June 6 , 2004

Ann Arbor, Michigan
June 6, 2004

Members Present: Paul Bary (Tulane), Adán Benavides (U. of Texas-Benson), Peter Bushnell, (U. of Florida), Hortensia Calvo (Tulane), Teresa Chapa (UNC-Chapel Hill), Paula Covington (Vanderbilt), Olga Espejo (U. of Miami), Becky Huckaby (UNC-Chapel Hill), Elmelinda Lara (U. of the West Indies, St. Augustine), Paul Losch (U. of Florida), Catherine Marsicek (Florida International, LASER Chair), Irene Münster (Duke), Richard Phillips (U. of Florida), Margaret Rouse-Jones (U. of the West Indies, St. Augustine), Laura D. Shedenhelm (U. of Georgia), Emily Stambaugh (Wake Forest), Víctor F. Torres (U. of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras), John Vickery (UNC-Chapel Hill), Gayle Williams (Emory).

Guests Present: Peter Johnson (Princeton).

1. Introductions. Welcome to Margaret Rouse-Jones and Elmelinda Lara, of the University of the West Indies.

2. Emily Stambaugh presented sample LASER web pages based on the groups' discussion in March 2004 for the suggested changes. These were discussed and the following suggestions were made:
• have the Institutions page be a "list of lists" only
• have a list of librarians
• include a mission statement
• have bullets on the first page
• use a table format for the union lists
• have a colored background
• will change address of permanent page and announce it

3. Catherine Marsicek presented follow-up information on the Florida International exchanges database. Some of the discussion points were:
• should it be a LASER project?
• how much is the project worth to fund?
• should it be a subscription?
• should there be LASER dues to help cover it?
• include OCLC #s if possible
• there will be multiple entries
• programming and upkeep is an issue
• some institutions have large lists of duplicates (ex.: U. of Texas)
• Tulane is dismantling its current exchange program and deciding what to do with the duplicates
• various states have particular laws regarding the disposal of state property
• there needs to be a consideration given for rare or expensive items versus common titles
The outcome is that people are interested and recommend that Florida International continue development of the database.

4. There was discussion about dates for the next LASER meeting which will be hosted by UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke. The time would be set when they know more about their budgets.

5. Everyone should think about possibilities for panels for the next SALALM conference. We can discuss this on the list. Perhaps a program on unknown archival collections?

6. Catherine Marsicek will write an article for the SALALM Newsletter about our meeting last March.

Minutes submitted by Laura D. Shedenhelm.
 

March 5-7, 2004

LASER in Miami, Minutes
March 5-7, 2004

In attendance: Holly Ackerman (UM), Paul Bary (Tulane), Teresa Chapa (UNC-Chapel Hill), Paula Covington (Vanderbily), Olga Espejo (UM), Marian Goslinga (FIU), Carrie Leslie (UM), Paul Losch (UF), Cathy Marsicek, Chair (FIU), Irene Muenster (Duke), Richard Phillips (UF), Laura Shedenhelm (UGA), Emily Stambaugh (Wake Forest), Victor Torres (UPR-Rio Piedras), Lesbia Varona (UM), Gayle Williams (Emory).

March 5, 9:00am - 4:30pm

• Tour of Miami and Little Haiti, with Alex Stepick of FIU
• Visit to Libreri Mapou (Haitian bookstore) and visit with Jan Mapou.
• Tour of Little Havana, with Lisandro Perez of FIU
• Visit to Ediciones Universal and visit with members of Salvat family.

  
  March 6, 9:00am - 12:00pm (Minutes by Emily Stambaugh)

• Tour of FIU Green Library, LACIC and announcement of the Color Mulata exhibit
• Institutional News

  FIU (Cathy, Marian)
  FIU has begun a new initiative for Immigration Studies and belongs to a new consortium for Andean Studies. An open invitation to the consortium was extended to LASER members. As a result of the financial crisis at FIU, the library collections have suffered immensely. The library hopes to gain new space in the Green building when the Law School moves to its own building. The Law School currently occupies 2 floors of the library. A new medical school has been proposed at FIU.

  FIU's collection strengths are Cuba and the Caribbean. FIU's ARL and LARRP focus is Colombia, therefore seeking to expand collections and reduce duplication in Florida (as UM is focusing on Cuba and UF on Caribbean for LARRP). The library recently received a gift of 500-1000 volumes of Colombian poetry.

  Marian recommended an article in v35 of Cuban Studies by Maria Montes which talks about collections related to Cuba in Miami. Miriam also asked members to consider reinvigorating library exchanges; last year the Casa de las Americas expressed an interest in exchanging with US libraries.

  University of Miami (Carrie, Holly, Olga and Lesbia)
  Carrie introduced herself. She is the newest member of LASER from UM.

  UM has a new director, Bill Walker, previously from New York Public Library. The University is engaged in a fundraising campaign for an addition to the library. UM is also conducting a search for the position of Director for the Center of Inter-American Studies. The North/South Center was closed at UM and the faculty will be redistributed to other area studies departments (dedicated to the EU, Post Soviet Union, Caribbean, etc.), or retire.

