Minutes
November 8, 1996
University of Connecticut, Storrs

Morning segment (Peter Stern, escribano)

Present: Peter Johnson (Princeton), Dan Hazen (Harvard), Edmundo Flores (Library of Congress), Angela Carreno (NYU), Cesar Rodriguez (Yale), Denise Hibay (chair, NYPL), Darlene Waller (UConn), Peter Stern (UMass), David Block (Cornell), Joe Holub (Penn).

Eating and socializing was conducted from 8:00 a.m. to roughly 8:45 a.m. The meeting commenced promptly at 8:45.

1). Minutes from the SALALM LANE were offered and accepted.

2). The next agenda item was a lengthy, free-wheeling discussion of what LANE is, and what we think it should be. CALAFIA, the California libraries consortium, has been offered as an example of a cooperative library group. However, CALAFIA has an easier time than LANE, for several of its members are actually branches of the same university system, which makes pooling of funds much easier. They also have the advantage of close geographical proximity, and UCLA-USC and Berkeley-Stanford agreements have existed for some time. Can shared purchases be made by LANE? Could members pledge a certain amount (Dan offered the figure of 1% of materials budget) for cooperative buying? Materials could then be distributed where they best belong (e.g., videos at NYU). This looks good in theory, but in practice there are usually disputes over what to buy and where to put it. Darlene suggested that materials like videos can go to one institution, microfilms to another, with lists of holdings distributed to all members.

Here the public/private dichotomy of LANE surfaced with a vengeance, and discussion turned to questions of access. Questions of visits, on-site access, and interlibrary loan should be fully aired before any question of cooperative buying is pursued. Are, for example, non-RLG quasi or full members of LANE? Brown has dropped out of RLG, and its future direction is in some doubt. Peter J. pointed out that all Princeton ARL activities must confrom to Princeton's access policies. What do LANE members have in common? A survey around the room found that the only common denominator is membership in the ARL. Penn and UConn do not belong to CRL, for example; UMass, UConn, and Brown are not RLG members. All but UConn and Penn are LAMP members (Penn's membership is pending).

The group agreed that the three most important issues facing LANE in the matter of cooperative purchases are onsite access, ownership of materials, and ILL. Peter J. and Dan admitted that access to their libraries would remain restricted, LANE or no. The discussion then touched on how building access had been important within METRO, since METRO's basic premise was that a student from any METRO library could make a same-day trip to use any other library's materials. Some argued that with the larger LANE group, this was now a moot point, but others disagreed; access is still important. UConn does sends students to Yale, and Umass can (with great difficulty) get researchers into Widener, but only for brief periods. On the other hand, Rutgers students can use the Princeton library, but cannot take materials out. It was agreed that Yale, Harvard, and Princeton should post their access policies on the future LANE home page.

Can LANE be made more "formal?" Will this help resolve the access issue? Joe asked whether making LANE similar to other library consortial agreements would get results. Probably not, it was conceded. Dan pointed out that while he probably cannot get more people into Widener, he has virtual autonomy over his budget, and could theoretically contribute money to joint purchases without much trouble. Perhaps purchases made at member libraries could be put onto all mender OPAC's--NYPL already does this. Several members asked, if we can get catalogers to enter records of other libraries onto our own library OPAC, why can't we get access from administrators. Denise pointed out that ILL issues sometimes have to go all the way to the NYPL's board of trustees for resolution--cataloging records are a much lower- level issue. David Block pointed out that SHARES is breaking down, and that there is more cross OCLC- RLIN lending. So he is optimistic that the future will see easing of access restrictions. Nevertheless, an illustrative example is the Harvard-MIT reciprocal access agreement, which took years to negotiate between two elite institutions only a few miles apart! This does not auger well for immediate improvement on this issue.

David argued that, since changing policy will be hard, we might focus on informal information- sharing, as we have up until now. . What we can or cannot do as a group was debated around the table, especially what can be done at the regional and national levels. Edmundo mentioned that he has been questioned closely at LC as to LANE's objectives; expectations at LC are that LANE will stick to improving communications and educating other institutions. The discussion passed to matters of membership. All original METRO members were RLG; since two potential and one actual LANE member are not RLG, this, it was agreed, should be dropped as a criterium for membership. Peter J. proposed that geography and interest in Latin America should be our only criteria for "participation" (rather than "membership." Joe was concerned about special libraries; all present have "general" LA collections. Would other libraries be welcome as "visitors"? And what about Pitt and Dartmouth? Dan believes we shouldn't "recruit," but be open to inquiries about membership. Denise will approach Eduardo Lozano (Pitt) and Luis Villar (Dartmouth).

