Africana Librarians Council
San Francisco
Fall 2006
Business Meeting
Minutes
Present: Angel Batiste (LC), Ruby Bell-Gam (UCLA), Simon
Bockie (UC Berkley), Fehl M. Cannon (LC), Joseph Caruso (Columbia U), Miriam
Conteh-Morgan (Ohio State), Andrew DeHeer (Schomburg Center), David Easterbrook
(Northwestern), Gregory Finnegan (Harvard), Karen Fung (Stanford), Miki Goral
(UCLA), Marieta Harper (LC), Margaret Hughes (Stanford), Pamela
Howard-Reguindin (LC Nairobi), Bassey Irele (Harvard), Alfred
Kagan (U of Illinois), Esmeralda Kalé (Northwestern), Deborah
LaFond (U of Albany), Joe Lauer (Michigan State U), Bob
Lesh (Northwestern), Peter Limb (Michigan State U), Ken
Lohrentz (Kansas), Loyd Mbabu (Ohio U), Emilie
Ngo-Nguidjol (Wisconsin), Lauris Olson (U of Pennsylvania), Patricia
Ogedengbe (Northwestern), Laverne Page (LC), Loumona
Petroff (Boston U), Jason Schultz (Georgia State),
Shoshanah Seidman (Northwestern), Fenta Tiruneh (LC), Gretchen Walsh (Boston
U), David Westley (Boston U), Marion Frank-Wilson
(Indiana U), Dorothy Woodson (Yale).
Opening The meeting was called to order at 9:00 am. by the Chair, Lauris Olson.
Preliminaries
The minutes were approved subject to changes with respect to the Letter to LC (protesting the decision to discontinue creating authority records), with changes to be agreed upon by the Executive.
Old Business
Olson confirmed that he sent a letter to LC, based on our discussion at the last meeting.
New Business
32 members voted. Olson congratulated the newly-elected members of the Africana
Librarians Council Executive Board: Vice-Chair / Chair Elect: Miki Goral, Member-at-Large:
Margaret Hughes, Secretary: Miriam Conteh-Morgan.
Members applauded the rest of the slate
6. Library of Congress
reports
Page submitted the following written report. See Appendix A
Cannon reported that he works in Washington, DC with the African/Asian and
Overseas Operations Division as the desk officer for the Nairobi office and
as CAP program officer. He announced that Lygia Ballantyne retired from LC
on January 3, 2006. James Gentner is now the acting chief of the African/Asian
and Overseas Operations Division in Washington, DC. Currently there are 3 overseas
offices with director or deputy director positions vacant. These vacancies
are in the Cairo office (field director), Rio de Janeiro office (field director)
and New Delhi office (deputy field director). There is a new field director
in the Islamabad office. Fred Protopappas, acting field director for LC's Rio
de Janeiro office has returned to Washington, DC. There is planning underway
at LC
for the reorganization of the Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Directorate.
This should not have an impact on the Cooperative Acquisitions Program.
Howard-Reguindin reported that they continue to streamline operations in LC/Nairobi.
The total number of items acquired last year by LC AfriCAP was 127,526. There
was a slight decrease due to a decrease in newspaper subscriptions and serials.
There was a 21% increase in monograph acquisitions. Thirteen acquisitions trips
were taken. Cataloging statistics have increased by 8% to over 5,000 items. The
Office is participating in LC's digital TOC project and contributed 115 records
for FY2006. We would have contributed more but for the restriction
to TOC's for English language works only. We started an internship
program which lasts 3-4 months per intern. Our first intern worked
out so well that he was later employed by the office. For the Quarterly
Index to African Periodical Literature, 1,050 citations were added in
2006. Two part-time indexers have been hired, but 1 quit shortly after training.
LC Nairobi is seeking volunteers to assist with indexing. Bob Lesh and Bassy
Irele kindly volunteered to help with the indexing. For the first time in 20
years, LC Nairobi has a new office brochure in English, Portuguese, Kiswahili
and French. LC is grateful to CAMP for filming the Malawi papers. A proposal
to microfilm newspapers from Zaire/Congo has been submitted to CAMP for consideration.
LC is seeking alternative sources for microfilming our huge backlog of
newspapers. A Saber Foundation donation of a container of books for schools
to Nairobi didn’t work, so the America Embassy purchased 100 copies of
the World Book Encyclopedia from Sabre's partner and is donating them
to schools. The Kenya Library Association celebrated its 50th anniversary this
year and LC/Nairobi co-sponsored a reception for the occasion. Laverne Page,
Fentahun Tiruneh and Dorothy Woodson visited the Nairobi office this fiscal
year.
Lauer said that almost everyone is here from AMED. Page said the Turkish
specialist and Mary Jane Deeb had other commitments.
Pamphlet collection of the Thomas Kane Collection – Tracy Titus, a volunteer
from Howard compiled the database that is available for research. Only journal
articles from the 1920’s-2001 are available. Lauer asked if it would
be available for sale. Tiruneh said it would not, but the database would be
available online. Lauer commented that the Ethiopian Herald clippings seem
to be more like a scrap book than microfilm and that the index is not complete.
