UC/Stanford /USC US History and Womens Studies Consortia

Minutes of Fall Meeting, December 11-12, 1995, UCLA

Day 1, December 11, l995

PRESENT: Ariel, Broidy, Janes, Kanter, Kimball, Koller, Marie, Martinez,
Shelton, Sibley, Willson Weimer, Wallach
ABSENT: Dunlap, Fergoda, Lazard, Ramirez, Tambo, Paquette

I.      ANNOUNCEMENTS
Instructions on how to subscribe and unsubscribe to the consortia reflector
were distributed.

II.     CAMPUS REPORTS

SUMMARY: Everyone present gave a report. Notable acquisitions and staffing
changes/activities that impact on collection development in the Consortia's
areas of interest are noted below for each individual campus. There are
recurring areas of activity/concerns/topics throughout all the individual
reports that the co-chairs decided need not be reported in the minutes in
detail -- hence, some reports have been shrunk or even deleted. Recurring
topics: there is a great deal of web activity; continued anxiety about
budgets; several campuses have begun/are considering outsourcing for
shelf-ready materials.

IMPORTANT: UCI Main Library will be closed from June 16-September 24, 1996
for seismic retrofit.

DAVIS
Vacant library positions include the Head of Humanities and Social
Sciences, and a librarian for Western European History OR English
Literature. Davis plans to hire 118 new faculty in the coming year and
another 118 over the next five.

IRVINE
A major retrofit and renovation project will begin in Summer 1996, to be
completed by January 1997.  During retrofiting, most collections in the
Main Library will remain in the building but will be completely
inaccessible; there will be no paging of the collection, so librarians have
been urging faculty to sign out material they anticipate needing and have
extended loan periods for grad students. All of Media and current
periodicals, most of Reference, and  selected parts of Special Collections
and Governement Publications will be moved to the new Science Library for
access. Staff will also move to Science Library. The Main Library will
reopen in time for the Fall quarter, but with access to the collections
only via stairwells during the ensuing renovation period. During the R & R
Project, document delivery will be free to UCI faculty, students and staff.
A van will be been added to the Irvine-UCLA transportation fleet to provide
a second trip Monday through Thursday during the summer. The Z
classification section has been moved to storage at the UCSD annex until
January 1997 (not pageables). The seismic retrofitting will result in some
loss of space for collections. A second FTE faculty is being added to
Women's Studies for a Lesbian/Gay position. The Library has acquired a
major collection of videos of oral interviews of Orange County Holocaust
victims from the County's Anti-Defamation League; a guide is available on
site.

RIVERSIDE
Nancy Koller reported that she is back to work half-time. A new Asian
bibliographer has been hired, who is also selecting in a few Hum/Soc Sci
areas.

SAN DIEGO
The library has recovered from the flood, and has been renamed the Geisel
Library (to honor a 20 million donation from Audrey Geisel, widow of
long-time library supporter Theodore (Dr. Seuss) Giesel). Elliot was
successful for a second year in obtaining funds from academic departments
and programs to purchase such microform materials as African American
newspapers and Southern History primary documents. U.S. History-related
CD-ROMs recently acquired include "The Great American History Machine",
"JFK Assassination Transcripts", and "500 Nations".

SANTA CRUZ
There is a new Chicano/Latino librarian in Reference. The university may
establish a chair in Holocaust Studies.

STANFORD
Paul Zarens is the new bibliographer for economics and political science,
and Chuck Eckman is the new head of Gov Docs. Jim Coleman is the new Head
of Academic Computing in the Humanities. The papers of Huey P. Newton and
the Black Panther Party are on deposit in the Library. Recent major
acquisitions include back runs of gay and lesbian periodicals; a collection
of anti-fluoridation ephemera; nudist colony serials; and a collection of
photographs and ephemera relating to Miss Indian America Beauty Pageants.


UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

The new University Librarian in Jerry Campbell from Duke. The Library
acquired the One Institute Archives of Gay and Lesbian material. A
historical and statistical database relating to Los Angeles, called
Information Systems Los Angeles -- ISLA -- is being developed by the
university. Ruth is co-teaching a course on Feminist and Queer Issues on
the Internet beginning in January.

III.    UPDATES ON ONGOING/STALLED PROJECTS

A.      U.S. History/Women's Studies journals project
Several new titles were discussed. Joan will update the list for the next
meeting.

B.      U.S. History Microforms Project
Postpone till Spring. (Dave Tambo has a core list.)

IV.     1995-96 MINISCAP
The 1995-96 spending level has not yet been determined, but we should
assume that we can propose an acquisition in the three to fifteen thousand
dollar range. After discussing several microform sets, the consortia voted
as follows:

#1 Ellen will ask Judith if the consortia can apply for Miniscap funds to
purchase analytic records for sets that were purchased with Miniscap funds.

