Africana Librarians Council

African Studies Association

Business Meeting Minutes (Final)

Philadelphia

Thursday, November 11, 1999.

9:30-12:00 p.m.

Present: Helene Baumann (Duke U), Julianne Beall (LC), Ruby Bell-Gam (UCLA), Walter Bgoya (Mkirki Publications), Phyllis Bischof (UC Berkeley), Simon Bockie (UC Berkeley), Joe Caruso (Columbia U), Moore Crossey (Yale), Henrietta Dax (Clarkes Bookshop, Capetown), Andrew de Heer (Schomburg Center), David Easterbrook (Northwestern U), Greg Finnegan (Harvard), Karen Fung (Stanford), Miki Goral (UCLA), Beverly Gray (LC), Marieta Harper (LC), David Hogarth (Hogarth Books), Mary Jay (African Books Collective), Al Kagan (U. of Illinois, Urbana), Patricia Kuntz (Indiana U), Nancy Pressman Lay (Princeton U), Deborah LaFond (SUNY Albany), Joe Lauer (Michigan State U), Bob Lesh (Northwestern U), Ken Lohrentz (U of Kansas), Peter Malanchuk, (U. of Florida), Valerie Mwalilino (LC), Patricia Ogedengbe (Northwestern U), Lauris Olson (U. of Pennsylvania), Afeworki Paulos (University of Iowa), Loumona Petroff (Boston U), Elizabeth Plantz (Northwestern U), Wendy Simmons (U.S. Dept. of State/former USIA), Elisabeth Sinnott (NYU), Janet Stanley (Smithsonian Institute), Ruth Thomas (LC Nairobi), Gretchen Walsh (Boston U), David Westley (Boston U), Marion Frank Wilson (Indiana University), Dorothy Woodson, (SUNY-Buffalo/Yale), Joanne Zellers (LC).

1. Welcome, introductions and brief announcements

J. Zellers opened the meeting and welcomed members and visitors. J. Zellers requested additions to the agenda. J. Zellers reminded the group that the ALC by-laws are to be reviewed every 4-5 years. The Executive Committee established a by-laws reveiw committee. M. Goral and H. Baumann volunteered to reveiw and report back to the next meeting in Los Angeles. They will be contacting people for specific issues regarding the by-laws.

2. Approval of the minutes from the Spring 99 ALC Business meeting in Washington D.C.
Minutes were approved with minor corrections.

3. Elections Committee Report and Elections of Officers
D. Easterbrook and M. Goral, committee members encouraged members to hold contested elections. As incoming Chair of ALC, R. Bell-Gam will begin chairing the Executive Meeting beginning at the close of the business meeting. Nominations were made for Vice Chair/Chair Elect, J. Coelho(in absentia), 2 seats open for Members at Large, Simon Bockie, P. Malanchuk, E. Plantz, Dorothy Woodson. A call for other nominations from the floor was made. - S. Bockie was elected as Member at Large. There was a tie between E. Plantz and D. Woodson for the second Member at Large seat. D. Easterbrook moved that the membership hold a run-off election. Election Results: Vote carried for J. Coelho, Vice Chair/Chair Elect, Dorothy Woodson, Simon Bockie, Incoming Members at Large.

4. Future Meetings
Spring 2000 UCLA (6-8 April) R. Bell-Gam announced there will be a URL for the UCLA spring meeting which includes information on lodging, meeting space, transportation and area events. Small group meeting rooms are available on Thursday. A visit to the Getty Museum is also planned for Thursday. M. Goral invited suggestions for activities. M. Goral counted approximately 29 members who planned attend.

Spring 2001 Indiana University
Marion Frank Wilson asked the membership to recommend best meeting dates for Spring 2001. Members requested meeting dates which accommodated an overnight Saturday stay to obtain more reasonable airline rates. P. Bischof phoned J. Coelho to confirm which dates were best for her. (Thursday through Saturday were best for J. Coelho.)

5. Brief Reports
**ALC Cataloging Committee (E. Plantz)
E. Plantz reported that J. Lauer will be taking over as Chair of the Cataloguing Committee. The Subject Funnel project is working well. Non-cataloguers with subject expertise to offer have been added to the Funnel listserv with good results. E. Plantz will be happy to add anyone to the list, please contact her if interested.

