Minutes
May 25, 2003
Cartagena, Colombia

Present: Fernando Acosta-Rodríguez (Chair; Princeton), Kate McCann, Edmundo Flores (LC), Cesar Rodríguez (Yale), Pamela Graham (Colombia), Dan Hazen (Harvard), Lynn Shirey (minutes; Harvard), Angela Carreño (NYU), Darlene Hull (U of Conn), Lourdes Vázquez (Rutgers), Patricia Figueroa (Brown), Alison Hill (British Library), Peter Altkrueger, Peter Johnson, Martha Montilla, Henry Snyder, Sary Leroy, Tina Gross, James Simon

I. Welcome and administrative

Fernando opened the meeting and members and attendees introduced themselves.

The AM portion of last fall's LANE meeting minutes were never turned in; unfortunately, these included some action items.

The LANE Chair position is being vacated by Fernando Acosta-Rodríguez, who has taken a new position at Princeton. He will be accepting nominations and/or volunteers' names up until July 1. In the case of multiple nominees, there will be a vote or raffle. The new Chair will be decided upon and announced soon after.

Homepage administration: the LANE page still resides at NYPL. Administration could go with the new Chair, but not necessarily-it could be done somewhere else. Fernando will continue to maintain the Union list (serials); would like to make it more visible.

The Fall LANE meeting will be held at Brown University, Providence, RI. Date and time will be announced.

I. Member reports

Kate McCann, LC, gave an update to full text linkage of the Handbook of Latin American Studies. The HLAS is undertaking an open URL initiative. LC is conducting a pilot project with Princeton using SFX to point users to local resources (databases, etc.). If your library does not use SFX and is interested in testing, please contact Kate. Z39.50 access to HLAS is currently available; can use local Endnote software to download records.

Edmundo Flores, LC: sends lists of new purchases and microfilm to LANE frequently. Distributed list of Hispanic-American journals in LC.

César Rodríguez, Yale: reports staffing shortages, budget same as usual but not buying expensive items; need to communicate among libraries re: expensive purchases, potential cost sharing. Library renovation continues; filling in gaps of microfilmed newspapers

Pamela Graham, Columbia: staffing cuts; will share info about serial cancellations if they occur; new RR for Latin American Studies, this summer; new library catalog; purchased Brazil's Popular Groups.

Alison Hill, BL: Selection for Latin America and Spain has been separated at the British Library. She is covering LA only, but this includes US Latino. Asked how US Latino material was covered at other institutions: in many cases, US bibliographers responsible for English lang Latino materials, sometimes Spanish as well. Most librarians reported confusion at their institutions regarding this subject area. Converting to new library catalog, Aleph. Purchased first English language book published in Mexico, a doctrinal work.

James Simon, CRL: proposed splitting major purchases [between libraries] and depositing them at CRL, where all members can borrow. Further discussion is needed.

Fernando Acosta-Rodríguez, Princeton: recently started at Princeton. No budget cuts. Ephemera/gray literature collecting to continue.

Angela Carreño, NYU: ILL of microfilm; who lends? Varied responses. Library catalog migrating to Endeavor. The Social Science and Humanities Reference centers are merging; offsite storage selection in process, based on circulation statistics. Video and sound recordings collecting continues

Patricia Figueroa, Brown: she is newly responsible for Latino materials, new budget

Peter Altkrueger, Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut: Roberto Arlt mss purchased.

Lynn Shirey, Harvard: Purchased Inforpress Centroamericana (full text articles from news archive, 1980-); Sur (Buenos Aires) in digital format; renovation nearing completion

III. US Latino newspapers

Pamela Graham led a discussion of US Latino newspapers. Columbia collects Hoy (New York), which has good coverage of Latin America, as opposed to other US Latino dailies that carry mostly local news (El Diario La Prensa). Harvard has partial film of La Opinión (Los Angeles), due to a user request. Is anyone collecting Siempre, which is free? [No] Which of these newspapers belong in Latin American studies? American Studies librarians usually have $$ but don't know what to buy.

Henry Snyder (UC, Riverside) suggested the Newspaper Project as a source of info as to what is/has been published and who collects it. Each major US city has appointed library of record for local newspapers.

Ideas for next steps (new chair): get lists of titles from the U.S. Newspaper Project (H. Snyder offered his help). Check titles covered by Ethnic News Watch. For titles not covered there, or held at other libraries, share collecting? A good source for info is: Recovering the Hispanic Literary Heritage by Nicholas Kanellos (coverage is heavily SW-US).

[Someone turned the lights on, so we wouldn't have to take notes in the dark]

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