Tiruneh said that it has a number of people relevant photographs and it is
used quite often and users don’t have to browse issue by issue.
Olson suggested that we would be interested to hear about the pilot project
on the “Crisis in Darfur” from Batiste at the meeting in Philadelphia.
7. Library of Congress
African & Middle Eastern Reading Room
Olson was contacted and told it would close and merge with the reading room…in
order to accommodate a gift exhibit space. People were alarmed. There was nothing
we could do until this meeting. Olson wrote a letter to like minded people
MELA, Western European Division, Director of ACRL, American Libraries, Library
Journal, H-Africa, the International Relations Round Table. Walsh contacted
a number of people in Boston.
Olson asked the following questions. What did do, what did you think, should
we have contacted the Foreign Relations Committee, the Oversight Committee,
how do we get best practices?
Bell-Gam said that Olson’s
letter was informative and served as a spring board for further communication.
It was posted to the list serve and to scholars. The reaction from scholars
made the difference. UCLA’s African Studies Center took it seriously
and published it. When the story first came out, a number of people did not
want to react, but others did. Olson said we never will ever get the full story.
This will not go away. We have to be watchful. Lafond echoed Bell-Gam’s
thoughts about the email and the letter. Limb said concern was raised by African
diplomats and professors in DC. We do not want to be seen to be meddling in
the internal affairs of LC.
Olson said it might look like
an attack. We might have a few bridges to build. MELA didn’t know and
they are effective lobbyers, so at Penn we are working on closer links with
MELA Board. Bell-Gam shared the article with UCLA’s MELA representative
and they were in contact with the MELA Board. Lauer said Olson should have
shared it with the membership. The reading room is less important, more concerned
about the offices in LC that share our interests. Rather than act alone you
should have brought it to the membership. Olson said he felt it was urgent
and that we had to say something. Limb agreed saying sometimes leaders have
to lead and take a stand for what they believe. The majority were in favor
of expressing concern.
In response to Lauer, Walsh
said an executive discussion might not have been the only thing to do. We need
a procedure in place. What should we do? We are grateful that Olson wrote the
text. It was very disturbing to hear that LC wanted to remove a service in
order to set up an exhibit. Olson said he did not want to send out a rumor.
DeHeer said that looking at it, in the context of changes at LC, the action
taken was appropriate. Olson and Goral said it was a judgment call. Goral went
on to say that we have an executive who have to handle the business between
meetings.
Bell-Gam said that the executive
mentioned coordinating with MELA; we might want to talk to the Chair especially
since the reading room relates to both groups. It’s a service area,
an area where events and exhibits are held. If it were to close, it would take
away significant activity in a centralized, recognized space. 3 ALC members
are MELA members too - Seidman, Schultz and Miner (absent). Limb suggested
we continue to monitor the situation. The original plan might be executed.
Liaising with MELA is good, but it is hard to know what to do. Seidman said
the Organization of Jewish Librarians did not know anything about it. There
was nothing from the Association of Jewish Libraries or the Jewish Librarians
Division. If there had been concern, it would have been raised by them, from
LC to us.
Olson asked if we should send
a letter to LC and thank them for reversing the decision, and letting them
know that we welcome the need to discuss it further. Limb said we do not want
to antagonize them. We could send a letter enclosing a vote. It is an LC matter,
and we do not want to over step ourselves and over step the issue. Olson asked
if we should charge the executive to write a letter. Irele suggested we send
a positive statement. Finnegan said we should be tactful, they are a body with
a long standing interest in this area and we can offer our cooperation in some
manner. Walsh asked if we could discuss it further at the next meeting. Lafond
agreed with Walsh. Limb moved that we submit a letter. Members voted, all but
1 in favor.
Henige reported that the Board had received more information from Routledge.
ASA would like to get out of the publishing business. They only want to publish
ASA news and this could be done electronically. Routledge would raise institutional
rates and possible circulation. ASA could run the publications but it needs
to look at ways of being efficient. It is not too late to say anything. ASA
isn’t saying they can do it. There is revenue to be made. Olson encouraged
members to contact Kristina Carle, (responsible for publications), at the ASA
booth. Kagan suggested that we might want to go on record, since we have been
discussing it over a number of years informally. He suggested that we write
a letter to the publications committee. Henige said that it would make a difference.
Olson reported that Carol Martin had met with the American Council of Learned
Societies on a fact finding mission. Henige said that they are raising dues
by $40 but in fact we will be getting less. Bell-Gam said the ASR is included
in the membership, but the subject base has been reduced and it does not look
as if it is professional. Olson wanted to know who owned what with regard to
older and newer ASA publications. It is alarming to see 2 JSTOR bundles while
Proquest holds ASR. Kagan suggested that we move to ask the ASA to retain publishing
of its publications, in a letter drafted by Henige and the executive. Olson
suggested we express our concerns and how it affects libraries.
