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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 046 459 LI 002 489 TITLE Conference on Sharing Caribbean Resources for Instruction and Research, College of the Virgin Islands, March 17-1°, 1969. Proceedings. INSTITUTION College of the Virgin Tslands, St. Thomas. PUB DATE Jun 70 NOTE 1890p. FDRS PRICE EDRS Price MF-$0.65 HC-$6.58 DESCRIPTORS *Conferences, Libraries, *Library Cooperation, Library Materials, *Library Services, Library Technical Processes, Library Technicians, *Reqional Libraries TDENTIFIERS *Caribhbean ABSTRACT The first day of the conference identified library resources, what they are and where they are, whether in the area or outside of it. The second was devoted to discussing access to these resources, the problem encountered in gaining access to then, identification of library needs and ways to make library efforts more successful. Recommendaticns of the Conference included: upgrading and Sharing of library resources, better utilization of modern technology, legal establishment of depository libraries, continued support of the Pilot Bibliographical Center, new surveys of library resources, preparation of guides to library holdings, creation of union catalogs, shared cataloging and acquisition services, updated acquisitions lists and bibliographies on the region, identification of nonbook materials, increased use of microtechnology, increased attention to scholarly papers, development of oral histories, larger and more comprehensive collection of materials on the Caribbean region, and improved training for paraprofessional personnel. A list of participants and attendees is included. (AB) U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS STATED DO NOT NECES SARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDU CATION POSITION OR POLICY EDO 46459 PROCEEDINGS | CONFERENCE ON SHARING i CARIBBEAN RESOURCES FOR INSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH COLLEGE OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS March 17-19, 1969. Published By YCOLLEGE OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS. ~ ST. THOMAS, VIRGIN ISLANDS 00801 —~ June 1970 LI 002489 & bs This Conference on Sharing Caribbean Resources for Instruction and Research was held in observance of the inauguration of the Ralph M. Paiewonsky Library of the College of the Virgin Islands, through the inspiration of its President, Dr. Lawrence C. Wanlass, who has guided this College through its critical first six vears. The Conference was sponsored by the Collese, and wes assisted by federal funds provided under Title III of the higher Education Act ot [965. John P. McDonald, Librarian of the University of Connecticut, was engaged to serve as consultant to the College for coordinating, this Conference. He was assisted by Dr. William S. Dix, Librarian of Princeton University, who kindly consented to serve as moderator, and by Mrs. Marietta Daniels Shepard, Associate Librarian and Chief of Latin American Library Development Programs of the Pan American Union, who gracefully accepted the role of Recorder. ENID M. BAA The iUditor. 2 PARTICIPANTS AND ATTENDEFS Moderator: Dr. William S. Pix University Librarian, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey Co-ordinator: Mr. John P. McDonald University Librarian, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut a Organization of | American States: Mrs. Marietta Daniels Shepard Chief, Library Development Program, Organization of American States General Secretariat Pan American Union, Washington, D.C. CARIBBEAN AREA BARBADOS : Mr. Alan Moss Director Librarian, Centre for Multiracial Studies, Universitv of the West Indies, Library, Bridgetown _ CURACAO: Dr. Alexander F. Paula Archivist, Centraal Archief, Fort Amsterdam DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Sr. Hector Inchaustegui Cabral Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra Santiago de los Caballeros GUADELOUPE : M. J.P. Hervieu Archives Departmentales, Basse-Terre GUYANA: Mrs. Yvonne V. Stephenson Reference Librarian, University of Guyana, Georgetown Mr. William A. Trembley Head, Department of History, University of Guyana, Georgetown y ii JAMAICA: PUFRTO RICO: TRINIDAD: VIRGIN ISLANDS OF THE U.S.% Mr. William I. Gocking Librarian, University of the West Indies, Mona Miss Glory Robertson Librarian, West Indian Reference Library, Institute of Jamaica, Kingston Mr. Joseph J. Breen CONECA; % Caribbean Regional Library, Hato Rey Sra. Maria Elena A. Cardona Institute of Caribbean Studies, University of Puerto Rico, Rfo Piedras Sister Nora Hillery Di mactar af Jah wary, Catholic University of Puerto Rico, Ponce Mr. Lawrence Miller Area Director of Libraries (Area I), Inter-American University, San German Sra. Noemi Pagan de Col6n Librarian II, University of Puerto Rico, Rfo Piedras Dra. Albertina Perez de Rosa Latin American Studies and Exchange Librarian, General Library, University of Puerto Rico, Rfo Piedras Srta. Luisa Vigo Cepeda Directora, Biblioteca, Colegio Regional de Humacao, Humacao Dr. Alma Jordan Librarian, University of the West Indies, Faculty of Agriculture, St. Augustine Miss Enid M. Baa Director, Bureau of Libraries and Museums, Department of Conservation and Cultural Affairs, St. Thomas iii a VIRGIN TSLANDS OF THE U.S. (continued): “9 Miss Rose ergamini Librarian, Wayne Aspinall] Junior High School, St. Thomas Mr. Tram Combs Tram Comis Booi:s, St. Thomas Mrs. Nina A. Corneiro Librarian, Charlotte Amalie High School, St. Thomas Mr. Christian Doute, jr. Photodup!licatin Supervisor, St. Thomas Pub!ic Library, St. Thomas Mrs. Brenda Galindo Assistant Librarian, Charlotte Amalie High School, St. Thomas Mrs. Betty J.M. George Children's Librarian, Public Library, St. Thomas “a > Mr. Edwin F. Golden ea Library Assistant (Bookmobile), Christiansted Public Library, St. Croix Mrs. Frances C. Hunt Librarian LSCA, Public Library, St. Thomas Mr. Robert FE. Kipg President, Data Concepts, Inc., St. Thomas Miss Eva Lewaetz Danish Translator - Research Christiansted Tublic Library, St. Croix Mrs. Florence Lewisohn Historiar and writer, St. Croix Miss June A.V. Lindqvist Library Assistant (Caribbean Reference), Public Library, St. Thomas ) iv VIRGIN ISLANDS OF THE U.S. (continued): Mr. H. Gilbert Nicol Director of Development, College of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas Mr. James M. Oliver Acting Director of School Libraries, Department of Education, St. Thomas Miss Patricia G. Oliver Librarian, Central High School, Kingshill, St. Croix Mr. Douglas C. Pyle ; 46 Instructor in Riology, ‘# fi College of the Virgin Islands, ; St. Croix Center, Kingshill, St. Croix +t Dr. Arthur A. Richard Dean, College of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas “Mr. George A. Seanmrn Wildlife Biologist, Dopartment of Conservation, Ci ristiansted, St. Croix Miss Sylvii Trout Librarian, Country Jay School, Christiansted, St. Croix Mrs. Margo H. Tvler Public Information Director, College «f the Virgin Islands, St. Thonas Mrs. Ellen Vanderplank Danish translator, Public Librarv, St. Thomas Mr. Robert V. Vaughn Librarian and History Teacher, St. Dunstan's “piscopal School, Christiansted, St. Croix Mr. Ernest C. Wazner Librarian, Ralph M. Paiewonsky Library, College of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas Vv LCUROPE DS NMARK: ENGLAND: UNITED STATES My, Palle Birkelund Librarian, The Royal Library, Copenhagen Mrs. Valerie Bloomfield Librarian, Institute of Commonwealth Studies University of London, London Mr. John Alden Keeper of Rare Books Boston Public Library, Boston, Massachusetts Mr. Fred Cross Ford Foundation Mr. G. A, Farrer Director of Libraries, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida Miss Evelyn Day Mullen Program Officer, U.S. Office of Education Library Services Branch, Region III Charlottesville, Virginia Mrs. Dorothy B. Porter Librarian Negro Collection, Howard University Washington, D. C. Miss Valarie S. Robinson President, Virrin Islands Society, Inc. New York, Wew York Dr. Giles F. Shepherd, jr. Associate Director, Cornell University Libraries, Ithaca, New York Dr. Irene Zimmerman Librarian, Latin American Collection University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida March 17,1969 - 9:30 A.M. Session | it DR. WANLASS: It is my pleasure this morning as the President of the College to extend the College's welcome to you. I see that as I look around this is one of the most interesting groups we have had at the College in our relatively short tenure of seven years. I am of the opinion that the level of discussion will be very much worth your attendance, that you will find a diverse point of view. I see a very wide geographic representation. I have not been at a meeting more broadly based. In terms of the interest and the purposes I think these are as important as any meeting could have in view. The fact that Justice Marshall, in speaking about the purposes of a library, said something to the j effect that a learning center, or this heart of the campus really properly used, is more than the sum of its parts. He talked about students and books and faculty; but if the library comes to mean what we want it to mean, it is going to be more than just the sum of those. It is going to be something that becomes vital to the College and to the community and to the Caribbean, and I welcome you in this spirit. I hope your discussions will be fruitful, that you will enjoy being here. We extend to you all courtesies that we have to offer and I might say just in closing, because my remarks are going to be very brief, that one thing I have not been able to discover in my seven years of reading about the Caribbean is the origin of the name St. Thomas. Now, this means that we are in an interesting area where things are of great interest but are not completely known. This is not an area where stagework has been as extensive as we will like it to be. The fact is, when you talk about these newly emerging problems on the mainland, Afro-American relations, the Caribbean is where the important history was being made and we have to remember that. So with this sense of importance of what we have in view, welcome to the College; and I extend to you again the College's best greeting and hope for a good meeting. DR. DIX: Now, let's get started, let me just say a word or two about the ground rules. My job is to be a traffic policeman as I see it; I hope there will be a full and free dis- cussion, only one at a time, and we can move ahead with the dis- cussion. This conference is labelled a Conference on Sharing Caribbean Resources for Instruction and Research. I think the focus was intended to be, and I think we ought to try to keep to it if we can, on library materials about the Caribbean primarily. Now, if you will look for a moment at this agenda of two pages; this is our general diary. It is a pattern and I hope you will be able to move systematically through it. We will spend a day mostly on the identification of these library resources, what they are, where they are, whether in the area or outside the area. We will spend tomorrow roughly talking about access to them and the problems encountered in so doing. In other words: here are the materials today, tomorrow how do we get at them? What are the needs? How can we identify these needs? What must be done to make our efforts more successful? All of this discussion will lead, I hope, to rather specific recommendations addressed to someone, perhaps to a variety of persons. These recommendations should state what can be done now, and what needs to be done next, and how to plan for the future. I have asked Mrs. Marietta Daniels Shepard to keep notes as we go along in order to attempt to formulate for us on Wednesday morning those specific recommendations. As I see it there might be recommendations to the president of this College, there may be more general recommendations and identification of things that 3 10 need to be done by others. I am made aware, now, from the round of introduction of participants which we have just completed, that we have a vast and considerable range of stages of development and sophistication in this area. In other words, we have here repre- sentatives of some of the older European libraries which have been, in a sense, collecting the resources of this area for a very long time. We have colleges such as this one, very new, just begin- ning. It seems to me our problem in the beginning is to simply identify who is doing what in terms of collection building, where and what these collections are. Some of this, much of this, is undoubtedly available in print, but I think a rather leisurely re- view of it won't be a waste of time at all. I think Mr. McDonald pointed out that the word Sharing" is the important emphasis. I know that we in the larger academic libraries in the United States have reached the conclusion, I think perhaps a little late, but I think it dawned on us within the last ten years, that no library can go at it alone. I should like to give you just a bit of concrete evidence of this sharing. A good many years ago in Chicago, an organization known as Mid-Western Library Center was initiated as an attempt to collect and store seldom used resources of that area, and to make them available to the whole group in the mid-west area. Two years ago this organization decided to become a national organization-- in other words, to open its membership to the country as a whole. The first library to join was the Harvard University Library. Although it is located a good many miles away, this, the largest university library in the world, I believe, comprising nearly 11 eight million volumes, recognized the need to share in these re- sources, these seldom-used resources collected in this Mid-Western Library Center located many hundred miles away in Chicago. What I am saying is that recorded knowledge is growing co fast that cer- tainly those of us in the larger libraries now realize that no one can hope to acquire it all and, that, if we can survive during the next one hundred years, let us say, we can do so only if we engage in more sharing than we are now doing. However, sew; sharing is complicated work. It includes, as I see it, two kinds of activities: first, access to the text itself which one really wants by some method or other. To achieve this it is imperative to know what is available, and where these things are. Second, we must know what the schools, libraries and students need. Therefore, we should address ourselves to both of these issues in the course of today. Now, if what I have said is true about the largest libraries, the multimillion volume libraries, I am sure it is much more true of the very small libraries because of their limited resources. These small libraries, in turn, it seems to me, should somehow find ways of sharing their resources. I think this particularly interesting and challenging problem is further complicated by your natural geographic separations, as com- pared to the larger contiguous areas, and the necessity for water or air transport where you have a group of libraries such as those represented here separated by water as much as you are. The whole problem of simple communication, bibliographical information and technical expertise is particularly important in this area. I believe essentially what we want to talk about, and see if we can reach agreement on, is what remains to be done. A great deal has 5 been done, what remains is to improve the very simple matter of getting the man who wants a particular book in touch with the book he wants, face to face. This is the essence of what we are as librarians. By the way, in our own provincial way, we in the United States have been very bothered to define any distinction between librarian and archivist. I should say we are concerned about both, and those of you who come out of the European tradi- tion where a much sharper distinction is made between the two roles should remember as we go along that, if I say librarian, I mean libraries and also archives. We are talking about those institutions which preserve, organize and make available, it seems to me, the materials (public records, books, documents, published or unpublished works, etc.) for study and research essentially. I believe that in general we are in agreement with the pre- mise that undergraduate institutions are expected to provide for the basic needs of their respective undergraduate students as re- quired by their curricula, and that those materials to be shared will be essentially materials on the research or graduate level. Now, we haven't said anything about school libraries, and there are a number of school librarians here. My own feeling is that we will let this issue develop as it will. I am really totally incompetent in this area, Mrs. Shepard here is not, and there are others here who are not, if we want to talk about the whole school library situation; but I don't think it is the primary focus of this conference, as I understand it. Finally, as another ground rule, I will ask that those of you who are not at this table and who speak will identify yourselves wt for the benefit of the tape recorder and the stenotypist, so that we may put together some sort of permanent record of this con- 13 ference. Now, our intention is to have a coffee break somewhere about now. (Discussion) We will move right ahead and then have some coffee later. So if you will come to order again then we will move right ahead. Miss Baa has been asked to help put this conference in its context, that is, in relation to other occasions in which the aca- demic scholarly community of this area has been assembled. So we will go right ahead and you can tell us something about the back- ground. MISS BAA: This conference which is convened today in St. Thomas, by the College of the Virgin Islands in observance of the inauguration of the Ralph M. Paiewonsky Library, is noteworthy in bhat it proposes to up-date and reiterate some of the problem areas with which some of us have struggled in the past. We hope that its recommendations will be the basis for further achievement through closer regional cooperation. Awareness of the need for adequate libraries and cooperation in the area was first cited by Dr. Ernest A. Savage who in his Report on the evaluation of Caribbean libraries cited the existing deplorable situation of the early 1930's, and made recommendations for library development in the area. Out of his discussions with the Carnegie Corporation emerged two significant grants. The first ($30,000.) was made to the United States Virgin Islands in 1930 for a four year period. By this means the public libraries ‘were reorganized into a centralized service and materials and personnel strengthened. The libraries were recognized as a vital adjunct to the total educational program, and they were for the 7 14 | first time given departmental status in the government hierarchy. A young native woman was selected for training in the library field and received scholarship grants toward that end. The second grant ($70,000.) was made to the British West Indies in 1941 for a period of four years. Under the able direction of Dr. Helen Gordon Stewart, now in retirement, a second centralized system was initiated in the area and it became known as the Eastern Caribbean Regional Library Scheme. Another native young man was also selected for training under Carnegie scholarships. This second project was much more comprehensive than the first and covered a larger area of cooperation, stretch- ing from Trinidad and Tobago northward to the British Virgin Islands. It went further than the improvement in public library operation. It set up a librarv training school under an ex- tension program of the University of London in which regional candidates could earn an Associate in Librarianship. The Carnegie Corporation therefore was the moving force behind the first two centralized systems in the Caribbean area. At the same time Dr. A.E. Gropp of Tulane University swung through Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean just as the second Carnegie grant was beginning to revolutionize library practices in the British territories. His GUIDE to these libraries issued in 1941 could not therefore have embodied those changes which were beginning to be felt and which were the direct results of the grant. With this thrust libraries, especially in the two groups, moved so rapidly that by 1951, E.A. Flood remarked: "On 1o reading egain the manuscript of this booklet...I realized that in the space of a few months much of the information was alread) out of date.‘' Not much could be said in any of these publica- tions regarding college or university libraries of the Caribbean. We know, however, that some institutions of higher learning existed in Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Barbados, Trinidad, and perhaps even in Antigua, but the quality of this service was superficially evaluated, and the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras and the Polytechnique Institute at San German were not even mentioned. T believe that it would be appropriate at this point to define the use of the term Caribbean as it is used in this paper. It can be correctly stated that a certain prerogative is taken by those who have been oriented to the Caribbean Commission and its successor, Caribbean Organization. The term as used by them refers strictly to the islands which were once dependent areas, but was stretched to include also the island republics, the Guianas, Bermuda, the Bahamas, and British Honduras. This use arbitrarily excludes all circum-Caribbean | countries. Two world events have influenced strides made in this area's libraries. The second World War and, at its termination, the establishment of the United Nations came into being at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference. Out of this the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was born. Also, by 1945 the Anglo-American Caribbean Commission ta, 0 was expanded into the Caribbean Commission when France and the ie Netherlands joined this regional effort -- to up-grade social, economic and educational well being of their dependent countries. Public library services became one of their prime interests including bibliographic control of the area. In 1947 the Library of Congress convened the Assembly of Librarians of the Americas at which librarians from Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and other islands attended. From this point onward there had been many meetings and conferences involving Caribbean libraries, bibliographic activities and exchange of publications. Here are the important meetings which have in- fluenced the future: 1947 Assembly of Librarians of the Americas, sponsored by the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 1951 Conferencia Sobre el Desarrollo de los Servicios de Bibliotecas Publicas en America Latina. (UNESCO/OEA) Sao Paulo, Brasil. 1953 Seminario Sobre Canje Nacional e Inter- nacional de Publicaciones. La Habana, 2-12 de diciembre 1953. 1955 Seminario Nacional de Canje de Publica- ciones de la Republica Dominicana. Ciudad Trujillo, 12-13 de diciembre. 1956 Seminario Sobre Permuta Nacional e Internacional de Publicacdes, Recomendacdes, aprovada pelo Plenario. Sao Paulo. 26-30 junho. 1956 Primer Seminario Nacional e Internacional de Canje. Panama, 10-11 septiembre. 10 1956 Reunion de Expertos Sobre Canje Internacional de Publicaciones en America Latina. UNESCO, 1-5 oct. La Habana, Cuba. Perhaps the conferences which proved most effective for the Caribbean were the following: 1955 Primer Seminario Piloto de Bibliografia held at Havana 11-15 July under the auspt¢es. of the Regional Center for UNESCO in the Western Hemisphere and the Agrupacion Bibliografico Cubana Jose Toribio Medina. 1958 Segundo Seminario Bibliografico de Centro America y del Caribe, Panama, 24-28 febrero. 1960 Tercer Seminario Bibliografico de Centro America y del Caribe, Mexico City, Nov.21-Dec.4. Under also Seminario Latinoamericano de Bibliograffa, Docu- mentacion y Canje de Publicaciones. It was even more imperative that the Caribbean Commission, re- chartered as Caribbean Organization with Secretariat in Puerto Rico, should hold to its commitment. Accordingly, on February 19-21, 1962, a meeting of the Preparatory Committee for the Conference on Library Development in the Caribbean Area was held at San Juan. Nevertheless, that conference was never convened. UNESCO and the Caribbean Organization resumed their diplomatic game of tag. Direct results of these meetings are registered in the biblio- graphic activity in the area and the general improvement of libraries. CURRENT CARIBBEAN BIBLIOGRAPHY was initiated in 1950 and was published somewhat irregularly until 1965, by the Caribbean Or- gamization and continued by the Caribbean Economic Development Corporation (CODFCA). Yhis Corporation succeeded the Caribbean Organization and the library is known as the Caribbean Regional Library. This bibliography is currently being compiled through the cooperative efforts of the contributing libraries of sts area, and speeded up by that revolutionary electronic innovation - the computer, which enables the production of monthly issues with a 11 ° cumulated annual. UNESCO and the Agrupacion Bibliografica Cubana Jose Toribio Medina published four volumes of the BIBLIOGRAFIA D& CENLROAMERICA Y DEL CARTRE - 1956, 1957, 1958 and 1959 with the cooperation of the Government of Spain. It later became known as the RIBLIO- GRAFIA DE AMERICA LATINA. This was, however, only one of the numerous bibliographical publications which were inspired by this ferment engendered by UNESCO. Also in 1956 on the United States mainland the Seminars on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials (SALALM) held their first meeting at Chinsegut Hill in Brooksville, Florida, and these meetings have continued annually, growing larger and more complex. Very recently they have become incorporated and organized for permanency. These Seminars devise ways and means of bringing into the United States libraries the publications from Latin American countries about which only very little was known and the procurement of which was very nearly impossible. Out of this great demand for Latin American library materials developed the practical and efficient Latin Ameftican Cooperative Acquisition Project (LACAP) underwritten by Stechert-Hafner, Inc. and a few substantial libraries. This works very well for the South American materials, but not yet for the Caribbean. Why doesn't it work here? Because publishing as a trade is not as stabilized and as precisely organized as on the mainland or in Europe. There the patterns are standard, in the Caribbean the pub- lisher, printer, and even the distributor may be one and the same. An author may publish privately and sell his own work either directly or thwough an agent or agents. The publicity is generally non-existent, and there are no depository laws, and if there are, they are usually not enforced. Publications, whether private or official, periodical, serial or monograph, when issued in tne Caribbean area, disappear and are out of print long before they are known through book trade journals or bibliographies. Moreover, the compilation of bibliographies is so long in preparation that when finally issued the materials listed are not available. The result is that current bibliographies are not current and retrospective bibliographies are academic exercises seldom indulged in or appearing only in scholarly works. In 1961 the Council on Library Resources financed what I should like to refer to as an exploratory mission into the establishment of a Caribbean Bibliographic Center in Puerto Rico. Marietta Shepard of Pan American Union, Bob Kingery of New York Public Library, and Dominick Coppola of Stechert-Hafner submitted a joint report, with a proposal but nothing more developed. In the meantime demands from mainland libraries for these Caribbean materials still increase. Universities and institutions of higher learning have emerged within the Caribbean area: and these also require the establishment and maintenance of local collections. Such biblio- araphic control becomes increasingly more urgent. At the same time technological advancements in microprint, computer applica- tion in electronics and interfacing throw new light on the whole subject of information storage and retrieval, and enable libraries to utilize their contents as well as the contents of 33 20 their neighbors to a larger extent. Moreover, telecommunication networks link distant libraries with ancien and place the resources of large libraries at the convenience of users wherever they may be. Some developed countries have conceived the idea of data banks for cooperative pooling of information. In this world of turmoil, violence, population explosion and publications deluging the fields of knowledge, the need is greater than ever for collec ting, preserving and sharing library resources. As Sir Phil Sherlock and Dr. Jaime Benitez agreed at Tobago, in 1968, the ills of the Caribbean may be corrected through academic understanding and cooperation. When the Heads of Caribbean Universities met again in November of that year they further agreed that libraries in academic institutions may jointly plan and cooperate in the sharing of materials for the greater good. We are fortunate that this year--1969--Puerto Rico has been chosen as the venue for the following meetings: 1) CODECA-Virgin Islands Library development - April/May. 2) Association of University and Research Institutions and Libraries - June. 3) Dewey Decimal Classification 4) SALALM, - June. All are interested in various phases of Caribbean library | development. 