Education, and AIDS. "Issues" needs a new editor. P. Malanchuck
reported that the ASR is in good shape. D. Wiley's electronic journal project
is going up at MSU. "Issues" will also be included. African Political
Science Reviews on MUSE. African Librarians and Universities get free subscriptions.
A. Kagan asked if we are positive that they will continue to print as well as
provide on-line service? P. Malanchuck did not hear this addressed at the meeting.
L. Levey commented that, "As most libraries in Africa will not be on-line,
this is a serious concern."
8. Committee, Task Force and Liaison Reports
8a. ALC Cataloging Committee (Lauer)
In addition to the usual reports about SACO and other projects, the committee
endorsed
proposed changes in the Dewey tables for traditional African religions. Technical
services' handling of LC-Nairobi Cooperative Acquisitions was discussed. L.
Olson will follow-up on the handling of cooperative purchase items (Lauris Olson
will do a survey). The Africana lines added in 1997 to the North American Title
Count were also discussed.
8b. ALC Bibliography Committee (Lohrentz) http://www.loc.gov/rr/amed/bibm200.html
K. Lohrentz reported that Bob Palmeri was interested in becoming a vendor for
Côte d'Ivoire material. P Bischof and J. Simon began a discussion of a
possible union list of microform collections and their contents.
Efforts are underway to encourage vendors to convert statistical data to the
Web. L. Olson reported that the U of Pennsylvania is putting up information
to serve as an online collective mutual alerting service. Library Journal article
(November 1st) discussed the African Journals On-line database which now makes
selective scientific literature from Sub-Saharan Africa more accessible.
Potential topics were discussed that might lead to an ALC sponsored panel. One
program suggested would share librarian expertise on the current state of African
publishing, the current status of the African book trade, how to select and
solicit information from book trade vendors which may be useful to scholars.
A suggestion to develop an ALC sponsored panel on sharing information to scholars
on statistical sources was received favorably. P. Bischof suggested a title
"Electronic Scholarship: New Initiatives." J.Caruso suggested putting
references to statistical sources on the ALC website. Fung, Olson, and Caruso
will work on this project.
There was further discussion on the need for a collaborative clearinghouse site such as Karen Fung's Stanford site.
8c. Book Donations Committee (Kagan)
A. Kagan reported on the Book Donations Handbook progress.
G. Walsh revised the introduction, D. LaFond updated the directory listings
and added Web sites and created a page for the directory, M. Harper will add
an index to the on-line directory. Success stories will be added after Dec.
15, 2000. Web site
A. Kagan reported on problems encountered with getting announcement into ASA
News on time.
ASA Development committee never got proposals forwarded from the committee.
A. Kagan asked to be present with the committee of the ASA Board to discuss
these problems. A. Kagan presented the committee with copies of letters that
were apparently not forwarded to the Development Committee.
The Development Committee members asked if other kinds of material could be
donated besides book donations.
P. Bischof asked if we would consider the phrase "library materials"
instead of book donations.
L. Levey commented that non-print materials are subject to duties whereas print
materials are not. G. Walsh commented that it is the responsibility of the recipient
to alert the donors.
The Book Donation Committee discussed award criteria and will use a checklist
prepared by G. Walsh. A statement will be added in the announcement alerting
applicants that the committee grants proposals from $200-$1000 and will ask
for a list of other funds for projects.
The committee elected a new Chair, D. LaFond.
A.Kagan asked if the ASA Board could send out the proposal notice on the ASA listserv and asked on behalf of the committee's recommendation to ask ASA to increase the Book Donation Award amount to $4000.00 instead of the current $3000.00. 5 out of 17 proposals were accepted. See appendix for list of awarded grant
8d. Conover Porter Award Committee
R. Bell-Gam reported for J.Zellers (report forwarded on e-mail)
ASA established the Conover-Porter Award in 1980 acknowledging outstanding bibliographies
and reference works. Received 7 nominations. K. Lohrentz commented that this
was a considerably shorter list than in previous years and encouraged more nominations
in the future. He suggested that perhaps the call should go out earlier.
