Minutes
Fall Meeting
November 9, 2001
Rutgers University

Present: J.Holub (UPenn), F. Acosta Rodríguez (NYPL, chair), E. Lozano (UPitt), L. Shirey (Harvard), P. Graham (Columbia, recording), P. Stern (UMass), C. Rodríguez (Yale), D. Waller (UConn), L. Vázquez (Rutgers), P. Johnson (Princeton, recording)

Fernando welcomed members and thanked Lourdes for hosting Lane meeting. Ryoko Toyama, Rutgers University Library Director, welcomed those attending.

I. Agenda item: Administrative

New members include Patricia Figueroa (Brown University), Heleni Pedersoli (University of Maryland-College Park) and Roberta Astroff (Pennsylvania State University).

Minutes review from preceeding meeting:
1. Collection descriptions were gathered by F. Fonseca; a check of the LANE homepage will reveal which ones are still lacking. Links to collection development statements are also feasible.
2. Personal contact information has been added to the web page except for new members.
3. Union list of newspapers and magazines has extensive revisions. Further discussion ahead.

Homepage updates: Added collection descriptions and ARL responsibilities. See at http://www.nypl.org/research/LANE/strengths.htm

Chair succession: Given the consistent and strong leadership of F. Acosta Rodríguez, those attending decided that he should continue for another two or three years.

II. Agenda item: LANE objectives discussion

One half of the membership responded to Fernando's survey on LANE present and future objectives. Common agreement exists for:
(1) sharing information is very relevant and worthwhile;
(2) we should share more information about acquisition trips, electronic resources, vendor information; and
(3) we should be very selective on what collaborative projects that we undertake.

The only specific project now is the ongoing union list of serials. Is it possible, feasible, desirable to launch other projects? Smaller groups within LANE cooperate and this is possibly the most selective and effective. These arrangements reflect geography or the type of collections. Such activities should be reported on the webpage.

Within the Ivy League libraries, do cooperative agreements exist between the main collections and those covering rare materials? The Harvard, Yale and Princeton divinity schools have agreements for dividing geographic coverage; Princeton does Latin America.

Other cooperative arrangements include the normal interlibrary loan services and the new RECAP (Columbia, NYPL, and Princeton) remote storage facility. Purchasing materials within a consortium places special importance upon reporting; often these consortia work because of the financial support behind them. For some institutions to obtain funding, it's important to demonstrate such cooperative arrangements.

Project proposals:

Discussion ensued concerning potential projects and some that are on-stream. Digitalization project for historic pamphlets: Harvard has 3,000 bound volumes; strategy is to do Bolivia, Argentina and some other countries, microfilm and scan at the same time, this being after the items are cataloged. The idea is to place the materials on the Web. As suggested by D. Hazen, a cooperative digitalization project among libraries with significant pamphlet collections is possible.

But, the costs and strategies for preparing collections of primary sources for preservation and subsequent broader availability are often complex amd can make collaboration very difficult. At Yale Primary Source Media is providing the dollars to process some materials that will be filmed. NYPL is cataloging and filming 19th century and early 20th century pamphlets for Latin America, much of it covering Mexico. Although they are being filmed, digitalization is technically possible. IDC is preparing the Robert Alexander interviews held at Rutgers. The collection has pamphlets on the politics of the region from the late 1940s - 1960s. These are going into an Access database and with the use of Cold Fusion a search interface for Web use is possible. Yale has a project to identify pamphlet collections which are not under full bibliographic control. Should digitalization become an option, the Univ. of Mass.-Amherst Library has underutilized capacity to handle such work.

A second proposal discussed was developing and maintaining a Web page with non-redundant specialization. It would help researchers but requires much work and funds. Pamela proposed developing a Web page, perhaps in LANIC, to identify what digitalized collections exist (e.g., Presidential messages of Argentina and Mexico; 19th century Brazilian government reports). LANE might work with other regional groups to pull such information together. We need to explore this at SALALM and discuss it with LANIC people (action item). Because so many collections are being processed, starting now and establishing reporting procedures will make maintaining such a site easier.

The third proposal, a union list of non-serial microfilm sets would prove useful. What is available and where: such information is helpful for collection development and referrals. Often the materials are not easily discernible from the main catalog. Some libraries have such lists thereby requiring only a link to the web page (this includes UConn, Cornell, NYU, Rutgers, Yale, Princeton). A LANE version could be developed with more description.