21 14 DR. DIX: Thank you very much, Miss Baa, for that able concise summary and very long history. i= seems to-me~ Are there any questions now of Miss Baa? We hope to have a lot of participation. Are there things you would like to add subsequently that she may have overlooked in her summary? Dr. Zimmerman. DR. ZIMMERMAN? I would just like to say Miss Baa has done a very good job previously in this type of bringing us to- gether, and that one of her earlier and major contributions is to be found in the publication of the fifth Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials Working Papers, in which she had a paper on inter-library cooperation and its relation to prob- lems of acquisition of library materials in the Virgin Islands, and at that time David Eston also had a paper on problems in publishing in the Caribbean area, and one on microfilming of archives and microfilming in the Caribbean. MISS BAA: I'd like to say this, Dr. Zimmerman, that im 1959 when I made the survey of Caribbean Libraries, this was done mostly by visiting and by questioning. I find that in 1969 this is very much out of date and I wouldn't recommend it strongly for the use of anyone except for historical purposes. In 1963 I submitted another paper on "Libraries and bibliographic activities in the Caribbean", at the Madison, Wisconsin Seminar on the Acquisi- tion of Latin American Library Materials (SALALM), and in 1964 another paper on “Library activities in the Dominican Republic”. I believe all of these papers are out of date because materials particularly, situations are changing rapidly, so rapidly. DR. DIX: I think the coffee is ready and perhaps we should stop at this point before we go further. (AFTER COFFEE BREAK) DR. DIX: May we come to order and get right back down to work. Are there other comments or additions to what Miss Baa had to say about the past, that is, about what is going on before, and out of which this conference grew? Miss Baa wants to amplify her own remarks. MISS BAA: There was one thing I forgot to mention: that in March 1967 a conference was held at CODECA in Puerto Rico concerning automation and bibliographic control, in which the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico were concerned. DR. DIX: Thank you. This conference is informal but I know several people have literature, publications, notices, tracts, etc. which they would like to give to the aetthtannkh. The best way to do this is to set them on the tables and we will call attention to it at the appropriate time. There are a number of blue sheets describing the 14 seminars on acquisition, and especially the one that will be held in Puerto Rico in June. You should have it in front of you; if not, Marietta, do you have copies of these? I suppose there are enough around. MRS. SHEPARD: Yes. And I also have a press re~ lease in multicolor, containing some essential information. A yellow sheet of paper is being passed around for you to sign your name if you would like to continue to receive information on SALALY. Please give your name and address. MR. WAGNER: If I may, I should like to call attention to some interesting publications here that you will be 16 interested in purchasing. I am aietea! site store people to make them available co you. We have Mrs. Lewisohn's history of St. Croix. In addition, we have reprint editions of Knox's history of St. Thomas and St. Croix. These publications are for sale. DR. DIX: Well, I think this will develop as we go along. At your places also is a new catalog of microfilms held by the St. Thomas Public Library and there are also provisions for your obtaining microfilming of some of this material which is listed here. Things like this will come along and I am just delighted that you have them, so let these develop as you go. Now, let's move into the next section of our agenda today which is a brief survey of resources. We will probably not get through with the first part of that before lunch but it is my intention to ask various people, some of whom have been alerted and some may not have been alerted, to talk informally of resources of particular areas as listed here. I think these should be quite brief, but will give us a good sense of what we are talking about, and I think it is proper to start with our host, Mr. Wagner. I have asked him to come up here as he has generally stationed himself away so he will be able and available to handle crises as they come up but we have got him here at the head table to summarize the general library situation and resources in the Virgin Islands. MR. WAGNER: Thank you, Dr. Dix. I am going to tell you first about the resources of the library of the College of the Virgin Islands. Our library was established in 1963 and of course we are basically an under-graduate library, which means, of course, it is designed primarily to support the present work of the College. 17 24 We have a book collection of over 20,000 volumes and something like 1500 reels of microfilms. Our collection includes prints, clip- pings, phonograph records, film strips and 16 millimeter films. Our primary interest is of course supporting the teaching of programs, that is, at least from 1963 to date. In the future of course we hope to at least begin specializing in some area. Now, ofeupurse, for Caribbean material we rely heavily on the public libraries of the Virgin Islands which I'll tell you something about in a minute. We hope to establish here at the College a definitive collection of materials on slavery and we have some friends who promise to help us in that direction. Now, let me tell you a few words about the public libraries of the Virgin Islands. We are speaking now of the libraries of the United States Virgin Islands. Incidentally, I don't know if we have anyone here from the British Virgin Islands. The libraries’ of the Virgin Islands comprising only three islands contain a general collection of books of over 80,000 volumes. The collection * includes a definitive collection of Caribbean materials of some- thing over 15,000 volumes, the emphasis there being on materials on the United States Virgin Islands, and I think the materials are in English, Spanish, French and Danish. Is that correct? MISS BAA: That is correct. MR. WAGNER: The collection includes books, serials and official documents. The Public Library of the Virgin Islands in addition has recently in the last year been officially desig- nated a partial United States depository, which means, of course, that this area will receive selected publications of the United >) 18 States Government. The library of the Virgin Islands contains a complete collection of Virgin Island newspapers dating from 1770 to date. These newspapers are on microfilm and some are in the oi reels of microfilm of various archives and documents. It has an original printed edition. In addition the library contains 16 xcellent growing collection of theses on Caribbean subjects and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the Caribbean area had re- ceived so much attention in research. The library, that is, the main library here in St. Thomas, operates a complete, self-contained laboratory for microfilming and photocopying materials of all kinds, as well as photo-offset reproductions facilities. And I think that concludes our survey. DR. DIX: Thank you, Mr. Wagner, that is just the sort of summary I think we want. I wish those of you who will comment later will remember to bring out particularly the things that are unique or relatively unique. I assume this sa tiocaion of Virgin Island newspapers is the best that exists anywhere. Miss Baa. MISS BAA: Yes, Dr. Dix, it is presumably the most complete collection of Virgin Island newspapers. I thank Mr. Wagner for being so enthusiastic about our library, but I should like to make one little correction. Our collection of ‘Caribbean materials is not definitive, it is an awfully small example even ‘ though it is a relatively large library; but 15,000 volumes, more or less, is just a drop in the bucket as far as Caribbean material is concerned. We have emphasis on the Virgin Islands but we also include some general Caribbean materials. 19 . MR. SEAMAN: May I ask a question, that series of newspapers, what was that date again? MISS BAA: 1770. MR. SEAMAN: Now, is that continuous or are there breaks? MISS BAA: There are some breaks but we have the most complete collection: as far as microfilms are concerned anywhere. We got our start from the Royal Library in Copenhagen many years ago, I forget what year it was, herhaps it was 1959. We ordered from the Royal Library all of the Virgin Island newspapers on micro- film which were in that library; in addition to that, we bought from the Bancroft Collection in California and from the National Archives in Washington, to fill in whatever gaps we had. DR.DIX: Identify yourself. MR. VAUGHAN: My name is Robert Vaughan. Does this include all newspapers? MISS BAA: All Virgin Island newspapers. MR. VAUGHAN: In other words, let's take for example in St. he ag does it include the ST. CROIX AVIS? MISS BAA: Yes, the first newspaper was issued in St. Croix in 1770, and in 1815 in St. Thomas. However, we have all of the St. Croix and St. Thomas newspapers to date. DR. ZIMMERMAN: 1770 or 1717? MISS BAA: 1770. MR. GOCKING: Don't worry about the year, there are rwo hundred of them. MISS BAA: As I said before, what we have is really 20 a drop in the bucket. DR. DIX: Will you identify yourself for the steno- grapher. SISTER HILLERY: Sister Nora Hillery, Catholic University in Ponce. Newspapers are great to have, and we have them in Puerto Rico; but can you tell me, do you have these newspapers indexed? MISS BAA: Now, you are asking for too much. We have not indexed these newspapers. For instance, we have the complete San Juan Star which we filmed from issue one to the present. We have set up no indexing service. DR. DIX: This gentleman over here. MR.MILLER: I am Miller from Inter~America Univer- sity. In what library is this, are these,newspapers physically housed? MISS BAA: In the St. Thomas Public Library, and I'll extend an invitation to all of our participants to visit with us. MR. GOCKING: Does the library have facilities for making positive from the negative? MISS BAA: Yes, we do and we can sell you positives, and we can reprint whatever negative you may have. We can also make Diazo jackets for reducing personnel files, correspondence, and so on, which will then convert your microfilm rolls to 4x5 cards in drawers, instead of rolls, and so on. TRAM COMBS: I'd like to put the situation of the St. Thomas Public Library into focus with a couple of phrases, ag 1 may. Because St. Thomas is the capitol of the Virgin Islands, the St. Thomas Public Library has come to function without thinking of itse]f in just that way as the national library of the Virgin Islands, and by the enthusiasm and ability Miss Baa has demonstrated, this library has built up a very large Virgin Islands collection. It is slightly weak on rare materials and things before 1900, but overall it is developing the best collection of materials on the Virgin Islands anywhere in the world. DR. DIX: Thank you. Shall we move ahead now to the British West Indies and Dr. Jordan. I don't know whether you have been alerted or not, but will you give us a summary of the situation? DR. JORDAN: Yes, I prefer to refer to my area as tie Commonwealth Caribbean because we have a few independent territories now and I don't know that they will particularly relish being re- ferred to still as British. I am thinking about Jamaica, Trinidad, and Barbados. These are three independent territories, and the associated state group, which were formerly Windward Islands and Leeward Islands. I am not taking up Guyana, we have a representative from Guyana, and I don't have anything on the British Virgin Islands. The Commonwealth Caribbean is really the former territory of the British federation, The Federation, as it used to be called, of the West Indies that I am referring to, and I am concentrating as you ask on West Indian material, although I originally had an idea that this conference was going into a rather broader field. DR. DIX: You can be as broad as you want, go right ahead. DR. JORDAN: Well, when you think of library resources you can approach it in so many ways, by subject and by 29 taking only Caribbean materials in general. I have approached it by subject and when you talk a little about resources of the islands, I want to sav two things generally on the subject that Miss Baa men~ tioned. Out of the conference that was held by the heads of the Carib- bean Universities in November last year, we are hoping to form some kind of Association of Caribbean Universities and Research Libraries. Planning for this, I hope, will be much further ahead by the time I leave St. Thomas, because the other members of the planning committee are also here. We are planning to have a meeting this Wednesday or Thursday after the conference is over. But our brief plan is to have a meeting just immediately preceding SALALM (in June), which will in- clude all participants, all universities and research institutes, the representatives of the November meeting and all heads of Caribbean universities. We also invited a number of other libraries to be alerted if they are interested, to attend as observers. Planning for this conference could take up rather much the same kind of broad topic that we are talking about here, and which I think would consti- tute another channel where what we talk about can be carried forward. There was also a very recent conference in Trinidad on the national literature. This was held about two weeks ago (in February), sponsored by The Library Association and at that conference a good deal of attention was given to the collection of local materials that actually exist in Trinidad and more so of the problems of collecting local materials, and what might be done about some of these problems. So with those two comments on background let me say something as briefly as possible on the ten territories. 23 The Institute of Jamaica has been active since 1879, I think, and the collecting of local materials began almost from that time. The Institute also served for many years, I think, only as a sort of public library system in Jamaica well until the 1950's. Its collections are described in articles: there is an article in The LIBRARY ASSOCIATION RECORD of October 1958 by Mrs. Bretno, who was the librarian at that time, and in that article she described the Institute collection fairly in some detail. She talked particularly of the newspaper collection and the material--manuscripts, maps, prints and all kinds of valuable materials--for historical research that were held in the Institute library. I think now the Institute contains all current West Indian newspapers, and if my information is correct the University of the West Indies at Mona passes on its West Indian material as a whole. We have a representative here from the Institute of Jamaica, and I am sure she will be able to add to anything that I may not have brought out clearly enough. I think it is enough to say that the collection at the Institute of Jamaica is the oldest and in this sense alone the best. Secondly, it is the strongest in Jamaican materials as a whole and in many instances, it is also very, very strong on other West Indian material, stronger than some of the libraries that exist. The Jamaican Public Library published a bibliography for independence showing location of the items in these three libraries. The University collection at Mona is well described in a paper by Mr. W. Gocking which was presented to SALALM in 1967. The paper is entitled "Regional Collection of the University of 24 West Indies'’ Mr. Gocking described the scope of the collection, the kinds of materials contained, and the sort of emphases that have been placed. There are several emphases, one of them 4 listing of all the serial holdings of the library. They are quite strong although their files are not complete; they are not only a guide to what the library has, but they are in a way the initial steps forward--they are the sort of definitive listings of West Indian series I think we definitely need, something that should tell us what all the series types are that have been published in the different territories from a given date to when they ceased publi- cation, which is a favorite habit of many of these West Indian serials. The collection at St. Augustine moved to Trinidad and is also described very, very briefly in the same working paper number 25. The collection at St. Augustine is strong mainly in that a very small part of it was inherited from the Historical Séciety of Trinidad and Tobago. The Historical Society was organized, or it was established, somewhere in 1934, and they published a good deal of historical material, and were very active in accumulating a library; and then somehow they mysteriously died as an organization. Its library was passed on partly to the Central Library of Tobago and partly to the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture at St. Augustine which later became the University of the West Indies Faculty of Agriculture and the base of the university campus opera~ tion in Trinidad. So we have some very rare, well perhaps not many, but a few quite rare and distinctive items. One of them is a prize showpiece which is a two-volume diary maintained by Sir 25 William Young, who was a 19th century governor of Tobago. It is rather priceless because there are some attractive watercolors and drawings in it and I think this is the first thing we rush to show to our visitors because it is attractive and unique. It is the only manuscript we have, by the way, but it is rather a showpiece. The collection has in it the same materials inherited from the Historical Society, a number of standard West Indian histories, and a long history. In recent times we have added to it by buying West Indian books, of course, and more so collecting West Indian pamphlets and reports of this kind. The usual difficulty of course has been experience and I wouldn't go into that here, let's just say that what we have now is a nucleus collection of which we are hoping to expand and build to a fullfledged Caribbean collection in our new building. We also inherited the library of the Federal Information Ser- vices. The West Indies Federation was short lived and when it folded up in 1961 the assets were distributed and the library was given to the University of the West Indies. Since the federal capitol was seated in Trinidad, the Trinidad campus library has the material that was this Federation collection. It was not @ catalogued collection, however: it took us six or seven years to sort out. We found that we got most of it, especially the news- papers and pamphlet materials, reports, particularly serial publications, because the Federation, from its very inception, has established a depository law. The Federal information Service collected a lot of local documents as they were published and these have come to the University library. There was also a large guide J -—, of Jamaican reference material in the territory which was pub- lished in 1965. There is no published guide to the Federal Informa- tion Service collection, which in itself was not catalogued. Perhaps something should be said about the Caribbean Regional Library in Puerto Rico, 48 belonging to this area that I am cover- ing. Because it was originally housed at the library in Trinidad, we still mostelgically think of it as being once ours. It was a very strong resources center for West Indian reports, again espec- ially for research and socia) sciences and, although some of the same aaterials exist at the University libraries in Trinidad, we severtheless feel that access to the resources of that Caribbean Regional Library is @ very worthwhile objective. Therefore, we are pleased with the progres that was instituted there for xerox- img eterisl in that library for the wee of other area libraries. The Trisided Central Lilrery ‘© one of the three public libraries serving in Trinided. Todaro has fairly extensive collections of \eet Indian sateria! and reported over 8,000 volumes is the recest coefererce. That collection is particularly strong ie eewepeper clippings for which they hawe maintained « file over che lest eight or ten years, and they ere very strong also in Vest tedies Literetere end in reports as 4 whole. These vere collected ewer the pest eight te tee yoere, “= lading some older aaterials jekerited free the Triaiésd Mietericsl Seciety. The Trisid@ed Peblic Library te the origios! public librery doting free the 1850". Tt recegniaed the seed for collecting Vest indies eetertiale rether lete te their exietence. One would heave hepet thet eiace thie Librery wee there since the 1650's we wight 3 have had a treasure house of some of the older reports. Unfor- tunately, it was reported that they did not collect local materials to any great extent before 1900. It is therefore not possible to determine what the collection contains, for it is not catalogued but is arranged by subjects. Happily, they are particularly strong in Trinidad newspapers. They have bound files of the news- papers going right back to the early days. This was one of the sources used by the University of Florida in Gainesville in micro- filming materials from the island a few years ago. All the special libraries in Trinidad have some West Indian materials, depending on subject fields in which they are especially concentrating. [I think the Industrial Development Corporation Library, with which we were »ssocizted in the first year, has a vast clipping f .le which was built up from the very inception of the libr: ry, aud a number of the West indian reports which are directly related to econonic development and industrial development. They have all the statistical reports, this kind of thing. There is also a new library at the Central liank of Trinidad with a pro- fessional staff. There is a library at the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development, and there are a number of government department libraries which are collecting materials relative to their subjects but I don't think they warrant more attention in this very quick glance we are giving. The Barbados Public Library also is especially rich in local history materials. They recently published in 1966 a bibliography which lists the work pertaining to the history of the island of Barbados instead of the region. Most of the material listed there 3) is actuallw in the Barbados Public Library. In 1960 when I did a survey, that collection was already reported at about 5,000 items. That was nearly ten years ago; I believe the library has since ex- tended, and the reference collection is now much bigger. There is also an organized archival collection in Barbados with a professional archivist who publishes a list of «ccessions to the archives. There are a number of local reports being collected so that Barbados is fairly well taken care of. If I may say a word on the national archives in Trinidad. Un- fortunately the government has not been able to house archives properly and they are in a rather sorry state at the moment. It is therefore impossible to tell what is there, so that nobody can quite use them. Plans for the new development imclude housiag for archives but until a building is available it is futile to assess them for the present. The other public libraries in the West Indies-~and the Antigua Public Library particularly comes to mind--all have rather small collections which are locked and somewhat tucked away with some valuable West Indian materials. 