In order to try and help reduce African language materials cataloguing backlogs, the committee is developing a resource list of people who can help with various languages. The committee sent a message to AFLIB asking for volunteers. They received a good response. In hopes of trying to reach a broader pool of language expertise the Cataloguing Committee will contact the African Linguistics Conference at BU. E. Plantz invited anyone who may want to be added to the list to please contact her.

**Bibliography Committee (Ken Lohrentz)
K. Lohrentz distributed handouts on the Conover-Porter Awards. K. Lohrentz reported on discussions of how to develop good, useful bibliographies and reference sources. Discussion included how to publicize good existing bibliographies while taking into account publisher parameters. K. Lohrentz sent a letter to William Katz, Editor of Magazines for Libraries, requesting permission to post the Africa section of Magazines for Libraries to the ALC Bibliography Committee site on the ALC Web page. W. Katz had no objection but referred K. Lohrentz to a contact a Bowker-Saur to obtain their permission. The Bibliography committee will continue to make contacts.

Works in progress, K. Lohrentz suggested that it may be appropriate to coordinate goals established in the "Opportunities and Challenges" document produced by G. Walsh and submitted at the Spring meeting. G. Walsh brought revised copies. This work provides self-definition for the group. The committee intends to put this document on the ALC Web page. Bibliographic projects in progress will be announced in the Minutes of the Bibliography Committee. There will be an additional meeting on cooperative indexing.

** African Libraries Newsletter (ALN) Report
There was a motion from the floor stating that J. Lauer be recognized for his many years of service on the ALN. There was unanimous acclimation and recognition of J. Lauer's contribution.

M. Frank-Wilson, new ALN editor wanted to acknowledge and give special thanks to J. Lauer for his assistance to her as she began her editorship this past year. M. Frank-Wilson encouraged members to submit ideas or news on Africana Librarianship. Marion Frank Wilson shared draft copies of ALN. As far as content, she will rely on Joe's categories but welcomes any additions and suggestions. E-mail would be preferable. Minutes will be summarized. She would also like to include photographs and possibly place the newsletter on the Web. The publishing schedule is targeted for 4 times per year. In regards to the "ALC Regulars" category, some voiced that their contact info should be private. This was one reason why G. Finnegan's print list evolved. G. Finnegan's ALC Directory lists all members. The ALN lists members who attend regularly. Marion Frank-Wilson agreed that if individuals prefer not to have their contact information included, to send her an e-mail. J. Zellers asked whether the ALN will appear on the ALC Web page. Currently if you click on ALN on the ALC Web page you will be linked to Michigan State University. M. Frank-Wilson thought that initially ALN could be put up on the IU site and after review of the by-laws and/or discussion this could be revisited. Members commented on the attractive new design of ALN.

J. Zellers raised the question for the members, "Should the ALC Regulars list in the ALN be continued given the existence and distribution of G. Finnegan's ALC directory?" Pros and cons of having the list of regulars listed in the ALN were discussed. The issue is whether to add member contact information to ALN or reserve for ALC directory. Concerns included whether or not work addresses and phone numbers were too public, getting unsolicited mail, and duplication issues. Finnegan's ALC Directory contains approximately 83 names and ALN Regulars List includes approximately 60 names. Motion was made and carried to move on to the next agenda item without resolution.

**Book Donation Task Force. (A. Kagan)

A. Kagan distributed the new procedures document from the Book Donations Task Force which was submitted to the ASA Board. The new revised handbook draft is expected to be finished for the Spring ALC meeting. It appears that several organizations no longer do book donations. The Task Force has been allotted $3000.00 for book donation proposals. Task Force members agreed that it would be good to ask the ASA Board to consider a larger amount. West Africa and East African libraries were represented in the proposals as well as one continental project. In response to L. Olsons's question regarding trends in continent wide distribution, G. Walsh affirmed that although a continent wide distribution of a published monograph (as one proposal requested) is not specifically outlined or discouraged in the donation criteria, the ASA guidelines have emphasized and encouraged library partnerships where there is strong recipient participation. G. Walsh discussed the "continent wide" proposal that did not get recommended. A publisher proposed to distribute a book throughout Africa and had requested mailing expenses.