  UM's collection strengths relevant to Latin American Studies include the Cuban Heritage Collection and Latin American literature. The library has enjoyed large budget increases in the last 2 years which has somewhat overwhelmed the ordering staff but is quite welcome! The Cuban video collection and rare books collection has been enlarged. Among the rare materials collected are maps, documents, ephemera and many items from the National Library of Cuba. The library is also filling in gaps in its literature collections, particularly in Brazilian and Portuguese materials. Three years ago, UM received an NEH grant to digitize 11 collections and is currently working on the Lidia Cabrera collection.

  UM may bid for the SALALM secretariat. UM is now a sponsoring member of SALALM. UM is also partnering with FIU on a project called "Cuban Rafters Ten Years After" which will present research on the Rafter's social attainment in the past 10 years, a digital archive of photographs, and a website about Cuban immigration from the 1980s to the present which will include maps and a timeline.

  UM is currently working on updating its entries in the LASER Union List of Microfilm.

  UNC Chapel Hill (Teresa)
  Teresa welcomed Irene Muenster, bibliographer for LAS at Duke University Libraries and newest member of the TRLN consortium for cooperative collections. UNC CH has received a 3 year extension on the Title VI grant and will use part of it to request funding for next year's LASER conference. Several LASER members expressed interest in holding it in the Fall (perhaps October). UNC CH is currently conducting a Director search. Arturo Escobar is the new director of the Institute of Latin American Studies. The Collection Development department at the library has split into 2 departments: Global Resources and Area Studies and Humanities/Social Sciences. The split has improved visibility in the library for Area Studies. Teresa serves on an IFLA standing committee, the subcommittee on ILL and Document Delivery and invites suggestions for ILL initiatives. She will attend the next 3 IFLA meetings. UNC's Mayan Language program has added a 2nd year to the program. Marian Goslinga will transition the editing of the Cuban Studies Journal to Teresa and UNC. Cuban Studies will be added to Project Muse.

  UFlorida (Paul Losch, Richard Phillips)
  Paul and Richard distributed 3 films about Cuba produced in 1992 by the Documentary Institute (Last Days of the Revolution, Campaign for Cuba, and Giving up the Canal). SALALM's 50th annual conference will be held at Gainesville in March, 2005. Pamela Howard will organize it, and Richard will be making the local arrangements. Budgetwise, this has been a good year for the library. The LAS related collections focus on the Caribbean, Tropical Development and Sciences. The main library is undergoing a $30M renovation during which time, the collections have been moved to off-site shelving and staff has been relocated to the Science libraries. The library will implement a new ILS, Aleph, on May 1st. Charles Wood, the current director of UF's Title VI center, is stepping down, so the center will be conducting a director search. Paul L. spent 3 weeks in the LC Rio office as an intern at the Brazilian Popular Groups center.

  Emory (Gayle Williams)
  Gayle is compiling Emory's union list for microfilm to contribute to the LASER list. Her new position includes collection management, reference and instruction duties. She conducted a serials review last year to get familiar with the serials collection and will become a member of ARL LARP and LAPTOC next year. One area of growth in the collections will be in Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender studies as the university is developing an LGBT program. Gayle also commented on a rising demand for Latin American film. She will be working on the Brazilian History collections. Gayle will attend the Buenos Aires Bookfair in April.

  Tulane (Paul Bary)
  Hortensia Calvo has been at Tulane now for 1 year, she is the new Director of Latin American Library (LAL) at Tulane. The space for LAS collections has increased by 1,000 square feet through a major reorganization and renovation. This includes new gallery space for exhibits. The library has had several exhibits, including the most recent exhibit of William Spratling original drawings donated to LAL. For the very first time, the Latin American Literature collection was consolidated into the Latin American collections last summer. The university has a new remote storage facility and a closed stacks area on campus. Some of the LAL collections have been moved to the University's new remote storage facility and to the LAL closed stacks area. Tulane would like to propose hosting LASER after UNC-CH. Paul will take over LAPTOC operations soon and continues to update the microfilm union list.

  Vanderbilt (Paula Covington)
  The library is currently transferring 15K items to an off-site shelving Annex. A new Center for the Americas on campus is conducting a director search. The Center has received generous funding and has hired Canadian, US and Latin American specialists. The library received a large donation of Tango Music and Chilean and Argentine history from the estate of History Professor Simon Collier. A collection of broadsides and newspapers from the Colombia Historical collection (19th century) may be digitized. The library expects serial cuts next year. The library is near its 3 millionth volume and plans to make that title a Latin American one.

  UGeorgia (Laura Shendenholm)
  The Latin American librarian position at UGA has been reduced to ½ time. Laura splits her time between that and Media Archives. She is working on improving access to the Peabody material related to Latin America. An arson fire this past year affected all library personnel. Dr. Alvarez donated a Cuban film collection to the library. The library expects to have a 2-7% serials cut next year, perhaps mainly in the sciences. An anthropologist donated field recordings and slides about Chiapas from the 1940s-1990s to the library. Bret Berlin, director of the Latin American Studies center, has proposed a joint Peabody center speaking event focused on Latin America.

  UPuertoRico (Victor Torres)
  The director of the library resigned in December and the library currently has an acting director. The library is undergoing a renovation (no expansion) which will include new space for Reference and ILL. A master's degree program in Caribbean Studies has been proposed at the university.

  Victor request 2 corrections to the minutes at the Cartagena meeting:
  - UPR received an NEH grant not for microfilming but for digitizing some Puerto Rican materials.
  - UPR submitted an application for but has not received yet a SOLINET grant to microfilm 2 collections. The final decision is expected by this summer.