#2 Elliot will review the microform set "Anti-Slavery Propoganda" from
Research Publications for overlap with the microform set "Slavery" at
UC/Irvine that was previously purchased with Miniscap funds:

AUTHOR:   Microfilming Corporation of America.
TITLE:    Slavery, a bibliography and union list of the microform collection /
            edited by Henry Barnard.
NOTES:    Purchased as a cooperative acquisition by Stanford and the University
            of California.  The material listed in this volume is located at UC
            Irvine.

#3. Katharine will draft a proposal for the Henry Morganthau Diaries ($26,800)

Consortia members were reminded that Miniscap is comprised of two parts:
CDO funds, plus funds from individual campuses.

Day 1, December 12, l995

Present:  Ariel, Broidy, Janes, Kanter, Kimball, Koller, Marie, Martinez,
Shelton, Sibley, Wallach, Willson Weimer

Absent:  Dunlap, Tambo, Paquette

[Items below are numbered both in order of appearance in these minutes (I
have an overwhelming need to begin with "1") and as they appeared on the
agenda.  Apologies in advance for any confusion.]

1/7.  (Continuation of discussion of mini-SCAP):

Question:  Will CDC help us to liberalize access to collections held only
at Stanford?  While many of us have ground to halt in terms of acquiring
microform sets, Stanford continues to buy.  This raises several questions:

a.  how might other campuses acquire guides?

b.  for sets held in part at other campuses (the example given was
Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations), can a note be added to the
MELVYL record saying something like: "from Part M on, check Stanford"?

c.  would it be possible to include Stanford records in MELVYL for sets
that Stanford is "taking over"?

2/8.  GUIDELINES FOR COLLABORATIVE PURCHASES

We discussed Cindy's proposed 3-pronged approach to "cost and payment"
designed to to help avoid the inefficiencies seemingly endemic to
collaborative purchases: a) make a master list of all recharge numbers;
b) set a minimum price for a purchase; c) set a minimum campus contribution.

The whole issue of recharge is complicated, and made even more so by
staff cutbacks at some libraries.  We are also still left with the
question of what sort of formula would we use to apportion the expense
(the one used in the past is based on campus allocations that do not
reflect current realities).

We decided to discuss collaborative purchases at the June meeting, with
the intention of committing funds off of the following year's budget (a
way to protect the funds and not get caught short when it came time to pay).

ACTION: add the following wording to item #5 of draft GUIDELINES FOR
COLLABORATIVE PURCHASES BY THE US/WS CONSORTIA (6/6/95):

"All major microform sets should be considered in terms of consortia-wide
access."

ACTION:  we agreed to send out on the reflector notification of "intent to
purchase" a major microform set; try to insure guides (if at all
possible), access for all.

In terms of mechanics, we agreed to try the following:

  a) information about intent to purchase on reflector (asap)
  b) ask if anyone else wants a guide
  c) campuses desiring guides must send a p.o. to purchasing campus

In the meantime:

  a) Cindy will work on "generalizing" the 6/6/95 document
  b) Consortia will consider possibility of a "slush fund" for guides

3/9.  EVANS, SHAW & SHOEMAKER

Apparently, Shaw is not in the system anywhere in fiche -- just good old
retro microcard.

Latest figure for Shaw for north and south and Evans for north (both UCI
and UCLA have Evans) approximately $300,000.  We agreed that at the very
least there needs to be one fiche copy of Shaw/Shoemaker in the state,
with item-level cataloging (and ideally, an Evans in the north).  We
identified this as a very high priority and worthy of funds above and
beyond mini-SCAP.

ACTION:  Katharine and Ellen will draft a letter to CDC about the
absolute necessity of having these sets in the system. They will also
investigate the possibility of collaboration with the literature
consortium and the chances of using preservation funds to acquire the
materials.

4/10.  UPDATE/CONTINUATION OF MEDIA DISCUSSION

Jacquelyn reported that at UCSC, anything that any other campus wants to
borrow goes through Media (David Kirk) first.  Kirk would respond
negatively to any requests for: videos on reserve, materials deemed high
use (that vague phrase again), high cost, and anything purchased off of a
faculty grant.  In addition, he has identified some problems with
distributors contracts (although members of the consortia wondered
whether Kirk was doing a far too restricted reading of fair use
clauses).  UCSC has also received requests for videos readily available
at the local Blockbuster.

Elliot mentioned that UCSD's media collection policy is flatly not to lend.

Questions for CDC: What is the current status of the media lending policy?
Is it in effect (and being adhered to)?  Who may set restrictions on the
policy?

The Consortia would like CDC to revisit the issue of loaning media with
respect to the long-term preservation needs of the format.

ACTION:  By the spring meeting, all consortia members who have not
already done so, should bring media lending policies.

5/11  CALIFORNIA FEMINIST PRESSES

Jacquelyn looked at number of small presses in California (using various
lists and directories) and identified 8 presses that should definitely be
in the system.  Clothespin Fever is among the missing (and suspected out
of business).

WS Consortium agreed to focus on primary feminist presses, however the
question was raised about the nature of the project.  Is this an effort
to insure that there is a complete run of the output of these presses or
is it an archival project wherein materials associated with the business
of operating the press are also collected systematically?