WINNER of Conover - Porter Award 2000
Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara. John Middleton, editor in chief.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1997. 4 vols.
HONORABLE MENTION
Reference Guide to Africa: A Bibliography of Sources.
Kagan, Alfred, and Yvette Scheven. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1999.
Award presentation in the Tennessee Room, Friday 5:30-6:30pm
Ken Lohrentz acknowledged Ruby Bell-Gam for all her work and for stepping in
due to the committee Chair's illness.
8e. African Newspapers Union List (AFRINUL) D. Easterbrook, J. Simon
D. Easterbrook reported on an impressive achievement. The African Union List is now on-line. CRL holdings currently received include Mette Shayne's Northwestern U list. The goal is to develop an interface, which will allow individual libraries to add their own holdings. James Simon will be working with programmers at Northwestern University. Visit the Web site < http://wwwcrl.uchicago.edu/info/camp/afrinul.htm> to see the list of institutions currently included. Feedback is encouraged from as wide an audience as possible.
8f. Cooperative Projects (Walsh)
G. Walsh reported on the continuing conversations. Title VI business was discussed
and much of this will also be discussed at CAMP. However, the goals are to support
and formulate a working committee to put together a grant proposal supporting
projects which further the remarkable examples of cooperation, strong partnerships
and capacity building which have been mutually beneficial to all participants.
G. Walsh will be happy to share information.
8g. Africana Libraries Newsletter (Frank-Wilson)
M. Frank-Wilson reported on her second year of editing the Africana Librarian's
Newsletter at Indiana University.
There is currently a subscription of 500 and it is free to everyone and is sent
to 66 countries. Mailed in late October, next issue is in January. There is
also an on-line issue as wel1<http://www.indiana.edu/~libsalc/african/aln/index.html>
Please submit all interesting conferences attended, acquisition trip reports
etc. to M. Frank-Wilson. R. Bell-Gam acknowledged the wonderful work of both
Marion Frank-Wilson and Dorothy Ansart.
8h. ASA Publications Committee (Malanchuk) (see #7)
8i. ALC Handbook Review (Finnegan)
Chair asked if there would be a channel in the ALC to maintain the Handbook Web page, as the institutional memory needs to be carried forward. G. Finnegan reported that this should be under discussion by members. Committee to be determined.
9. ALC Website (Bell-Gam)
R. Bell-Gam raised J. Zellers concern. J. Zellers has not received updates to the Web page on a consistent basis. How should this be handled? Should this be the responsibility of the Chair of each committee? J. Coelho responded saying that the ALC Chair could be notified of the need for a semi-annual update and could then ask individuals to sign and date the updates.
10. ALC Listserv and Directory (Finnegan)
K. Fung has agreed to host the ALC listserv at Stanford U. Currently there
are 90 names on the list. Of those, 6 are librarians in Africa. The ALC group
acknowledged and thanked G. Finnegan for his dedicated service as he has tirelessly
updated and provided personal print copies of the list at each meeting. G. Finnegan
will transfer his database to J. Zellers who will then update every 2-3 months.
G. Finnegan has also served the group by maintaining our communication with
each other by maintaining the moderated ALC listserv. He will now forward this
task to K. Fung who will utilize Stanford's automatic listserv function.
11. Institutional reports, announcement, other business
Library of Congress Reports
* V. Mawalino announced that Library of Congress report would be distributed to the listserv by e-mail following the meeting. It was announced that R. Thomas has retired from the LC Nairobi Field Office and has returned to Kenya from a holiday in Australia. Mr. Paul Steere will begin as the new LC-Nairobi Field Director on November 27, 2000. During January and February of 2001, he plans to be in Washington, D.C. and plans to be present at the spring meeting in Bloomington, Indiana. Kindly forward any mail for Mr. Steere to James Gentner,
LaVerne Page made a quite successful acquisition trip between August 22-Sept. 14, 2000 to equatorial Africa, Cape Verde and Central Africa visiting academic and research institutions looking for legal resources.