  Duke (Irene Munster)
  Irene has been at Duke one month and is getting familiar with the collections. The library is engaged in an expansion project over the next 5 years. Selected items are being moved to remote storage. Duke is migrating to a new LMS, Aleph in May/June. Some budget cuts are expected next year. The cataloging department may switch to LC soon, that is, they may begin to catalog newly received items that were historically cataloged in Dewey, in LC.

  Wake Forest (Emily Stambaugh)
  The library is current conducting a director search and expects to fill the position between April and June. The University has a new Divinity School. The library will be looking for reference librarians in Business/Accounting and the Arts. The library is conducting a serials review and planning for an off-site shelving facility. Next fall, an endowed professorship for Latin American Studies will be filled and his role may include the development of an undergraduate major in LAS. Currently, the university offers an undergraduate minor in LAS and students study abroad in Mexico and Cuba. The LAS department is starting up a semester program in Chile.

  Update on LASER Union Lists
  Paul Bary reminded members of the 3 union lists maintained by LASER, which help as a collection development tool. These lists give extra visibility to LAS related microfilm, video and newspaper collections held in the libraries of the Southeastern US. Paul invited suggestions about how the union list can be better organized. Holly mentioned that it was difficult to compile the information and members shared how they do it. Members asked about the usefulness of the video union list. Cathy finds it easier to use WorldCat for videos. Most members agreed that our lending policies need to be updated. Members agreed to add entries to the video union list at their discretion.

  
  March 6, 2:00pm - 5:00pm (Minutes by Holly Ackerman)

  LASER Homepage (All)

  We made a laundry list of what we want on the homepage. The list includes: Mission, members, policies, collection strengths, union lists, minutes, links to catalogs, history, listserv, LAC centers, SALALM, LAC libraries and archives, bib instruction page from MOLLAS.

  Paul raised a question about what archives should be included. Irene suggested that we only put those that are really available online in some form. Paul thought that it was still valuable to see a catalog even if you can't see digital images or finding aids.

  It was mentioned that we should also have academic links to programs and to subject guides.

  Carrie said that what is meant by Centers is not clear. Cathy suggested a model of listing institutions and then doing a "What?Who?How?" on each one.

  Laura thought we should consider whether to have preservation policies up but this did not enthuse the group.

  Paul suggested we add a group picture.

  ACTION
  Teresa, Irene and Emily will produce a draft of a new LASER homepage and present it to the group at SALALM in Ann Arbor.

  Exchanges (Cathy)

  Cathy demonstrated the LACIC Exchange Database: <http://lacic.fiu.edu/exchanges/>.
  We discussed the possibility of extending the FIU database to LASER and SALALM

  Cathy - It works well for her institution particularly since they are dealing with a very limited materials budget. It is a volume-by-volume exchange. Users establish a relationship by getting get a code and password. Then you just click and order (amazon.com style). It operates via an Access database using Cold Fusion. To date there are two active partners: Brown and Duke.

  Cathy then demonstrated the administrative side of the database noting the total number of items in the database and the numbering system.

  Laura asked if it was only LAC materials. Answer is yes.

  Paul asked about who actually constructs and manages the system. LACIC and IT folks at FIU Libraries.

  Emily wanted to know how sets were treated. Answer is volume by volume.

  Paula asked how others could get involved in the project and suggested that this is an aspect where a grant might be useful to expand the project.

  Richard asked about postage and remarked that it was a good way to fix broken sets. Emily wondered what the cost per volume was as far as all the actions needed to actually receive a book. Sending institutions cover postage.

  Irene pointed out the importance of extending the database to Latin America and the Caribbean so that both sides could gain unique materials.

  Irene asked if other libraries were doing anything similar. Cathy knew of a project under development at LOC but no other. Cathy also remarked that the LOC will give you boxes of exchange materials if you go there and pick them up.

  ACTION
  Everyone agreed that we should see how the use of the present system goes and then consider a LASER project/proposal.

  Improving Access to Latin American Microfilm (Emily, Teresa)

  Download presentation (.ppt)

(Minutes here may be incomplete, please correct any wrong or missing information. AFTER MINUTES SUBMITTED, EMILY ADDED LINK TO PPT PRESENTATION)

Microfilm is underutilized and how can we, as a group, work to improve access? Current tools that exist include: catalogs, unions catalogs, electronic indexes and databases, vendor on-line guides, print guides.

What direction might we take?
1) Catalog, MARC Records, WorldCat. Pros: Subject access by conventional LCSH, Accessible through the catalog, a familiar e-tool for the user, Indexing done by experts (catalogers, microfilm producers). Cons: Some sets lack MARC records, Lack of analytic cataloging - item level access, Does not allow for cross-institutional searching/access, Does not group content for area studies.
2) Web. Union Catalogs. Pros: Serves as a cross-institutional guide. Conducive to cooperative collecting, Maintained cooperatively, Groups subject/area studies content. Cons: No subject access, some country level access, No item level access, Access policy to microfilm unclear, Researchers unfamiliar with the electronic location of the union catalog.
3) Electronic Indexes and Databases. Pros: Cross-institutional searching, Groups subject/area studies content, May provide item level access, May use MARC records or other metadata standard. Cons: Subscription cost may be high, Heavy investment in IT for programming and indexing, May bypass our experts (catalogers).


Possible solution and question for LASER: Shall we create an electronic search tool that allows users to search across microfilm indexes, like an abstracts-and-citations database?