*Title VI (Gretchen Walsh)
G. Walsh reported that as the Title VI group has not been re-constituted yet, there will be no Title VI meeting at the current meeting but that the Title VI meeting will resume at the Spring ALC meeting.

For the last 6 years, Title VI has included common language for cooperation. G. Walsh acknowledged J. Caruso's extensive work on incorporating changes in the common language document. The second 3-year cycle expanded the collection of African dissertations. The menu of options for cooperation developed from the common language has also been expanded. This three year cycle will support the continuation of African Archives, the Senegal Project, and opens possibilities for other archives. $1500 has been allotted for each university. The funding helps support the African Dissertations Acquisition Project. It also supports the Union List of African Newspaper Development of African Database Connection (on-line). Though the funding is relatively small it provides an opportunity to funnel Title VI funding into projects that ALC has been cooperating on for a number of years rather than being handed new projects assigned by the Title VI Directors. Even though $1500 for each institution does not go that far, these funds may support participating libraries costs. Title VI institutions could draw on these funds. In effect, we are mainstreaming Title VI cooperation. A new coordinator for Title VI will be selected.

**Union List of African Newspapers (ULAN) (David Easterbrook and Miki Goral)
D. Easterbrook reported that there was a separate meeting prior to this meeting. He discussed steps that had been taken at the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) to move the project ahead. He is hopeful that within the next 6 months there will be a Union list of African Newspapers. ULAN will begin with newspapers "currently received." There is a separate listserv to discuss topics related to ULAN. He is very interested in receiving feedback. J. Zellers asked if the listserv was open to ASA members. D. Easterbrook encouraged everyone who is interested to e-mail him for the listserv address.

**ASA Publications Committee (Peter Malanchuk)

P. Malanchuk reported on the ASA Publications Committee meeting. Past ASA President S. Greene, chaired the meeting. D. Henige was in attendance as well. D. Wiley attended and raised concerns about protecting copyright of ASA and ASR publications.

The latest edition of African Studies Review should be coming out Saturday. Two issues should be coming out shortly. One of the problems the committee is having is finding reviewers for the peer review process. The meeting focused on the very tight budget for editing. The financial situation was discussed at length. There is some advertising revenue coming in from the journal. However, JSTOR has recently approached ASA to include ASR as a full-text publication on-line. Wilson Index is also courting them. Both overtures will be investigated within the next 6 months. Subject Categories for future publications will focus on Diaspora Studies, AIDS, Youth, and Atlantic Studies in Africa. History in Africa by David Henige is going well. They are looking for an editor for ISSUE. The former editor is stepping down.

CD-ROM products appear to be going out of business. The ASA papers CD-ROM was not sustainable. The tenor of the meeting was to discontinue CD-ROM entirely. The committee will recommend ceasing production but does want the ASA papers to be archived at Northwestern. Will ASA film the papers for the years held on CD-ROM? At this point, there is no answer to that but there was an expressed desire to send ASA papers to Northwestern University to be archived.

A large amount of the inventory items on the list of publications have not been sold, approximately $285,000.00 worth. At the meeting, there were suggestions to possibly put up the publications on the WEB. Whether journals will be sent to commercial publishers is not known. Previous concerns raised by ALC on this point appear to be irrelevant. Will there be revenue if JSTOR or Wilson sign them on? This is hard to tell. M. Goral asked if we could get a sense of whether people here use JSTOR or WILSON? Should ALC recommend one or the other? G. Walsh thought that if it is only ALC librarians purchasing, it would not likely be enough to market. Does going with JSTOR preclude going with Wilson? R. Bell-Gam asked if there was any discussion of using commercial distributors to sell publications. P. Malanchuk reported that there was no discussion of this at the meeting.

ALC Handbook Committee
G. Finnegan reported that the handbook could include more history and procedures of the group. The Handbook was originally intended to be a manual to new Africana librarians as well as source of documentation of projects in progress or projects that may need to be revisited. What is on the Web now is a piece of that vision worked on by Razia Nanji.