1 think a survey at this time is urgently needed to locate and preserve some of these things not known in ; eneral and which are not properly recognized by the people. I cen only say Antigua has more than the rest of this kind of materials, but ‘hey were deterioreting, were in poor condition, and it was a jong t:me ago when I saw them. I haven't seen the collection in recent years aad I don't know if there has been an improvement. If I could just sum up briefly some of the difficulty that we are encourterins,. At this recent conference Miss Ursula Raymond 2 did a paper on why, how and what to collect and she identified no less than 19 types of materials to be collected and over 20 differ- ent sources of information, or sources of actual collecting that should be done. She suggested methods like going through the death notices to see wiose things are going to be thrown out next and this is, although facetious, not exactly offbeat, because sometimes this is where a lot of the older rere materials can be found. There are a number of areas of current research which need to be taken account of which are valuable sources for collecting. In agriculture, literature, sciences, etc. much work is going on. for example, a member of the faculty was recently found doing a biblio- graphy on soil that he found in a number of the West Indian islands, and he was able to locate bibliographic reports that had been done by members of th? staf* which would never otherwise have been dis- covered. People do nox think of making them available for others’ use; they ise them for their own purooses and file them away and that is the end of the story. I hope that Miss Raymond's paper will be published. If I may touch on that, funds are perhaps the greatest hinderance to development of our nation, and if we are going to progress at. all we are going to have to have money. We will need the manpower to pursue our objectives but,unless we have the money, we can't get manpower, and I think this is perhaps where we need to concentrate: next. DR. DIX: Thank you very much, Dr. Jordan. Now, are there others in the area that may want to amplify this? MR. GOCKING: On the paper to which Mrs. Jordan F ne , ne ee nen Oe til referred as a salient paper number 2's since then and before that we had tried several times to get ‘urding for retrospective biblio- graphies or the publishing of new materials, without success; for- tunatelv, our present librarian is working on a great project for recording ‘est Indian manuscripts »broad. He is hoping to publish that in due course. Part of what 'e has done already on the manu- scripts, perhaps in America, may he published very soon, I hope. oR, PIX: Are there any questions? MR ive TREMBLEY: I would like to mention, Pr. Jordar did brine it unr, the map coliection et the Institute of Jamaica. The finest in the West Indie, 1 believe, it covers not only Rritiab hut lJ narts of the Wesr indies. MISS BAA: In connection with what Dr. Jordan has said concerning this project on cards and reproduction I see it immediately as a cooperative micro‘ilming project. We should lixe to otfer you such microfilmi:g services. rR. JOPDAN: °¢'11] s xenk to you later. DR. DIX: This is tue kind of communication I think this conference is particularly designed to establish. “RS. SHEPARD: Speaking on the same topic there are two things that occurred to me from what Dr. Jordan mentioned, one the need for a survey of materials that are in existence, parti- culerly in unknown locations. T would think that it should he possible, with the mer bershin now of Trinidad and Tobago and Bar’a- dos in the Organization of Anerican States, that they might ask the OAS to do a survey on the resources in the Caribbear basins it on their need for this information for developmental purposes. The 31 38 at eer em ee ane " a - ns ee ” wre Sane ere other thine, as far as the publication of indexes, there are a number of commercial firms that are very much interested in being able to produce or photocopy what you have already done on cards. One of course in G.K. '!all Company which has done a number of bibliograph- jes. Also the ‘careerow Press is ‘elighted to know of interesting bibliographic projects which could be commercially feasible. Scare- crow is not particularly interested in large number of copies to be sold, but merely to contribute to the world of scholarship. These two organizations, comierciel enterprises, are especially to be considered in making this more widely available to everyone. DR. DIX: Thank you, Marietta. Well, as I look at the clock, it is almost time for lunch. I think after lunch we should resume this, and T hove that you will be back at two o'clock. (AFTER LUNCH) I would like to congratulate all of you on vour promptness. Let .e ask before going on whether vou like this precedure that we are following? This is a democratic conference, if you want to change it, we can. Does anyone feel we can use our time in some other way the rest of the dav? All right, we will hurry up and finish what we were doing. Ir. Jordan had another comment or two on her area but. before I do that, there has been sone request for an accuvate list of names and addresses of everyone here. I am going to pass this around and we should be able to get this to all of you in mimeograph form before you ieave. Dr. Jordan. DR. JORDAN: Yes, there were just two or three points I want to make auickly which J should have made this morning. The Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture Library of the Univer- sity of the West Indies is of course mainly in agricultural and ~elatei sciences. I have broucht a list here, of 39 ee. t which I don't have enough copies but just want to show, of agricul- tural journals and serials that are held at the university library. The list is 34 pages long, full pages, and this gives you some idea of the scope of the collection there, and I want to say that the G. K. Hall Company was supposed to be considering publishing the cata- log of this material. It has a lot of West Indian material in it but has a much wider coverage of tropical agriculture. The cther thing I wanted to mention which somebody else sug- oiled wood a collection on slavery, I think, with reference to the Virgin Islands. There is, quite recently, a Center for Multi- Racial Studies jointly sponsored by the University of Sussex and the University of the West Indies. These multi-racial studies are on the campus of the University of Barbados and they have already attracted, although they have been going only about two years, a very substantia’. gift collection of about 15,000 volumes on Negro life and iistory. They have not catalogued this as yet, of course, and can't say exactly what is in it. It seems to be a very rich and valuable collection. I think Richard Moore, a Barbadian book- seller now in the United States, gave this collection to the Bar- bados government who in turn passed it on to the Center for Multi- Racial studies. DR. DIX: Thank you very much. Let's move ahead, let's go immediately to Mr. Hervieu and the French-speaking part of the islands. MR. HERVIEU: (Through interpreter.) The "archives departementales de la Guadeloupe"(County Archives of Guadeloupe) were created only seventeen years ago by a county or departmental 40 $3 law dated August 23, 1951, as authorized by the decree of June 28, 1947, which extended metropolitan legislation, dealing with archives, to the French overseas departments (counties). Prior to this time only two actions related to the protection of public archives at Guadeloupe are worth noting: firstly, the creation by the governor of a small archival service designed to preserve the papers of only zovernnental officers and particularly to bind the official records, the governmental decisions and ministerial memoranda, and secondly, the organization of a depository (as stipulated by the decree of November 20, 1929) of public papers te preserve the duplicate copies of all notarial transactions, deeds, and court judgements from 1912 on. (For prior years, these documents are kept in Paris in the depository of public overseas papers which is part of the overseas section of the Archives Nationales (National Archives). From 1951 to about 1960 the “Archives departementales' have been used mainly as repositories for the documents of the various departmental (county) agencies. Since 1960, more documents have been included, namely those of all governmental agencies as well as all notarial documents~-~as prescribed by the French archival regula- tions. The principal sources accessible to researchers may be classified in the following manner: (1) ‘Depeches ministerielles' (Ministerial memoranda): This includes correspondence addressed by the Ministry of the Navy (later of the Colonies) to the Governor of Guadeloupe (One to four volumes per year) going back to 1826. (There are also bound volumes of copies of rinisterial memoranda concerning the Customs Office (181/7- 34 A 1838). (2) "Arretes et decisions du gouverneur' (Governor Decrees): This collection is also bound (one to 12 volumes per year) and starts only in 1894. (3) ‘Fonds du Conseil prive de la Guadeloupe et du Conseil de @ontentieux Administratif" (Minutes of the Governor's Council of Guadeloupe and of the Administrative Council): these two organiza- tions, which were eliminated in 1947, played the role of the consulting, body of the insular administration and of the administra- tive court. Their proceedings and judgements go back to 1826. (4)"Fonds ‘uedois de Saint Barthelemy" (Swedish Archives of Saint Barthelemy): This consists of the public archives of the island of St. Barthelemy during the Swedish period (1784-1878). This island was later linked administratively to Guadeloupe and today consti- tutes a “canton and a “commine" (township and town) of the depart- ment ("arrondissement" of Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthelemy); these archives, quite complete for the whole Swedish period, are composed in reality of several collections: papers of governors, archives of the courts, of the Customs Office (manifests), notarial documents, etc. These archives were transferred to Basse-Terre in 1932 (for the most part) and in 1962 where they are briefly catalogued. A definitive catalogue and a systematic recording on microfilm are planned as a result of a request from the Royal Swedish Archives to the "Archives de France" (French Archives). (5) “Registres Hypothecaires” (Registry of Deeds): This collection constitute a private source for the socio-economic history of the islands. The registries start in 1811 for Basse- 42 Terre, 1830 for Pointe-a-Pitre and Saint Martin and 1858 (only year) for Marie-Galante. (6) "Registres d'état civil de 1'arrondissement de Pointe- a-Pitre et de la ville de Basse-Terre" (Registry of Civil Acts for Pointe-a-Pitre and Basse-Terre) : This comprises two distinct collections, the first one transferred in 1962 by the Pointe-a- Pitre court, the second one deposited in 1961 by the municipality of Basse-Terre. The registries with earliest dates are from the following "communes" (towns) : Abymes: 1339 (births), 1838 (Marriages) , 1838 (deaths) Anwe Perera 7h CORT mayy TATOO , Pree ea Pe) RaieoMahauits 179) (oR EER, PATTIES) yporiahs) )esirade: 17a Chapeianm, PAY y 1DROD, buy aie) Goeter 4 1789 (papi sem, mary LAROP, purin is) Phat hcl Lait Grandboury)s 16a) Cotte), 18399 Gnearriager F 87> (aeatns Meri—adieute (copsetere 4447 (trees), 169° ee ee 16k) feeets! ors Oa ass Oa SE ras: —=t keoecses CSCS ee Fo i 362 Gicers "ssa .__ . Pecitt—Camai: L738 Santiss=, "=arTragS=. Turtas Ss Port-Louis: 17380 (Baptisms, narriags> surtais; Sainte-Anne: 1781 (baptisms, narriages, burials) Sainte-Rose: 1781 (baptisms, marriages, burials) Saint-Francois: 1782 (baptisms, marriages, burials) Basse-Terre: 1795 (births), 1795 (marriages), 1794 (deaths) 43 (7) “Minutes notariales" (Notarial Minutes): Since 1964, four depositories of minutes have been made by the notaries of Guadeloupe: Mr. Boudin at Basse-Terre (minutes starting in 1759), - Mr. Lacour at Basse-Terre (minutes starting in 1792), Mr. Turlet at Basse-Terre (minutes starting in 1771) and the court of Saint- Martin (minutes starting in 1775). After this enumeration of the principal collections of archives in the "Archives departementales de la Guadeloupe", one should not forget the "printed archives", which are administrative publications of great importance for the history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: starting in 1834, "proces-verbaux des Sere Wa Corre we CERES OF ere Pehibers VaR VF Phe Colonia PayResi), deter Patios PPD Ve CDR hes Adlsdbovations 48 (onset) penerai” Ch Poedserines of the eisdbera tions of te General Gout si), Bullieisn, Gagette oe Journal vitieiels de is Guadeloupe’, Gtartime is) 1828) in wGGition, ta prétiives Grp t ian AlLet” »teservs ti aeusectiess Oo te 2ere esterase sas 2412 275-1964); es .. i ae o_o ene ae aC ee ee a ane >ee2 cubiisses Lo eS Sa com Ss . SS ocx rie “La Gaadeiouce,. Teasetgssss =r tisscire suas louse. Information om “le fistory-..- & large historical library with more ‘nam 4 thousand oocKSs and brochures is attached to the “Archives departementules’. This library includes on the one nand books acquired since 1960 4 and on the other hand two collections: one deposited in 1962 and 1967, that of the “Federation mutualiste", and the second in 1964, the "bibliothéque du Conseil general". It comprises works on the history of Guadeloupe and local newspaper: (nineteenth and twentieth centuries) and, thus, today it is the most complete reference historical library in existence in Guadeloupe. (A collection of microfilms of kuropean documents dealing with Guade- loupe is also maintained and built up regularly every year.) This brief survey of resources of documents in the depc sitory of archives of Guadeloupe will, no doubt, leave the reader per- Pheren wr ae che fe ~~ = Cer eT TTT a Se Were Feet RR Pret eee Yhap 175" Tr wephewat ten ff Steps? Th atdition te vhe destyeetive ePopteai ebimate, Chepe Fe lent © has suffered from were, earinquak.s and Horricenes, bot the ereet ent damager were due to aevera)l firen vei) up te vacs milly heve destivyed iwea) geversmcn! putidiuag aud faees thus, tar just oe ton @ basese“ieres, oY => leet tue 10) stow wvlsd mmge #20! eet estisers6 6S ae tectisec: 0 0—oenirtrT - weeetew § pe (ST se te Merrsc est = -_ ecidton <at> ie sears Sect ot Spee p75 ™= Tazerszi (Suet «os sos 35I a wee: ter Sectives <seesss mentaies L355). The Site «cc che Secor secsrterentzi:-s <5 ast cause, ia 1955, =e sermanert .2amage =o = Tea. Ted collections. However, all the papers vere sossec and chis necessitated much salvage work which lasted several yests-/ Since 1956, the archive room +s fireproof (cement ceiling ond 12 49 estat ehebeos) bet, tater only ome wotaet shelf empie.. ae enilet ee owes ont Guibert ei fet bow seeteet, te pleemiog *teee. will erewvice he “eee denertenentalos” ott) sere foe om sie om@itioniag. as. S64 othl be peeetblc te preserrr, ott» better gustestees, the etetertees creght: her tt age of Cumde lLeuge -— 82a: Thee ee were nee. . eEwlhee ane =. —_ ee Gere or Queetie © ~httciows” teewttf, yourself oo ones ©8ie Shee Vige tree Ue inetitete of el iad woe teh) oe Geet The beerery et Caste ee dell — . a ee sheet ie ~~ i wi, - err sian ts & Plies Secetueees, eoekd woe t+5) ae Goeet ete om orem’ et:t ettresenet. “we ete inet itieers te pete . he tuteswotes (eers 4 Orem. se gebite itevery, & wes ag? bs terre mmm es to) ten tote Fst ert. om exovcee) thr ertece tested te Serbs Gewerenest Bene terre: Te teteoretty mene (S0 Ort ome cotebt tated fb “i - —— oor oe “awe etre ee eetbesstee te Geter & here? otuets | brent nme our se the tame fog pene Ges theese (oebiteoe: afte, om tes ee aed new gee bet eel beet ten +0 oe eee ee ee ts semetess « +30 Gazeewe “ete, seeeeete — le ont oi tistel Gere feeummnee ee eR, eet ow aed Requattert gor erer. ene 66 SE Renee — & ee ee pn ed a «ht err. % tesued by the two eain political parties. It is obeerwe that these documents are never dated, 80 had te #0 beck to the source: what same h let pul lished Thies is « chara rerisatic of the Caribbean area Our gove rmmer to cuamice certain cover ment documents of the The Cniwereity Library ie very yvoune hut ve emiertaken two ero tects! a) papers ane periodicals. “© hope at some 'uture ‘ear WO suc! wa permit te time © inter: sting to we have actually and such a oublishing in the |ibrar:an enmisei. have already we ere attermptior to inmfex neve- will be able to pabliah these indexes; +b) se are trying to compile 1 sibliceraphy of ati materiale wit @ loca!) imprint. TY ie te all t cam tell wou at the nment about the Univers:t of GC wane. ue Pebife Library ts avothes i wortsat Librar’ Cave ms. ete 1. ae e6tadl iet<e dicece 19°, Pat at & time there vee me exehaci«e of collective tiecal wateri's mic wae tatttatet around 1248 ent ‘rom thet time thew Weve tic w quite 4 co! lection which tocluies aeet ef te ot wines werts om bi-tery ©° “er «= io carts twlet There te shee * esteshie .@ lee ties ot sewers er cl ipein s ont oamphiete &F al ertiets, oe oore —— ee, a s¥ repits Crests «at te wot & oe etet Feet evanet orred te t® teeter ‘“. shied itt\wars @ tererters ee * a Caries aetertial te cde weed °¢ the ‘eret verted tar os ved ameretal See tet ‘arte? in soe Gee oF Cee oliasdet ten Om ve jc eee © oe twete FF sre » ected «he were ,iotare Ge tc oot ceetiqous® eset? he sonal s+ ewow Olen &° ee ee ‘oe ‘ee +e ‘* ettieu* te se soalle © Geeeeeree = eevee * scoot eee, Re ae te — -_ a ‘as of Se sueaue or Caw bad tow material that dealt with our early border disputes. A more liberal policy now allows students to consult these works for reference purposes. Cther special libraries are not very rich in Caribbean materials. They are mainly concerned with material collected in their own subject area. Another source of Caribbean interest is the government archives. This is poorly housed and disorganized; therefore it is not very easy t tell what is avai lable. However, the archivist is well acquainted with his spliection and can easily identify and produce the documents needed. . Mr. Trembley who is also here fros Guyana will tell you more about the material of the archives. This is in summary what exists in the island. OR. DIX: Thank you very such, Miss Stephenson. Let's mowe shear, Mr. Trembley migt say something about this areca, and alec, I think, sorething about Paiti of hie previous knowledge. “R. TREMBLEY: The archives, as Mre. Stephenson sea tioned, are in rather bed shape. They sre howsed abowe the fire stetice in « woodes building. Moet of the newspapers thet are extent are in the archives. Guyane published « tremendous ovambct of sewepepers which dide’t Live wery long, det various political eoweneets ere represented by short-lived sewepepers. Many of these ore quite old and howe eaffered fram the weather, asking ‘it iepecetbic or prekibictive te eee ae if will @ietetegrete. There te « sieale eterefileiag aeckiae te the country ent (he eniveret ty fiede 16 were copemeive te pet Get Geaey Ter hte ti letiee of eee ae tweens Lget tous efe betag featuated te eee vw the gree . # ment will buy it for the universitv and archives. The archives include a representative collection of material from the Legislative Council, even though most of the governmental documents are housed in the Publishing Records Office in London} also, in the early part of the 19th century they had been shipped to Amsterdam. I should also like to comment on Guyana concerning the university: since we don't have microfilm machines these news~ papers are falling apart so rapidly we have decided to record on tape various articles which we think are of historical value until we can get microfilming projects going. The University has inaugu~ rated this year an oral histery program. We find there is a large percentage of elderly people, some in their hundreds, who came to Guiana as indentured laborers dating back to the emancipation period and we are hoping to set some of these people interviewed on tape and put them into th: library for use. DR. DIX: Would you go om to Haiti. MR. McDONALD: As I understand it, the problem is to get a microfilming cameré. It is not the cost of film itself, since you are able to tape things vhich ts probably a little more expensive than filming. wR. TREMBLEY: Yes, it is the outlay for the pur~ chase price of the capers iteelf and releted initia) expenditures, whereas we find we can buy the tape on inetalleaent. “ES. SWEPARD: I sem to be today the proponent of capitalien, bet I kam that Uniwersity “icrofilee heave Seen very euch tetereeted in taewtrg what kied of eeteriaie te the Latie net ica® etee ehoald be eictrottiiawe- Tes hewe bee tetereetet’ te many instances in placing the equipment in institutions if there will be somebody there who is willing and technically efficient to do the filming. MR, TREMBLEY: Thank you. There is not a great deal to be said about Haiti. Haiti does have an archive building with a very fine archivist trained toth in France and in the United States. The building is »f concrete tut the collection is uncatalogued, or at least iz wasn't catalogued a yer ago, which was the last time I was there. Some of the most valuable material going back to the 17th century was simply rotting on the shelves. It is uncertain whether the material is still there. It was arranged by centuries, 16th, 17th, 18th; but on the whole I found the archives pretty compietely useless for histo~ical research. Of course it receives current material coming from the government depository vault of government documents. Librarywise, there are four which I think are important; two of them are the libraries in the two Lycees. The better of the two has a very valuable collection of Haitian imprints. Haiti has a tremendous volume of book publication. A survey done in 1950 shows that they printed more books per capita than any other country in the westers hemisobere except the United States, but the number of copies printed in any edition was very email. Many of them have been lost. There is o national Library which wees set up ender Pres. Suvwalier in the 1950's bet | a afraid it bee euffered free peteceme) changes. and « larece poerticos of the collection hee éte- sppecred. Gewever, met of che eetertale te estiess! librery wee eet Gelttiee, et eootis *reae®, ont thie eee Preae® orittes ” wl) France. In 1930 the Bureau of Ethnology was established as part of the neishborhood movement that hac been inaugurated. The chief man behind it was Dr. Jean Price-tNars (1876-1969), the famous Haitian anthropologist who is now %3 (Fd. note: He died atter March). ‘everth2less, the Netiona: library is an excellent library and it continues t te expenied because President Duva- lier is inzerest2d in it. He was in the very beginning a member of the Lib-ary Bureau. There are cr were a numier of uurch archives. I don't know what their statis is; I myseif wor er in a Roman Catholic Archive diocese ir Port au Prince an’ this was an excellent ‘epository for educational naterials since th> ‘hurch heaced the schools. The same is eauilly true of the Episcopal Church. Poth churches have suffered urder Duvalier's repime and it tis possible that a ~ lot of this material rav hav: disa peared. Ther: are «ther . rchive: dea) in with Haiti outside of Haiti. The Jnite Stat s National /rchives contain al! of te materials on the United States occupation, which covers a very important ere of Yaitian history from 1915 to 1933. The French “ational Archives in Paris twve «4 wealth of material on the San omingeue sericod up to and incivudion the rewolationary period ending roughly ia 17e) te te werw vell cetalogvee and waite acceecibie. "ee oume f6¢ true of the Po bite lecoere fice te Lower The .ce ve See Cee DP <¢ Gee ~wk te the free S arehivee * he * eee stet ¢iee sete eh is v® 3 tatet wit th siverett . “w @le ere ; : —iwea +e €F ——, mainly intereste in tracins French planters, and his use «.f the archives was more or less from tie Frenc. point of view, very helpful te anvone doin: research on that perio. There are private collections. but i shoui: mention three. I just learned since I have been h re th.t part of the collectior of Curt Fisher, «n Austrian who -ert to aiti about 29 or 30 vears ago, is of:ered for sile. M->. Aldin tells me that pert of it has been acquired by the Bost: n Publi. Library. le still has some of it in Puerto Rico wich I !earne. recently he offered for sale at Yale. I don't know whether they bought it or not. : The other is the Nemours Co!lection. which was collected hy Alfred Nemours (1883- ), the iaictian «nbassa:or to Paris in the 1920's. The University of Puerte Pico bought that in 1962. He was rostly interested in Toussairt L'Ouverture and Dessaline and the revolutionary period but it is an excellent collicction. All the hooks have been catalogued, the documents have not been. Sut the documents are quite good, there is a lot of corre ponde ice includine three letters of Napoleon, whic are igned by Napo'eon, concerning his represertatives (n San Domingue. The third is the collection of Cerar! de Catalorrne (19 >. one of bhe outstanding historians {1 Naiti. I have not beer able to s.e hie within the last five y are. ie more or less under hous« arrest. Vhether hie librar * intet | o not mw. thine erebabiv i i¢ dewen’t eoual the Firher c liection, if erteinaiv “TSS VIGO: 1 woulc 1 ke to add Tremblev's something to Mr. information and that is tat the list of the Nemours Collection appe»rs in CARIBR'AN STUDIFS (v.2, no.3, ctober, 1962), and was prepared by fim and “rs. Toth. ‘RS. PORTERS: mendation, one of the recommendatiors might be that 'niversitv Microfilms send a camera down to Haiti. had some contac’ tive is t« I think this company rot onl” will provile an operator, I worder if we micht make a recom- that we suggest T have with University “icrofilms recently and my objec- keep them alert to places where thev are most needed. would send a camera there, but they tow, and I think because of the inm- portance of Haiti's extensive collections and the daneer that in anotuer two or three vears they will be gone. opportunity to «ompare it wi one >of the areas that 'niver:ity * crofilnzs ni to ro to if we recommend it. mn. TR MBLEY: You menn send it mS. PORTER: Yes--to place the wherever resources are and to send an operator Aifficeult to eet funda or for a individual basta. “at thew ere coiling iate tre am eertair that they sill be teterreted 49 Sour 't) be «led ce carey that t+ sone o° the Peeve :. 4 ve ‘3 t ete st ef tecowr cadet = feett' + weere «Tf t ot —_— ‘ Ths «oe ; “ 7 Ss te one sve > == . eo: 4 : h our collections. .€ I haven't had anv I think this is ‘he be quite willis to Faiti or-- camera down there bhecauee it i« feunmiation toe Go thie on an ifrieasn arese and (ati »>eer ' 8 e Sue a on the revolutionary period of Haiti w: in the Boston Public Library. that. Q a c Perhaps he MR. ALDEN: Well, think wn opportunity to speak about that ol States. DR. DIX: Well, let's m ‘. Inchaustegui with the help of ‘irs. “MR. INCHAUSTEGUL: (Thr make a general summation of the the places where ‘he dc larg librories: ne is Sant Domingo and the fadre y “aestra a all oublic Libraries ne acminiaterec w tre cuments afr ‘ . . : the Libr: Santiago «ec oO wd some speci American * the ince ° . @.hits : cer " ' = > ” ve re iave reec y* . fou ry rian . ‘ + fter DAD ' me m{ $7 enc ne Lal A € 4 4 & i wa f ais | o : - a °° = | o bus J 4 ” , 4 r . iy ctor A th ‘ TA . nmecet ‘ C ‘ < " ‘ mn ra a 9 © 3 De . ais 3a vw wears in Holland. She has suc s,. vo chim'ler),. known to sone of : ,4 d and wio hac moreover f' llowed a ‘ ‘ ‘ ; . ao s - - rd oa oe 2 ; 2 ° wees . or ss. : ree moe - ** : , ¢ _ . - 7. > ' - Ayd4 / r 9 ta s+) ft Sf y hy gue As yp ih / oe ‘ + eh ZS . , bide ; : pris ‘ ras y wy 4 wine J . ary Je c : Soret erating Witt af « mois a Cay ¥ t <m present time ther is ow Gir ctor we ac ims rect« is ch assistant Itbrari.o whe has he 6 alled needc« lio]: ma fo° docu mentation but who has nit re elve iny ep cial trainti 1s libral ian. ‘ie. emitif | any tari j LS. ai iw a ‘ : ' is as 68 ’ , . » « sn? o- 7 - .- a s« ‘- - oy —* ° at : ' * eae —— 6 : ' ' ae e ' se ‘ : ° : 7 : : ; . . + , , ,) oben nee Matted, cuts ey heeed Tht tee Mateied of talented, wah atin the OnE rt Aneta, ttteae, a6 with ieee) arere mente, wah Hh the talents of tht Cat tert: Laporte tor von weasary oh tothe hnarlee wd pret aery and fore « truly rich source of bistery of the social relations of the islend. There ere aleo meny documents dealing with sieve rele- tions io the Hetherlenes Antilles aed on slave relations between che netherlands Autiiies one Bur bue tee acebives thw be * te ash ase ohh he Be panei? Mere Te eee bd get Piety Bs: pads win werner uw wee he pd A PM Te ae bt ot netted) 14 ea Here ont tt ot Cebete 4 ue) a MAME ae seen 6 get Ch tk taba tt a oa AE aE HE em ¢- eee ee kd ee ’ ~~ mowte farthererrs. of tem! the OM Garten Gecherients sattlics ore preevetiy os —eetert eT epecislices soctetence free Geileat oo ove tryieg to | corgenter she erebiece, cootretictag 1 estertele ent Geeemeet - i= eettesess tolende. For he foee, se tihttee er tees eoet se Sehbamwtad eete® te febty one —hee, & ee wee rr aun ta te he 0 eh ee ewan eat 1 tame ene wows ereae (oe oo ortivge enerte ver wee consti @ ie <—“sm in the Netherlands Antilles, and later another started to collect — all the books that are written in papiemento; that is, the local dialect. Frank Martinis, a person who is busy with these collections, has discovered that from about 1850 to date there are over one hundred books written in papiemento; most of these are prayer books printed by the Roman Catholic authorities. I thank you. DR. DIX: Thank you, Sir - Any questions or additions here? MISS VIGO: I'd like to ask a question. You spoke of a scientific library. Would you consider it also a public library? It is both, but it is more specialized 4 MR. PAULA | in certain fields. MR. VAUGHN: My name is Vaughn. What is the title of this index that you have there, the exact title and author? MR. PAULA: It is compiled by Mr. M.P.H. Roessingh — and the title is GUIDE TO THE SOURCES IN THE NETHERLANDS FOR THE HISTORY OF LATIN AMERICA. MRS. EEWISOHN: My name is Lewisohn. Where can one get that GUIDE and do we have to send to Curacao or to the Nether- lands? MR. PAULA: You may write to The Hague but, as I. have already said, it is always possible to get the information through Curacao; s0 that, if I get the names of those persons that j are interested in the GUIDE, I will send it to them. MRS. LEWISOHN: Is it in English? 