One stop shopping: a comprehensive finding aid for researchers to find microfilmed content specific to Latin America.

ACTION: Emily will look into doing a presentation at SALALM, along with representatives from various microfilming enterprises.


March 7, 9:00am - 1:00pm (Minutes by Carrie Leslie)

Mission of LASER

Cathy began the meeting by reminding everyone that the group had begun discussions at SALALM about the goals and mission statement of LASER. At that time the group discussed; Who is LASER? What is LASER? What are the goals of LASER? Cathy outlined the following goals/purpose statements posted on the LASER website http://lal.tulane.edu/laserview.html :

1) increase and enhance exchange of communication between themselves (members of LASER)
2) more formal programming in matters such as preservation, electronic accessing and imaging, and structured collection development
3) LASER serves to bring Latin Americanist librarians of the Southeast U.S. together for review of ideas, professional dialogue and on-line discussions.

Paul B. questioned what electronic access and imaging referred to and suggested the wording be changed from electronic access to access. There were no objections.

Discussions began with trying to develop some action plans for the next year:

• Richard mentioned we should have a goal of coming up with 1 consortium purchase and act on it. Paul B. suggested that perhaps consortium purchasing in microfilm and improving access to microfilm content could be a priority. Richard suggested that an individual be designated to catalog and create access (a guide) to a set of microfilm that could be added to our catalogs or LASER page. After a lengthy discussion it was decided that because of institutional consortium agreements and/or restrictions that consortium purchasing by LASER may be difficult. It was decided that we should inquire with LANE or MOLLAS to see how they are handling this issue. An idea was purposed that perhaps all the sections can act as a group to negotiate pricing



• Holly felt that increased awareness of each other's collection strengths should be a priority. Paul B. concurred with this idea saying that the need to know more about each other is important. Understanding what makes this group different from other regional sections is a good idea.



• Richard mentioned the possibility of charging institutional membership dues. The money collected could be used to enhance microfilm access or digitize collections. It was discussed at length whether or not LASER could ask for dues and if we would have to establish non-profit status first. Richard and Paul L. agreed to look into this.



• Victor suggested LASER focus on an exchange project for the year. Paula concurred that an exchange program should be one of the projects for the year. Many felt that it would be ideal to have a program in place much like Cathy's. There was some concern about each institution having individual/independent exchange databases and re-doing what has already been done at FIU. Several people suggested the idea of FIU's database being the basis for a larger exchange project. Cathy mentioned this is a great idea, but that it would require substantial staff to update and maintain a union exchange database. A technical consideration is that the database is currently on FIU's server so only FIU has the ability to maintain it. Cathy also reminded the group that this type of project would take more than one year to accomplish, probably closer to 2 years. Paula mentioned that a LASER exchange database must be sustainable for a long period of time and we must be able to continue it. Teresa mentioned that perhaps she could use her LIS student to create an exchange database. Again the concern was raised that it may not be beneficial to have each of us creating our own independent exchange databases. It was suggested that perhaps the database be created as a subscription based product. Or that we seek grant money to create and develop it and that the maintenance would be a consortium decision. Cathy will ask FIU and propose this idea and she what the possibilities of expanding the database are.



• Olga suggested we have a LASER panel at SALALM to tell other SALALM members and regional sections what we are up to and also gather some information about other sections. The group concurred that this was an excellent idea. Possible topics for the panel included: Olga's cataloging system for pamphlets in the CHC, Cathy's Exchange Database, Emily and Teresa's presentation of microfilm access. It was also suggested that perhaps a consortium panel with LANE or other regional groups be included in the program at SALALM. There was some concern that it might be hard to fit the panel into the program and others wondered whether other sections would be able to attend.



• It was suggested that for the next LASER meeting Libreros be invited. Also that we should become involved and establish a presence with SECOLAS (South East Council on Latin American Studies). It was also suggested that we invite other South East Caribbean institutions to join LASER. It was decided that we would extend an invitation to the University of the West Indies. However, it was also mentioned by Teresa that we not overextend or invite until we have a better understanding of who we are as a group. Laura motioned to invite, Richard seconded and the group unanimously agreed.
  
  
• Victor raised the issue of improving/increasing digitized collections. He mentioned that some institutions are further along than others because of institutional support, technical support or staff knowledge. He asked if there was a way we could collectively identify collections to digitize and do this as a group. Cathy mentioned that this idea could turn into other projects similar to PALMM (Publication of Archival Library & Museum Materials) http://susdl.fcla.edu/collection.html and the future DLOC (Digital Library of the Caribbean-to be presented at ACURIL). The group agreed this idea is worth pursuing, but the logistics would take time. It was suggested that at the next LASER meeting one day be devoted to a workshop on digitizing materials.

  
  Teresa is still working out the date and time for the next LASER meeting, but June is a strong possibilty.

  To summarize the following goals/actions were agreed upon:

• LASER Panel at SALALM. Cathy will pursue this with SALALM program organizers. Panel topics were suggested but nothing was formally decided
• Teresa will ask her LIS graduate student to work on either creating an exchange database at UNC or to work with Emily on the microfilm project.
• Pursue the idea of a subscription based exchange database. Cathy will investigate.
• Pursue the possibility of membership/institutional dues for LASER. Paul and Richard (UF) will investigate.
• Extend an invitation to join LASER to the University of the West Indies.
• Offer workshop on digitizing collections at the next LASER Meeting (perhaps the 3rd day.)