G. Finnegan listed assumptions discussed by the Committee
1)Web does away with manuals as there are more possibilities to link to existing lists and resources
2) all visions are possible because of Web
3)Editorial structure and maintenance are more significant, and must be addressed.

Handbook Committee discussed other concerns underlying these assumptions:

The purpose of the handbook is to provide guidelines to inform Africana Librarianship, to provide "guidance" on what is good reference (as Y. Scheven and others have done to support Africana Librarianship), to address practical matters such as, Who will keep links up to date? Who will provide recommendation (such as, all documents should be signed and dated? G. Finnegan suggested that it may be difficult to form a new committee, but that Ad Hoc working groups have a good record within ALC. A suggestion was made to forward this to the Executive Committee. Who is in charge and who is responsible for Web maintenance? Will committee continue? The committee did not discuss this. However, their report will be forwarded to the Executive Committee. J. Zellers stated that the Handbook needs to be updated and recommended discussion at the Executive meeting.

LC Reports

J. Zellers reminded members to submit Institutional Reports in advance by e-mail. (LC report from J. Zellers was forwarded on e-mail, at the end of the minutes.)

Ruth Thomas, LC Nairobi Office
There has been a great deal of activity. All 6 field offices are adopting new software for acquisitions. Hopefully, this will make the process more efficient. LC Nairobi now covers 28 countries. In October 1997, LC Nairobi started to acquire acquisitions from four West African countries: Gabon, Ghana, Cameroon, and Senegal. This has been an experiment to see what problems in communication and shipments there might be. Overall it was found that we should continue to cover these 4 countries.
The bombing of the Embassy in August of 1998 impacted the efficiency of the office staff. After the bombing, the Embassy re-located to an area on the outskirts of Nairobi. This results in a much longer drive to get to the Embassy which performs a number of services for the Nairobi Office. Telephone links to the Embassy are also very weak. Communications across town are very difficult.

Valerie Mwalilino will follow-up with e-mail. V. Mwalilino reported that the lives of all who work at LC including those working in AMEAS have been disrupted by the VOYAGER migration at LC. With staffing levels remaining static, this creates quite a strain. There has been no acquisition travel in a few years. V. Mwalilino will send statistics for fiscal year 1999. Overall, LC is pleased with coverage and vendors. There are vendor liaisons in Togo, Benin, Nigeria Mali, Somalia. Trends --- need greater handle on legal materials, congressional requests for court decisions, difficult to get regular coverage. V. Mwalilino indicated the need to focus on this and improving coverage for Portugese speaking countries.

(LC Afa/OvOp)
V. Mwalilino reported on the impending retirement of Ruth Thomas. She reported how very sorry members of LC are to see her go. However, they must pursue a candidate. Vacancy announcement requirements state that a candidate must hold U.S. citizenship and be willing to endure Top Secret Security clearance. Effective date March 31.

J. Zellers remarked on R. Thomas retirement and remarked on their gathering at LC and commented on how much her friendship and service has meant to so many.

ALC Web Page
J. Zellers is now the coordinator for entire AMEAS reading room at LC. She is working with a colleague until mid-December. LC is doing a complete revamping of the LC AMEAS Web page. J. Zellers is hoping to glean new techniques to apply to ALC page design. J. Zellers has spent two months getting Section/Division mock-ups and hopes to apply her experience to the African Section page. The ALC Web Page will be found through that page. J. Zellers asked for two people to work with her to give feedback on the ALC page. K. Fung and M. Goral offered to assist J. Zellers.

J. Zellers requested that the membership consider and decide on the Headers for the ALC Web page. How will ALC indicate official ALC publications? J. Zellers suggested the use of an alternative title "ALC Associated Publications" when appropriate. P. Bischof stated that the group might also consider having an indication such as an asterisk when a publication originated from an ALC member. "Publications of Interest" was another category suggested. G. Finnegan discussed what he termed an "eternal problem" of ALC in that work is done under the guidance of the group. G. Finnegan suggested that we may need an ALC "seal of approval" group. E. Plantz stated that ALN is a reflection of ALC's work. For example, the ALN is likened to an annual report of the organization but is not an official document.
M. Goral made a motion to refer the issue to a small committee. Motion carried. M. Goral, K. Fung and J. Zellers will begin thinking about this.
A. Paulos would like to raise the issue with the Executive Committee after the meeting.