3). Purposes, goals--Joe and Darlene are charged to come up with a statement of purpose for the group.

4). Web page-- David Block and Cornell were thanked for his Web activities on behalf of SALALM. A Web page with our LANE newspaper guide might be mounted on the UT Lanic server--but why not a LANE home page, with this guide and other documents? David raised the question of having a local or remote server--wouldn't it be easier to have local control? Lanic, it was pointed out, may eventually change; more and more is being pout on their server. What can be put up are access policies, ILL, statement of purpose, list of current members. It could be the authoritative source for the upon which we have been engaged, like the video consortium. Perhaps URL for access to the catalog, if one is prepared.

Will LC become a formal member of LANE or will it continue to be "ex-oficio?" Edmundo thinks that LC should be a formal member. LC was then voted in as a member.

Discussion then passed to other organizational matters. Should we emulate CALAFIA's organizational statement? Should our head be a convener or a chair? Should he or she have a term of office? Perhaps the "term" should be 4-5 years, with significant help from the members. Denise is not ready to step down yet--she'll let us know when she is.

Discussion then returned to the statement of purpose. It should discuss cooperative and ongoing projects, mention the existence of our home page, access policy, video catalog, etc. Appropriate URL;s should be passed on to David.

5). Newspapers--After a break, David passed out the latest draft of the newspaper list, plus amendments. Denise will add UMass's papers from the consortium guide which Darlene distributed. David will explore the possibilities of converting it from File Masker Pro and putting it up on the Web.

Edmundo was questioned about newspapers at LC. LC has no plans for more cancellations. But there is limited money for filming. Filming is continuing, but there is a 1-2 year backlog, due to shortage of funds. Frank Carroll, head of newspapers, has retired, and there is a rumor that he won't be replaced. Instead, rotating supervisors may be tried. Edmundo was questioned at length about current LC newspaper policies.

6). Dan described the CRL newspaper summit at the area studies CRL conference. (Dan went as representative of LAMP). CRL is interested in foreign newspapers as part of its long-term plans, with support from ARL and LC . There will be a newspaper summit next May in DC, with microfilm ands newspaper publishers, CRL, LC, and other libraries in attendance. Issues like microfilm, digitalization, hard copy will be discussed. Matt Hershey has failed to get results from Scholarly Resources' newspapers.

But Alfredo Montalvo called Denise about setting up his own microfilming operation in Miami. He intends to film newspapers from his countries, and will try to get the copyright clearances. Would LANE be supportive of this? Yes. The group was very enthusiastic about this. David thinks that the dealers can do this very successfully. Perhaps a consortium purchase will encourage such activity. But there are still questions of money--will libraries have to make guarantees of buying x number of copies before he goes ahead? If he can get copyright clearance, it might be worth it. There was also a brief discussion of Alfredo's book-binding efforts.

There was also a question about the CRL server, and the difficulty of accessing its foreign- newspaper homepage. David tried to access it on the UConn server, but failed. Newspaper cancellations should go to the LANE list-serv. It was pointed out that NEXIS carries many foreign newspapers, full-text.

7). Video consortium--Angela passed out her list of non-theatrical videos which are available for borrowing. She reminded us that feature films are not lent on ILL. Ultimately, the list will be available in the RLIN VIM file. Angela also described the links (by subject and country) she has asked for from her catalogers. ILL is available at NYU for LANE members; it may also possibly be granted for non-RLG as well. Videos are lent for 2 weeks. Only David has actually borrowed a film. The list will be mounted on the Web at NYU, and David will link to it.