 

May 26, 2003

LASER Minutes, May 26, 2003 / Cartagena de Indias, Colombia

Attendees: Bottom row, left to right: Gayle Williams (Emory University), Guillermo Náñez Falcón (Tulane University), Paula Covington (Vanderbilt University). Top row: Víctor F. Torres (Universidad de Puerto Rico), Peter S. Bushnell (University of Florida, Gainesville), Paul Bary (Tulane University), Holly Ackerman (University of Miami), Cathy Marsicek (Florida International University; LASER chair), Jody Pavilack (Duke University; not pictured),

Photo by Jody Pavilack;
Courtesy of Gayle Williams.

 

Institutional News

Emory University

Emory is a new member of LASER due to Gayle having moved there from the University of Georgia. Gayle surveyed Emory's Latin American collection and judged the holdings to be strong in the following areas: Latin American videos; and Argentine and Peruvian colonial history which are strong since Susan Socolow is currently on the faculty, and Peter Bakewell was on the Emory faculty for a number of years. Emory's Latin American newspaper holdings were submitted to the LASER web page. Microfilm holdings will follow later this summer.

Vanderbilt University

Paula purchased a collection of Colombian 19th century broadsides that is unique to the U.S. Upon his death, Professor Simon Collier left his Argentinean and Chilean history and tango collection to the Vanderbilt library.

Tulane University

Guillermo retired as head of the Latin American Library at the end of December 2002. In March, Hortensia Calvo arrived from Duke to assume the position as Doris Stone Director, and Guillermo was honored retrospectively as the initial Doris Stone Librarian. Paul served as interim head of the collection until Hortensia's arrival. The Mexican Consulate in New Orleans closed its doors this year, but left its large library collection to the Latin American Library, which is now processing the donation. Since Hortensia's arrival, an important priority has been the reorganization of the collections and office space within existing and newly added space.

Florida International University

FIU's library has absorbed large unforeseen budget cuts this year. Fall 2003 will see a Haitian Studies meeting on campus. There is a new head of the Cuban research institute. FIU is carrying out a cooperative digitization project involving materials from the Virgin Islands.

Duke University

Jody Pavilack is working half-time, with Helen Dunn, as interim bibliographers in Latin American Studies in place of Hortensia after she left for Tulane. The search is ongoing for Hortensia's successor, and the search was hoped to be completed in August.

University of Miami

The beautiful new Cuban Heritage Pavilion, which houses the Cuban Heritage collection, is completed and has fabulous furnishings. The main library's renovation is scheduled to be completed in June. The Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center is in the process of expanding and reorganizing. Holly received a grant of $25,000 from a budget of 1,000,000 new funds for materials approved by President Donna Shalala which will be used for the purchase of Cuban documentary and feature films. The Library and Professor Sandra Pouchet have completed arrangements for an electronic journal of Caribbean Studies entitled "Anthuriam" it is online at http://www.library.miami.edu/anthurium.htm

Universidad de Puerto Rico

The library received a two-year humanities grant to microfilm Puerto Rican cultural materials, and a second SOLINET/NEH grant to microfilm the West India Committee Circular (1907-1958) and the Blue Books of the English Caribbean Islands. The UPR microfilm holdings list was completed and submitted to the LASER web page.

University of Florida, Gainesville

The library is on the verge of starting a major expansion of Library West. There is an ongoing cooperative digitization project involving the Eric Eustice Williams Collection on Trinidad & Tobago. Some of the materials being digitized are from the University of the West Indies but the rest are from the UF collection. The library has recently acquired a large number of Latin American videos and feature films, which Peter has been cataloging.

Recognition of Guillermo Náñez

Paul thanked Guillermo for his contributions to LASER, and presented him with gifts and a card signed by the members in attendance, as a token of our appreciation on the occasion of his retirement. Guillermo thanked the group and noted that LASER had first been discussed at the SALALM conference in New York, and much progress had been made since then.

LASER Meeting in Miami

Cathy announced that funding was in place for a LASER meeting in Miami, to be jointly hosted by FIU and UF Gainesville in 2004.

LASER Web Site and Union Lists

Paul gave the status report and demonstration, and received several good suggestions for improving the organization of the LASER web pages. As of 6/12/03, Paul had implemented two of the suggested changes: 1) moving the link to the union lists higher up on the LASER home page; and 2) putting the word "Library" prominently in the header of the LASER overview page, http://lal.tulane.edu/laserview.html. Also on the overview page, Paul did some very light editing of Richard Phillips's original wording about LASER's raison d'etre. Additional editing suggestions are welcome. There were several questions about the organization of the union lists, and Paul encouraged the submission of holdings information by those institutions who have not yet reported.

FIU Exchange Database

Cathy demonstrated the web page - http://lacic.fiu.edu/exchanges/ -- of the exchange database created at the FIU Latin American and Caribbean Information Center (LACIC), and she announced that the database could be used to facilitate the exchange of Latin American materials among the LASER institutions. She said a limit of 30 items could be exchanged in one transaction, and the receiving institution is responsible for postage. Guillermo asked about the utility of the FIU database for Tulane, which already has a Procite-based exchange database. Cathy said that any software compatibility issues could be solved.