51 v8 a rae ak Bie Mh. PAULA: It is in English, yes. DR. DIX: Mr. McDonald, your comments. MR. McDONALD: I just want to say we are indebted to Mr. Paula for accepting this assignment with even briefer notice than the rest of you. Professor Dr. Harry Hoetink who is a visiting scholar in the United States this year, spending the fall semester at Yale University and the spring semester at the University of Texas, had been invited to come, was tempted but had other travel plans in the Caribbean later; he and Dr. Thomas Mathews at the Institute of Caribbean Studies suggested that we get in touch with Dr. Paula who was good enough to help us. Dr. Hoetink, I think, will be remaining in this hemisphere and very likely will become a permanent part of the Caribbean scene. I think from all I have heard of him he'll be a great asset to the area. There are others of you here who know his work better than I and can substantiate that. Thank you, Dr. Paula. MISS BAA: I think you will be interested to know that Dr. Paula has just given me a published copy of his doctoral dissertation entitled: FROM OBJECTIVE TO SUBJECTIVE BARRIERS, published in Rome in 1967. It is in the second edition with a forward by Dr. Harry Hoetink. It was published in the Netherlands Antilles, in 1966. DR. DIX: Well, we will conclude this roundup, then, of the areas by coming back to Mrs. Cardona. MRS. CARDONA: The development of library services in Puerto Rico can be said to have taken impetus in the last twenty years, particufely after the creation of the Section of Library Services in 1965 within the Department of Instruction. Since that date, this department took charge of the planning and development of public library services in addition to the school library ser- vices. During the first years after it was created the Section of Library Services concentrated its efforts in the organization of public libraries of all types throughout the island: Libraries at the municipal level, prison libraries, hospital libraries, rural libraries, booknobiles and rural traveling libraries. The figures for 1960 znd 1967 clearly show this increase: 19601967 Public libraries 7 38 Libraries in Housing Projects 27 27 Bookmobiles 8 8 Special libraries 0 12 Rural travel libraries (boxes) 189 346 Primary scliool libraries 0 22 Junior high school libraries 28 62 High school libraries 82 100 Since 1968 the Department of Instruction has started a strong program of development of school library services, as the following figures show: en ae ee OTR CURE TIN Pt eA Gategdry of ‘school (1967 1968 Students Primary school libraries 22 3] 447 ,000 Junior high school libraries 62 118 141,000 Senior high school libraries 100 106 86,000 I am giving this information on library services in Puerto Rico to serve «s a bakground, although I know your main interest lies in 5, 60 library resources available for higher education. There are in Puerto Pice two ‘arge university library systems: ‘the University of Puerto Rice library system, and the Catholic University library system, there are also the College of Sagrado Corazon Library, and Tnter-Anericar iIniversity with campuses at San German and Iiato Re’. The University of Puert: Rico librar:’ system is organized on thre: main campuses: he General Library at 4.. Piecras, the Mayauez Library, and the Medical School Library at San Juan. The cirector of t1e University of Puerto Pico's General Libriry at nfo iedras is Miss Josefina del Toro. the General Library was founded in 1903. It 4; housed in « two-story modern buildine which is undergoing renovation and enlargement at present. Besides its mati building it also has the Libraries of Natural Scieaces, Publi: and Fusines ; Administration and the one at the Plaraing chool The main building as separate sections ‘or Reference. Reserve, Decuments, Records and Periodicals. After building improvements now in process are finished the library will be reorganized. The main building also has special collections with separate rooms. Outstanding among them is the Puerto Rican Collection and worthy of special note is the ‘Sala Juan Ramon Jimenez Collection’, named after the Nobel Prize winner who lived man: years and died in Puerto Kico and donated his persona | coliectioi to tre Library. The director has announced that, in addition 'o housing te new graduate Faculty of Library Services, there are plans for a room for the |lind with books in Braille and special typewriters. 54 61 q Collection. The total holdings of the collection are - 1,075,7]5 columes which include 371,622 catalogued books, pamph- lets, bound periodicals, microfilms and all kinds of educational material in a variety of forms. The classification used is the Dewey Decinal Classification. Only part of the collection is in open stacks. The library is a depository for the federal U.S. Government publications, for United Nations documents, and Pan American Union, the Secretartat of the Organization of American States publications. Bibliograp! ical /ctivities- fhe Puerto Rican Collection prepares several indices tha’: are very valuable tools to guide readers to its holdings: INDEX TO PUERTO RICAN PERIODICALS : (1) the newspaper EL MUNDO for items of local interest, (2) the i INDE OF PUERTO RICAN LITERARY MAGAZINES, covering almost all the item; with the exception of social news, (3) INDEX "OQ PUERTO RICAN POETRY; (4) INI EX TO PORTRA TS AND ILLUSTRATIONS OF PUERTO RICAN ITEMS. They hae also started an LNIEX TO MONUMENTS AND BULLDIN:S OF PUERTO RICO, alphabetical ly arranged by geographic areas. The Reference Department has in progress a SHORT STORY INDEX; this is an author and title index tc short stories in Spanish, in- cluding originals in Spanish and translations to the Spanish language. The COETRY INDEX is a title, author, subject and first line index to poetry in Spanish appearing in anthologies and author collections. “oth these indices refer to works available in the Gereral ‘ibrar’. The Institute of Caribbean Studies pub- lishes a Current Bibliography" of Caribbean interest which appears in its quarterly journal entitled CARIBBEAN STUDIES. The purpose b2 $5 of this bibliography is to list as svon as possible si titles of current books, pamphlets, and periodical articles of interest to Caribbeanists. Another bibliographic activity is the Union Catalog, begun in 1963; it is a Union Catalog of University Libraries at college level. At present the junior colleges are not included. It will integrate also special collections of the University of Puerto Rico like the De On{s, Hispanic Studies, etc. There is a list of 14 participants, however; at present only the following libraries have been integrated: The Library of the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez, the Humacao Regional College, Law Library, Library of Pharnacy, Library of lMedicine, Education Faculty Library, Selles, De Onis Collection, the Library of the College of the Sacred Heart and the Library of the Inter-American University at Hato Rey. The Unica Catalog is: located next to the public catalog and is for the use of the general public. There is only one entry, the author ,main entry, and the catalog is arranged in alphabetical order. The Puerto Rican Collection was begun in 1935 for the benefit of a few researchers. It has all the material published by Puerto Ricans and about Puerto Rico and the Puerto Ricans which includes books, current and rare, documents, bound volumes of old periodicals, manuscripts, posters, maps, rare and contemporary, periodical pub- lications and microfilms, clippings of articles about Puerto Rico in foreign periodicals and all the Puerto Rican government publica- tions poy ail the private organization and private business publications. The collection has 24,048 bound volumes, 4,667 maga- zines, 2,360 periodicals, 38,778 documents and ephemeral material, 63 Ee ETI MEL AT pommeneen and 255 reels of microfilms of Puerto Rican newspapers, a total of 69,853 items. Photoduplicating Laboratory: The University has a Xerox 729 photoduplicatine machine and an Olivetti coin-operated machine in addition to its microfilm equipment. They have several projects, the most important is the microfilming of Puerto Rican periodicals. They have already Filmed EL BUSCAPTYT. and some issues of LA DEMO- CRACTA. General information op the Library at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez campus. The director is Mr. Rafael Deleado. A rew buildings: was inaugurated in 1963, three floors high with a capacity of 719,009 square feet. The collection has about 593,900 volumes, bound books, bound periodicals, records, microfilms and current periodicals. It is strongest in scientific and technical materials and it has onen stacks. The Library is a depository for United States vzovernnent publications. Te Order and Acquisition Depart- ment is in the process of being automated. The director hopes to have the whole system automated hefore long. A few weeks ago this library offered an Institute on Library Automation sponsored by 1.B.M. This is more or less the library activity in Puerto Rico. Mrs. de Rosa may like to add something to thés. DRA. DE ROSA: I thin: Mrs. Cardona has covered everything. PR. DIX: Thank you. Well, that ends our summary. Now, it seems to me we have at least touched the surface of the collections pertaining particularly to the area. This 64 is the kind of material that. it seers to me, is well to have orally presented, but vill be of rermanent value when it appears in the , Renort of this conference. Somethin: it seems to me we mieht dis- cuss on Wednesday morning is an un-to-date directory of libraries in the area. “Miss Raa has been concealing from me two things she has published: a DIP SCTORY OF LIBRARIES LN THE CARIBBEAN ARFA, 1959, and then in 1°43, one of the working pavers for the SALALM Conference (VTIT SALALM, Vorkine Paper 19), 3 paver called LIBRARY AND RIBLIO- CPAPHTC ACTIVITLES TH THE CARTIBBEA!. which I noticed contained a summary description of a number of Libraries. Are these still available op, PIX: One of over -ecommendations, it seems to me. on ednesday would he that somecie undertake to brine this up to cate. I thivk, then--Pr. Jordan. Z | YR, JOMDANs ! was jut seoing to add that the Jamaican library Associatior has published a NTRECTOPY OF JAMATCAN LIBEARTUS in two parts. Part One is on public libraries ard has already apneared, in 1967. Part “wo is on school Libraries, and will secon be issued. Also, my own thesis that was completed in 1966 will be published by Scarecrow Press, and has a listing of the libraries as they stood wher I dic the survey. DR, DIX: It seers to me that one of the things we should wish to talk about tomorrow ia a kind of bibliography of hibliocraphies of the Caribbean area, Unless this is already in existence, it is obviously needed here, because publ ications--some of them foirly obscure jourrsls--hive been mentioned which might be listed in a sinzle publication if someone had the eneray, just a co 65 a ee ee { little bit of energy to undertake it. We can talk about that tomor- row under the general heading of the whole bibliographic control problem. Nrs. Shepard. MRS. SIIEPARD: Yes, there were bibliographies on Latin America, issued in December, 1968, by Scarecrow Press. They include the Caribbean but to what extent I am not too sure. DP, DIX: Well, I suggest it will have to be a very brief survey of the resources of this area in the European and United States libraries. (AFTER COFFEE BREAK) Well, let's get right on to cur discussion of some of the Euro- pean depositories. We are fortunate to have several of the major areas represented here. We were unable to have a representative f of the Archives of the Indies in Spain, or anyone else from Spain. Perhaps someone else can comment briefly on that. MP. McDONALD: We regret to report an unsuccessful effort. NR, DIX: Let's go ahead with Mrs. Bloomfield. We are pleased to welcome you as a participant in this conference. Will you tel] us something about British resources of this area. MRS, BLOOMFIELD: It is difficult to tell you briefly because of so many national government departments with material, and partly because the Caribbean has never been a unified area for research in Great Britain. There have been Commonwealth countries in the area called West 3 Indies covering the islands, British Honduras, Guyana, and the hes countries which are included in the Latin American group such as Haiti, Cuba and Dominican Republic. Therefore, to study the Carib- bean, you have to consult first the libraries of Latin America, the Commonwealth, and specialized West Indies. At the moment the Latin American collections are growing most rapidly because they have special funds for development. In 1965 the University Grant Commit- tee recommended that five centers of Latin American studies should be established in the Universities of Cambridge, Liverpool, Edin- burgh, London, and Oxford. These are universities with a tradition of interest in the area and they have special funds to develop these collections. There is one other university, the University of Essex, which right from the beginning has had an interest in the area, but because it was established so recently it was too late to obtain any special government funds. In fact there are six major university collections on Latin America. A second recommendation of the same committee was that a cen- tral information office be established and that this should be in the Institute of Latin American Studies in the University of London. The Library of the Institute itself is limited to bibliographies for research and reference work and its main role is to support the acquisition of materials in other languages. The major collections are in the 1) University of London, 2) London School of Economics, and 3) Institute of Historical Research. The Institute has a very active bibliographical library and has produced a guide to Latin American collections in London libraries. It includes the lanruages of the Hispanic Collection in Hispanic House, the Foreign Office, the Bureau of Trade, and the Bank of London itself in South America. So this 60 = quite well covers the area. In addition, the library is doing a National Union Catalogue of books and periodicals relating to Latin America. It has concentrated initially on the holdings of the five British libraries which have ppecial government funds but it is in- tending to gradually add the holdings of other countries. At the present time the Union Catalogue is being circulated to interested libraries, but in addition the library is compiling a copy of the shelf list of the Latin American section of the Harvard University Library. We have information that this will be printed as a retrospective catalogue with current monthly lists. As far as the Caribbean is concerned there is no problem about the Latin American countries having been included; Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico are hide. There was some hesitation about the others. I had a discussion with the director before I left and suggested that my own library [Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, est. 1949] include West Indian material so that this will strengthen the now Hispanic material in this Union Catalogue. In addition to the Catalogue, the Institute has also assumed responsibility for issuing a list of Latin American theses. This comes out once a year and does cover all countries of the Car“ bbean. There are two other universities in Great Britain developing a forward interest in the West Indies. The University of Manchester has a joint program with the University of the West Indies with an exchange of staff and students, and is building up a collection to support this research. Dr. Jordan has already mentioned the Univer- sity at Sussex which has a Center for Multiracial Studies, with a branch there te Barbados, so that Manchester is building up a a 6 a ee : — ST =" political and sociological selection. The other library is in the University of Oxford. I have already mentioned the Latin American collection in Oxford but this is devoted to the Commonwealth and is one of the strongest of the Spanish West Indian collections. I have mentioned Latin American collections first because these are developing rapidly; but the major historical collections are the general ones such as the British Museum. The Department of Manuscripts and the Department of State Papers have the biggest collection on the Caribbean. It is difficult to say exactly how much. There is also the World Commonwealth Society which has quite a large collection, and there is the West Indian Committee Library which was established in the 18th century by a group of merchants of West Indian descent and which has built up a strong library on slavery and emancipation. A subject catalogue of this was published in 1941 which included quite a lot of rare pamphlets which are not British but are in the library.,“At the Library of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, we are trying to build up a collection of current material particularly on politics, recent history, and social sciences and, as I mentioned this morning, to collect particularly locally published material which is quite difficult to obtain. I did make two acquisitions trips to the West Indies and we have quite a good collection of the documents of the trade unions and that type of information which vanishes so rapidly if you don't collect it on the spot. There are, of course, department libraries. The Commonwealth Relations Office and the Colonial Office are the two libraries that have mat@€rials on the Caribbean but these have now changed their 62 69 y names and are rather unfamiliar. The diplomatic service has been unified and there is now a Foreign: and Commonwealth Office, and the old Colonial Office is the Department Services; but these are basically the two libraries which are particularly strong on government reports. Before the West Indian countries became in- dependent their publications automatically went to these government departments and I think they had more complete collections at that time. The same is true of the Archives; the Public Record Office, as it is known, has a lot of unique materials and documents which have been lost in the West Indies. Of course, there is a lot remaining as shown in recent guides to the West Indies. Most of this material in the West Indies is duplicated in the Public Record Office. There is not at the moment a published guide equivalent to the GUIDE Dr. Paula mentioned. The British volume of the RESOURCES FOR LATIN AMERICAN HISTORY is still in manuscript. The editor told me just before I left that the text is about three-quarters finished and he hopes it will be published by the Oxford University Press. I think what is interest- ing about this volume is that it covers the West ‘rdies in as much detail as Latin America proper. I understand that the American volume will only cover Hispanic materials, and the French guide will include Martinique and Guadeloupe but not the British islands. The British GUIDE in fact is very strong on the West Indian material and, as so many of the countries have changed hands so many times, it includes materials on the metropolitan country as well. I just looked through it briefly and there is a section of the Public Record Office about the Library of Oxford, the Library 10 63 ORR ee ce OE CT in Cambridge, the University Libraries in Liverpool, and the City Record Office in Bristol, which is being covered with slavery collections. Scotland is covered, business records are being covered when published. There was no difficulty of placing this material. Until it is published there are still a number of Guides to the collection notably in the Caribbean Archives Con~ ference Report (1965) in two volumes, which has listed the depositories and extent of the records of the Public Record Office. So this gives you briefly some idea of the material in Great Britain, and I think it is gradually being made known. It is important to know what exists so that libraries in the area can obtain microfilms of the documents and I hope possibly there will be some other suggestions of what should be done. DR. DIX: Thank you very much, Mrs. Bloomfield. Are there additions or questions on the British background? Let's turn to Mr. Birkelund. MR. BIRKELUND: Yes, I have concentrated my report on the islands that are now called United States Virgin Islands. The reason, of course, is that these islands for more than two hundred years belonged to Denmark and therefore we have a lot of materials; the whole historical background is to be found in the Danish collections and is fortunately concentrated in the Danish (Royal) National Archives and the Royal Library and Museums. I will not go into details about the national archives, I will just say that they are the central libraries and central archives in Denmark. You will find deposited and registered im the Royal 64 ral Library almost 13 million records regarding St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. John. And of course a lot of this material has been used by Danish scholars. There is still a lot of material that should be investigated and listed. I would especially like to bring to your attention the newly established branch of the national ar- chives which is the special archives for business firms or companies. These archives are now collected and in this special collection can be found a lot of materials about Danish firms which had been operating in the islands. Regarding libraries, there are central libraries of excep- tional collections for printed material and for what is to be called manuscripts, letters and so on. There are libraries, rare old ones started in the 17th century just at the time when we colonized the island here in 1665, and since 1697 we have had the depository law, which means we have the complete collection of all Danish imprints for the last three centuries, books, pamph- lets, periodicals, and newspapers that have been mentioned. And that means printed materials are kept as complete as possible, including also materials regarding the Virgin Islands. Of course, this would also be found in the printed National Danish Historical Bibliography which covers the whole period and which also lists articles in periodicals, etc. It was more difficult to get access to the manuscripts. They are catalogued, of course, but not from the West Indian point of view. This means that one has to investi- gate all the private archives which are kept in this collection. Numerous family archives include letters which were written about West Indian affairs from the islands to Denmark. Collections of photo- 65 Ps graphs and maps are also found, with very fine materials regarding the Virgin Islands. Some of the Danish National Museum picture collection was exhibited two years ago in St. Thomas. These will remain in the islands as a permanent exhibition of all pictures from the Danish West Indian Islands. I am sorry to say that materials found in general collections with any relation to the Danish West Indies have not been cross-referenced, but this should’ be done in the future. I know in many ways Denmark is concerned about West Indian affairs and also there is increasing interest here on the island; so I hope we will meet in mutual interest and determine some joint or cooperative projects which could place all those valuable re- sources within easy access for research to the people in the Virgin Islands. This is a very brief report, but we hope it will give you a small picture of what we have collected. I am sure all Danes will be very glad to support any proposal to make this material known and used. Thank you. DR. DIX: Thank you very much, Mr. Birkelund. I assume there is no one that has anything to add, but does anyone have any particular observation on this area? I suspect there is a serious language problem here. MR. BIRKELUND: That is right. MR. PAULA: I would like to inquire whether you have any documents concerning Netherlands Antilles? MR. BIRKELUND: I don't think so, I have not investi- gated this, but Danish interest was on the three islands here. We have what we call a normal collection of the Caribbean area and 66 rc: Latin America but I don't think our holdings there are quite normal. MRS. SHEPARD: This reminds me of the fact that the meeting on the International Conference on Archives, which was held last September in Madrid, took a resolution to the effect that the countries possessing archives of their former colonies should make an effort to provide their former colonies with microfilm copies of those archives. Inasmuch as I have been asked to try to jot down resolutions, I should be grateful if Mr. Birkelund would draft the text of the resolution which we might accept at the end of this conference concerning the provision of microfilm copies of archives material relating to former colonies. MRS. PORTER: In our Howard University Libraries we have tried to maintain a checklist of scholars doing research. Very often they go around the country bringing back in their suitcases various papers and documents from various countries, and we have been very successful in pulling out of their handbags and from their closets notes that were used or unused. These have gone on micro- films on deposit there, indexed on some of these working papers. I was told that there were 699 documents on the Caribbean area accumulated by one writer and I wonder what has happened to that material, what did he do with it. Did he deposit it in the univer- sities where he did his major work or did he throw the papers away? Just by making an effort to secure the working material of scholars we have come across a lot of information and materials they were never able to put in books, and sometimes we have used them. DR. DIX: I might add that I found this an important point. We have made some effort in our library to get these papers “4 of scholars, but we have found them of very little use because they are not written for Use by someone else. The notes are all gobbled up, someone may find something but, unless he is a particularly orderly scholar--and most scholars are not very orderly, I wonder about the value of this even as I wonder about the value of some manuscripts of published work unless they are the work of literary significance or a real technical analysis. Let's move to France. We have no one here from France, but i wonder if Mr. Hervieu has anything to say about the resources on this area in metropolitan France. MR. HERVIEU: (Through interpreter) There exist in France a large number of documents in the archives about the Caribbean, since the French at one time owned Santo Domingo which was principally a French colony. One should not forget the islands which are French today and also the islands which at one time were French: St. Croix, St. Kitts, Dominica, St. Lucia, and even Trinidad and Tobago. In the National Archives in Paris some principal papers or documents concerning Santo Domingo are well catalogued and right now there is an attempt to prepare an inventory about Martinique. The first volume was published last year. There are also some interesting documents at the former Ministry for the Colonies which is now a section of the National Archives. One should also include the: archives of the French Army and Navy, as well as the Diplomatic Archives of the Museum of National History. As for the Bibliotheque Nationale, its holdings are well catalogued, and notable among them is a good collection of maps. We must also mention the legal depository. Each and every publication coming out 68 i) ited of the French Antilles must send five copies to Paris, and two are kept in the country. All publications are catalogued in the review periodical which is called LA BIBLIOGRAFIE DE LA FRANCE. As for private collections, many of which are about the island of Santo Domingo, they are little by little being catalogued by Professor Gabriel Debien, who is presently professor at the University of Nantes, and who every two years publishes a chronicle biblio- graphy in the French review of overseas departments. DR. DIX: Thank you very much. Any comments? All right, so much for France. MR. GOCKING: I would like to see what comes out when we get into Spain. We have had Great Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands and France. How much of West Indian records are best preserved in the capitol of those countries, and how great will be the need in the near future for these small independent terri- tories to find some means, or to get the cooperation of these metropolitan countries, to publish Guides, first of all, to their archives relating to these territories and also to go further in practice, to cooperate to provide at least microfilms of those portions of the archives that these developing countries might call on them to provide. You remember yourself, Sir, that the Americans had to spend a great fortune in going to Britain and the rest of Europe, to discover what part of their records was there and to make it available to yourself and your own scholars. You are a rich nation. We are very small and poor, and I wish the conference would come to some sort of resolution in due course that takes account of this situation and make some sort of 69 16 ~~ — recommendation in good charity and good will. DR. DIX: Very well put. I think we must certainly address ourselves to that. MRS. SHEPARD: I'11 suggest perhaps Mr. Gocking and Mr. Birkelund can collaborate and work out a resolution relative to acquiring the records relating to the Caribbean area from the former metropolitan countries. MR. PAULA: I think of course we don't have Italy on our list as a colonizing power in the Caribbean, but very im- portant also is the Archives of the Propaganda FIDE!. I have been privileged to spend about eight years in Rome and I know that the Library of the Propaganda FIDEI contains a lot of information about this area. I am not able right now to give you details but we should not forget that this is a rich source about these areas, from missionaries” reports to their bishops, and bishops' reports to their sees, so we might he very surprised at how many documents exist in this particular library about not only the Caribbean area but about all countries of the world. DR. DIX: What library was that? MR. PAULA: Propaganda FIDEI, or Propagation of the Faith Library, in Rome. MISS BAA: Did you find documents in the Vatican? MR. PAULA: Oh, yes. Not only in this particular library, but in many libraries of Orders and Congregations working in this area. DR. DIX: Well, about Spain. Mr. McDonald tried to get someone from Spain and was unable. Is anyone prepared to say r 77 anything at all about the Spanish resources? I know the Archives of the Indies is full of important materials on the former Spanish colonies. MRS. SHEPARD: As far as Spain is concerned, in the library field itself, I would say a few principal sources are pro- bably the National Library, the Institute of Hispanic Culture in Madrid, and the Institute of Spanish American Studies in Seville. As for archives, there are a number of archives in Spain which have material concerning the Caribbean as well as of the rest of Latin America. These are scattered throughout, I think, five archives, including the one in Madrid which is the very best organized. There are also archives in the Ministry of the Mines, for instance, that are extremely important because it is not only historical informa- tion which is important but scientific information recorded by many Spanish priests; scientific information which since that time no one has had any time to bring out or to use, such as measurements as well as mineral resources and the like. < The most famous of course is the Spanish Archives of the Indies in Seville and, within the last year, diplomats from the government of Spain and the Organization of American States have signed an agreement whereby the Organization of American States is to collaborate with Spain in completing the cataloguing of the Archives of the Indies and publishing that cata- logue. This agreement was not signed by technicians s0 it was necessary to find out what was involved in this collaboration. I'll make my story short, in any case I discovered on my way to Madrid in September to attend the International Conference on Council of Archives that no cataloging had been done since the 18th century. 