* G. Walsh announced the next IFLA meeting in Boston, MA (August 16-25, 2001)
Zimbabwe Book Fair 2001 http://www.zibf.org/
Announced the August 3-11 2001 Theme: Book Fair theme: Transformation Country
focus: Senegal
Indaba theme: Changing Lives: Promoting a Reading Culture in Africa, African
Journal Online Project
* David Hogarth (Hogarth Books) announced that there will be a change in access to materials from Nigeria. This has implications for approval plans, please contact him.
* Henrietta Dax (Clarke's Bookshop) announced that she has made two trips to
Namibia and asked ALC members to stop by her booth at the Exhibit hall #208.
* Michigan State University continues work on 2 projects of interest:
1) The African e-Journals Project project, funded by an Office of Education
grant for Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information
Access, has made some progress. Project Muse (at Johns Hopkins University
Press) was contacted to handle distribution and other technical details.
Other vendors were also considered. Initially, the project will be limited
to about 10 scholarly journals.
2) Multi-lingual Digital Library for West African Sources is a new project
funded by the National Science Foundation. In collaboration with IFAN
(Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire) and WARC (West African Research
Center) in Dakar, the plan is to mount text, sound and visual sources in
French, English, Wolof and Pular. The initial focus is on Senegal and
neighboring countries.
* A.Paulos announced that EJAB would be on time. A. Paulos traveled to Ghana
to initiate discussions with the University of Ghana.
* M. Frank Wilson announced that Indiana U is in the process of digitizing
field notes
from former missionaries to the Sudan.
* ASA Business meeting 5:30 pm in the North Hall, R. Bell-Gam will give a report in addition to reporting at the Sunday morning ASA Board.
* D. LaFond announced the "Save Africa From AIDS" (SAFA) campaign at SUNY-Albany and potential partnership with Kenyatta University faculty in Nairobi, Kenya. Please contact if there is interest in developing fund raising projects at other universities.
* R. Bell-Gam announced a digitization project involving the Institute for Media Development and UCLA, which would make recorded radio broadcasts with African content available on the Web.
* Peter Malanchuck announced that Charles Young, former UCLA Chancellor, would be joining the University of Florida.
J. Coelho recognized R. Bell-Gam's extraordinary service as Chair of ALC. A resounding applause from ALC members was heard.
Meeting adjourned at 12:00pm
Respectfully submitted by Deborah M. LaFond
April 15, 2001
Approved April 27, 2001
Appendix
African Studies Association Book Donation Awards for 2000 (recipients and descriptions added after meeting)
1. $525 for the University of Virginia and University of the Western Cape, South Africa. This is a project to send materials to the new library of the UWC Anthropology/Sociology Departments. This is a sound project that meets all our criteria. The donor and recipient are both deeply committed and 11 boxes of high quality books await transit. The selection process seems appropriate and we note that 4 boxes of materials have been rejected as out-of-scope.
2. $120 for the University of Puget Sound and School of Occupational Therapy in Moshi, Tanzania. This is a grassroots project that is likely to have immediate and direct impact. The logistics are clear, there is ongoing liaison, and there is a precise selection of material.
3. $500 for the Friends of Malawi West Coast Book Project in Portland, Oregon for primary schools in Malawi. This tax-exempt organization has an excellent track record over the past 6 years. The organization has a working mechanism to identify appropriate schools. They have the logistics well worked out, and they have a careful book selection process.
Partial funding was awarded for the following two projects:
4. $927.50 for the Books for Africa project at Rutgers University and the Kakapel village library in Teso District in Western Kenya. This NGO has a long-term goal of establishing rural libraries in Kenya, one at a time. They have already collected 14,000 books, and have started educational programs at the Kakapel community center.
5. $927.50 for Cultural Survival in Cambridge, MA and a Maasai educational center in Narok, Kenya. Cultural Survival is an NGO established in 1972 to defend the rights of indigenous people and ethnic minorities. They have already collected more than 20 boxes of selected high quality materials. The library will serve the needs of 4 high schools, a teacher's college, and the community as a whole. The shipping logistics are in place and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has provided an air ticket for a U.S. volunteer to help set up the library.