Quoting from the FIU exchange database web page, "LACIC is looking to develop the Latin American & Caribbean (LAC) Collection at FIU Libraries through exchanges with other institutions, libraries and universities. LACIC wishes to exchange our duplicate LAC materials for publications relating to Latin America and the Caribbean that you have available for exchange.

Currently, the LACIC Exchange Database holds over 1000 volumes. Although covering all countries and disciplines, many titles focus on Cuba or Colombia, mirroring the strengths in the FIU Libraries' Latin American and Caribbean Collection. Click here to see a list of all books currently available in the LACIC Exchange Database.

The LACIC Exchange Database is very simple and fully automated - you can search the on-line database to view the materials that are available. If you already have a login and password, you can request materials directly from this on-line database.

In order to develop an exchange relationship with FIU Libraries' Latin American & Caribbean Information Center, please create an account, after reading and agreeing to the Exchange Conditions and Procedures."

Minutes submitted by Paul Bary, Tulane University, 12 June 2003.

 

June 1, 2002

Laser Meeting

Ithaca, New York

June 1, 2002

Present: Paul Bary (Tulane, LASER Chair), Hortensia Calvo (Duke), Teresa Chapa (UNC-Chapel Hill), Paula Covington (Vanderbilt), Catherine Marsicek (Florida International), Gayle Williams (U. of Georgia), Lesbia Varona (U. of Miami), Olga Espejo (U. of Miami), Richard Phillips (U. of Florida-Gainesville), Emily Stambaugh (UNC-Chapel Hill), Becky Huckabee (UNC-Chapel Hill)

Absent: Guillermo Nánez-Falcón (Tulane), Adán Benavides (U. of Texas-Benson), Víctor Torres (U. of Puerto Rico)

The meeting started with institutional reports:

Tulane (Bary)--Guillermo Nánez-Falcón is not attending SALALM this year, and is in the process of preparing for retirement, either in June 2002 or December 2002. Tulane has recently received 3 endowments: 1 for a Political Economist Chair, 1 to support Latin American acquisitions, 1 to endow the Latin American library director position.

Georgia (Williams)--UGA became a member of the ARL Latin Americanist Research Resources Project this spring. Gayle made a presentation at the IFLA/SEFLIN Summit on Library Cooperation in the Americas (April 2002, Miami FL) about her work with the Project's grant activities on the Latin American Partners Program. Georgia made it through the spring with fewer budget cuts than anticipated but is uncertain about FY03.

Duke Libraries has received a budget increase of $300,000 (excluding serials) FROM THE PROVOST'S OFFICE; OF THIS MONEY, $42,000 WILL BE ADDED TO THE LATIN AMERICA, CARIBBEAN AND IBERIAN COLLECTIONS BEGINNING IN 2002-3. The university received $1,000, 000.00 from Mellon to support THE UNDERGRADUATE CURRICULUM AND will INCLUDE THE CREATION OF a position for a visiting instructor FROM LATIN AMERICA EACH YEAR.

(Corrections in BOLD e-mailed by Hortensia Calvo, November 6, 2002.)

Florida (Phillips)--Florida will be submitting an invitation to the SALALM Executive Board to host the 2005 meeting, SALALM's 50th celebration. Florida has had a good year but may face budget cuts as of July 1 for the new fiscal year.

North Carolina (Chapa)--Teresa introduced Emily Stambaugh, a recent UNC library school graduate (and new SALALM member), and Becky Huckabee who works as Teresa's assistant in Collection Development. UNC may also be facing budget cuts in the new fiscal year. Teresa is inviting Eliades Acosta, director of the Biblioteca Nacional José Martí, Cuba, and Enlace speaker at this year's SALALM meeting, to UNC and will provide information about dates of his stay in the event that others might want to invite him to their campus to make a presentation.

Vanderbilt (Covington)--Budget remains in good condition. The library received 3 large donations of Spanish literature, and a donation from a Brazilian journalist of Brazilian posters, art exhibit catalogs, and other graphic ephemera. Paula made a book buying trip to Guatemala in February.

Florida International (Marsicek)--Gayle Williams (UGA) made a presentation to the FIU faculty and students on LAPTOC while in Miami for the IFLA/SEFLIN conference.

The Institute for Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean and the Institute of Haitian Creole Studies recently opened on campus. FIU, the University of Florida, and the University of the Virgin Islands are developing a cooperative project to digitize US Virgin Island documents. Tony Schwartz has been appointed as Director of Collection Development at the library. Cathy proposed including a proposal for hosting another Laser meeting outside of SALALM in the FIU/UF Title VI budget.

Miami (Varona)--Craig Likeness is the new Director of Collection Development. The Cuban Heritage Collection received funds from the Goizueta Foundation to build a separate building for the collection with matching funds from the library. Miami also received a $1million grant to digitize other documents in its Cuban collection.

UT-Austin (Benavides)--Adán was unable to attend since he needed to attend the LANE meeting which was held at the same time as Laser.

Puerto Rico (Torres)--Víctor was unable to attend SALALM this year in order to attend ACURIL.

General discussion took place on past efforts to make consortial purchases. Despite our efforts, this has not been successful. Some libraries decided not to purchase particular products, and vendors have not really offered the best price possible under this arrangement. We agreed we should still continue to investigate possibilities as they occur.

