Present: Marsha Forys (U. of Iowa), Luis Gonzalez (Indiana U.), Nelly Gonzalez (U. of Illinois), Mina Jane Grothey (U. of New Mexico), Jana Krentz (Kansas U.), Nerea A. Llamas (U. of Michigan), Molly Molloy (New Mexico State U.), Carolyn Mountain (U. of New Mexico), Rafael E. Tarrago (U. of Minnesota), Scott Van Jacob (U. of Notre Dame), and Mary Jo Zeter (Michigan State University).
Absent: Ted Riedinger (Ohio State U.), Sandra Seely (Ohio U.), and Paloma Celis Carbajal (U of Wisconsin-Madison).
Convener: Scot Van Jacob.
Scott openend the meeting welcoming those present, and suggesting that MOLLAS should have a meeting this summer. Jana said that Kansas University was willing to host a MOLLAS meeting in August. Scott asked those whose institutions are Title VI holders to include a MOLLAS conference among their institutional funding proposals.
Next the group addressed the end of the period in office of the Convener and the Secretary . Mary Jo accepted to be Convener, and Nerea accepted to be Secretary for the next two years.
Scott asked for MOLLAS web site reports. Rafael reported that some collection descriptions and collection development policies have not been sent to him. Nerea asked members to let her know the ILL lending restrictions for microfilm at our institutions.
Jana brought up the idea of a preservation project and it was decided to talk about a MOLLAS preservation group project at the meeting in August. Scott suggested that we could report on what we are preserving at our individual institutions, and if in microfilm we could offer it for purchase by other MOLLAS members.
Scott brought up institutional repositories and asked how could we get scholars in our institutions to post their articles and make them accessible to the public free on the WWW. Molly mentioned that there is an open archives portal in UT-LANIC. Jana suggested that we talk about this at the August meeting.
Luis Gonzalez reported that Indiana University has received a 4-year federal grant for the digitization--in cooperation with CIESAS--of materials related to indigenous cultures, social memory, and human rights in Mesoamerica filmed by the latter. The digitized film will be available on the WWW. Luis has been contracted as a consultant in this project. Budget reductions brought about the cancellation of journal subscriptioins by 10%. Instruction and liaison with academic departments are a significant part of his responsibilities, and he is now working on an exhibit on Don Quixote at the Lilly Library that will be part of a symposium sponsored by the Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese.
Nerea reported administrative changes, a review of services and functions, and the availability of additional funding at the U. of Michigan. She has requested funding to make holocaust survival materials available through the appropriate technology.
Mary Jo reported that there is new faculty in Latin American Studies at MSU. She is trying to make a case for more funding for Latin American Studies at the Library.
Nelly reported that she has finished an update of her bibliography of Gabriel García Márquez, and that she will make it available free on the WWW. She is preparing a report on the Latin American Studies collection at the U. of Illinois in Urbana-Champaigne, and has compiled information for a microfilming project. The U. of Illinois Library is now the editor of the Bolivian Studies Journal. Scott suggested that the MOLLAS web site should have a "What is New" spot where announcements of things like Nelly's publications can be posted.
Jana reported the purchase by the Kansas U. Library of the Flores Andino collection of rare materials. She is now the German Bibliographer and Coordinator for International Programs in addition to her original responsibilities. The Center for Latin American Studies in Kansas wants her to go to Peru in a buying trip, and she is going to Costa Rica to give two workshops, and one paper, on instruction.
Mary Forys is the new Subject Librarian for Latin American Studies at Iowa. Previously she was Library Coordinator for Instructional Services, but her academic background is Spanish, and she is looking forward to her new responsibilities.
Molly Molloy reported that this year the NMSU library received NEH funding which was used to build up the Chicano, Borders Studies collection. The Latin American Studies Center has a new director, who has proposed a borders research cluster, and library resources funding has been included in this proposal. In addition, the UMSU library is writing a Title VI grant proposal with the U. of New Mexico library.
Rafael E. Tarrago reported that at the U of MN the collection development budget presented in the fall was more or less the same as last year's. The Iberian and Ibero-American Studies collection made some significant acquisitions, such as the microfilm collection "Conquistadors" (Primary Source). In July he worked in the digitization of a 1552 Seville pamphlet by Father Bartolome de las Casas in the James Ford Bell Library, "Aqui se contiene una disputa," which consists mainly of a summary of the dispute on whether native Americans were natural slaves or free rational human beings between the humanist Juan Gines de Sepulveda and Father las Casas. This was made for inclusion in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Ibero-American Texts Electronic Library, to which the U.of MN Libraries contributed in 2003-04 the text "Principios de educación moral y cívica (Havana, 1902), by Cuban statesman Rafael Montoro. There is talk of redistributing library funds according to department or programs, and on the number of faculty and students involved.
Carolyn Mountain and Mina Jane Grothey reported that the position of Latin American Studies Librarian at the U. of New Mexico will be open, but that budget news is not good, and this will force that cancellation of journal subscriptions.
Scott reported that usage studies at Notre Dame are driving collection development in most areas. Most of the collections there are considered to be usage based, meaning that they will buy what is needed rather than building traditional research collections. The Dept. of history has begun a PhD program in Latin American history, and this year Scott worked with a history seminar and compiled for it a list of English translations of political writings by Latin Americans in the 19th century. The Hesburgh Library focuses on the Southern Cone of South America, but a sponsor from the Spanish Caribbean has given funding for retrospective purchasing, an endowment, and money for major purchases related to that area.
Before our meeting in Gainesville Scott asked members to send their reports to the membership by e-mail. Marsha Forys, Nelly Gonzalez, Nerea Llamas, Sandra Seely, and Rafael E. Tarrago sent their reports. I will request that those reports be appended to these minutes.
Respectfully submitted,
Rafael E. Tarrago
MOLLAS Secretary 2003-05