Africana Librarians Council
Bibliography Committee
Minutes
Friday, April 25, 2003, 10:45 am-12:20 pm
Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
Present: Lygia Ballantyne (LC), Helene Baumann (Duke U), Ruby Bell-Gam
(UCLA), Phyllis Bischof (UC Berkeley), Simon Bockie (UC Berkeley), Joseph Caruso
(Columbia), Jill Young Coelho (Harvard), Andrew de Heer (NY Public Library),
David Easterbrook (Northwestern), Greg Finnegan (Harvard), Vicki Evalds, Marion
Frank-Wilson (Indiana U), Miki Goral (UCLA), Marieta Harper (LC), Al Kagan (U
of Illinois), Peter Kargbo (NewYork U), Patricia Kuntz, Deborah LaFond (SUNY
Albany), Joe Lauer (Michigan State U), Bob Lesh (Northwestern U), Peter Limb
(Michigan State U), Edward Miner (U of Iowa), Akilah Nosakhere (Atlanta U Center),
Patricia Ogedengbe (Northwestern), Lauris Olson (U of Pennsylvania), Laverne
Page (LC), Loumona Petroff (Boston U), Jason Schultz (Northwestern), Gretchen
Walsh (Boston U), David Westley (Boston U), Dorothy Woodson (Yale), Joanne Zellers
(LC)
Recorder: Jill Young Coelho
1. Preliminaries: Welcome, introductions and approval of minutes from the
Fall, 2002 meeting in Washington, D.C. The meeting was called to order at
10:45 am by Peter Limb, those present introduced themselves, and the minutes
of the previous meeting were approved. The Chair moved agenda items around to
accommodate those who had to leave early. [The minutes reflect the original
order of the agenda. jyc]
2. Bibliographies in progress (Carried over from Fall meeting).
[To insure accuracy, recorder requested complete information by email after
the meeting. jyc]
Peter Limb will publish an AIDS bibliography in Society in Transition,
a South African sociology journal, and longer versions, both print and electronic,
are being offered to publishers.
Marion Frank-Wilson has just completed a bibliography of travel writing
by Africans. It will appear in African Research & Documentation.
It is sub-divided into several categories, and she plans to develop more detailed
bibiographies on each of the sub-categories. She is also looking for a publisher
for an anthology on the topic.
Ken Lohrentz is working on a bibliography of publications on the African
émigré community in the U.S. and Canada since 1980.
Hans Zell will publish a new edition of the African Studies Companion:
A Guide to Information Sources, due in late June 2003, both in print and
online at http://www.africanstudiescompanion.com
David Westley is preparing A Bibliography of Southeastern Bantu Languages
to be published by African Linguistic Bibliographies Hamburg: Helmut Buske
Verlag.
Phyllis Bischof is working on a bibliography of bibliographies of theses
and dissertations completed at institutions of higher education in Africa.
A second ongoing project is an annotated bibliography of autobiographies of
the Black Diaspora.
Akilah Nosakhere has completed a bibliography of resources for teaching
African Studies, and is now looking for a publisher. The title is African
American Studies Core List of Resources, co-authors, M. Elaine Hughes
and Anne Page Mosby of Georgia State University. Funded by a Whitney-Carnegie
Grant via ALA Publishing Committee(1997); completed 2003. The work is a collection
of 304 annotations of books used by instructors of African American Studies
courses used during the 1998-99 academic year. These items were identified
through a nationwide survey of AAS instructors in 1998. The bibliography includes
some 36 titles on African History, Politics, and Cultural Arts.
Edward Miner announced a three-year joint project between the University
of Iowa and the University of Ghana, to revise and expand the curricula of
both institutions in a way that will serve to internationalize the curriculum
in Iowa and Ghana. The project is funded by the U.S. State Dept. and began
in 2001. The co-directors are Christopher Roy of the Univ. of Iowa, Afeworki
Paulos, now at the Univ. of Michigan, and Kofi Anyidiho of the University
of Ghana. The linkage will involve three steps to achieve this: the digitization of
African library documents in the University of Ghana, which will be made available
online; purchasing of contemporary African arts; and curricula development,
which includes the introduction of new courses at both universities.