In lieu of Cathy's proposal to host our next meeting outside of SALALM (date unknown as yet), we discussed the idea of a theme on which to base the meeting. General agreement preferred some topic regarding collection development. We have not meeting on a regular basis outside of SALALM as does LANE, but not because of disinterest. At last year's Durham meeting, Gayle expressed interest in hosting the meeting in Athens in 2003 but upcoming budget cuts do not make that feasible. We will continue to attempt meeting annually outside of SALALM as conditions permit.

Gift and exchange issues were discussed. Rather than attempt to create uniform lists of items to offer one another, we agreed to let each member operate in whatever way suited their institution. There was encouragement to share "give away" items on the Laser list rather than on lala-l in order to benefit one another's collections.

Paul Bary noted that this is the 3rd and final year of his term as convener and asked anyone to contact him who would like to succeed him in the role. The meeting was adjourned. SUBSEQUENT TO THE MEETING, CATHY MARSICEK VOLUNTEERED TO ASSUME THE DUTY OF CHAIR/CONVENER, AND THE MEMBERS UNANIMOUSLY APPROVED HER NOMINATION BY E-MAIL.

(Above corrections in BOLD and overall document reformatting by Paul Bary, November 6, 2002.)

Submitted by Gayle Williams, June 1, 2002

 

May 26, 2001

LASER MEETING

Tempe, Arizona

May 26, 2001

Present: Hortensia Calvo (Duke), Teresa Chapa (UNC-Chapel Hill), Holly Ackerman (Duke-UNC Mellon fellow), Adán Benavides (UT-Austin), Richard Phillips (Florida), Gayle Williams (Georgia), Victor Torres (UPR), Cathy Marsicek (FIU), Guillermo Náñez Falcon (Tulane), Paul Bary (Tulane), and Paula Covington (Vanderbilt).

The meeting largely consisted mostly of announcements about each institution's Latin American collection and/or program, but we also discussed the status of the LASER union list projects (newspapers, videos and microform sets). The newspaper list is mostly complete, but is always subject to updating. The video list is still in the planning stages. The microform sets list is currently being constructed, with about half of the institutions having reported their holdings. We also briefly touched on the status of our individual efforts and abilities to purchase databases (EIU) and microforms (Yale) that we have considered purchasing consortially, and which some of the LASER institutions still may purchase consortially if we can get over some hurdles.

Highlights of the institutional announcements:

Tulane: Phil MacLeod, curator of Latin American manuscripts and photographs for the past three years, is taking a position at Yale University in charge of cataloguing the Latin American History and Culture microfilm series.

Universidad de Puerto Rico: UPR has a new library director, Ramón Budét; and the university is planning a new Master's program in Caribbean Studies.

Duke: New searchable database of Duke's pre-1800 imprints TBA; look for LASER writeup in SALALM Newsletter.

UT-Austin: No new archivist or head librarian had been identified; the 20th century newspaper microfilming grant project was being written; 359 19th century Mexican papers had been identified for filming; next year is the Benson's 75th anniversary and there will be a commemorative conference which will be the focus of fundraising.

Florida: Purchase of Maury Bromsen Collection; acquisition about 200 rare/unique Cuban titles; completion of Caribbean Newspaper Index; Cuban National Archive microfilming project; budget downturn expected; each UF campus getting its own bureaucracy; microfilming operation backed up, but three cameras film several Latin American newspapers.

FIU: Seeking ARL status, and budget looks good as a result; new Colombian Studies program/institute largely focusing on drugs and development; Haitian Studies program in the planning stages; IFLA Library Cooperation in the Americas conference at FIU, April 2002.

Vanderbilt: 5000 volume Colombian gift now catalogued (Prof. Hilguera); you can keyword search his collection in the catalog; 15 students enrolled in Paula's research methods course.

Georgia: Princeton microfilm purchased.

UNC: 2% budget cuts; Princeton microfilm purchased; searchable database for microfilm; campus visit of Eliades Acosta, the director of the Cuban national library.

Submitted by Paul Bary, Tulane University, July 10, 2001

 

February 24-25, 2001

LASER MEETING

Duke-UNC-Chapel Hill

24-25 February 2001

Present: Holly Ackermann (Duke Mellon fellow), Paul Bary (Tulane, LASER Chair), Adán Benavides (U. of Texas-Benson), Hortensia Calvo (Duke), Teresa Chapa (UNC-Chapel Hill), Paula Covington (Vanderbilt), Catherine Marsicek (Florida International), Guillermo Náñez Falcón (Tulane), Gayle Williams (U. of Georgia), Lesbia Varona (U. of Miami). Richard Phillips (U. of Florida-Gainesville) and Víctor Torres (U. of Puerto Rico) were unable to attend.

Saturday, 24 February 2001, 9AM - 12 noon session
Paul began by thanking Hortensia Calvo, Teresa Chapa, and Holly Ackermann for hosting the first LASER meeting outside of the SALALM.
Secretary's note: The meeting did not follow a strict topic-by-topic order. To clarify the summary of the discussions, the secretary has grouped comments made by participants by subject. The morning session focused on cooperative projects and library consortia.