LAVA, the Latin American Video Archive also has a catalog. NYU may eventually take over LAVA and their database on productions and distributors. Karen Ranucci is looking for a home for the database, but she will maintain it. Discussion turned to what videos libraries are collecting, especially NYPL and Instituto Cervantes. NYU will act as conservator of these films. High use will cause deterioration, and NYU will refresh videos. Their AV center also does this fopr low-use tiems. The cooperative purchasing of videos was discussed. Money is to be sent to Angela; she will also take requests. David opined that this is a good idea, because NYU will keep, conserve, and lend. The video policy and plan for resource-pooling should be included in the statement of purpose. Joe thinks that .5% to 1% should be allocated, as in California, to cooperative putchasing. Money should be sent to vuild a collection, not to pruchase individual desired videos. Karen Ranucci and the Insatituto Cervantes will handle materials for which there is no copyright or clear information. Denise described some videos on the Lealier case whiuch she has. David asked about clarification of rights for this kind oif material. Denise recpaituated--Angela will send an invlice to people whoi controibutre to the video pool. Anbgela spends some $120,000 on videos; about $7,000 on Latin America.

*Break for lunch. Dan recommends the apple pie; BUT, "the cake was good, too."

8). ARL--Dan Hazen reported on the ARL Project. Several things are happening: the pilot phase is coming to an end (money is running out--the $3,000 per participant and the Mellon grant). This was used for the UT Lanic serial assignment table of contents (TOC) phase, plus the Mexican and Argentine presidential messages digitalization. The NGO component failed--no results. The serial component has 300-400 titles. The TOC database gets little use. Mark Grover is leaving as project coordinator. Someone from Texas will take on the role (Drew ___?). UT Lanic will maintain the serials database. Why not put all of it at UT, someone asked? Since they have the serials there?

The mongraphs project seems to be the new direction: a reallocation of 7% of Latin American budget, on a voluntary basis, to an area. This must be cleared by a committee to avoid duplication. This phase is open to all, but since 35 libraries "bought into" the project with $3,000 each, new participants may have to do the same.

Reaction--skepticism from directors, collection development people, since they see the European phase of Farmington as a failure. The project is supposed to being January 1, 1997, but many institutions have a fiscal year from July 1 to June 30., The goal is to get as many people as possible signed on. It is a low-energy project--a little bit more focus on a particular area. It is hoped that cataloging will be done sooner, as well as ILL--but no huge extra effort, as in phase 1. Problems include political issues; if a small institution re-allocates to a small, limited area, will this have any effect at the national level? The discussion then focused on areas at risk, especially provincial materials, of local and national relevance. How many LANE members plan on participating in the new project? All but UMass, UConn, Penn, and possibly Rutgers (no librarian present).

Peter J. suggested that access to the serials database be through OPAC links--how could people find out about it? How will members report the results of their efforts in this area? David asked what standards we would be trying to meet? Dan replied that he hopes that some years down the road access to more discrete titles could be shown. There followed a brief discussion of the merits of divorcing this phase of the project from ARL--the benefits and drawbacks of this approach were discussed. Angela asked whether most libraries were collecting countries over country/subject parameters? Apparently ten libraries have committed themselves to this project so far.

9). Electronica-- Discussion on how to handle our new electronic materials. The Nexos CD was branded "no good." The Handbook of Latin American Studies URL ids ready to go./ NISC costs $1,200, but unlimited direct access to HAPI can be had for $800/year.

Peter J. announced that Princeton has acquired the NACLA archives from the New School, and will market it through Scholarly Resources.

It was also proposed that a future compilation project for LANE might be census and statistical data which we collect at our libraries.

Break for tour.

Afternoon Segment. (Dan Hazen, Recorder)

1:00-2:00: Tour of the Dodd Research Center, including visits to special collections of Hispanic history and culture. Everyone was more than suitably impressed with the spanking new building, the beautifully housed books, and the materials themselves--among them nineteenth-century newspapers received from the American Antiquarian Society and special holdings from Puerto Rico, Chile, and Spain. We also had a chance to appreciate UConn's electronic gateway and online services.

10). Electronica (Peter J.):

Peter, with Frank Fonseca, is reviewing humanities CD-ROM's and diskettes for the Handbook of Latin American Studies. (Molly Molloy is responsible for Internet resources; Harold Colson is contributing to the Social Science volumes.) Peter's chore has raised his curiosity and concern over how other institutions handle CD-ROM's and diskettes, particularly in terms of verifying usability, storage, and access policies. Some of the issues include:
-should diskettes be copied to hard drives to ensure that data are preserved and that the diskettes themselves are not damaged or lost?
-how do libraries deal with software problems associated with diskettes (and CD's) lacking documentation, with flaws, or otherwise impossible to use?
-some Cuban CD-ROM's are geared for printing on European sized paper, generating a host of problems with most North American equipment. What can be done?
-diskettes are usually not secure against deliberate or inadvertant alterations by users. -electronic products may not specify whether purchasers are bound by use restrictions.
-diskettes and CD-ROM's can be lost or stolen, as has happened with the Gaceta Oficial de Mexico CD at Princeton.