71 48 However, because of the possibility of this collaboration on the part of the Organization of American States, electricity is being installed in the Archives of the Indies, including air condition- ing and heating. New stacks are being installed in what was once a research room in the basement which was the only space in which the archives could be used in the summer, where the temperature gets up to about 108 degrees for a couple of months. This research room has heen converted into a depository and the rows of documents which are filed behind will be placed into the new depository, as well as six thousand Legajos which turned up in the last 20 years and are completely unidentified. Despite the fact that this is perhaps the richest treasure of documents that there is, it is very frequently said that only certain sections are the ones most used. The reason, apparently, is that these are the only ones that have been registered and atout which any type of inventory has been made. This comorises about 50 or 70 thousand Legajos, which is a big collection of documents, but the greater portion of that has not been inventoried. Fortunately, in the last few months the National Archives in Washington has carried on an experiment utilizing computers in the indexing of archives. By utilizing these technologies of the com- puter with microfilming (Interfacing) archives may be more effi- ciently registered and indexed. One new archivist, Samuel Potter, who didn't get here to this meeting, is extremely interested in the Appaicatioh ofthe new technologies and the electricity in- stalled in the Archives of the Indies at Seville has been under his supervision; it will permit the use of this electronic equipment 72 79 / =~ Pe ee t+ eae as well as air conditioning in addition to just merely lighting. The Organization of American States has also officially con- sidered this in the hope that member states would somehow or other cooperate to pool funds for carrying on this program; but when the situation was reviewed it was found that a minimum of reliable information on the subject was available and moreover it was impos- sible to determine what the cost would be and how long it would take to complete the cataloguing. I felt I was called upon to do a considerable amount of investigation, and compared a number of memoranda concerning microfilming needs. The Spanish government has been very reluctant to allow microfilming to be carried out on its archives and yet historians and archivists feel that it is useless to do anything less than a complete series. Much work has been done, and large sums of money expended from the United States, by persons and institutions who are trying to find out what documents in the Archives of the Indies relate to the United States. Most of the work has been done by individuals who have their own ideas about what documents are important, but this is a variable factor based on the necessity of each individual project. So we had been hoping that there would be freer access for microfilming the Archives of the Indies. Earlier this morning, I referred to the need for the liberation of the archives including microfilming of whole series of documents, not merely selected ones. By January of this year we realized that we needed to bring together experts from the National hechiles in Washington and the Library o¢ Congress with diplomatic expert from the Organization of American States and the government of Spaia, in \ 73 SO Order that we may have an understanding of what is involved. We had a half-day meeting--I believe it was in Washington--and shortly thereafter a Report was prepared of the findings of this meeting. On the basis of that Report, a Technical Committee was to be formed which would meet in Seville with Spanish archivists. This Techni- cal Committee would Probably consist of 10 persons from the Western Hemisphere, Latin America, United States and perhaps Canada, two countries on what to do about archives, and an equal number of archivists from Spain. Many others from Spain feel the necessity of &@ meeting, the Purpose of which should be to review the present Situation of the archives and, with the advice of experts, determine what: needs to be done. One thing seems to be most feasible--our next step should be a pilot Study, to take perhaps three years, which wil] explore more in depth what is involved and how the archives should be microfilmed first, and how indexed, especially by use of computer and with the Possibility of a computer print-out to serve as printed catalogue. This would make it possible to issue up-to-date printed catalogues if this is desirable and at least give access to the information not only in files, but also stored on computer tapes, as well as micro- filmed copies for distribution with a master negative Stored for security juxposes. As soon as the report was completed it was submitted to the National Endowment for the Humanities, requesting a prant of $10,000 to make possible this meeting in Seville. It seems quite likely that,once the meeting in Seville is held, the Council 81 74 on Library Resources would be able to provide the money for the ag Cc feasibility study of a pilot project at the end of which we will know a little more about what is involved in bringing this tremen- dous treasure of historical material on the Western hemisphere into complete, usable form. DR. DIX: Thank you very much. A very discouraging picture, but I guess it all takes time. Now, that winds up, I think, our discussion of the European resources. It has been our intention to adjourn these meetings at 4:30. I think we had better hold to that and defer until tomorrow some discussion of the main- land United States depositories. This will take a long time but we will try to do that tomorrow. I suggest then that we recess until tomorrow at nine o'clock promptly in this room. Thank you. q (The meeting was adjourned to reconvene the following morniig.) TUESDAY, NARCH 18, 1969,°9°A.™. OR. DIX: Today it is our intention to turn to some summary of the needs. We almost finished our summary of the re- sources that exist. We have not covered the resources in the United States and I would like to start with that this morning very briefly because we should have finished that yesterday. Mrs. Shepard, why don't you say something about Caribbean resources in the United States. MRS. SHEPARD: Well, Irene Zimmerman knows far more about. this than I do, inasmuch as the University of Florida at 15 82 Gainesville has distinguished itself especially with the Caribbean and is the institution in the United States that has been responsible within the Farmington Plan for materials in the Caribbean. She will probably also talk about collections at the University of Miami at Coral Gables, which im recent years has be- come concerned with Latin American and Caribbean materials. I understand recently that the College of the State of New York has created an Institute of Puerto Rican Affairs. As far as I know, no other institution of higher learning in the United States has concerned itself especially with this, but I'll assume it wouldn't be too long before there will be others. Of course as far as documentary materials of the Caribbean Area are concerned, the National Archives in Washington has been especially interested in acquiring all of the records and the history of the United States. They have not only acquired the records of the government itself but have also made copies of records from the Archives of the Indies and from elsewhere. The Library of Congress, too, has a rather large manuscript collection and archival collection of records concerning the his- tory of the United States and, as far as the French territories in the Caribbean are concerned, I am sure they must have received a rather large amount of records or references because they have em- ployed an American living in Paris to be responsible for acquiring microfilm copies of records regarding the history of the United States, from Europe. I would think that in Tulane University, which concerns itself with Central America, there must be also material concerning the Caribbean area as such. 76 83 ie As far as the Pan American Union is concerned there was a time when it neglected the Caribbean area and when I arrived on the scene they were not collecting anything regarding Puerto Rico. I changed that immediately. There are a number of institutions in the United States that have concerned themselves esnecially with Mexico, of course, and if you can consider that part of the Caribbean, there are tremendous collections at the University of Texas and the University of California at Berkeley. I think there are more than 150 different areas study programs in the United States now, that are collecting ‘materials from Latin America and the Caribbean. We in the OAS were talking about the Caribbean, we are thinking of the countries which are members of the Organization of American States, but through our activities with SALAL! we have to concern ourselves with all of the Caribbean countries, not jus: those which are members of the Organi- zation of American States. DR. DIX: Thank you very much. Mr. Alden. MR. ALDEN: I think I seuiiaa speak not only for Boston but for some of the institutions in New England. Boston which has Caribbean naterials seems to be less known than it should be. Let's face it, there is a tremendous amount of historical material in the libraries of Providence, Boston and Cambridge. That is well, I suppose, because the connection between New England and the Caribbean began in the 17th century and contin_ued well into the 19th. Thi. primary place among New England collections of Caribbean materials is unquestionably the John Carter Brown Library in Providence. One thinks of it as Americana; John Carter Brown's 7 84 concept of Americana is indeed linked with the Caribbean. I suspect the best collection of historical materials is at the John Carter Brown Library. Tremendous collections are preserved and they will become richer because through the library they are committed for a long time to collecting materials only through the year 1800, but it is now collecting materials especially for the Caribbean until independence. This is the John Carter Brown Library, rather great in scope. They also seem to have money. No library ever has enough money, but John Carter Brown seems to find enough money to carry out this aspect of their responsibilities. In Boston the Massachusetts Historical Society is not itself exclusively devoted to Massachusetts. It has Caribbean manuscripts, materials which will be*come known. A survey of Caribbean manu- scripts is being prepared by Mr. Ingram of the University of West Indies at the moment. [He is presently in residence at the Univer- sity in Fngland.] The nucleus of the Caribbean collection at Boston Public Library was formed by a New Englander named Benjamin Hunt who in 1840 went down to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, as a merchant and also be- came the United States Counsel at Port-au Prince. He was there in 1840 and 1 am ashamed to say I am not certain when he left Haiti to return to the states and to settle in Philadelphia. He was first of all a merchant and Counsel. He was also interested in the emancipation and collected materials relating to Haiti and after his retirement he dealt specifically in collecting other materials of the Caribbean in general. He brought together a good collection of materials relating to the Caribbean in general with particular reference to Haiti, up to the time of Santa Anna. 78 85 | = How old the collection is I am not prepared to say, I just think it is very good. Mr. Combs wis kind enough to quote Mr. Fisher as saying our collection of printed materials is the best in existence. 1'11 take a somewhat more modest stand. Mr, Fisher once met my predecessor and I suspect Mr. Fisher is simply auoting him, for he had a way of saying his collection was the best in the world. This isn't always true, as much as I'd like to believe the Boston Public Library collection of Asian printed material is the best; wel!, I can't quite see any absolute, so I take an objective stand in this case. Supplementing Mr. Hunt's collection of materials from the great Americana collection, and the books relating to the Caribbean parti- culerly on emancipation are derived mainly from the collections of two eminent lealers of abolition in New Fngland, William Lloyd Gar- riscn and Wende'1 Phillips. Garrison and Phillips found in emancipation in the West Indies stirulus, challenge and accomplish- ment to keep up their struggles when things were going rather badly. Emancipation in 1834 was regularly commemorated in Boston until quite recently. Having materials, getting materials, is not enough} it is necessary to let people know that it is ther This is particularly difficult in a public library. The 3oston Public Library is a great research institution, and one of its fields is the Caribbean and the abolitionist movement. We are trying to catalozue materials as expeditiously and as quickly as possible. When I find something remarkable, I send re- leases off to the Institute of Jamaica so that they can serve as a clearinghouse for certain tyxes of materials. This, I think, may _« $6 cee ati ee ea aie el give you some notion that the Boston Public Library cares and is con- cerned with the Caribbean. I hope you forgive us for possessing things in Boston, particularly if we do our best to make it known to vou. We welcome you with open arms. OR. DIX: Thank you, Mr. Alden. Mr. Alden mentioned the collection of the John Carter Brown Library, and I put on the exhibit table their booklet entitle:! OPPORTUNITY FOR RESEARCH, copies of which you can procure it you wish from John Alden. I should mention at this time that we did get a small exhibit table. Dr. Zimmerman, will you tell us something about what is going on in Gainesville and perhaps Miami’ OR, ZIMMERMAJ].: I'11 begin with current bibliography on the area, DR, DIX: Let me interrupt. We are still on yester- day's discussion of resources. We should be right where you were starting, but we will come to that; simply give us a thumbnail sketch of the evailability of resources in this area. OR, ZIMMERMAN: Yes. Our Caribbean resources don't begin to atch those of John Carter Brown Library or Boston Public Library. We started vith the Caribbean or West Indian collection in 1951 and collected under the Farmington Plan, with emphasis on securing current: materials, so we have them. We have been willing to build our collection on that basis and we have acquired works suit- able for scholarly research and broad general subjects insofar as possible from ail Caribbean countries. The Farmington Plan is simply a means of acquiring materials of local imprint from the areas. We buy materials from the Cartbbean, about the Caribbean, and by people of the Caribbean. Our collection serves the undergraduate as well 80 87 (CC as graduate courses. Other libraries in the area, such as the University of Miami, are well known. We have had a very good collection of current news materials and of course we buy retrospective materials as we can, and work toward the present. We have been relaxing our effort to secure Culan materials somewhat. fer those of you who did not know the sad fact, Dr. Fermin Peraza, wellknown Cuban bibliographer, died on January 3lst of this year; but his bibliographical work is being cont inued "4 "ce tt DR. DIX: Just a summary on resources. Now, it appears to me we have repr:sente! here all of the strong collections. I assume that in the Library of Congress, the Hispanic Foundation has a strong collection on the Caribbean as well] as on the rest of Lacin America, but I think we lid wait to cmphasize these particular libraries. Now, Mrs. °orter has collected a good deal of material on the Negro and has been, J gather, broadening her interest as increasing deminds in almost all of the United States have come for this kind of material. It is a real renaissance of interest, perhaps long over- due. Al) of us are beginning to look around for materials on black culcure. I think Mrs. Porter will tell us something about her collections at Howard University, and anything more she wants to say on this particular subject. ARS. PORTER: Well, 7 think most of you know that Howard University was established in 1867 to aid and educate the newly emancipated slave. The original intention was interracial education, and the first graduates were four white students. It eave has been open to both races and we have a very large inter- racial faculty. Whether or not we are able to stay interracial and . 88 international, which we are, I do not now know. However, with the emphasis being on the Negro it was natural for us to develop a Negro ~~ collection. Today I must put "Nerro' in quotes. I cannot use the term as a rule in Washington, I"1l be corrected to say "black". But back in 1914 a member of the Board of Trustees decided that Howard University should have a collection on the Negro, and he gave his private collection of some three thousand items to the Univer- sity as a start. This was the first, and it was a basic collection. But prior to that time, when Samucl Mabis was collecting abolition- ist material for Cornell and Lewis Phillips was collecting for Boston Universit’, Lewis Tap»an, also a well known abolitionist, was deciding what to do with his collection. I read some letters in the Public Library a few vears ayo stating that those two men were trving to persuade Lewis Tappan to give his collection to Cornell, but Tapper decided instead to give it to Howard University. With the Tappan ~_ Collection, altnough it had been collected in 1873, many years prior to 1914, ve did receive a large number of pamphlets, documents, and manuscripts connected with the slave trade and with the West Indies. To begin with, in my time at the University I was told that nothing had ever been done with any of these materials. The curri- culum incjuded American Negro and Africa but for many years no courses were given on Africa. I felt that african background was important and when I began to acquire material on Africa I found that some thines relate to the Caribbean. This follows the course of the history of slavery in the New World, for which the Caribbean was the cracle. The first African studies necessitated that I should turn my ettention to the African materials, but now this whole mushroom growth of black studies has enveloped us. Our Negro Collection has a0 89 enveloped us. Our Negro Collection has been very well described in articles and in bibliographies which we have issued. The collection grew to 3,000 items, this secms a very small collection in terms of today. I have catalogued and indexed over 5,000 items; possibly 2,000 or 2,500 are still uncatalogued by and about the Negro, but also including the Caribbean. We have not had a policy of plenty of monev to buy and acquire. We have not sent people off on buying projects. I had to depend lirgely on gifts and the manuscript material, of which we have avout 50,000 indexed items, has been ac- quired for the ost part as eifts. When Dr. Eric Williams was on the faculty, he was interested in Latin America, ind with Dr. ‘ercer Cooke who was interested in Haiti, I began svstematicrlly to io»k toward the Caribbean area. Dr. Williams frequently borrowed African newspapers and African materials. There were no established guide lines for acquisitions from the Caribbean; but those experienced men on our faculty. including Dr. Rayniond B!ackman who as written hocks on Santo Domingo and Haiti, urged me to collect Ciribbean materials. So today we have about 2,2(0 boo. s and pamphiets, which are catalogued, and which come from nea}ly al. the island: of tle Caribbean. A quick check of the collection on tie day before I came here found 765 titles for Haiti, 250 for Jamaica, 140 for Trinidad and Tobago, and I noticed that a few of the publications had begun tu disintegrate. However, today I am trying to collect everything published on the Caribbean. Now that I am getting acquainted with the Caribbean materials, I will take time from the Afro-American scene to locate items of interest for those who need them. It may be recalled that 1n1830 or perhaps before, both the American Cc lonization Society and the New York 83 90 Colonization Society were considering Haiti, Honduras and Central America better places to migrate to than repatriation in Africa. There was a good bit of correspondence on this proposal between _ Frenchmen in Haiti and those persons from New England, as to whether or not the American Negro could be sent to Haiti to work out such plans. I have just one letter of which I have put a copy on the bulletin board. We do have s number of letters which were sent by American Negroes who went tc Haiti and, a few, to Jamaica, besides letters from some missionaries or travellers who went to the Caribbean for reasons of health. Farly tourists in the country wrote bac! to their friends concerning the country, and many of the letters give a -lear description of what was going on during that time. I lave hastily gathered together a few pages of some items in the collecticn and have exhibited them on the bulletin board. Mr. tervieu notec that { exhibited a page from the REVIEW OF COLCNIES. A friend of his a;ked him to try to find a set for hir. We have a complete fiJe. I don't think I even catalogued it, I picked it up because it has such an interesting photograph on the title park and because of a 19th century map in this book on Jamaican history. Perhaps I should attempt to microfilm many of these items. This is the kind of material which is scattered throughout this American Negro collection. “he African materials have been kept separate. Those of ycu who use the Dewey ecimal System know how difficult it is to classify these materials from different countries. I have made expansions to adjut to Negro materials and materials in other countries. We have listed most of our manuscripts and I did note that a number of them have been written in the Carithean. I think we need to suoplement our list of master theses. I believe that if we 91 84 Ta a oO “stat _ can obtain some help in working with our manuscripts, which I hope to do in the summer, that we will be able to locate manuscripts from manv of the Caribbean areas. At Howard the Caribbean materials have not been used extensive- ly. Of course the African materials have been, and I can see that before long peorle will be going into this relationship between Africa and the Caribbean arei. Therefore I am going back to try as quickly as possible to discover what I actually have of the Caribbean area. YR. DIX: Thank you very much. Are there any ques- tions of irs. Perter? Obviously, she has a mine of materials that have not been explored. Dr. Zimmerman. DR. ZIMMERMAN: I think I should supplement my state- ment right now, I omitted part of our collection as it pertains to African studies. This relationship between the West Indies and Africa was broucht up, and we do have a fairly strong collection in that respect. [ should mention that we do have a fairly strong manu- script cojlecti-n for a period of Haitian history, a special collec- tior. I think ‘t is «uite possible that our Haitian collection and Dominican Republic coilecticn, certainly for the more recent material, may be among the strongest anywhere. DR. DIX: Thank you. MRS. PORTER: It is obvious that we need many biblio- graphies so we can check our holdings against other collections to know what we have and what we ought to have. I don't know what anyone thinks about union catalogues. The union catalogue of the Library of Congress is helpful, actually, and might locate items of Caribbean materials. Whethe- this can be based in the United States or in one of the Caribbean countries I don't know, but this is one of the things I'd like to see: cooperative cataloguing of Carib- bean materials. Unless we have money for staff it would be very difficult to acquire materials year after year and never see them processed. The university pives thousands of dollars for books, es- pecially \frican and \fro-American fields, but they will not give salaries for catalorcuing or for processing. DR. DIM: That sounds familiar. I think we must cut off discussion of the background at this point. We have had a brief and super*icial account of the resources that are available for the stucy of this pirticular area of the world. We will now turn our attention to whit we ire going to do about it: how we make these re- sources availabie, how we add to them. It is a good stopping point and I think, if coffee is ready, we will take not more than 15 minutes for the coffee break. ‘AFTER COFFEE BREAK) All right, let's get on with the discussion. We are now at the third session, ‘Needs of Caribbean Libraries". As I said, it seems to me what we should get to haw is what or how we make use of all this. Vow do we make contact between the man and the book, what do we need to do to improve this contact? We have three pedple who have beer alerted to say something about bibliographic control. I think perhaps, ir. Zimmerman, we cught to start with vou. DR. ZIMMERMAN: I think perhaps we ought to start witl Mr. Breen to talk about Caribbean bibliography, and then Mrs. Carcdona will talk about some events of the current bibliography. DR. DIX: This is all very informal. Mr. Breen has, I think, a »~aper prepared by Mrs. De La Torre of the Caribbean Economic Development Corvoration in }uerto Rico (CODECA), which he is ready to read. 26 93 ed ne sg MR. BREEN: Let me mention one thing about tht’ paper. I had to revise a bit here and there. It is now our paper. I think, first of all, I'll restate what the Caribbean Regional Library is. You have heard mention of it yesterday as background, its history, what it attempted to do and what it did. It had another name, The Caribbean Commission. Today I can say it is a collection of some 90,000 volumes covering the social sciences. It is a depository for United Nations publications and recipient of government publications of the area. There is a newspaper clipping file which is indexed, agair indexed to the social sciences. It covers newspapers of the area.. There is a photoduplicating sec- tion and copies are made available; and as far as access to the library is concerned, there are no special qualifications for using the material in the library. However, I think there is some difficulty about lending material for home use out of the library. That has to do with the question of distances involved, etc. Now, with this duplicating equipment, I am sure we can get around this. Secondly, the library is noted for its off-again-on-again publication of the CURRENT CARIBBEAN BIBLIOGRAPHY. Fer those of you not too familiar with it, we will say that it is an index to items published in or about the Caribbean, covering all subjects. On that note, I%d like to jump quickly into a prepared brief here on the involvement of the government of Puerto Rico to the Caribbean Regional Library. The government of Puerto Rico, trustee for the Caribbean library now called Caribbean Regional Library, clearly recognizes the importance of the library to the region. In its proposal obtaining the trusteeship of the library, 34 87 it agrees with the question of Caribbean acquisitions and permits itself to maintain the library as a separate unit, to maintain the 6) library for the benefit of the entire region, including the loan of books by mail and turning out special requests for research. It was committed to developing and sustaining the collection along the lines of spccia] -nterest, anc to maintaining it as a source of reference for student researchers studying conditions in the Caribbean area. It further propose to be responsible for updating the CURRE)IT CARTBBEAN BILLIOGRAPHY; to continuc publication and circulation and to utilize rodern methods and techniaues for information gathering and dissemiration in this area; to seek tis assistance of all possible sources to decrease the value deficiency of tie service of the library; and, lastly, to issue cleerinzvhouse information as a library service to all areas of government. These points that are mentioned I'll come back to later, but I want to make clear that there is an agreement by the rovernment of Puerto Rico to maintain this library. We have heard vesterday also of the work that has been going on since 1961 in taking some specific steps to increase communication in the area--to overcome the probl2ms of duplication and the lack of trained personnel to carvv out library functions. One of the plans proposed is the establishment of a bibliographic center in the area, to serve the area. Since 1961 there have been a number of attempts to get the project started and, always because of the lack of funds, we have this continuity of effort, then after two or three years 2 burst of energy. At this point now, I'd iike to bring up the effort of . the Carilbean library to further the bibliographic center concept. w. 0 aeremmeten e me eam The library is an integral part of the Caribbean Fconomic Development Corvoration in Puerto Rico, which is the successor body to the Caribbean Orreanization and custodian of the library. The Caribbean Fconomic Development Corporation considered it desirable to have this bibliographic center at the library, and began with contracting a ey dtl Development Corporation to do a study on the 1 brary, on the feasibility of converging the working center, and to sive some sort of scheduled plans plus funding for this operation. This basic prelininary design for the establishment of the center was prepared at the time taking into consideration just the known responsiblity of the librarv. ‘There wasn't enough time or funds available to ge to each community and find out its problems, its needs, it::s desires. So CODECA went ahead and contracted for the study. At the completion of the study a conference was called in which we invited representatives cf the community of the Caribbean to examin? the lan, ariticize it, ‘ear it apart, and see if we could come un vith a basic design with which everyone could agree. The con‘erenc2? ended with an envorsem:nt for the project and support for its contiaaticn. Now, wher I sa: support, please believe me, there wasn't a iat p ssed cround. Everyone, I imagine, was waiting to see how far +2 could get with tae project, which is siinvytiesabie: The project itself. as we saw it, was designed to initiate bibliographi- cal stancards «nd control tirough a network linking all libraries in the Caril bean “rea. This integrate: the regional network and weuld allow for current and comprehensive items of the area. We envis- joned a cooperative effort ‘hich would influence the produgtion and distribution of local publications, introduce modern techniques for 89 J6 our operations, ond ensure the availability of scholars, researchers, and privote individuals of interest to the area. We envisioned a three-face operition covering approximately 24 siidettie. Phase One of the project would be directed toverd detailed analysis of library system anc bool trained structure of each Caribbean commurity, re- sulting in studies specific to accuisition techniques, library development and biblio; raphi. standards. Phase Two was to be con- cerned with finilizins new requirements, standardizing data formats, final des enine of the center anc if we got through that phase, then Phace Thr oe, which will be implerentation of design and would also cover pro:rarm. ine necessary sche ules of new productions that mieht come abou’, but the main point wi J] oe continued evaluation of the svsiem as it be -an operating. The astablishrent of the Megional Bibliographical Center wa: exp cted .o result in standard bibliographic processing, strengt.ren- i) ine of overall ‘iblic:raphic servicc. We alse planned from this exp rienc: to collect cost :taffi.« information, operation rro- cedures. aew te “infiaques, ete., to he made available to institutions or orgsnizations which are tryins to establish similar centers in different area’. ‘Ve fully «xvect t) have written reports in differ- ent phase: which we vill distribu e freely to anyone interested. That is what we planne’, and now the facts. The conference was in che strine cf 196;, I believe. ‘ince then--two vears ago--what we iave cone is to update the library function with the Caribbeea Reo onal Library so as to produce the CURRENT CARIB? EAN BIBLIOGE APHY on “ime. This we do as the most important part of our project to build up experience and shov capabilities, which will prove that the litrary can function. This capability that was introduced into ” 97 Ce libraries has some characterizations that I'd like to explain to you. We began to design a standardized worksheet able to contain all ele- ments of bibliorraphic information now used by the Caribbean Regional Library. The worksheet, however, had to be capable of handling additional elements without major revision. We were planning this for introduction into other communities with slightly different re- quirements for bibliographic identification. Also, we established procedures and methods covering all aspects of libraries. This we did following the worksheet from the manual reporting of information to conversion to machine. We prepared specifications for computer prorramming in order to prepare ourselves for actual use of the computer and, lastly, we finished the program system. We were aim- ing toward putting the term “ourrent’’ in the phrase ‘current and comprehensive bibliography’. In order to become comprehensive we had to have the interaction of the area, but we felt at least we had taken the first step. The benefits which we expected from this capability are, first of all. bibliopraphic information and the machinery to perform available computer information. One point 1] should like to rake: we accepted the MARC II format of the Library of Congress. Why MARC II? ‘ell, ve consider first thé Caribbean Regional J.ibrarv's needs. We also recognize the fact that the Library of Congress is one of the largest distributors of cata- loguing information and, thirdly, the format they have devised allows for, as far as I can see, just about any descriptive biblio- graphic information that can be available. Another benefit from this installed capability is that we hope to produce a monthly supplement in the corporate biblio- graphy reflecting all informition required by the library, or re- ported to the library by other communities. We expect that the » 8 oy ithe current bibliography can be assemble on a strict annual basis. The worksheet concept that we have devised was strictly a : g general aid. The introduction of the automated technician staff has resulted in experience, a factor which is going to prove valuable to any subseauent work we do there. One of the librarians attended the conference in Mayaguez which I.B.M. gave about two weeks ago; she was verv impressed with the introduction of the program itself, but explained that she was quite confident that, because of her experience in the Regional Library, she was not completely lost. Our plan for internal capability did not call for a computer to be housed in the library itself. Through an agreement with the University of Puerto Rico, we took advantage of their computer com- plex. We have liad much success with acquiring computer time; the only disa vanta7e to such a working agreement, where no strict schedule is kept and no funds are transferred, is that we expected - them to do our keypunching of the material and this proved to be a handicap. They themselves w2re ir a period of transition and had their own problem with keypunchiny, and as a result we were both in trouble. So, a3 it stands today, CODECA has contracted for keypunch expert service to keep to strict :chedules for publication of the monthly s'pplements. We are hoping to stick to strict schedules now, because of our contracts for keypunching materia!. So far the worksheet concept has taken hold in the library. The problem that we have is sche- duling computers to fit in with the working staff. The computer naturally has to be run at night when we are not interfering with the recular university work. However, this is just a minor thine. We feel confident at this point that the library is at the stage » SY where it can take the next step, Phase One of the project. The director has mentioned a few items here about the work of the past two years, stating that libraries with major Caribbean | holdings are reporting their acquisitions. The information trans- forms the CURRENT CARIBBEAN BIBLIOGRAPHY into a partial union list. The record format that we are using utilizes fields that will take location codes. We are starting small in this particular area. We want to be able to direct questions to the nearest location for material. We can see that, if we were able to code location on every item, we will soon be able t» give every community a union list which will be as good as what they contribute to the project. The institutions that have participated in the project up to this moment--when I say project I am thinking in the terms of the last two vears--vary from year to year with the contributions that are sent it. I should make one other point: these represent libraries and not governments of the communities, which normally send their reports to the Library. We have the University of the West Indies, the Institute of Jamaica, U.S. Virgin Islands Division of Libraries and Museums, Dominican Republic, University of Puerto Rico, University of Florida at Gainesville, Library of Congress, and Martinique. This is a partial list, but it represents the contributors over the last few years. We also want to say that the photocopying and microfilming ser- vice that we have now lends support to this bibliographic center concept: the possibility of copying the hard-to-get item itself without even giving lip service to the legality. This is readily done at the Caribbean Regional Library. I have mentioned the University of Puerto Rico with its contri- 1080 93 a ne a i nt ee ee bution of computer facilities; we have also had a constant working relationship with the Virgin Islands. We have had three librarians UY from the Virgin Islands come to the Caribbean Regional Library to get acquainted with our method of cataloguing, with worksheet con- cept and, well, just to get seneral familiarity with the Library so that this was nct a strange effort any longer. Hopefully, this ex- perience will be the basis for further cooperation; the exact de- tails I hove we will get to later. I am also prepared to say that we have mailed January, 1969 supplements to almost everyone, February supplements are at the printer, end March worksheets are now accumulated to some 250 items and we expect to cut off any day now, because it is getting buiky,;. and will set the supplements out as quickly as possible. I sheald like to stop now with this description of the work. I | ) thin: we have briefly covered exactly what we are doing at this point. However I would lik: to change my talk from that of a normil tec%nici:n and librarian to a plea for assistance. In my kind of werk we see quite a few projects of this type wither and die on tie vine, an’ one doesn't like to talk about these efforts after a while. We becan this proj>ct back in 1966, and it is 1969 now, and ve have yet to start Phase One. My plea begins with a question to the conference: Would it be ir order to draft some sort of a thanc you to the Governor of Puerto Rico for his support in the past and for the continued support in the future? I think this will help. In line with this we have just learned that the Bureau of the Bucget of Puerto Rico has approved‘ the conc:pt of the Bibliographic Center within Caribbean Regional Library. They have approved no funds i's ) yet. At least this is a stev in the right directior, and ‘’e are yas Wa eRe Gt pee Adela APRN Shiga OA Raw tapes ae CNR a OOERE 5 CRI L wey Wy Nate ae RE ae Oe EGP Ah wa happy to have this; but I think if we can get the attention of a good working group like this to the Governor, it will pive the Government a little spark to continue with the project. I think we need it at this point. I want to say that Miss Baa has been cooper- atine with us continually. We hope to sit down very shortly on matters confine’ to some specific areas, but we hope that we can continue to work on the project itself and benefit each other as well. Yesterday someone mentioned that it was time to update a sur- vey describing the library systems in the area. I agree fully. I am interested in this project and have some information which will be of help to the project itself. I would like to suggest, or recommend, that maybe some of us should sit down and decide if an extended questionnaire is advisable. Not only would this update where librar- ies are and what holdings they have, but chaps like myself may be able to get some knowledge of holdings, classifications being used, staffing problems, backlog, suggestions, space, comments, etc. This will be extremely helpful tc the project. We envisioned at one time spreading peopl: out 111 over the area to gather information. If we can get people behind the questionnaire approach it will be helpful. And, lastly, I again plead for volunteers. We have been doing some prel.minary talks on this subject, but we have in mind select- ing one o' the communities in the area to cooperate with the Carib- bean Regional Library and in fact to act as a network model. We envision right now just a three-month test where we would control acquisition, processing, or any other types of assistance, and then evaluate the project to see how successful we have been. This, I believe, will give us some clue to overall plans regarding indivi- dual. needs. No system can really be considered advisable and worth- 5 102 he ig TE NR Ria ME A a AEN PEGS SIAR NEL PEI RIED AE MTG Be a a) ea while until it is usable and at this moment we don't know all the information. I am using the community libraries themselves. Be- fore I break down in tears I want to stop. I have begun to assoc~ jate with my customer to the point where this project is very dear to me. If anyone has any suggestions or comments I would like to hear them night now. DR. DIX: Thank you very much. I see no reason for tears, this is moving faster than a lot of things on the mainland. Before we respond to Mr. Breen with questions, requests or sug~ gestions, let's put this whole thing together and go immediately to Mrs. Cardona and what she has to say on this whole area. “MRS. CARDONA: I will limit myself to the "Current Bibliography" which appears in the quarterly journal of the Insti- tite of Catibbean Studies, CARIBBEAN STUDIES. To compile this bibliography we scan large lists of Caribbean publications, but we are trying to limit ourselves to publications by universities and young societies. institutions, etc., in which we find articles of interest to Caribbean scholars. However, we include articles of general interest, too. We receive most of the accessions list from Caribbean libraries, the Central Library of Trinidad, Industrial Relations Corporation of Trinidad, Caribbean Institute, and then we also go to bibliographies of other societies, of academies, of the Caribbean countries and circum-Caribbean countries--because we also include these in our bibliorraphies and consider them Caribbean, such as Venezuela, Columbia, Central America and the Guyanas. Then we also list books, of course, because most of you probably know that "Current Bibliography" includes books, pamphlets, articles, etc. For books, we of course have the resources of the General Library of the Jniversity of “uerto Rico. Dra. DeRosa is the head 103 of the Exchange Department, and I revise all the new books she re- ceives in exchanre, so we list in that way all the new additions to the Puerto Rican library. We also receive periodical lists from publishers and so we try to be as comprehensive as possible. But our main objective is to have it published as soon as possible. We try to have very accurate bibliographic description, but if we learn of the book and title and, for instance, we lack the pag- ings, we list it because we think it will be useful to know of it. In this wav we trv to be as up-to-date as possible. Our journal is published four times a year, as I said. Yesterday when I was speakine of the Puerto Rican libraries I am afraid I didn't empha- size the fact tliat the library has very large coléections of Caribbean materials. This miterial has been ecquired through the Institute of Caribbean Studies. The Institute recommends to the library books on Caribbean subjects, reports the flow of studies and research that {« being conducted at the Institute, and of course all theese mater'als are available to all in the Cartbbean area so everyone can lewrn whet proprar the Library has. I was told that there fe « werw good ocrograrm in the College of the Virgin Island-, and all of wou «re welcome t> learn about it. Of course you know the oubl{: ation of the Institute of Caribbean Studies, the journal called CATTRBEA)! STUDITS; the CARTSPEAN MONTHLY BULLETIN now will publieh che CAR’ SRFAN FDUCATION SULLETIN put out by associates of the Caribbean Uniwereity. Also in CARIBBEAN STUDIES, we publish once « veer « liet of Theses of Ceribbean Subjects. That is our tetael contribetice. *. OTE: The vk wou wery euch. Or. 7iamermean. re. TIA: Vell, I am goine to «kia through this "7 104 fairly rapidly because I want to get through the all-important pro- ject of Mr. Breen. The place for me to begin undoubtedly is with @ CARIBBEAN ACQUISITIONS, which we have been publishing since 1957-58, partly because “ir. West was concerned that at the time the CURRENT CARIBBEAN BIBLIOGRAPHY had bogged down. The original idea was that we would publis': CARINBEAN ACQUISITIONS until the CURRENT CARIBBEAN RIBLIOGRAPHY got goinc again. It is broader, it does cover the Caribbean as interpreted by our Caribbean Conferences which were held from 1950 to 1967. So it included Mexico. We have now narrowed that to the Antilles and Central America. A possibility is someday to publish a retrospective bibliography from 1950 to 1956 of what we acquired during that time. For general and continued bibliographies which are sources of information concerning the Caribbean there is, of course, the HANDBOOK OF LATIN AMFRICAN STUDIES. It is published by the University of Florida Press and the Hispanic Foundation, from contributing scholars. ®. DI<: Thnk you very much. Now, this is a brief sum ary, take it. of what was going on, what is going on, and what is )rojec:ed ir areas of bibliographic control. Let me try my hand for a second ir a kind of summary of what adequate bibliographic control in any region of the worl: might be, and then I think yap | cal] on Mrs. Shepard to try to pu!1 together what is going on in this area, to match against this ideal. Now. the ideal doesn't exist anywhere in the world, this is an evolutiorary process that we move toward. National bibliographies exist for many countries, but this area has greater difficulties because cf the different jurisdictions involved. If we could ail be brought together under a current systematic program of reportin; everything published in the region, this would be one element. An- other element would be more retrospective; that is, producing a series of union catalogues or lists, something comparable to the catalog of the Library of Congress. Again, that is by no means com- plete, but attempts to list the holdings of the libraries which in turn, therefore, may become a kind of bibliography of the region for obvious reasons. We have some elements of all of this in the United States, but what you would have here is a series for regioas in possession of union catalogs. Then, as I see it, we should have some form of control of government documents. This gives you a fundamental basis from which specific subject bibliography could be compiled and, I think one of the great advantages Mr. Breen has al- ready suggested, is a machine-readable form of compiling, relating to the idea of a computer to split off different areas, different countries, different subjects--specialized bibliographies again-- and published in hard copies and, it seems to me, this would come later as a whole series of special bibliographies. One would also need some kind of bibliographic sensitivity, an intellect of bibliography, which could be a reference tool for putting the consumer touch with the agency that could help him. Some eystem of inter-library loan is probably a better form of ser- vice, in each major depository. One other thing is possible: an abstracting service, but this is a little far ahead and too enter- prising for this region because it would have to be done along inter- national disciplinary lines. The basic problem that I see from listening to these few details is the problem of financing and, along with this, the need for some controlling or umbrella organization. It is very difficult, parti- cularly for an agency volunteering to do something, to be assured of 106 some funding to carry it through. Anything short of an institution as large as the Library of Congress cannot maintain continuing systematic effort of this kind without some support coming in from j an assured basis for all the people involved, and how to work this out in an area involving so many different national jurisdictions as this with physical problems of communication across the water and all the rest. But it seems this is what we are addressing ourselves to. I should like to ask Mrs. Shepard to comment against that in a sort of generalized manner from what we have heard here this morning, and what seems to be needed, then go right ahead with the practical steps we ought to take. MRS. SHEPARD: I think that is a very good statement of the general needs as far as trying to coordinate both the problems of bibliography of the Caribbean region and the holdings in libraries of the Caribbean area and to make all of these resources available to everybody. We have had a series of meetings, a series of experiences and cooperative efforts carried on. There are facilities now as far as both photocopy and computers apply to bibliographic reporting, and to reporting of the holdings of the various institutions in the Carib- bean. We need an up-dated survey of the libraries in Caribbean areas, and I might call to your attention Mr. Breen's pamphlet--the little pamphlet published by Pan American Union, Number 35--which includes a questionnaire which can be used in Spanish with detailed questions for the purpose of determining what a library isin to know about the possibility of reorganization of university libraries. But you might work with this as a basis to determine what needs to be added or deleted for the purpose of coordinating the information re- garding the holdines of the Caribbean area particularly. Based on 407 the experiences that we have had, and on the fact that we know libraries are willing, the meeting that we had two years ago demon- strated that they were willing to do it. The big problem is how to get central funds to make some of these things possible. Another problem is the training of the local librarian in how to convert to the worksheet bibliographic information concerning new publications. Most everybody is working on very strict budgets and they don't have additional personnel for this additional step. The plan which was discussed two years ago would have provided funds so that training seminars could have been given. One of the hopes of utilizing the MARC II format is that eventually this information could be incor- porated with whatever the Library of Congress will be providing to all the libraries all over the world regarding bibliographic infor- mation on new books coming out and so on. The Library of Congress has not yet begun to include in its MARC !I computer tape informa- tion on books in other emus although it was ascertained that they are doing the work; but it is not being given to the libraries which are subscribing to MARC II tapes. One of these days I think we have to press for the Library of Congress to incorporate material and information on materials for Latin America and the Caribbean other than English language material. J think we do have to press for Eng- lish material from the Caribbean to be incorporated as soon as possible on MARC II tapes. Of course, we have to contend with those who are especially interested in science technology, who want first ‘i have this material, science technology, coming from France and Germany particularly. We have, I should say, in most of our discussion concerned our- selves primarily with historical, retrospective material rather than current material, and in the field of social 10) 108 science rather than science technology; mention has been made of agricultural, especially tropical agricultural, technical reports. Up until the present time this has not been a very serious problem for Latin America because they have not advanced too far in the whole element of science technology and the application of science. It is just a matter of time before this becomes a serious problem. The findings of TEKTITE at St. John, v.I, an oceanographic ex- periment in the Caribbean area carried out by the U.S. Government, would be especially important to people on the mainland as well as others in this area. DR. DIX: Let me then start some discussion here by asking Mr. Breen: What is included in your plans for your current bibliography? MR. BREEN: In this comprehensive program, we hope that the area will alert the Center on what is being published in « the Caribbean. I should have mentioned that we had a mailing list of 1,000 institutions and individuals; we have just with the latest publication increased this to 2,000 in an effort to find out the market value of this information. With new contract costs going up, we were thinking of subscriptions to institutes outside of the Caribbean. This is the scope of our bibliography. DR. DIX: And this includes monographs, what else’ MR. BREEN: Anything and everything. DR. DIX: This is, therefore, a national or regional bibliography that is limited to reaording the current production of the region itself. MRS. SHEPARD: This is what the CURRENT CARIBBEAN BIBLIOGRAPHY is intended to be. DR. DIX: I should think there is considerable market 102 109 or markets around the world. All libraries buy national biblio- graphies so that they can make sure they deter in their libraries publications originating in the area coverdd. Let me ask one other question, let's be very blunt: Are the rest of you willing to let Mr. Breen and his organization do this and help support it’? There is a lot of glory in this, there is also a lot of hard work. It just seems to me to avoid competition, a better way to get ahead is with everybody ecetting shoulder to shoulder behind the particular wheel going in one direction and, if this is the best place to start, what can we do to help support it? MRS3 BLOOMFIELD: I have two points. In Great Britain the national bibliography is cooperating with the MARC II project so that information on British publications on the West Indies would be available in machine-readable form compatible with Mr. Breen's system. At the top of the 1966 to 1970 Development Plans the French Government recommends that the Bibliographic Center for the Carib- bean should be established at the University of Bordeaux. It pro- poses that the most up-to-date techniques be used, which I assume means automated bibliographic format. If Mr. Breen got in touch with Prof. Guy Lasserre who is in charge of that program, this type of cooperation and understanding could be the basis for a workable international project. DR. DIX: One thing is to be said about the MARC II tapes, a word of caution with regard to them. You can use them at the Center in producing hard copy distribution of cards for every library. One word on the Title IIc of the Higher Education Act of 1965 in the United States: the Library of Congress is instructed for the first time, officially, by the government of the United States, to acquire one copy of every work of significant scholarly interest 440 published anywhere in the world, copy and catalogue it and produce cards for distribution. It will probably take a long while but astonishing progress has been made since then by the Library of Con- ~ gress; it has roughly doublfed the acquisition of foreign materials in the last three years, setting up procurement centers we never had before in a great many parts of the world--not, however, in this area. One is in Rio de Janeiro. These centers are also making use of local cataloging biblio- graphic information, so that the result is conventional Library of Congress catalogue cards available for a vastly larger number of books than were three years ago. These cards are in turn converted into MARC tapes and distributed in that form. At present we can get cataloguing on familiar three-by-five cards on these tapes but they are not in machine-readable form. That will come later. Mr. King, I believe, is a computer man. If you want to comment on what } I have just said, am I being too pessimistic about that? MR, KING: No, after ten years of working with this, I share your pessimism. There are a good many things that can be done. Miss Baa and her staff and the Virgin Islands government now are preparing themselves to become a hub in the network that you are talking about. In other words, there is development in the area of storing, filing and microfilming. Now, this bibliographic con- trol through the use of computers and computer-like devices is inevitable; the government is preparing itself for that and I think probably they will serve themselves first, it is manageable, we need to do it, and we should be prepared to be able to interact to send materials back and forth and to acquire some machinery. 104 soe eR TN PELE PIS DR. ZIMMERMAN: I think Mr. Gocking might well say something on Caribbean aspects of it, some sort of sub-plans for Caribbean materials. MR, GOCKING: You ask about cooperation: I be- lieve that this was the purpose of the meeting in 1967 where we all went and we are waiting for developments. In the meantime, the University of the West Indies covered a very difficult area, and our major problem is acauisition. We feel if we can get acquisition throughout the area, we could receive all the materials that are actually published, and this is very difficult. It has not been reported by anyone that any attempt to procure materials is going to be made. If we can do that; scratch up enough effort in the libraries that exist now within the University of West Indies, then the cataloguing section can present the Biblio- graphic Center in Puerto Rico and the Library of Congress with what we have produced, but the business of acquisitions is quite serious. It is difficult to persuade people that what they publish is of interest to us all. We go around and harangue them, beg them, and write them, but they still ignore us. We are trying to get some funds out of our university to go out buying more regularly. This is very difficult to persuade the university, even though our social science students are demanding better than we have done in the past. We started before they knew what they wanted and, now that they know they want it, we can't provide them with it. The business of getting the materials, 105 112 even knowing if it is published, is teyond our present resources. DR. DIX: Am I not right in thinking that the only hope of the local agencyis that the ones that are closest; to this should ‘smoke it out ‘and report their problems to some center? One resolution of this conference may be some encouragement to correct this kind of thing. MR, KING: I am somewhat surprised at the lack of mechanism for the handling of materials of hard sciences; I think in a sense this presents 4 real opportunity now, because the collection is manageable at this time and, if we were to borrow some successful techniques that were used in other parts of the world, we would be prepared because there is a great deal, a tremendous upsurge in interest in studying sciences in this area. We could do something. Hopefully we can start ‘ now with some mechanism so we are prepared to serve \ researchers. DR. DIX: It seems clear to me in the United States that the control of this sort of material in the broad sense is emerging in disciplinary areas with the professional societies taking the leadership--The American Institute of Physics, The American Chemical Society--these are not libraries. They have developed hibliographical agencies and there has been considerable controversy within our government in the United States on how this whole thing should be pulled together, not left com- pletely with uncoordinated free enterprise. There are those who think this major task should go to the government, that the Depart- ment of the Interior should have the responsibility. There have 106 118 official reports that propose this. The great professional societies that have the leadership now are feeling that this is not the way to do it if there is a rival set of proposals. This is so vast that I don't know quite how to tackle it on a regional basis except to make use of what comes out of this network as it emerges, pertinent to this area. It seems to me there is this other factor-~-The machine-readable computer-based system allows us to pull out with some case things relative to the needs here, at least emerging from outside. The problem which we are just talking about, of how vou get local materials in science, for example, is of considerable value in the descriptive and enumerative sciences. In other words, there must be important work being done in the islands which magbe doesn't cet into international literature. Once you get it in there it comes back out again through other net- works. MRS. SHEPARD: One thing has been done by Caribbean Regional Library with the assistance of University Microfilm; the installation of photocopying equipment there. So many of the re- ports, especially the scientific reports, coming out of the Caribbean area in pamphlet form are very, very difficult to get, and most government agencies really don't know how to distribute them. The Caribbean Regional Library has the equipment and potential now for photocopying this material and I think the University of Florida is finding itself that it is actually more convenient to purchase photocopiers or Xerox copiers than to try to spend the time getting it out of government agencies which don't answer letters. They don't even seem to know where they put publications. - MR. GOCKING: A point of information: both libraries of the University of the West Indies, in Mona and St. Augustine, have Xerox copying facilities also, and will make this useful to the area by copying what other people want. But we can't pet all the publications and get them catalogued, too. {RS. PORTER: I would like to know if there is any person here who feels that there are certain books needed for college or secondary teaching that are really not available in multiple copies, if you let me know I'll try to see about the possibility of reprinting them. Of course, this will come from commercial sources, and they have to have a sufficient number of them sold. TI would prefer to see some of them reproduced rather than Xeroxed. DR. DIX: This is just a little diversion but I did want to get it in. I was talking yesterday with one of the school - librarians in the Virgin Islands, and that very need emerged. There is nothine we can do about it except call it to the attention of diane publishers of elementary and secondary level that there is really no material that is locally based; it seems to me any educational system has to pay some attention to its own imme- diate environment. TI remember the first conference we had on Africa which was at the national commission in UNESCO in 1960 at Boston and one of the French-Africans--we had a number of Africans there--pointed out that their elementary school standard textbooks read: ‘our ancestors the Gauls... and this is not quite relevant. So it seems to me that we could encourage--it is not our business here, but, individually, encourage--educational book publishers to 108 115 ha came etteetion te éeweleorpine preset teachiog techaieuce. “eter iele thet orew ren the lees! cooler anf glory and evervthicg: ‘lee fether thee tall eheet seine © thet geet ewoe eutet here. t )tie® §¢ weil be werw eeetal te thie reeiece. To. Bae “Mew I tewe @ word The ¢lecussion is * vee > wey "fer the terete @f Ghericen Coriteeee sateriai«a. _ : weet erhervaeeet «tttie: ere te thie coe’erenee because | fealioe thet r se weete,. Geel’ Nee Sei ogtet ewerwrose ia thie oer of 88 ~ a titties we ere erewiéiaw at the Publ ic or - - wetliee here te oe ererre. tallbicg sheet pheotoc- popwrie feritec tte. wteret | betes These ere *aetli¢ties we hewe ete oer te © © Tiere te Telem@e oat. Ff we bere eee a601 t tenet fie ere ee’ ie tiet © thie. we Gheeld Heew ‘iret of a1] “et 16 @& eile?’ e@¢ te the Tel omie ‘io, the oeeperetiaos thet we hee eee SEE fee the © ete ‘vers tf "werte tice we =r esce leet er ae fe werts te eerrece the ererectaetion ve eer Tor Se fF leleere eet eeeeet @f ceerere thew howe chew for —— ete. one ee of te tere ©) Peeleretete "+ =a oom ~~ 625¢ for fhe “Steewetow © Puerta Siew ie "ee Tiete 39 ee See tertiee t& erete tealtianw shew 7'eie@ F , ote were Sere lowe oof Coe rer ites iv¢ tt eliew: *eret® (sleet. of 1 Geee Poerte Piece. te nertteioete te ieterlibevers oe@eeeretion ante aad ereue® tfheee "eats. | eee Hee : > 1 ete’ the tie’ oF aeewiow® thet | hie ger aeigehers aeed. : ‘ ome wl tet! © wee > “tt Seer * er heset Tet - hee Clee te The University of the Weet Indies in Trinidad. We sent our microfilms supervisor to Trinidad to assist them in their particular efforts to set wp « photographic laboratory. We are also extending the same kind of service to anyone in the Caribbean Islands. We are offerten to train people but at their own expense so far as liwiee fe concerned in this ieland; but the training is completely free of charge a6 eiven in our laboratory so that those who are istereste! not only in camera work with material on sicrofils, bet in ecteslly dotng this processing, reprinting, and so on, can come to oer laboratory and we will train them. We should be ¢is- -eeeioe the serwices that the University of Peerto Rico and the fecioes) Library can offer and, of course, the cooperation of all the other cowetries of the Cartbbean. This wee werw clearly understood at the 196) conference ir Puerto Rico, which sost of the people bere attemted, ard aereec thet we seeded this kiad of service. Ther fe another potat { weet to neke fe comsection with the CORePNT CARTSOTAN SIELIOORAPYY. We hewe what I thoweht wee regions! cerreet biblicererhy an¢ cer comcere te te teep this —-tevete ead receler. As te retrospective biblicerepty, we éo oot bewe eerthing Dike thet ent perbape thie fe one of the steps we cosh ‘© tebe. Thie biblicererty called CARISOTAM., conptiet + \anibree Govtcee, Sebi iebed by the Detweretity of Veettiagtee Prece (03°48) bee teat beew recetwed by the College of the Virgte tel mt. Tate te the eort eof thiee oe aeee Tor teetesce, we eve ot teeet feew Me. Palle Sirtelerd sheet setertale thet extet te the Gente’ Revel Qrebiwee, ont the cone eltuetions extet fer etter ot teem comet elie '?t = oom eeeoeurene® the pebliicetios «f thee A 117 S<>~ LGA LALLA LLANE ABE LEAL ALL —_— a me bibliographies of materials in metropolitan countries and get commitments on them we will be forging ahead. OR. DIX: The microfilms service you are offering is wonderful. There is on the table Miss Baa's CATALOGUE OF MICROFILMS 1969. It seems the microfilm collection of the library admirably summarizes the services that are available. How many other depositories of materials are able to offer com- parable services’ Moreover, it does seem to me that what is sorely needed i« an up-to-date directory of libraries, a guide to libraries in the Caribbean. It eust include a section on what services are available so we will know immediately how to eet at then. TSS BAA: Fer inetance, when we planned this publication, I 4id not know--althourh we have filmed the entire shelf list of the College of the Virein Islands and returned the: « cooy of the film-——thet thew have eight hundred units of microfile«. If that ta the case, I showld have been eled to inclede their boldings in thie catalog. Se that in picking up one publication we would hawe « complete coverage of available wicroftiwe for the Virgin telende libraries. I hope thet I cen do thie with Mr. Waener’s cod_peretion whee we compile the next Leewe . mm. OFX: Mew thet we hewe lote of étecuseioe eterted, the leach hoor kee approached. Wet ge you weet te & ~“S, Shetiite Sefere we sopeer et the Crewier ‘eer, i weld teat ike te tetect semethian lt weelde’t feel tee seeetniatio sheet et) @f thie ef aft 't == cememter Colartee. Lis in trying to discover the East, sailed west, and look what he found. DR. DIX: I think that is a good note on which to recess, to be back here at two delock. (AFTER RECESS) May we come to order, please. Several of our key parti- cipants have overeaten but we had better get started, or we will never get through. We have with us as an observer Mr. Fred Cross of the Ford Foundation. Mr. Cross, wil] you identify yourself back there? “Mr. Cross is net here on library business, but I have found that the Foundation people are always interested in libraries, and I think it is important for us to let the Foundation people under- stand the library problems to which we are committed. So we are delighted that you have had a chance to drop in for a while this afternoon. Now, this afternoon, this is what I propose to cover, if we possibly can: To finish up our bibliographic control, to pin down a little more definitely what still remains to be done, to move into some discu«sion of the possibility of cooperative acquisition and processing. “re. Shepard has some remarks on that. The problem we mentioned of getting access to locally produced materiale may be solved in part by « certain smount of fornsl cooperation, and certainly the ideatification of meterial in that way is « preliminary step to adequate bibliographic Listing. Ouring the couree of thie I'll ask Mr. Seanen for any renerts he hee to 119 make on the special needs of science. It is very clear to me that we have been neclecting that in our discussions. We will have some brief talk at least about the special problems of preserva- tion, physical preservation of materials, which I gather is a recional problem here; we have an expert with us in Mr. Alden. Then we will talk about the important matter of people, library training «nd manpower. I hope we will get through some dis- cussion of all that this afternoon, and leave time tomorrow for some overall summary. So let us return immediately to right where we stoppe! before lunch, when we had a good discussion going. I think I'll ask Dr. Jordan to say what she was going to say before the lunch recess. DR. JORDAN: Yes, I think there were some points that were being let loose on the table, which I wanted to comment on. The major one is the business of CODECA and CURRENT CARIB- BEAN BIBLIOGRAPHY and the acquisition problem of Mr. Gocking. I seem to recall that, in 1967, at that conference in Puerto Rico, one of the items recommended or decided upon was that there would be a pilot project to try out the ecaquisition process in one or more of the British islands. I wondered whether ve couldn't oursue this, taking up itr. Breen's plea and the point of why we couldn't try to follow up that particular recommendation. The aim is to try out the acquisition process and take each step after the eceuteition process with one particular ares nov. I thirk Barbedos ie mot too bic and net too emell and might perhaps be « good testing erownd, for the Uniwersity Ses 4 campus there. I chiek thie wicht Ss vaw to perece hie perticelar plea. This te the water seine seater te ete 120 DR. DIX: May we stop just for a minute? I for one am unfamiliar with what was proposed in the way of acquisition pro- jects. This would be a specific designation of authority to a particular library? Would you elaborate on that at this time? DR. JORDAN: Well, I don't think it was detailed in that wav. I think the only thing that was decided, as I recall, Was that there would be a team, a committee or sub-committee, that woald carry this forward in concentrating on trying out experiments with the collections, go for intensive collecting in a given small area that will be sending people out to make cooperative arrangements with the book sellers and librarians, angone at all that could help identify the material and actually get it in hand. The main point was to see how well we would really get things organized if we con- centrated on small areas and got it working in every respect, acquisi- tion beinz the first concern. DR. DIX: And this would be material not produced in the area only, but materials produced in Britain on Barbados’ DR.JORDAN: No, I think it was meant to be current material beine produced in the area at that time. It could of course he widened to include focus on egaterial so hard to identify and to eet after the time it was actually published. oR. DIX: Maw we stop there and see what comments ve heawe. This is a bie area and I would like to see it pinned down by our recorder, who can tell us what we sele when she reports back. we. VAUGHN: Vaurhr here, I sugaest if you are ectusliv thinking shout « slace, someone who te represented here at thie eeecion would be better perhere than Searbedos. Ie there sone- eee bere reereceetiog Sarbecee MR. GOCKING: Barbados is well represented by the University of the West Indies, Sir. We were very interested in, may I say, the University of the West Indies Library, very interested in having the area to be selected within that jurisdiction because they were having such great difficulty getting their own material, and they thought the CODECA conference recommendations might bring a pilot team into their area. I didn{t think of any particular area, Leeward Islands, Windward Islands, a small group. DR. DIX: Well, we will hold that in suspension, and tomorrow, along with all the obher things, what we will hope to do is to come forward with some specific recommendations for a course of action. I don't think we can sit here in this group and say how this should be initiated. Maybe you will undertake to do that and for that you may need a committee. MR. GOCKING: It is unfortunate that both Mrs. Shepard and Miss Baa are not here. DR. DIX: We will come back to it, that is the reason I want to cut off that discussion. Will you go right ahead? DR. JORDAN: The other thing I want to mention: we talked about a questionnaire and need for surveys; I wanted to say there are three questionnaires in my dissertation--one for public libraries, one for special libraries;f{one for school libraries--and for what they are worth, perhaps there might be another question- naire designed for bringing the information up to date. I'll put a Xerox copy of the thesis on the table which can be looked at. This will be published by the Scarecrow Press sometime later this ' year; I don’t know what date yet. ot lz The third thing I wanted to mention is that the SALALM reports are in the nature of bibliographies. The SALALM reports themselves are an excellent source of bibliographic information, and I don't think anybody brought it out in those terms. There is actually one SALALM paper which is a bibliography of all the bibliographies that have been quoted in SALALM to date, a very useful source following on Mrs. Cardona'’s presentation. There is also an article on bibliography and documentation and terminology which covers the British area, enumerating all the various lists that come out of the different libraries, which can be used for checking. There were one or two other points which I think I should men- tion, one on the discussion of reading materials; I wanted to say without knowing, without going into any details, the University of the West Indies does have programs for producing some educational materials. It hasn't gotten very far yet but this is another matter. I think Mrs. Porter also said something about reprints and what reprints are needed; I want to follow this up, as there is a reprinting program going on in England and a fair amount of re- printing being done right now. Some of the things the people wanted, and this answers partly what you were asking. That, pserg is my list of points that I had to make. DR. DIX: Let me at this point put in a word on this. In the reprinting business, as we are all certainly aware, beine librarians having to do with acquisitions, they are tremendously accurate now and do not seem to require large editions for the publishers to undertake them. Making them avere of the needs, and certainly the slightly different sreas, commerctal 123 microfilm publishers are looking for collections to microfilm and offer for sale. Dr. Zimmerman, are you going to respond to some- thing said, any comment on what Dr. Jordan said? NR. ZIMMERMAN: Well, on reprints, there is a very good Cambridge Catalog of Reprints published last spring, listing current Caribbean and Latin American materials and ones in process, and I just had to check that. Quite a number are still in prepara- tion, but it is still the best listing that I know of on the subject. MRS. PORTER: I think American libraries--those of us who have Negro collections, four or five of us--find there is no con- sistency in what the reprint companies offer us, and we are constant- ly wondering what we should require. Some offer you nothing but free copy. There is no uniformity, some pay you $50.; anotker, 10% of the royalties. One thing we should do is to get together and iron out some principles whereby we should have some uniformity, and insist that these companies give it to us. This varies according to the size of the printing companies. Some very large ones are making a preat deal of money, others are starting today to publish titles and they have merely three or four titles; we haven't eotten into the money matter, but since the libraries need these Negro collections, we are facing this problem now. I don't know how soon vou will be facing then. DR. DIX: May I comment on this for {ust a moment’ We are faced with this in other areas, too, and a little group of us in some of the continental United States libraries such as Harverd, Yale, Princeton, Colum>ia, Cornell, generally and essentially errive at an agreement of common policy of this serious matter. We think we are being victimized for commercial profit on the one hand and, on the other hand, we understand and recognize that the reprint business is going to be a boon to libraries. So we by~and-large agree a fee of $25. per volume will be fair, plus bibliographic safeguards--for example, reproduce the title page; some of them try to avoid this, as vou Riide-and proper care of the material and so on. If you are interested I think the best document I have seen on this is the one Harvard is now using. I am told that it is just being revised and probably not quite up-to-date at the moment; but if you write to liarvard and as} them for a copy of that statement of reprint publish- ing, you might find it useful if you are faced with this problem of dealine with commercial reprint publishers. Mr. Wagner’ “4R, WACNER: I was going to ask if we are ail fami- liar with University ‘ficrofilms ont-of-print publishing program, in which they wil] publish a single -opy of any book for about four cents a page. WR. DIX: This is pullication on demand, rather than additional publication. There is ceneral agreement that some of us need a published edition rather than a Xerox copy. Mrs. Bloomfield. MRS. BLOOMFIELD: Welt, I would like to say some- thing about acquisition. DR. DIX: Yes, when Mrs. Shepard gets back we will ask her t» talk about acquisition. Go right ahead. “RS. PLOOMFIFLD: jow, Dr. Zismerman this sorning mentioned some books specializing in Caribbeana: there is » new books*ore in London founded bw John FP. Rose, called New Beacon, which ieee ves Coribbeena, and it hae etartee to tesur «4 pubii- » WW RES trareeneerromItenresenres cation called NEW BEACON REVIEW which reviews West Indian material. In the first number there is a very good review of all the West Indies by Professor Devine. I think it is a publication of very high standard. In addition there are a number of booksellers in the area in Jamaica, who issue lists of local publications. The Micro Book Shop in Guvana lists publications, and there are others. I should like to suggest that in addition to a survey of libraries, we also recommend that there should be an up-to-date list of beoksellers. DR, DIX: Thank you. Now, I think as I said, we have neglected science. I wonder, Mr. Seaman, if you have anything you might like to say about the whole question of bibliographic control o* scientific information’ ‘R,. SEAMAN: That is the subject I am not very well acquainte! with but, if I can give en example of personal exper- ience, it might be illustrating my» feelings somewhat on the subject, and this is a loca) thing. I am with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services attached to the local government, and I have been working here for 20 years and I am supposed to put out quarterly proeres* reports every three sonths. Well, if vou get a paper and pencil and ere mathematically inclined, you can very easily figure out the number of progress reports that l ar supposed to have put out over the last 20 years. Now, I am not saying that these progress reports contain the best iaformation in the world, but I am saying I feel the future generation wight fin! something fn ther of intereet and they shoeld definitely be represented in cer lecal librery. “ow, I°1) eey offhand there ere 40 of thoee reerrte thet I bewe ceet Gown ont the dletribetice tet they have received is probably limited to the Atlanta office in Washington. This is absolutely no fault of the local library service: the distribution of these reports is a government responsibility. I send the original and a few copies, and the mimeograph people are supposed to distribute them cto various departments which they feel might be interested in things like that. I think that, if Miss Baa has 10, she has a lot. But that is neither here aor there. I have just been asked to popularize these reports into one volume, that's my next assignment and I think a very good one, since we will have all tie information obtained in one volume. WR. DIX: How will that volume be published” ‘'R. SEAMAN: ‘That is a very good question. And I am o little embirrassed that I am not quite sure just how. I have the manuscripts that I ‘ave heenpork ing on and it will be sent to the Atlanta office. Perlhans it will be published by thet office. pe. DIX: This appears a8 4 United States Goverment document. “Rk. SFAMAN: Verv likely. vise TAA: 1 will «peak on the dietrtbeatior of cowermmer: cub ications. When you aake © report *o. sent ‘tf tt your office--I sean to Wonever r™ report in St. Themes. Thte te the sane a6 al! departments! reports. These ere eventually deposited te the Cowermment Secretary's Office. Thee we heave to weit eett! the Covermest Secretary's Office alliews «s the copies. The Poblic Library tee functions’ o the Gepecttery eeeney thet socetves geweremectal reserts, efter they ere reheeeet by the 127 Government Secretary. If we know of them we will request the Government Secretary to give us covies and this has heen our ever- lasting struggle. I mentioned yesterday that we require the en- forcement of the depository laws and, as a state library, if we are state, we should! be able to receive all departmental revorts and studies, not by asking but as a matter of automatic procedure. This is not the case, however. When your reports are submitted, we request 30 copies for distribution, because we have what we think is an active exchange agreement with many libraties in the Caribbean as we!l as in the '!