Present: Peter Limb (Michigan State U), Chair; Joseph Lauer (Michigan
State U), Gretchen Walsh (Boston U), Dan Reboussin (U of Florida), Andrew de
Heer (Schomburg Center), Loyd Mbabu (Ohio U), Peter Kargbo (NYU), James Simon
(CRL), Afeworki Paulos (U of Michigan), Akilah Nosakhere (Woodruff Library – Atlanta
University Center), Phyllis Bischof (UC Berkeley), Al Kagan (U of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign), Miki Goral (UCLA), Karen Fung (Stanford), Margaret Hughes
(Stanford), Edward Miner (U of Iowa), Helene Baumann (Duke U), Lauris Olson
(U Penn), Loumona Petroff (Boston U), Patricia Kuntz (Madison, Wisconsin),
Bassey Irele (Harvard U), Patricia Ogedengbe (Northwestern U), Marion Frank-Wilson
(Indiana U), Marieta Harper (Library of Congress), Stephanie Krueger, (JSTOR,
Ann Arbor office), Guest.
SECTION I. BRIEF REPORTS
2. Adoption of Minutes October 30th, 2003
The minutes of the bibliography committee fall meeting at ASA in Boston were
approved.
3. New Bibliographies/Reference Works, see appendix.
4. Conover-Porter Award Progress Report
Limb reported that a good number of nominations was received, several of them
from Africa. A more detailed announcement will be made at the Business Meeting.
SECTION II. DISCUSSION
5. Bibliographic/Reference Tools: where are we going, what are we doing?
(a) Resources for College Libraries
Olson reported on ACRL plans to publish a new edition of Resources for
College Libraries. Questions were raised about potential involvement of ALC members
in the editing of the Africa-related part of that publication. Nosakhere
volunteered to contact ACRL to find out more about the editing process. She
will also contact other area studies associations (e.g., SALALM, CEAL, MELA,
et al.) to find out if they share our concerns. She will post results of
her inquiries to the list or bring them to the fall meeting.
(b) Indexes/Databases: who uses what, when and why?
Limb initiated the discussion by pointing out several issues relating to indexes
and databases, including the discussion about open access (as represented
by the LC Nairobi index, the African Studies Abstracts, and AfricaBib) vs.
commercial indexes/databases (e.g., NISC’s African Studies and South
African Studies; Dissertation Abstracts, etc.); the quality and relevance
of various databases; print vs. online, and the question whether the print
indexes which tend to cover different sources than the online indexes, will
go electronic; the high cost of some commercial databases which excludes
many libraries;
shifts in some library catalogs to be more inclusive, as e.g. the African Studies
Centre in Leiden which includes journal articles in its OPAC, as does the catalog
of the University of Natal/Pietermaritzburg.
Walsh pointed out that with an index such as NISC it might be difficult to
actually obtain the cited sources, since US libraries may not subscribe to
many of the journals indexed. This problem does not occur as frequently with
AfricaBib since most of the journals indexed are held by US libraries. Several
ALC members also mentioned good experiences with the African Studies Abstracts
although the different languages represented can sometimes be a challenge.
Goral pointed out that Ebsco databases can be a good source for information
on Africa for libraries with no Africana collections.
Limb mentioned that NISC has a South African subsidiary with South African
staff working on content. He also pointed out that for the most thorough research
it is best to search both NISC databases (African Studies and South African
Studies) to make full use of all the information included. Both databases have
been merged into one product but Kagan, who has tested it, feels that there
is not enough quality control of the content.
Finnegan drew attention to the Commonwealth Bureau’s database (CABI)
as a good supplement to the Anthropology Index.
As a conclusion of the discussion, it was suggested that librarians should
liaise more with publishers and vendors to improve search features and content.
(c) Web guides & Search Engines in African Studies: where are we going?
There was general agreement that search engines for Africa are still limited.
Concern was expressed over Google’s reference service. Some Google
answers to questions about Africa indicate that Google does not use Africana
experts to answer Africa-related reference questions. This can be problematic
for students who rely heavily on this service. Several ALC members stressed
the importance of librarians to educate students and faculty about sources
other than Google.
6. Reference Trends and African Studies
(a) Online Reference Tutorials
Limb reported on software products which allow one to create websites which
include voice-overs, videos, etc., and suggested that this might be an interesting
future development in the field of African studies, e.g. for short introductions
to African Studies in form of online tutorials.
Boston University (using the ShowMe software) and Berkeley have examples of
online tutorials on their websites at:
http://www.bu.edu/showme/
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/SearchPPT_files/frame.htm
(b) Using Scholarly and Professional Lists
Walsh reported on H-Africa and its usefulness to expose students to current
scholarly debates. A problem noted by several ALC members in this connection
is the fact that some professors do not appreciate having student questions
posted on H-Africa and discourage undergraduates to join the list. It does,
however work well for graduate students, and the discussion logs which can
be accessed without subscribing to the list are a useful feature.
(c) Virtual (email/chat) Reference and Personal Contact
Limb raised questions about virtual reference efforts, e.g. how successful
is it?
Goral reported that UCLA is engaged in virtual reference service but receives
few questions. A study showed that 54% of the questions received were technology
related rather than reference questions. She pointed out that for in-depth
reference questions ‘chatting’ is not sufficient and that there
has to be either in-person or over-the-phone follow-up in addition to ‘chatting’.
It appears that users feel the same way since UCLA’s reference dept.
receives considerably more questions via e-mail.
7. Acquisition/Publisher/Vendor Issues and News
(a) ASA publications, JSTOR, Other Titles
Malanchuk announced that all ASA publications are now part of JSTOR and raised
the question of what journals we want to add in future. He reminded ALC members
that he had developed a list of potential titles which was circulated over
the email list. This list should serve as a starting point for discussions
about which titles to add or substitute between now and the fall meeting in
New Orleans.
JSTOR representative Stephanie Krueger pointed out that JSTOR will expand its
list of journals over the next two years and encourages submissions of African
Studies titles to include. The process for submission would be for ALC to submit
a list which will be reviewed by a department in the New York JSTOR office
which will then make a final decision. JSTOR welcomes submissions any time,
and Krueger suggested that proposals for a ‘mini-collection’/special
collection within African Studies would also be a possibility.
Krueger explained that JSTOR’s pricing system is based on the size of
the institution, and that personal subscriptions to individual titles are also
possible. JSTOR wants to expand its service for individual subscriptions to
whole collections, including document delivery on a title by title basis.
(b) LC Nairobi Matters
Concerns were expressed about the LC Nairobi program. Several ALC members shared
these concerns whereas others reported satisfaction with the program and
a reluctance to pursue the topic. After some discussion the topic was deferred
to the business meeting.
Meeting adjourned: 3:10 pm
Minutes respectfully submitted by Marion Frank-Wilson
Page Last Updated November 5, 2004