A variety of library practices and policies was described. Some libraries routinely place books and accompanying diskettes together on the shelves. Others house the materials together, but in closed stacks. Rutgers has made copies of floppy disks in order to ensure that the information will not be lost. LC's Hispanic Division is cautious in recommending CD-ROM's, partly due to limited public access capabilities. LC has not yet articulated formal policies, but the general approach is to hold off until it is absolutely essential to acquire something on CD. Several members thought that CD's are most safely acquired from established vendors.

Evaluating new CD-ROM's to make sure that they work before invoices are paid is problematic as well. Nearly everyone had tales of CD's that have turned out not to work, a discovery sometimes made when returns are no longer possible. There was general agreement that we should post news of CD flaws and failures so that others, at least, avoid defective products.

A nascent discussion of census and statistical files available in electronic format morphed into an accounting of census holdings. Yale's Economic Growth Center is being "restructured," and may have to cut back on census coverage. Other institutions, including NYPL and Harvard, claim (or aspire to?) comprehensive collections of all census materials-- economic, agricultural, industrial, etc., as well as demographic. A survey of census coverage, perhaps leading to a union list, may be an agenda item for the future.

Peter S. praised the French database "FRANCIS," apparently available as a Eureka file, for its Latin American coverage. It is also available on CD-ROM. Denise reported budget battles and hefty RLIN bills at NYPL that are resulting in reduced access to Citadel files, a reduced number of simultaneous ports available to the Library as a whole, and generally reduced reliance on RLG databases. RLG is, in part, tinkering with new pricing schemes because its once-assured revenue source from cataloging (and to lesser degree acquisitions) has eroded. One member characterized RLG as a "group of special libraries"--art libraries, medical libraries, libraries in the United Kingdom, etc.--more than a functional full-range consortium. RLG seems to be hunting for its niche, and in the meantime struggling to stay solvent.

HAPI is now available via telnet, and the Handbook is up on the Web. The "Latin American Studies" twin CD set, many of whose databases are available by other means as well, is particularly expensive for networking. The online World News Connection (formerly Foreign Broadcast Information Service, FBIS) was generally thought to be useful, but not as thorough as its FBIS predecessor. A quick game of "My Password Is Better Than Yours" ended in a dead heat between "tarea" and "chavin." (The prize, a 16 ounce can of Harvard beets, was not awarded.) There was a general discussion of who is subscribing to which databases through what sorts of system; variety and change were general features.

Darlene demonstrated the UConn library home page and its "A-Z" list of electronic databases (including many brokered via Dialog). UConn's budget for electronic resources is based on transfers from monograph allocations, as well as some separate start-up funds. Funds at UConn have also been shifted from collection development toward document delivery. Reference work has intensified, as has interlibrary loan traffic. The implications of increased reliance on electronic products and remote access has substantially stretched (and sometimes stressed) librarians who are "in the trenches." NYPL allocations funds have experienced a 3% "tax" for electronic materials.

11). Announcements. Members were invited to report on significant local news as we went around the room:

-Darlene described the packet of UConn materials. UConn, with UMass, Brown, and Yale has just submitted a Title VI application. Some of the materials in the packet will be updated to represent the holdings of these new consortial buddies.

-Peter S. has completed two months at UMass. He noted its "fine" Latin American collections, formed by Pauline Collins through her 28-year career. (The collection has recently been named in her honor.) Peter enjoys a "huge" budget by comparison with his previous institutions, and the library's collections are generally solid. UMass has a "thriving" Latin American program, and also participates in several consortia including the Boston Library Consortium and a group of five college and university libraries in Western Massachusetts. UMass has a new director, under whose leadership it may actually enter the twentieth century.

-David noted that Sarah Thomas (from the Library of Congress) is Cornell's new director. Cornell remains in a Title VI consortium with Pitt.

-Joe reported on Penn's Latin American Studies major for undergraduates. New faculty members continue to appear, and Penn is exploring consortial possibilities with Penn State.