The microfilm union list is feasible; should this be a LANE list or just links to individual libraries? JAKE software enables searching across databases. We should start with large sets, with emphasis on sets not widely held. But who will do this? LANE has links to these descriptions existing (see LANE Microform sets), but some libraries have yet to either prepare such lists or report the links to LANE. This is an action item for the June 2002 meeting. P.Graham will check with the other regional groups as to their intent in this area.

A brief discussion on 20th century manuscript collections emphasized the need for LANE links, but again, descriptions and links need reporting to LANE. Another action item for June; C.Rodríguez will coordinate the preparation of this.

Morning minutes prepared by P. Johnson.

After lunch break, Lourdes Vázquez showed us a recently launched online journal, Arachne@Rutgers: Journal of Iberian and Latin American Literary and Cultural Studies . The journal is edited in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Rutgers, and publishes in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan. It is biannual, and one issue has been published online thus far. It has an ISSN, and will be indexed in MLA.

III. Agenda item: LANE Union list

Fernando distributed a report on the LANE union list of newspapers web page. He has implemented previously discussed changes, such as deleting detailed holdings information and some of the US/ UK publications from the list. The report detailed new titles he has added to the web page, and we discussed coverage of titles that no LANE institution is receiving. New titles will remain on the web page for the near future, and will be removed if no LANE institution picks up the titles. Fernando's report also listed older titles with no LANE subscribers, titles deleted from the web page (due to cessations or to their being out of the scope of the union list), and possible cessations needing more investigation. We also reviewed country assignments, which are in the minutes for the Nov. 2000 meeting . A few changes were made: Puerto Rico will be the responsibility of the Univ. of Connecticut instead of Yale; and Jamaica will be reviewed by Columbia instead of UMass/Amherst.

Action items: Lynn Shirey will look into the availability of microfilm of the Spanish paper, El Mundo (no US library holds in paper or film); any LANE member who has not reviewed their assigned countries for new titles will do so and report the findings to Fernando prior to the next LANE meeting; LANE members will report any updates in their own holdings information to Fernando.

IV. Agenda item: Newspapers

We discussed the "Newspaper Summit" panel held at this year's SALALM meeting in Tempe. A SALALM-wide task force was formed after this panel but has not yet met. The group will consider various problems and challenges of collecting and preserving newspapers. Some of the members of the task force are David Block (Cornell), Hortencia Calvo (Duke), Dan Hazen (Harvard), Fernando Acosta-Rodríguez (NYPL) and one more person.

V. Agenda item: Government documents

We had a general discussion of the challenges of collecting government documents in a comprehensive manner, especially at subnational/ municipal levels. Eduardo Lozano pointed out that collecting will vary among libraries, as we have differing interests and commitments to collection development in this area. We also discussed the roles of bookdealers, the importance of using buying trips to acquire these materials, and of making contacts with producers of government information. Joe Holub mentioned that the ALA Government Documents Round Table (GODORT) will no longer be producing their Guide to Official Publications of Foreign Countries, and that the Government Documents subcommittee of SALALM may take over covering Latin American countries featured in the GODORT guide.

VI. Agenda item: Serials

We had a general discussion that focused on challenges of acquiring serials in a reliable and timely manner. Problems with vendor performance were discussed along with recognition of the difficulties that vendors have in providing services in this area.

VII. Agenda item: Videos

Most LANE institutions are collecting videos at some level. In some cases, libraries house video collections and in other cases language labs or academic departments acquire and/or hold videos. NYPL has been steadily collecting documentary films, acquired through vendors and on buying trips and will have a list soon. There is a section of the LANE web page that has links to video holdings lists of several member institutions (see LANE video consortium). There was also a brief discussion of other multi-media collection development. Fernando mentioned that Pedro García Moreno will be providing him with a sample of about 50 fotonovelas from Mexico.

VIII. Agenda item: SALALM panels

We discussed possible LANE-sponsored panels for Ithaca 2002, including one that would highlight pamphlet collections held in LANE libraries and describe projects to preserve and /or digitize these materials. Joe Holub mentioned the idea of having someone from the Dag Hammarskjöld Library at the United Nations give a presentation on documents. The possibility of having someone from the OAS or the Inter-American Development Bank was also mentioned. Lynn Shirey mentioned a panel on the Chupacabra phenomenon.

IX. LANE expansion

Interest in LANE has been growing, and we discussed the possibility of extending LANE's geographic reach across the Atlantic to include European institutions, such as the British Library, Oxford, and the Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut in Berlin. There was consensus that we would benefit from including these institutions in LANE. We agreed to speak to their representatives at the next SALALM to explain LANE's purpose and to fill them in on what is involved in participating in LANE.

