United States and British History/Women’s Studies Consortia Meeting

 

6 June 2005 (Amended 13 December 2005)

 

UCLA

 

Minutes

 

Present: Sherri Barnes, John Bloomberg-Rissman, Ellen Broidy, Kay Collins, Patrick Dawson, Dan Goldstein, Phoebe Janes, Elliot Kanter, Diana King, Pauline Manaka, Beth Sibley, Emily Stambaugh (for Sylvia Hu), Vicki Williamson. Joan Ariel, Kati Radics (Guest)

 

Business

 

Minutes of December 2004 meeting: approved

 

Action items follow-up: Change “faculty” to “vendors” in the one beginning “Ellen will draft …” Discussion followed. To summarize: not much progress on any front

 

Confirmation of plans for Sheila O’Hare to assume chair 2005-6: confirmed

 

Next meeting: Berkeley, 12 December 2005

 

Campus report questions: there were questions for Davis and UCLA re: assignments, staffing; UCSB announced AUL for Tech Services to leave 15 July; there was a discussion of UCR’s two-tiered bibliographer/subject specialist system; there was no UCSC campus report

 

Discussion Items

 

CDC report: Kati Radics reported. She is LAUC rep to CDC.  First she provided some background, situating CDC in the organization, and describing its functions and responsibilities. She noted there were two leitmotivs last year: CDL negotiations, and shared print. Among the other issues that arose last year were: the relationship between CDC and JSC (now, JSC must go through CDC to get to CDL); the appointment of Shirley Leung to coordinate East Asian digital shared products; the Scholarly Communications Summit, which brought together ULs, CDC and Scholarly Communications Officers, and which came up with overriding principles within which CDC should operate. The ULs asked CDC to list possible ways to reduce expenditures, and to consider how to channel what funds there were and will be to new models. Discussion followed: Ellen asked whether Dan’s MUSE letter was discussed by CDC. It had not. Joan asked whether there had been any discussion of CDC’s providing guidance to/formalization of bibliographer groups. There had been, within the context of the discussion concerning the relationship of CDC and JSC. Pauline asked about conflict between CDC’s interests and the interests of the Scholarly Communications Officers (CDC “wants to buy buy buy” while Scholarly Communications Officers see that as “unviable”). Unfocused discussion followed.

 

Euro Bibs: The CDC discussion segued to this topic, though it was not next on the agenda. The most pressing concerned seemed to be the relationship between this group and the Euro Bibs group. The consensus was that we will not give up our British History focus. Dan offered to serve as liaison between that group and this.

 

MOTION: Dan moved for this group to establish a liaison with Euro Bibs, with him as first liaison. MOTION PASSED.

 

Office of Shared Print: Joan Ariel reported. The OCLC Collection Analysis tool was demonstrated. Joan announced that shared resources will be purchased, processed, etc. with current resources, differently distributed. Every item purchased for a shared print collection can be counted by each campus, according to Nancy Kushigian. CDC may have to approve Shared Print initiatives. The discussion kept reverting to journal packages, e.g. MUSE, Sage, Blackwell, where print was being cancelled wholesale. This led to a discussion of the group’s last copy projects. The question arose: could “last copy” be part of “shared print”? Joan distributed a handout that described various models. The consensus arose to support model 1, modified with an interest in moving towards model 3, where a secondary copy exists. [JBR NOTE: I assume that all handout distributed at meeting will be attached to minutes, or otherwise preserved as part of the record of the meeting]. Campuses will determine which last copy titles can be sent to RLFs, which cannot. Interest was expressed in getting MUSE onto the CDC agenda.

 

Feminist Press Project: Beth Sibley reported. She recapitulated the history of the project. Then she described a May 2005 visit to Volcano Press in the Sierra foothills. The state of the Volcano archives was described (approx. 36 boxes in the blacksmith’s shack out back, approx. 60 boxes in a warehouse down the road). The owner, now 82, wants someone to come for a week and go through the archive with her, making a video and oral history. Beth went on to discuss the effect of the 2-year closing of the Bancroft: a lot of work on other presses has been put on hold. Negotiations between Third Woman Press and the Bancroft came to an impasse. Beth is to meet with the Bancroft and the owners of Aunt Lute. The owner wants to be financially compensated for the collection, which needs to be valued. The major issues confronting the Feminist Press Project are at present: it’s an unfunded mandate, i.e. there are no funds for acquisition of archives unless the Bancroft or some other institution is interested. Therefore the future of the project is problematic. Beth notes that while oral histories were not considered in the original project, they would be invaluable. Beth asked for someone to take over responsibility for the project; Diana agreed to succeed her. Joan wondered whether the project could be considered under the “shared print” rubric, and also wondered whether the project could be considered “print tier 2.”

 

Recorded by John Bloomberg-Rissman