-Peter J. noted Princeton's undergraduate Certificate in Latin American Studies, last year received by more than one hundred students (as opposed to fourteen when Peter began at Princeton). Karen Trainer, formerly of Yale, is Princeton's new director. The Latin American faculty remains fairly compact.

The NACLA Archive, now housed at the New School, covers the period between the late 1950s and 1985. Its holdings are now almost completely organized into categories reflecting those of Princeton's ephemera collections. The NACLA collection will be microfilmed and, once contract details are complete, Scholarly Resources will market it. NYU may become involved in cataloging the materials. Peter has been working with the collection since 1994; it is in 270 boxes, which may translate into 150-170 reels of film. Some of its most extraordinary holdings include Chilean materials from the period before Pinochet (beginning with Alessandri and Frei, and continuing through the Allende years), and very thorough representations of U.S. church groups and how they have addressed Latin America over time.

Princeton has acquired Vargas Llosa's political campaign archive, which includes printed materials, video footage, and the like. This complements existing Vargas Llosa holdings at Princeton.

-Dan noted the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies' consolidation and gradual capitalization in conjunction with Harvard's capital campaign. Some of the new funds are earmarked for the library. Harvard recently acquired all available microfilm for the Mexican newspaper Uno Mas Uno. Issue-by-issue comparisons with an extensive hardcopy run should enable some complementary filming. The group responded favorably to Dan's invitation for LANE to meet in Cambridge next fall..

-Edmundo reported on the Hispanic Division's brand new home page. He noted (with evident relief) that Terry Peet is handling the lion's share of SALALM preparations.

-Angela reported that NYU's Center for Latin American Studies has relocated. NYU and Columbia have submitted a joint Title VI application. (Earlier in the meeting Denise reported that the Columbia search for Laurence's replacement is proceeding well.)

-Cesar noted that Yale's Council on Latin American Studies is "very active," with relatively new hires including Stuart Schwartz, David Johnson, and Rolena Adorno. Johnson, in particular, is building Portuguese studies; most of the Council's new efforts bring some support for the library. Within the library, Yale's bibliographers (though not the area curators, who already have significant public service responsibilities) are now working ten hours per week on the general reference desk. They are not entirely happy, but the reference collection is apparently vastly improved.

-Denise reported that NYPL is considering a project to digitize some Latin American materials, perhaps in some sort of loose association with its current RECON efforts. There was brief discussion of ways to think about digitizing--the JSTOR example of enhancing access while reducing expensive maintenance costs for duplicative collections of high-use materials; the possibility of assembling scattered materials or simply broadening access to scarce resources; the option of scanning tables of contents and/or indexes to supplement catalog records for materials not immediately accessible to users.

-Peter S. noted that Rutgers has acquired the Author Catalog microfiche set for the Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid.

Everyone in the group was exhorted to report on buying trips. After some discussion, most agreed that specific add-on assignments to help resolve problems for their LANE confreres and consoeurs would usually be feasible.

12). New Initiatives.

Several possibilities for LANE attention were addressed including census data, government documents, and major microform sets. After some discussion, the group agreed that a union list of major microfilm sets would be immensely useful. Some institutions (including the UConn/UMass/Brown group) already have such lists. It may be possible, eventually, to annotate these records. Institutions with lists in hand will post URLs or circulate hardcopy sheets to help their benighted brethren (some in Cambridge...) to get started. Darlene agreed to gather and systematize this information. We will begin with a straightforward alphabetical list of sets, and decide later whether a relational database will enhance its utility. This work assignment is to be completed in time for the spring SALALM meeting.

All libraries were invited to send their unwanted telephone books to Denise.

13). SALALM '97.

Denise raised the possibility of a LANE-sponsored workshop along the lines of a recent "law referral workshop" held at NYPL, in which non-specialist librarians received a general overview of legal resources and scholarship. LANE might explore thematic sessions--perhaps in which our own experts review particular sorts of materials for a more general audience, perhaps in which subject specialists (like those in LC's Hispanic Law Division) address us all. Possible topics could include law or documents, manuscript materials, art, music, etc. Cross-fertilization is important: last spring ARLIS met in Miami around the theme of Latin American art, though with minimal contact or interchange with SALALM.

The meeting adjourned, on schedule, at 4:30.

Work Assignment, Afternoon Session: Everyone is to report their library's holdings of major Latin American microform sets to Darlene in time for review at SALALM.

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