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April 16, 2010 Notes - Title VI Librarians
Title VI: April 16, 2010 Notes
Africana Librarians Council, Title VI Librarians Meeting Notes
Spooner Hall, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
Present: Al Kagan (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Miki Goral (UCLA), Joe Lauer (Michigan State University), Charles Riley (Yale University), David Easterbrook (Northwestern University), Dan Reboussin (University of Florida), Patricia Ogedengbe (Northwestern University), Karen Fung (Stanford University), Emilie Songolo (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Marcia Tiede (Northwestern University), Deborah LaFond (SUNY Albany), Judy Alspach (CRL), James Simon (CRL), Ruby Bell-Gam (UCLA), David Westley (Boston University), Peter Limb (Michigan State University), Yuusuf Caruso (Columbia University), Loumona Petroff (Boston University), Beth Restrick (Boston University), Araba Dawson-Andoh (Ohio University).
Updates
The recent round of Title VI proposals have been submitted in late March, and Frank-Wilson reported that 21 applications have been submitted; 10 o 11 will likely be funded. Centers will be notified in late June or early July whether their proposals have been successful.
Discussion of Potential New Projects
Frank-Wilson reminded the group that at the fall meeting we decided not to have an agenda at this meeting to allow for more time to devote to a substantial discussion/brainstorming about new projects. This decision was made in connection with questions from the area directors in the fall - e.g., why are we still microfilming rather than digitizing; why are we spending so much time on projects in Liberia and Senegal rather than doing multiple short-term projects in countries across to the African continent? Should we be in contact with Google about materials to digitize in Africa?
Frank-Wilson reported that the digitization of the previously microfilmed President Tubman papers, Phase I (voted on at the fall meeting of the Title VI librarians), was proceeding at Indiana University, and that Verlon Stone has submitted a proposal to the Title VI librarians for the funding of Phase II of the Project ($10,000). The group decided to discuss this proposal towards the end of the meeting and to proceed with the discussion of new projects.
James Simon presented a Title VI budget report: at this point, $39,909.81 of Title VI funds remain. Frank-Wilson remarked that we are currently in the last year of a Title VI cycle, and that any remaining funds will roll over into a new funding cycle, and that there is a possibility that not the same group of institutions/librarians may be represented. There was agreement in the group, however, that once Title VI funds were transferred from African Studies centers to CAMP, they become part of the common good of the group, and that any funds rolled over from the old year/funding cycle can be voted on by the new group of title VI librarians.
Suggested New Projects
The British Library has African newspapers not held by U.S. libraries which will be moved from the BL to a more remote site (possibly Yorkshire). Peter Limb reported on exploratory conversations he had with Marion Wallace from the British Library to consider the possibility of a cooperative project with ALC – this project might involve the microfilming and/or digitizing of the newspapers. Limb will attend the SCOLMA meeting and continue his conversation with Marion Wallace at that time.
Develop a website which would provide access to the full text of African dissertations. Several African institutions (ca. 10) now make their dissertations available online. However, access to these materials can on occasion be haphazard, due to server and other technical problems on the side of the African institutions. The proposed repository would function as a backup which would at the same time improve access to the dissertations on our end. It remains to be worked out what we would offer in return for that increased access (e.g. buy new servers for the partners, etc.).
This project could potentially be hosted by CRL, and it might lead to other initiatives relating to emerging digital content in Africa.
Should the Title VI librarians become more involved in the microfilming of African newspapers, in collaboration with CAMP?
Africa’s premier archive on film in Burkina Faso has been severely affected by floods. The local archivists are looking for ways to preserve and restore the archive. How can we help, and at the same time work out access for us?
Emilie Ngo-Nguidjol has information from a presentation she attended assessing specific needs. She will forward this information to the list.
What kind of collaboration could we develop to assist in the preservation, share and have access to African films? What possibilities are there that, at the same time, would not diminish the commercial value of the films and any profit for the African filmmakers? For example, would we be able to retain actual dvds and/or reels in this country? Or could we work out a possibility to pay for access to viewing rights for our U.S. users?
EMI in the UK is looking for partners to digitize their early recordings.
James, do you have details?
For example, the archive in St.Louis/Senegal has an extensive collection of photos which would be of interest to many researchers and should be preserved.
ARTStor might be a potential partner in such a project. However, while the involvement of ARTStor would provide funding for the project, other implications when working with ARTstor, mostly relating to restricted access, would have to be considered and worked out.
IFAN/Dakar has a collection of notebooks of several African leaders composed while they were attending the institute. Our earlier work setting up a West African training project could be used in this effort: the equipment is already in place, as well as librarians trained in digitizing.
Could we develop a project that would build on open access movements? The University of Kansas is known for its efforts in the open access movement and could be a potential partner. The University of Florida currently has a TICFIA grant to create the “Digital Library of the Carribbean”. This digital library was developed so that partners can contribute content and maintain their own branding/identity. It could serve as a model to develop capacity for materials to be stored and accessed in a central place. MANIOC (Emilie, can you add details?) was mentioned as a similar initiative.
Suggestion: partner with the African Studies Association to host a repository where members will make their publications available in an open access repository.
Currently, there are few finding aids for African archives on the internet.
Suggestion: create a clearing house for finding aids.
The group agreed that Marion will write up the suggested projects and send them to the list for editing and ranking so that a priority projects will emerge. The possibility of a meeting with the area directors at the fall meeting in San Francisco was discussed. At this point, such a meeting seems premature but could still be considered and arranged should discussions of new projects over email during the coming months make it necessary.
A question whether the Title Vi librarians should meet more often, virtually, was raised and deferred to a larger discussion of the form of ALC meetings at the Business meeting.
The meeting adjourned before Verlon Stone’s proposal to digitize Part II of the President Tubman papers could be considered. This discussion will occur at the CAMP meeting where 15 minutes of meeting time for Title VI matters/reports have been allocated.
Summary of Title VI report at CAMP meeting on Saturday, April 17, 2010
Frank-Wilson gave a brief summary report on the discussion of new projects at the Title VI meeting and raised two issues for discussion:
