Minutes
Fall Meeting
Friday, November 12, 2010
Instituto Cervantes, New York

                                                 
Members Attending: Patricia Figueroa (Brown), Daisy V. Domínguez (CCNY Libraries, CUNY), Miguel Valladares (Dartmouth University),  Sarah Aponte (Dominican Studies Institute, CUNY),  Lynn Shirey (Harvard), Fernando Acosta-Rodríguez (Princeton), Melissa Gasparotto (Rutgers University),  Jesus Alonso-Regalado (SUNY, Albany), Joseph Holub (University of Pennsylvania),  Martha E. Mantilla (University of Pittsburgh), María Vazquez Estévez (Instituto Cervantes), Richard Hayer (Instituto Cervantes), David C. Murray (Temple University), Marisol Ramos (University of Connecticut), Cesar Rodriguez (Yale University)

Guests: Aníbal Arocho (Instituto Cervantes)

1. Approval of July Minutes

2. Welcome from María Vazquez Estévez.

3. Martha Mantilla presented a tribute to Cesar Rodríguez on his upcoming retirement and Jesús Alonso-Regalado presented Cesar with a gift from LANE members, including David Block.

4. Marisol Ramos facilitated a discussion on how emerging technologies and social media can help us in our work as Latin Americanist librarians.

• Melissa asked if Digitalia books can be read on mobile devices. Miguel confirmed that Digitalia is ready to do this. Fernando suggested that Melissa talk to Pamela Graham who may know more particulars about this.

• Discussion on iPads: Marisol noted that at the University of Connecticut, librarians share iPads. This does not work out so well since the strength of the device is its customization (and it is difficult to customize when sharing the device with others). David noted that Temple University has decided that the Library will give each librarian an iPad so that they can do embedded reference, spreadsheets in stacks, traditional reference, etc.

• QR Codes: David recommended that we read the article “QR Codes and Academic Libraries: Reaching Mobile Users” in the latest issue of College and Research Libraries News (http://crln.acrl.org/content/71/10/526.full). QR, or Quick Response, Codes allow users to scan a barcode with encoded information. For example, Marisol suggested that we could use QR Codes to send patrons to our subject guides more easily.

• Apps: The Sky’s the Limit: David noted that it is important to get someone with computer skills to create the apps that librarians think up. David discussed how Temple breaks down barriers between work and home by getting librarians to use apps that they would use for home. Once they start feeling comfortable with that, they are more likely to move on to work-related apps. Jesús suggested that we add a section for apps on the website. Marisol suggested having a section for app reviews on the website. Also, Marisol noted the need to discuss how we are all using emerging technologies and social media to supplement Alison Hicks’ great “dospuntocero” column in the Newsletter. Should we focus on just what the user is using or on something more stable for the long-term?

• Apps: Buyer Beware: Aníbal said that we should be cautious with relying on proprietary apps on iPad. He noted that sometimes, apps are just a new coat of paint on what already exists. He noted that the Web is still the best platform and that developers should go back to improving web design. Patricia noted that she cannot always use apps from Spain.

• LibGuides: David noted that LibGuides just introduced a mobile version. There was some discussion about whether Facebook pages are good for pushing LibGuides or whether patrons only want the basic information from a library page. Melissa and Cesar agreed that having faculty link to LibGuides on their course management systems promotes usage the best. David noted that BlackBoard just released an app.

5. Jesús Alonso Regalado facilitated a discussion on potential future directions for LANE. He broke his discussion up into: analysis, action, and professional development.

• Analysis: Jesús discussed the trend toward deactivating programs (like Russian and French at SUNY Albany) and how that impacts our job. There are less and less Latin Americanist librarians even though there are not less collections. Miguel worked on the report “Latin American & Iberian Library Collections at LANE Institutions: 1999-2009” as an individual but we have not followed up on it as a group. Jesús discussed the need to follow up on that report and work together during the year. One idea is to follow Fernando’s suggestion from last year: to compare our collections based on subjects and quality, not just quantitatively.

• Action: Is a LANE-wide (28 institutions) collection development project possible? We must learn to work together throughout the year and be willing to work as a team.  A pilot project must be easy to implement from selection to assessment and entail as little bureaucracy as possible. Uniqueness would be at the heart of such a project, not the quantity of materials acquired. Jesús proposed that each institution contribute $500 or $1,000 and suggested five potential ways of spending these allocations:

1. acquisition of books and videos in Latin American vendor catalogs that no library in LANE has yet acquired
2. acquire in a highly specific topic
3. acquire books published in one country about another one; example: a book about Argentina published in Mexico
4. acquire videos not acquired by other LANE libraries; examples: Patio de mi carcel (2008), Juego de Verano (2005)
5. acquire books not focused on a specific geographic location and which do not mention Latin America or an specific Latin American country in the title but were published in Latin America. (These types of materials are not regularly included in our approval plans but, since they are written by Latin American authors, represent Latin American points of view which may be different from the U.S. academic and research agenda.)