Announcements:

Michigan State University, J. Lauer will forward report to group by e-mail.

Zimbabwe International Book Fair
Margaret Ling, conveyed her greetings in an e-mail read by J. Zellers. ABC exhibits hall will have information and registration on the Zimbabwe Book Fair, or can contact David Brine zibf.kingstreet@dial.pipex.com, ZBIF 2000 will be held July 28- Aug 5, 2000 in Harare. The theme is "celebrating African books" with a country focus on Ghana. Events and activities include celebration of the first award of the Caine Prize for African writing. The Caine Prize is from the UK and is given on behalf of the same ęstable' who put out the Booker Prize. (The Caine Prize was established in memory of Sir Michael Caine, Chairman Booker McConnell)

(ZIBF cont'd)
The Keynote address of the conference will be on international markets for African Books entitled "Millennium Market Place." There will also be an Annual Buyers and Sellers Meeting organized by the International Trade Center and is open to overseas buyers. There will be a seminar on scholarly, medical and technical publishing. African scholarship and ZIBF program includes an open forum on scholarly publishing. This is the second year for free passes for ALA librarians. Please see the ALA Web site.

MELA
J. Zellers announced the upcoming Middle East Librarians Association (MELA) meeting. CAMP members may be interested in attending the meeting in Washington November 18th, 2000 2:30-4:30 Madison bldg. Library of Congress "Near East Collections at the Bulgarian National Library." scholarly papers. Contact J. Zellers.

Northwestern University
D. Easterbrook announced that M. Shayne did retire from Northwestern the end of October. Bob Lesh has joined Northwestern beginning November 1999.

Beverly Gray, Washington Office on Africa
Greetings were read from a letter from Leon Spencer, Executive Director for the Washington Office on Africa. He is seeking a home for historical papers currently in storage. 100 cubic feet. 1970-to early 1990's. This is a possible CAMP project that may be of interest to the group. B. Gray brought information and details.

Phyllis Bischof, Distinguished Librarian Award
J. Zellers reported that P. Bischof, ALC colleague and Africana Librarian at UC Berkeley will receive the Distinguished Librarian's Award from the Librarian's Association at UC Berkeley on November 16, 1999. Members applauded and congratulated her for her many contributions to Africana Scholarship and to the ALC.

EJAB
A. Paulos reported on the Electronic Journal of African Bibliographies started by John Howell in 1996. Currently J. Caruso and A. Paulos are the review committee/editors. A. Paulos encouraged members to submit manuscripts for publication. A. Paulos requested that members send printed manuscripts or electronic attachments to him at the University of Iowa. A question was raised asking if statistics of use are being taken. Answer: Not currently.

Listserv Issues
J. Lauer shared what might be a possible trend in Reference queries. Joe Lauer reported on an Amharic translation related question which may have been a request to help decode a listserv controlled password. Members agreed that if couched as a request to translate a term, this may be difficult to monitor.

Clarkes Bookshop
Henrietta Dax welcomed members to the Exhibit Booth for Clarkes Bookshop. For sale are books, election posters and a new CD-ROM which includes transcripts on the Truth and Reconciliation process and the Report. The TRC Report on CD-ROM is available at the booth free, for those who purchased the printed version from Clarkes. Clarkes will have another CD-ROM project coming out in Mid 2000.

Hogarth Books
Mr. Hogarth shared developments in Anglophone African publishing. D. Hogarth plans to cover periodicals from several areas. Please contact Mr. Hogarth at the conference. United Kingdom 1988 Papers of the African Association, D. Hogarth has these available at the meeting. London area codes have changed #181 is now #208 , #171 has changed to #207 Mr. Hogarth would very much like to see anyone who may have approval or blanket order questions.

African Book Collective
Mary Jay shared a brief history of the African Book Collective. They are at booth #106. ABC has been in operation for 10 years, and is organized by a Tanzanian organization which is heavily donor funded. Profits go back to Africa. A Swedish government agency is one of the funders of ABC. Evaluation of the organization will be published in CEDA's series report. There is active consideration of the possibility of a U.S. distribution point. Mary Jay will send a report to the ALN.