Joseph Caruso offered copies of Bantu Lexicography: A Critical Survey
of the Principles and Process of Constructing Dictionary Entries, published
in Japan in 2000 by Dr. John Gongwe Kiango, Assistant Director of the Institute
of Kiswahili Research at the University of Dar es Salaam. His book is not
well distributed.
Dorothy Woodson is indexing the papers of the noted Kenyan publisher, writer
and dissident, Gakaara wa Wanjau.
Discussion followed regarding the appropriateness of the committee's name:
A. Nosakhere and G. Walsh inquired if the term "bibliography" included
such things as web pages and local libraries' online research guides. P.Bischof
asked if the name "Bibliography Committee" ought to be changed to
reflect the broader scope of the committee. Others mentioned reference and
acquisitions as part of the committee's regular discussions, and there was
a question about creating a Reference Committee. G. Finnegan pointed out that
it would be impossible to squeeze in another set of meetings. D. Woodson suggested
continuing the discussion on email, and there was general agreement.
3. Vendor reports.
General: D. Woodson conveyed Paul Steere's regrets that he could not come,
and a message from Chris Boyd of African Imprints that he had new shipments
from various countries.
Library of Congress: L. Ballantyne spoke for LC, and described the technical
problems that have held up shipments from Nairobi; there are many boxes ready
to ship. Buyers will be going soon to Uganda, Lesotho and Botswana. She added
that the Quarterly Index is now on the Web at
http://www.loc.gov/acq/ovop/nairobi/ and seems to be working fine. She
also announced that Judy McDermott will propose creation af an advisory board
of LC's customers to give advice on matters affecting everyone and to give feedback
so that customer concerns will be broadly reflected. McDermott welcomes any
suggestions for the composition and activities of the new group. The advisory
group's role will be to address general concerns and future directions of the
Overseas Acquisitions Plans. Specific acquisitions problems will continue to
be handled directly between the customer and the LC office concerned.
G. Walsh brought up her concern about purchasing photocopied materials. Several
minutes of discussion showed general agreement that there are collection development
and ethical issues that need looking at. P. Limb asked for volunteers for a
subcommittee to examine the problem more thoroughly and report back to the Committee.
The subcommittee will consist of : P. Limb, G. Walsh, R. Bell-Gam, L. Ballantyne,
P. Ogedengbe, P. Kargbo, D. LaFond.
4. Assessing bibliographic databases/indexing services, new and old.
L.Olson brought up the question of Kwetu.net at
http://www.kwetu.net/ a new database which appears to be expanding rapidly,
and which has recently lowered its subscription price. Discussion followed,
addressing a number of general questions: how to evaluate the cost-effectiveness
of this and other databases; how to make sure that the sources of materials
included are clear (since information from an unknown source is useless for
research); that any required licenses have been obtained; how to assure perpetual
access to the materials; how to work with vendors to best focus their products.
Further discussion was postponed until the Fall meeting.
5. Online developments.
P. Limb spoke on new developments including the DISA Project in South Africa,
and brought up the problem of keeping track of and indexing online bibliographies.
J. Coelho was concerned in particular about online materials that are included
in the annual ABPR list, and agreed to start archiving them to CD-ROM as an
interim measure.
6. Bib. committee web page (http://www.loc.gov/rr/amed/bibcte.html)
P. Limb asked for suggestions for improvements and additions. Others asked about
adding links to general resources, tutorials, guides. It was agreed that members
should take a look at the page and that the matter could be discussed further.
7. Other business/brief notices.
African Studies Abstracts Online:
http://asc.leidenuniv.nl/library/abstracts/asa-online/ African Studies Abstracts
now exists only online, directly from Leiden University.
Conover Porter Award: P. Limb announced that a new cycle is beginning,
and that members should keep the award in mind as they examine new acquisitions.
"Recent Doctoral Dissertations" in ASA News: J. Lauer said
that the section is still appearing, but is behind schedule so that eight months
of dissertations appeared at once.
Dan Britz memorial volume: V. Evalds said that she would make a full
announcement at the Business Meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:20pm
Respectfully submitted,
Jill Young Coelho
Page Last Updated September 10, 2003