• 28 libraries: 5 out of the US, 4 specialized (Instituto Cervantes, BID, Dominican Studies Institute, Centro de Estudios Puertoriqueños), 1 research (NYPL), 1 Library of Congress, 17 universities: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, UPenn, Princeton, and Yale (all 7 in Borrow Direct) - Harvard, NYU, 8 public universities (CUNY, Pitt, Rutgers, SUNY, Temple, UConn, UMass). If we could invest $20,000 for the first year of a pilot project, we could then convince administration to support us in future.

• Assessment: Our timeline would be to make decisions in May during the SALALM Annual Conference and start the pilot project with fiscal year 2011-2012

• LANE might not be the best platform for this type of project. Maybe Borrow Direct is the more suitable context. But, we can focus on other issues like sharing information about cooperative projects of LANE members.

• Professional Development: In future, we could hold hands-on workshops on research resources on specific topics. For example, David might lead one on Anthropology or Pamela might lead one on Human Rights. We could also seek expertise elsewhere, including how to use downloadable data of the ICPSR (Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research).

• Jesús ended his presentation by asking: Do we want to meet like we have or have a more defined medium-long term goals? How can we redefine LANE to help us maximize our budgets, promote uniqueness in our collections, provide better services and resources to our patrons, and be better librarians? Can we also suggest projects for our administrations in addition to their asking us to get certain projects done?

6. Picking up from Jesús’ presentation, Miguel, Lynn, and Fernando facilitated a conversation on LANE cooperative collection development.

• Miguel and Lynn began the discussion by giving comments on Jesús’ idea for a pilot project and on revisiting LANE’s mission. Miguel noted that at a recent meeting of Borrow Direct libraries, it was decided that all these libraries would function as one. Miguel argued that we should not rely on only Borrow Direct libraries collecting collaboratively; we need LANE members to contribute, too.

• Lynn also suggested that we talk about LANE’s mission before we decide on changing it. Originally, LANE started as a way to track our newspaper collections. We are now getting back to that. Miguel discussed the idea of going back to a collection development project for journals. Miguel noted the challenge of working together, especially with very different budgets.

• Fernando argued that we need to give up on implementing a uniform LANE-wide collaborative collection development project because members are too different. The $500-$1,000 plan that Jesus proposed is great and so is the periodicals plan, but they do not adjust to the circumstances and possibilities of every member. Cooperative collection development within LANE is more feasible if a LANE subgroup adopts one proposal and another subgroup adopts the other, depending on their possibilities. Cesar agreed with Fernando. The group discussed what type of project is best. Martha suggested that we think of three collaborative collection development projects and that each library would sign up according to what they were interested and able to do. She also recommended distinguishing between involvement and commitment. After Fernando passed around two documents with tables and bullet points based on the four levels of collecting that Dan Hazen set forth at SALALM, the group decided to collect information on what our libraries are collecting a) that would serve as a reference and b) that would serve as a preliminary stage in a possible pilot project for those libraries that would be interested in collaborative projects.

• Preliminary work for pilot project: While the group felt that it may not make sense to do a cooperative collection development project LANE-wide, members agreed that there might be several projects that different libraries could commit to.  Melissa will send out the template that Fernando handed out at the meeting. By January 31, we should submit to Melissa a template for each country that we collect material for. After the templates are in, we can see if there is a concentrated place from which to start a project, or if we are all focusing too much on some areas and need to disperse. At that point, we can start talking about vendors.

• Suggested changes and notes for template:

• In Performing Arts, separate theatre from cinema.
• Note your LARRP commitments.
• Add Science, Technology, and Medicine as a field.
• We can also tailor the sections.
• Please note that the document is based on our current collection habits, not our historical ones.

• This talk concluded with a discussion of LANE institutions in RECAP and loaning of digitized copies. Cloud library of digitizing copy and sent to three or however many institutions share that digital copy.

7. Patricia facilitated a discussion on numerical data about Latin America and Iberia. Resources mentioned were:

• Latinobarometro
• LAPOP (Latin American Public Opinion Project) available (via Latin America Barometer)
• Marisol’s Latin American & Caribbean Statistics LibGuide at http://classguides.lib.uconn.edu/content.php?pid=11906&sid=583301
• DataGov: http://www.iadb.org/datagob/
• The group discussed the possibility of having a hands-on session on numerical data at Temple or University of Pennsylvania before the SALALM Conference or at the next LANE meeting. This could be part of our professional development effort.

8. Brief discussion about streaming videos.

Minutes taken by Daisy V. Domínguez

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