Present: Jim Armstrong (LC), Helene Baumann (Duke U), Julianne Beall (LC), Ruby Bell-Gam (UCLA), Phyllis Bischof (UC Berkeley), Simon Bockie (UC Berkeley), Jill Coelho (Harvard), David Easterbrook (Northwestern), Greg Finnegan (Harvard), Karen Fung (Stanford), James Gentner (LC), Miki Goral (UCLA), David Hogarth (Hogarth Representation), Margaret Hughes (Stanford), Al Kagan (U of Illinois), Deborah LaFond (SUNY Albany), Joe Lauer (Michigan State U), Bob Lesh (Northwestern U), Peter Limb (Michigan State U), Ken Lohrentz (U of Kansas), Peter Malanchuk (U of Florida), Wonki Nam (Ohio State U), Lauris Olson (U of Pennsylvania), Laverne Page (LC), Afeworki Paulos (U of Michigan), Loumona Petroff (Boston U), Shoshanah Seidman (Northwestern), Oleg Semikhnenko (MEABOOKS), James T. Simon (CRL), Paul Steere (LC Nairobi), David Westley (Boston U), Marion Frank-Wilson (Indiana U), Dorothy Woodson (Yale)
1. Welcome and Introductions. The meeting was called to order at 4:10pm.
2. The minutes from the Spring, 2001 meeting in Bloomington were approved as corrected.
3. Conover-Porter Award. The deadline for submission of nominated titles (published in 1999, 2000 or 2001) is in two months. A list of titles published during this time period including titles listed in African Book Publishing Record will be distributed by Lohrentz. Sibyl Moses suggested (via email) that the criteria for evaluating nominations be on the ALC website. No decision was reached and the discussion will continue on email. Woodson suggested adding the phrase "reference work in any format" to the Conover-Porter Award call.
4. Outreach. Olson was asked to prepare an outreach program for community college librarians as part of the Penn Title VI program. There was discussion concerning how others contribute to outreach programs on their respective campuses.
5. Library of Congress' Collaborative Digital Reference Service (CDRS). Discussion of if/how ALC members participate in CDRS.
6. U.S. government information on the Internet. Since 9/11, some government Web sites have been revised or closed. There are serious implications for the availability of information for libraries and researchers. Lohrentz expressed concern about the covert manner in which federal agency personnel are making decisions about information access to the public, apparently without accountability or public announcement. He cited the danger of an entire source, such as the DOE "Information Bridge," being taken down when only a small percentage of the information may actually be sensitive, thus affecting information access in other unaffected areas, including Africana sources. Goral, Kagan, LaFond, Lohrentz will draft a resolution to be presented to the ALC business meeting and then to the ASA Board. (See appended text of resolution.)
7. Website preservation. Lauer raised the issue of whether libraries print out PDF files and catalog them. This opened a discussion on the preservation/archiving of websites. No resolution.
8. David Hogarth reported on changes in his business and introduced Oleg Semikhnenko, who will handle Francophone countries and has created a website to replace Hogarth's catalogs http://www.meabooks.com/.
9. Westley reported on the publication of his Bibliography of Swahili Language and Linguistics (University of Wisconsin African Studies Program, 2001).
10. Bischof suggested that the Bibliography Committee send a letter to the Center for Research Libraries supporting the cataloging of the African and other foreign dissertations in their collection.
11. Malanchuk spoke about several issues to be discussed at the ASA Publications Committee - having ASA journals included in online services such as JSTOR or Project Muse and the ongoing problem of collecting copies of papers presented at the annual ASA conference.
12. Coelho ask for more participants and suggestions for reference books to be included in the ABPR.
The meeting was adjourned at 6:20pm
Respectfully submitted,
Miki Goral
RESOLUTION ON ACCESS TO INFORMATION
Approved by the Africana Librarians Council and presented by the Council for consideration at the Business Meeting of the African Studies Association, November 14, 2001
Whereas, due to the terrorist acts of September 11, 2001, the United States Government, without notice, has restricted access to previously available public information; and
Whereas this includes information important for the study of global issues, including the study of Africa;
Therefore be it resolved that the African Studies Association urges all United States Government agencies to restore access to all information available to the public prior to September 11th; and
Be it further resolved that this resolution be sent to President
George W. Bush and members of the Cabinet.