Henige asked member to publicize
what is going on because no one is talking about it. Limb agreed that a letter
is a good idea and suggested it be comprehensive, emphasizing the following
points - this is coming from the membership, comprising Africana Librarians
across the country, that there are a number of risks, and that as David Henige
has suggested, circulation would probably decline. Bell-Gam said ASA is
trying to get rid of its responsibility. It has real problems. African Issues
was discontinued because they could not find an editor. These problems do not
seem to have a pragmatic solution.
Henige maintained that
the ASA can publish profitably. They have a new publications person. Limb suggested
that one option, if the ASA wanted to go down this road, would be for ASA to
cut deals with different publishers and place their content in different packages.
They do not have to aggregate content. We could highlight this in our letter.
Mbabu recommended that we write the letter. Lauer asked if we should detach
our dissertations detach our dissertations from ASA News, now that it is only
available online. Limb noted the value of the dissertations and suggested they
continue to be submitted to ASA news. Olson suggested the letter to ASA include
the following issues- support, concern, ASA news, maximizing in house publishing,
outlining our concerns as librarians. Henige suggested we include access.
9. ALC web site future,
alcasalist membership reaffirmation
Any African
library association, librarian, vendor can join the list. US librarians have
to be ASA members US librarians working in a government agency overseas are
US librarians. Finnegan noted that the guidelines were crafted in order to
include African librarians that might have problems with foreign exchange.
Olson said
with Zellers’ retirement from LC, LC will continue to support what is
online until spring. Page indicated that LC doesn’t want materials from
non LC units. Joanne volunteered to continue in order to give us time.
Paul Zani in AMED uploads the material. Another institution will have to take
it on. Finnegan said the reason Joanne stepped up to do it was because the
ASA and other institutions could not do it. Carol Martin last night suggested
that ASA might be able to host the site. Olson said he did not get that impression.
Rutgers does not have a good presence but perhaps they could be a good long
term solution. In the short term we can put up pages for the meetings, but
in the long term we need to look for an institution that does not have restrictions
with an institutional repository where members could deposit information. We
should look at SALAAM and MELA, a lot is distributed locally we might be half
way there. Limb agreed that a distributed model works well. What we need is
a home for our home page.
We are not
asking for volunteers right now, but can members find out if it is possible.
Goral said it should be at ASA. We can feed into it. Limb said theoretically
it’s a good idea, but we might have problems if we want to make changes
to the site. It is the natural place for it. Perhaps we could try it for a
year on an experimental basis. Ngo-Nguidjol agreed that it was only logical
for it to be at ASA, but went on to ask if members liked the ASA web presence.
A number of members have African Studies Programs with stellar web sites, perhaps
this might be another option. Olson suggested that a small group might want
to this with him Caruso, Limb, and Ngo-Nguidjol volunteered.
Lauer asked
if the documents current hosted by LC should be moved or would they stay at
LC. Page said Joanne could answer this and would let us know. Schultz
suggested a wiki model hosted at ASA. Information can be changed and updated
by the committee chairs. New committee chairs could change content. The major
concern would be who would be responsible for hosting it.
10. Upcoming ALC Meetings
Olson asked for possible topics of interest. He suggested services to refugees,
social work for librarians, Educause, PennTags, creating a on the fly web directories,
Wikis and RSS feeds. Bell-Gam suggested a workshop by Verlon Stone in the area
of preservation and conservation. Olson suggested ethnomusicology, ethnographic
field notes and conservation. Limb suggested we consider suggestions in conjunction
with New York. It might be best to call on Olson’s expertise in the area
of technology and think of preservation in New York.
Ngo-Nguidjol said considering that it will be Ghana’s 50th anniversary
and that we will be in New York, perhaps service to new immigrants would be
a good idea. WARA is working on narratives from the African immigrants and
providing online access to them. Olson mentioned a filmmaker in Philadelphia
interviewing Nigerian cab drivers. DeHeer and Caruso are talking about New
York. DeHeer has been asked to speak to the ASA and find out how they
would like the Schomburg Center to participate; the Schomburg is interested
in sponsoring an event. Would it be possible to see the Herskovits field notes
and artifacts? Olson suggested that it would be interesting to meet with librarians
outside of ASA and have institutions host things outside of ASA. Limb mentioned
that given that this is the 50th anniversary of Ghana’s independence,
it would be interesting if we could have, say, 2 separate events on, say, Wednesday
and/or Saturday evening. It might be possible to bus or ferry people back and
forth. Conteh-Morgan noted that this year was the 200th anniversary of the
anti-slave trade act. Olson suggested a small group to work with Caruso. DeHeer,
Conteh-Morgan, Harper, Bell-Gam volunteered.
Olson announced that Miner had indicated an interest in hosting the spring meeting.
11. Committee reports - (committees with action items only)
12. Other reports
Respectfully Submitted
Esmeralda Kale, April 3, 2007
Appendix A