KUDZU. Of the schools represented at the meeting, only Vanderbilt and Tulane are members of the KUDZU shared catalogues consortium, although others may join. Paul said that he has searched the KUDZU catalogue, and it is slow. The user can place an ILL order online. Paula explained that through Iris, a subset of KUDZU, Vanderbilt, the U. of Tennessee-Knoxville, and the U. of Kentucky have a joint catalogue, with a link from the Vanderbilt library home page. Patrons can search the three catalogues simultaneously and place an ILL order online. Courier service provides overnight ILL. The arrangement differs from regular ILL, because even books that are checked out can be borrowed. She showed borrowing statistics. The arrangement is expanding to include journal articles. Project Athena is a consortium in the Nashville area. Students use IRIS first. Athena has van delivery of ILL three times a week. If a book is requested through IRIS, KUZDU, or Athena, ILL gives it immediate priority. If ordered through regular channels, the loan is handled through regular channels until the borrower is identified as a member of the consortia. Vanderbilt uses IRIS first, because it offers overnight service. The members are working out an agreement with Fed Ex. All participants come in through an OCLC site search. The present system is only a trial. A different system may be used in the future. IRIS has worked out consortial agreements for the purchase of databases, such as the Tozzer catalogue. It also will send out atypical loans, such as current imprints, rare items, and reference works. Paul asked to have a demonstration of KUDZU tomorrow. Hortensia said that the Duke library had voted on the name of the consortium, but declined to join it for now. UNC did not join either, said Teresa. The U. of Miami supports membership, Lesbia added, but is waiting for a new university president. Cathy noted that the Florida state university library system already has a cooperative lending agreement, and Gayle said that the Georgia state university library system has a uniform catalogue and is looking at universal borrowing within Georgia first through Galileo. Adán explained that the UT catalogue is unique and thus has technical problems becoming part of a shared catalogue.

LAPTOC (Latin American Periodicals Tables of Contents database). Hortensia asked about the status of LAPTOC. Paul, who is a Chair of the Editorial Advisory Committee, said that the more countries are included in the database, the more useful it will be. Adán said that UT had entered many articles from Brazilian journals. Gayle observed that the database had had 4-million hits last year.

Paul has worked with Dora Loh (UCLA), Scott Van Jacob (Notre Dame), and the U. of Miami to test ILL delivery speed of articles to member institutions. The first attempt took three weeks. There has been a more recent cycle of tests with Scott, Paul, Sara Sánchez (U. of Miami), and Ruby Gutiérrez from HAPI through regular ILL. A request to Duke came very fast. Lesbia attributed the slow turnaround to staff shortages and high turnover in ILL departments. Paula asked how a library is identified as a member of LAPTOC. Paul said that this is a problem, and Gayle added that Dora is forming a committee to look into this. Adán had received a call from Scott about charges for delivery to LAPTOC. Free the first year, he believed that libraries were to reimburse the LAPTOC database for ILL costs. There is discussion underway to market the database. If this were to happen, Adán asked, what would be the charge to institutions that had input the data?

The group also discussed the inputting of additional records. There is an agreement among LAPTOC members to input records back to 1990, and some libraries are going even further back. Partners receive a small amount of money for adding back records. Gayle noted that some institutions have never input data from journals assigned. The grant for the cooperative project did not include funds for internet access, Adán said, and this has been a problem.

Gayle gave an update on two foreign partners. INCA has taken responsibility for 77 Andean titles and CIRMA for 27 Central American titles. There have been problems on both fronts. Gayle is working with INCA to start the staff inputting records. Cathy said that FIU was not a member of ARL, but was interested in joining the cooperative serials acquisitions project.

Hortensia asked if any library had cancelled a subscription as a result of membership in the ARL serials project. No one had. There is strong faculty pressure at all schools to maintain subscriptions active and to initiate new ones. All present agreed that faculty would rather have an article available in a journal in the library than to have to request a copy through ILL.

 

PRIMARY SOURCE MEDIA MICROFILMS. Paula has been in conversation with Brian Aertker, Sales Manages for Primary Source Microfilms. He was promoting group purchases of the Yale and Harvard manuscript collections. The company offered up to a 45% discount if 10 libraries bought sets. UNC has already bought the Yale microfilm, and Duke is interested in the collection of Peruvian manuscripts on film. This was in response to a faculty request and the availability of special funds. Paula cautioned against purchases until there is an agreement among LASER members to negotiate a discount. Guillermo said the purchase of the same collection of films by several libraries, despite the large discount, was not really a "consortial" purchase. He suggested purchase of a single set within LASER and allowing members to borrow reels through ILL. The discussion continued in the afternoon session.

A discussion of microfilm lending policies ensued. What are the policies of each institution regarding the loan of commercially purchased and other non-archival microfilms? What about the loan of uncatalogued films? Paul proposed including on the LASER home page a union list of large microfilm sets owned by the LASER libraries and the lending policy of each institution. This discussion too continued in the afternoon session.

EIU ELECTRONIC DATABASES. Paul initiated discussions of possible consortial subscriptions to the databases of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). Two sales reps from EIU had visited Tulane library last week and had given a demonstration of the various databases that they produce. The company is amenable to group purchase, and each institution can select the services to which they want to subscribe. The EIU resources are not just Latin American, but global. Duke subscribes to reports for all of Latin America, Hortensia said. Would EIU be willing to renegotiate an ongoing subscription? FIU has a trial for City Data, Cathy noted. It has valuable information, and she recommended it, but the subscription is very expensive. At U of George the business school subscribes to the electronic and print publications. Gayle would have to have more specific price figures before making a commitment since the business school pays. Teresa observed that the decision to purchase electronic databases is usually made by other persons, not the ones who select and use them.

Paul asked if non-LASER libraries might be interested in subscribing. Guiller