X. Announcements

NYPL: The NYPL has experienced a 15 % budget cut due to recent crises and problems in New York City. The brunt of this cut will fall on the branch libraries and there are no current plans to cut the materials budgets for the research libraries. Hiring freezes are in place. Fernando reported that they have finished NEH 6 and are starting NEH 7, which involves filming of monographs, serials and pamphlets from Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. They are also preserving government publications, biographies, and about 50-60 pre-1950 telephone books from Mexico, Argentina and Cuba and a few other countries. NYPL is also selecting blocks of items by class mark for shifting to offsite storage, which will be in a shared facility (with Princeton and Columbia) located in New Jersey.

UPenn: Also selecting items for storage, and moving low-use journals offisite.

Princeton: Peter Johnson announced plans for travel to Cuba, Bolivia, Peru and Venezuela in early 2002. Ricardo Piglia has been hired at Princeton. Major purchases / negotiations for purchase include: a collection of a couple thousand Cuban postcards, dating from pre-1898 (mostly 1880s/90s) through the early/mid 20th century; Guatemalan civil war materials; correspondence of Manuel Mujica Lainez.

Yale: César Rodríguez announced that Yale received a Mellon Foundation grant to support the training of Latin American historians (approx. $500,000 with $100,000 going to the Library) The library funds are being used to process manuscripts from Mexico and Peru, and Spanish documents from the 16th and 17th centuries. Finding aids for these collections will be put online and used in training students. Yale is also digitizing approx. 6000 images from the Castro period in Cuba, taken primarily by 2 journalists. They are also working on digitizing and conserving 18th and 19th century maps. Yale will migrate to a new OPAC/library system (Endeavor) in July 2002.

Harvard: Dan Hazen is in El Salvador and Colombia. Lynn Shirey reported that Harvard will be doing user surveys to assess library services. Plans to move technical services out of the Library have proceeded. Harvard has started several new approval plans, and will also be migrating to a new library system (Ex-Libris' Aleph). They continue to send material to the depository, including new acquisitions. Renovation of Widener continues.

UPittsburgh: The Latin American library website now has lists of books cataloged within the last 6 months, based on acquisitions on the Latin American funds. Eduardo Lozano will be travelling to Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile in early 2002. Remote storage facilities will be closer to the library, but more materials and staff will be located offsite. So far decisions for moving books to offsite storage have been based on circulation statistics (no activity since 1960). Plans continue for the Latin American reading room, scheduled to open in December. Reference materials, newspapers, and some services will be located in the room. Eduardo plans to have equipment for viewing/listening to audio-visual materials, and there will be a small lecture hall in the multi-purpose space. He also announced plans to sell Pittsburgh's large collection of duplicate Latin American serials. He will circulate lists of available titles to LANE, and charge $3/issue. The list will also go out to SALALM after LANE institutions have reviewed it.

Columbia: A new University Librarian, Jim Neal, has started work at Columbia. Plans for the Latin American Reading Room continue. Unlike Pittsburgh, this room will contain a collection of "core" items in Latin American studies, duplicating holdings elsewhere in the collections. No serials or reference items will be in the room. The room will open in late 2003. Renovation of the 5th and 6th floors of Butler continues. Columbia is also moving materials to offsite. A first wave of circulation based decisions has been done, and materials are temporarily housed in a facility in the Bronx until the shared New Jersey facility opens. There's been discussion of digitizing tables of contents of lesser used journals that are not indexed prior to moving such things to offsite.

UConn: Darlene Waller has a list of duplicate serials that will soon be sent out. She's working on a guide to Puerto Rican census materials which have been filmed. Darlene will be on leave in Puerto Rico from January to July 2002, working on several research projects involving Puerto Rican libraries and collections. UConn is also working on transcriptions of 18th and 19th century Puerto Rican court documents.

UMass/Amherst: UMass is experiencing a 20% cut in its acquisitions budget. Peter Stern worked on a project to digitize images of posters from the Spanish Civil War for inclusion in a web page he prepared to support a course. He also has a large collection of duplicate/sample serials and will be under pressure to dispose of them in the near future.

Rutgers: A Global Portuguese Institute has been formed in Newark, partly in response to the growing Portuguese-speaking population in that area. The New Brunswick campus library supports this interest with ongoing purchases of Brazilian and Portuguese African materials. Earlier this year the library hosted an exhibit on US-Latin American relations. The New Jersey Book Arts Symposium was recently held at Rutgers and 2 Latin American artists participated.

Afternoon minutes prepared by P. Graham.

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