All agreed that it is important to have a complete run of each press,
including an archival/special collections copy and a stack copy.

Joan said she thought the idea was to have the entire collection in one
location, in a special collections department and that we should also try
to get output of defunct presses like Diana added to the collection.

ACTION:  Beth will contact Bancroft about collecting/archiving these
presses (all are located in No. California) and Beth and Jacquelyn will
investigate the possibility of a cooperative project between Bancroft and
UCSC.

Someone(?) needs to investigate the possibility of a not on MELVYL saying
California Feminist Press Collection.

ACTION:  Several campuses have agreed to provide circulating copies of
books from the following presses:

UCD:  Aunt Lute
UCI:  Women's Institute for Continuing Jewish Education
UCR:  Frog in the Well, Women in the Moon
UCSB: Post Apollo

UCB and Stanford will check on availability of circulating copies of Kelsey.

Please e-mail Jacquelyn with any additional information about feminist
presses.

QUERY:  Is there any interest in the archive of Old Wives Tales; just
went out of business.

6/12  WOMEN'S STUDIES SPECIAL COLLECTING AREAS

Sally prepared a form to use for "brainstorming" about campus strengths
as a preliminary step for identifying specialized areas.

Cindy thought it might be useful to begin by identifying those areas each
campus collects at a comprehensive level.  One example offered on the
spot was UCD's collecting in women in agriculture and rural women).

Joan identified two purposes for this project:

a) identifying special/specialized collections and sharing information;
b) helping to stretch diminishing budgets by sharing info. about what we
collect for our general/circulating collections.

ACTION:  Respond to Sally by March 1 with lists of collecting strengths,
areas of special interest/focus.

7/13  ELECTRONIC/DIGITAL/VIRTUAL -- postponed until spring meeting

8/14  PRESENCE ON THE WEB

Elliot distributed copies of the U.S.History/Women's Studies Consortium
homepage he developed.  This served as an excellent place to begin a
discussion about why and how we want to be represented in cyberspace.

Several questions were raised about the purpose of such a page, including:

a) is this a research-oriented resource?
b) how much, if any, of our internal documentation (minutes, agendas,
etc.) should be included?
c) how might we strike a balance between information that serves the
group and resources others might find useful?
d) who will maintain the page? maintain the links?

Joan suggested that we start with a consortia homepage that includes
selected internal documents (statement of purpose, general info.
about the consortia, memoranda of agreement for journal projects),
journals lists, microforms lists, feminist presses project info.

ACTION:  The WEB will be a topic on the spring agenda.  In the meantime,
Ruth will send a tagged list of journals to Elliot(?).  At the spring
meeting we will discuss:

a) the purpose of the homepage;
b) the target audience(s);
c) issues of maintainance

A huge thank you to Elliot for getting the ball rolling (and actually
providing something concrete for us to look at, react to).

9/15  ACADEMIC REVIEWS

We actually had this discussion rather informally at dinner, without the
benefit of facilitation or a notetaker.  The gist of the conversation was
that a general agreement that it was important for people up for academic
review to be able to document their participation in the consortia.  The
obvious (and best) way to do this is by means of a letter (knowledgeable
and informed) from either a co-chair or a member of the group working in
the same area (US History and/or Women's Studies).  It, of course, remains
the responsibility of the librarian under review to solicit these letters.

10/16  BEIJING REPORT

Jacquelyn reported on her experiences at the recent Beijing Conference
focusing on her panel on "Researching Women's Issues on the Internet."
Due to technical difficulties (a result of mac/dos non-standardization),
Jacquelyn wasn't able to show her actual presentation.  We will get
another chance at our spring meeting.

11/17  TO DO LIST

The infamous "to-do or not to-do" list was discussed briefly.  We decided
to continue to send out "bullets" with the minutes.  Between meetings,
project coordinators will take responsibility for reminding people about
deadlines, etc.

12/18  SPRING MEETING

Tentatively scheduled for June 3-4 at Davis.  Jane will investigate
accommodations, Greek restaurant, etc.

13/19  PRELIMINARY AGENDA FOR SPRING MEETING

In addition to regularly scheduled items (CDC report, report from
campuses, etc.)

a) WEB
b) Beijing conference
c) Shaw and Shoemaker
d) Media/ILL
e) Primary collecting areas
f) Non-SCAP collaborative purchases
g) Digital/virtual, etc. (postponed from December meeting)
h) Microform lists (postponed from December meeting)

14/20  WHAT ELSE?

Joan got an inquiry from Primary Source Media about whether anyone would
be interested in having microfilm set of the Cairns Collection (Un. of
Wisconsin; American Women Writers, 1620-1900).

Jacquelyn mentioned the availability (soon?) of Women's Studies Resources
International on CD, which will include Un. of Wisconsin materials.
Cost: $895 subscription (one user).

Sally brought up the issue of professional development/training for WS
selectors; how do we keep current on new resources.  Sally will
coordinate a project on CD training.