Wendy Simmons previous active member of ALC, has been away in Brazil but is now back in Washington. She welcomed questions and concerns regarding the former USIA and State Department.

Ruby Bell Gam proposed a motion to thank J. Zellers for her work and dedication as Chair of ALC this past year. There was unanimous acclimation of the motion and congratulations were given to J. Zellers on her smooth handling and organization of the past two meetings.

Meeting adjourned at 12:20 pm.

Return-path:
Date: Tue, 09 Nov 1999 13:01:37 -0500
From: Joanne Marie Zellers
(by way of finnegan@pop.fas.harvard.edu (Greg Finnegan))
Subject: Draft of Library of Congress African Section, AMED report to ALC
X-Sender: finnegan@pop.fas.harvard.edu
To: Gregory_Finnegan@harvard.edu
Original-recipient: rfc822;dlafonde@cnsvax.albany.edu

The African Section, African and Middle Eastern Division (AMED) continues with four professional staff (Dr. Angel Batiste, Ms. Marieta Harper, Ms. Matte Laverne Page, and Ms. Joanne Zellers). Dr. Angel Batiste has been accepted by the Library*s twelve-month Leadership Development Program and will be away from the Section until October 1, 2000. Her countries have been assigned to her colleagues during this period.

The staff has noted an increase in demand for its reference services from non-academic patrons --particularly from Congress (either received directly or coming via the Congressional Research Service), the media, immigrants seeking to establish residency and from entrepreneurs. More and more queries are received and answered by email. Ms. Page continues to coordinate the Section*s reference collection which is searchable via the Library*s online catalog by limiting to books only in the African Section Reference Collection or by viewing the holdings portions of individual records.

Among recent noteworthy acquisitions are rare books such as Lettere annue di Etiopia del 1624, 1625 e 1626. (Rome, Zannetti, 1628. 232 p.), a collection of reports from the Jesuit mission in Ethiopia, including two letters from Alfonso Mendes, a Jesuit, and the Patriarch of Ethiopia, 1635-1633, and Gaspar Paez, a Jesuit missionary who arrived in Ethiopia in 1624, to the Director General of the Society of Jesus, M. R. P. Mutio Vitelleschi. In addition, the Section recommended the establishment of a standing order for Section III: Central Records and Section IV. African Missions of the Church Missionary Society Archive Microfilm Collection. (Adam Matthews Publications) , and the purchase of 36 films from California Newsreel. Last year the Washington Office on Africa transferred their archival collection of unbound periodicals and gray literature, mostly concerning Southern Africa, to the Section.

Staff participated in library-wide events such as the LC Reference Forum October program featuring international business reference sources where they selected and displayed Africana business resources. In addition, the Section has held several programs in the AMED conference room this summer. Ms. Harper is compiling a mailing list of individuals and organizations located in the greater DC area to receive announcements and invitations to similar events. If you would like to be included, please contact her.

Ms. Zellers is preparing a small exhibit for the AMED Reading Room in memorial to President Julius M. Nyerere as well as compiling a selected list of his writings. The latter will be mounted on the Section*s new web page when completed. She submitted the draft text of the Illustrated Guide to the Africana Collections of the Library of Congress to the Publishing Office in September. Upon publication, the text and the illustrations will be mounted on the section*s home page. On Nov. 1, she became the coordinator or *web master* for the AMED Reading Room page and the three section pages. Currently, there is only a Reading Room page with links to individual section brochures. Working with AMED staff, she will be developing multi-level sub-pages for each section. Because she will be able to mount materials on the Library*s web site directly, she plans to review and enhance the ALC site, too.

The summer of 1999 marked the end of a 30-year era of using the in-house developed software, MUMS and SCORPIO, to maintain the Library of Congress* online catalogs. As of August16, 1999, all materials are cataloged in the Windows version of VOYAGER, the software is used by other libraries including Northwestern. A web version of VOYAGER has been mounted and may be found under the URL. We are starting a new era with a year-long celebration of the Library*s 200th birthday in 2000. Check its web site for announcements of activities and special events.

Submitted November 9, 1999. (E-mail)
Joanne M. Zellers
Library of Congress Representative