‘nited States, and this is our reason for requesting ‘0 copies. When we receive those copies, we distri- bute them immediately to all of the main libraries with which we have agreenerts. In addition to that, we retain two copies for our documents section. If we have enough copies we send a copy to each of the other libraries in the Virgin Islands. But to be sure I'll ask Miss Lindqvist, who is our Virgin Island equivalent of 'keeper of the books", to tell me if we have any representation of Mr. Seaman's reports. “TSS LINDOVIST: We have quite a number of them from 1950 to date. MISS BAA: We didn't get them from the Government Secretary. So this is our basic trouble--depository and distri- bution. DR, DIX: This is not unique to this area. All librarians know that. I wonder if there is a point where this con- ference adding to its list of recommendations a general appeal to the governments of the region to do something useful with their documents. What about some of the other areas-~the Pritish areas, for example: What hapvens to your government docume its? 1 = 128 MR, GOCKING: They used to come out regularly; since the change oO independent government we have been very uncer~ tain as to what to do about annual reports coming from departments. Sometimes they never see the light of day, other times they have been received and when the time comes to publish them, we spend a lot of tire searching for them. nr, DIX: Are there depository laws setting up official depositories’ ‘in, GOCKING: Yes, the University of the West Indies, for instance, tried its best to convince the then colonial government that they should all amend their depository laws to make the University of the West Indies a depository library. Some did after some persuasion, others didn't. When the federal government came along, it immediately made the University of the West Indies a depository for all publications of the Federation. That was for five years, from 1956 to 1962. Then the Federation broke up and the laws were no longer in force, and we went back to the old arrangement by which we got some. DR. DIX: I guess I am trying to go a little too far forward towards specific recommendations. The statement that we represent the major libraries in the areas, and that we urge this recommendation, in the interest of supplying all the people with information, call upon the governments of the area, either by government regulations or by probative law, to take steps to make sure that the official documents issued by those in government are sent in suitable quantities to be deposited. Once we did this, it would lead towarggone consistent listing from a central agency. 122 129 DR. JORDAN: There ts a rider to this, and that is, to have laws, which is one thing, and quite another thing to get them enforced. In Trinidad we all have depository laws but all we get so far are songs, because people think "depository" means that when they ‘eposit their songs they are thereby copyrighted and they want nobody else copying their songs. DR. DIX: We are really talking about two things, let's don't confuse them. We are talking about a depét legal, which, because of copyrighting or some other reason, requires the printer or publisher to deposit every document with a designated office. ‘The other, depository law, we have in the United States, whereby certain libraries in each state are declared official depositories of government-issued documents. But they are both important. Let's talk about the second one a minute: the deposit of povernnent-produced documents. Is there any reason we shouldn't repeat, or urge to keep saying, to this government quite clearly who is receiving all the recommendations we come out with. Probably « variety of people, but we can send one directed to Her Majesty's Government somewhere. Now, the dép6t legal I am wonder- ing about. Personally, I am against licensing printers. T think printing ought to be free. [It reaches a lot of people. The govern- ment is trying to control printing--I don't want to get into that terrible thing one way or the other. Mrs. Stephenson. MRS. STEPHENSON: In Guyana no legal depository is desivnated; one copy of everything printed should be registered with the Registry but I am afraid this has not been observed. DR. DIX: Mr. Seaman, sorry to interrupt, go ahead. 123 130 MR. SEAMAN: This has been very educational in what we are all talking about. I like that phrase that Dr. Jordan used, hidden people. I have been a hidden man here so long. There is a professional need for science. I like to think of Columbus as the first scientist in this new world. We know that his discovery not only revolutionized the old world, but it destroyed the theory of the extended flat surface from which one would fall if he ventured too far. On this first voyage he dared to persist on his course in the face of grave and threatened mutiny. His persistence was not just blind determination. It was based on nature signals. He recognized the type of vegetation on the water, and the bird life flying overhead. He saw birds going by in flocks which to him looked very much like land birds that he had seen in Europe. His determination was strengthened and therefore the great discovery was achieved because of his scientific acumen. What he did not know then was this very interesting ornitho- logical lore. Those birds were gold and black belly plovers (gre- garious long-legged wading birds). You see, the New World was dis- covered sometime in October, we celebrate the twelfth, just about the time when these plovers leave their arctic home for wintering in South America. Incidentally, the migration of plovers is one of the most interesting phenomena in the world. Imagine, if you will, a little bird weighing eight or nine ounces flying non-stop, jumping off from Newfoundland, nonstop to the West Indies, to northern South America, twelve thousand miles; then return again another twelve thousand miles in a few months, say, roughly twenty-five thousand miles in four months. Imagine the endurance and the stored 124 131 energy required when that source of energy is only fat! Anyway, he saw plovers g0 by and, together with these plants floating in the sea around, that made him certain that, if he could encourage his crew to hang on, he would find land, and we know the story. To my way of thinking, there is a great need for updating information that we have on the various scientific aspects of West India. We need more general as well as intensive research studies in the fields of ornithology, botany, geology, zoology, meteorology, etc. Of course, today we have equipment we never dreamt of years ago, such as these deep sea probes that we have for taking pictures at 20 thousand feet below the surface, and outer space sciences and explorations, moon walking, ctc. We learn about the weather, we learn about geology, and we learn many other things that previously were inaccessible to us and we are revising a great many of our static ideas about this globe in which we live. I am sure we are experiencing a population explosion, but we are also in the midst of an explosion of publications, of air and water pollution, and a psychological revolution of man and ideas. Libraries everywhere are devising newer methods of storing and using these materials. If we are lo judge from his impress.ve gathering of librariens who must serve students today, you are pre~ paring your libraries for the future which you foresee. But what about today? The pace of life we are living, our commercial and industrial needs sometimes impinge upon nature and wipe out some species, or lay waste areas which are necessary to health and well being. There are times when nature's ways are so affected as to cause a dangerous imbalance. Fire is a case in point. 125 132 Pe RO ES NC A A TT CGA It is the greatest enemy of wildlife and, from the very beginning, a great number of interesting species, particularly amphibian and rep- tilian, were destroyed; but we are lucky th that many of the islands have satellite cays around them and, these not being suitable for economic purposes, have been largely untouched. These cays are tre- mendously interesting because they are reservoirs for the flora and fauna which are not found today cn the mainland anymore. For instance, on the tiny island of Anegada, the "down island" as it is called, there is a particular specie of iguana. It is not a tree-climbing iguana, but a specie of iguana, Cyclura. Tt is found only on Anegada. Because this island is flat, being only 30 feet above the sea, the entire island of Anegada could serve as an inter- national »irport. This is precisely what it was determined to do and clearing was beeun. Since this iguana has become adapted to this climate and environment, and the crea is being cleared, one can see what is going to happen to tiem. 1 don't believe that there are 30 left in tre world, an! they are only found in Anegada. This is a very sad thing; but fortunately, and appropriately enough, the College of the 'irgin Islands is coing something about this. They have sent several men to take pictures and to collect some of the iguanas and will try to re-ijocate them on similar islands nearby. We hope they will survive. Very often wildlife species are extreme- ly specific in their requirements and what human beings mav think is a wonderful habitat for some of them (say lizards) to live, another lizard might completely reject it and perish as a result. This is a typical example of what is taking place at an axtremely rapid pace throughout the West Indies. 126 For instance, the parrot of the West Indies is unique, and has a very interesting evolutionary history. The Caribbean is a group of tiny islands separated sometimes by no more than 50 miles of water. but each island may have a specie of parrot which is entirely different from its neighbors. How can we explain this? The consen- sus among those who know is that all of these parrots originated from one specie of green Amazon parrot. The West Indies parrot roughly began with the Granada parrot. It was the only parrot, originally, but with the evolutionary process which took 100,000 years;-maybe more than that-~-parrots developed differently because of the environment in which they found themselves; so that today islands like St. Lucia and Dominica and Puerto Rico and Santo Domingo each have a different parrot. Studies are being made of the Puerto Rican parrots of which there are probably only 50 left in the world, and they are found in only one little area of Puerto Rico. We have all wondered, since they seem to be in a very good habitat and there is a lot of food available, why do they continue to decrease in number? This is a fact, they are decreasing very, very rapidly and it is questionable whether they can ble saved at all. Another study is also being conducted in Dominica. On that island lives a particularly beautiful, very large parrot, called the imperial parrot. A Canadian lumber company has gone into Dominica, cutting in the jungles, and naturally one wonders what effect this will have on those beautiful parrots. Let us take crabs. Most of us who live here in the Virgin Islands know these so-called land crabs. These ugly-looking things are delivious to eat. The face is, they are a delicacy and in 134 rd places like Puerto Pico the supply is far less than the demand, so that this crab is practically disappearing from many of the islands. No. there is no reason to believe that this crab could not be bred commercially since each female lays maybe 50,000 eggrs; and if anyone were enterprisine enough, or intellectually curious, he could dis- cover the entire life history of this crab, particularly in its early stares. ‘ie would not only contribute to science, but he could become a millionaire, because it is possible to sell hundreds of crabs in Puerto Pico and other islands on a constant market. While we know a preat deal of the life history of this crab, we know nothing of the first stages from the egg to when it first starts lookine like a crab, and this involves five or six stages. A female crab lavs her eggs in the ocean, they float around in little microscopic dots and come hack looking like minute crabs; that stage we know nothing of todav. 1 have written to the Univer- sity of ‘liami, which is encaced in these projects, and the reply If eet igs that Doctor So-and-so is writing a thesis on this particular subject. We have an abundance of food here in the ocean. You can use trite expressions but our population is exploding and the sea is becoming more and more a source of food, but it is also becoming hopelessly polluted by human and industrial wastes. OR, DIX: You have given us, it seems to me, a whole series of perfect illustrations of the importance of local studies of the rerion. Our job of course as librarians and bibliographers is with books ebout them. lave you somethine else to contribute on this subject: Please identify yourself. ATS© OLIVER: Pat Oliver. It seens that information ] 28 ee A RT OES CNT RR ree ena oe mats on these scientific subjects exists in academic circles, and the responsibility of librarians is to acquire it and publicize it through various media to make it useful to the potential users. DR. DIX: It seems to me what should emerge is a science information center. I wonder if Dr. Caron has anything to say about science technology information ia this region? DR. CARON: Well, my feelings are the other way around. It is the responsibility of the scientists to publish worthwhile works in wellknown journals. I don't think it is the responsibility of librarians alone to look out for unknown publi- cations. However, the important journals should be made available in the libraries. I have seen many scientific works done, reports of research from the British islands or from Puerto Rico reported in wellknown journals. There is an explosion of publications today in the scientific field. Obviously one man can't read everything, so some of the material goes unnot icedbecause it just isn't worth reading and I think there has to be the process of elimination. Il dont think evervthing can be kept. It is just taxing the human mind too much and, if worthwhile articles come out in print, they will be read. 1 have a different point of view: I am a user, not a keeper. DR. DIX: This is true in all fields. My impression is that there seems to be scientific data collected locally from around the world and from various regions which doesn't reach natioaal or international channels of communication. Is that true at all? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKERY 1 don't know if it is the responsibility of the librarian to gather this material, and I don't 129 136 know whose responsibility it is, but I have the impression that there is need fora well-equipped communication and science infor- mation center. DR, PTX: Well, this is, it seems to me, the responsibility of the librarian. I am using librarian loosely here, to make sure that you understand that libraries and librarians have sources which supply and keep one informed constantly, with all of this information through international channels for scientific information, such as documentation centers. We have got to move ahead. MISS BAA: I think we have neglected to observe that there are centers, for example, the University of the West Indies, which issue certain scientific nublicatioas; we should know about them and we should stop to check them for articles and to make sure that we have them. the JOURNAL OF CARIBBEAN SCIENCE published by ~ the University of Puerto Rico at ‘“avaguez is certainly another local publication providing information of this type, and it carries in every issue a very eood science bibliography. The Netherlands Foundation for Scientific Research in Surinam and Netherland- Antilles and other Caribbean Islands, in Phe Hague, is another agency where one can find information and bibliographies on scientific subjects. DR. DIX: Well, I'11 come back to that land crab. The fellow who starts a land crab farm is going to do something useful for the economy of these islands. I was offended the other night at dinner to be told the only fish I could get was South American lob- ster tail. Well, let's move ahead, to the cooperative acauisitions 7 and processing; Marietta, do you have something to sav on that’ 137 ath aa Mee. ie Suge wesc so. — SS a oe Beene 2 Sate gine —— Eas EBB tte as DI eRe pe svinet is 20 tate gS sioperinsinaetee ere ay ea We ws RA “RS, SHEPARD: Well, ¢ have actually tried to, summar~ agriculture librarians in te ize a paper T gave at a meeting of first week of Necember on the elemert of cooperative acquisition, atte: pting to describe the activities particularly in the United States in recent vears in cooperative acquisition of Latin American activities. At one time, the BULLETIN OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, a bulletin of Spe- cial Libraries Association had a verv fine statement on cooperation which I think T'll read to vou. Cooperation might be said to have ans in recent years. On every hand, at become the cree’ of librari every conference, in every nrofessional journal, we are urged to co- sorthy job or towards solution of that nagging operate in this « problem. We are urged even to cooperate in urging further coopera~ tion among our colleagues, and this is good for librarianshiv. A efforts. library cannot exist except through the cooperation of manv 1f ever we lost sight of this fact, then we should have lost our effectiveness as librarians. Of course, library cooperation isn't any new concept to this group, nor should we dwell ever long on the tremendous amount of material that is coming out in print these days. We dont want to think about the million and a half significant articles that are published every year in science and technology, or even of the 119,900 titles of BOOKS IN PRINT, supposedly in Spanish, that are re- ported, “aturally no library can possibly think of trying to collect everything that has been printed and, even if we had an unlimited budget--and most libraries don't--in simple terms, it is a matter of cooperate or drown. We don't have very much time to devote either, to all of the efforts towards cooperative acausition turope, and else- which the United States have had in Latin America, 131 138 where; and certainly we don't want to waste any time theoretically on the principle of acquisition, All of this is beyond us, or be- hind us. We are more concerned with how it is done and how things can be done, and what are the important ingredients of cooperative acquisition. Well, we know one of the most important ingredients discussed here before is the combination of union catalogues and union lists and then having programs of acqugition which will make it possible to be assured of having access to the most important work in libraries somewhere along the lines. Perhaps as far as Latin America and the Caribbean in general the activities which have had the longest history lists of have been those in combination with union periodicals. are concerned, Needless to say, a knowledge of what is presently available in libraries is necessary for us to determine what it is we should have, in order to base our future activities on what we have already had and what has been done in the pagt. One thing we have discussed here at this meeting=s-two things, especially--have been books and docu- ments, records and manuscripts and so on. If we come into the field of pure and applied sciences, journals are frequently far more im- portant than the books and certainly more important than records or manuscripts. But, in order to produce union lists or catalogues, you have to have some agree ment among, librarians as to how you are going to describe these things. You must have cooperation from libraries to establish uniform bibliographic descriptions in order to be able to even compile union lists of materials. So, uniform entries, standards for the entry of title and other bibliographic material, must be adopted. This has been especially difficult in i Latin America, esnecially Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries. because they have aot had the tools that exist in Eneplish. Until they have the tools, it will be difficult for ther to establish uniform rules for entry. As a matter of fact, we were just translating, in the Pan American Union, the ANGLO- AMERICAN CODE into Spanish. It is being typed up, and I don't know how it is to be published, but we don't have any funds for that. However, we didn't have any funds to get it translated either. We will come to that when we get it typed up. There was at one point a bibliography issued by the Library of Congress in 1964 called UNTON LIST OF SERIALS, a biblio- graphy which was compiled by Ruth Freitag. but to my knowledge there doesn't exist anv listing of union lists or union cata- 1 logues in the Ceribbean or Latin American areas, which might be a cood research project for a graduate student of library science or of Latin American affairs. However, Mrs. Bloomfield rentioned hefore that the Institute of Latin American Studies began in 19646 to comnile Union Catalog holdings of the British libraries in the field of Latin American studies, meaning cata- logues of all beoks and pamrblets relating to Latin America. Tt should he pointed ovt that tiie National Union Catalogue of the Librarv of Congress services in a certain way as a union catalogue of the holdings of Latin American and Caribbean materials in the United States. We have not had a very long history even in the United States of cooperative acquisition. By the early'30's there had been a couple of reports done on attempts in the United States to achieve cooperative programs of acquisitions; but it was really not until Wotld War II that this became a serious problem in the United States, and it was found during that time in history that American libraries were not really adequately able to provide all the needs of the defense combines in the United States. It became abundantly clear after World War II was over that the prewar procurement effort in the United States certainly wasn't sufficient for the needs of the postwar informational wants of the United States. So the Library of Congress took the initiative and called a meeting demi held at Farmington, Connecticut, to discuss what could be done about this. To make a short story much briefer than Mr. Dix probably . would, if he had the opportunity, by 1947 the Association of Re- search Libraries agreed upon subgect allocations for libraries in the United States and preparations were put into effect to begin the "Farmington Plan" which was named afrer the place where it was held originally, by covering publications which had been issued in 1948 in France, Sweden and Switzerland. There have been a number of reports on the Farmington Plan--chiefly by Edwin Williams and Robert Prosper--and many of you wikia’ ave probably read every word of these reports on the Farmington Plan. Cooperative efforts for the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials by American libraries, however, even antedated the Farmington Plan. In the early 1930's the American Library Association had a Committee on Latin America, which was succeeded by ) e an International Relations Committee, ory of whose concerns was ac~- quisitions. All of this was before World War IT and after. At the same time an organization called Inter-American Bibliographic and Library Association had been created with aid from the Pan American Union. It was formed chiefly by a group of persons interested in Latin America and in Latin American Bibliography, chiefly persons from the United States. In fact, Pan American Union published some of the bibliographies that were a result of this Association's efforts. The Association held a number of meetings concerning Latin American studies at the time when most people of the United States didn't know where Latin America was. At the same time, the Pan American Union began a study, in the early 1930's, which now has reached the number 51. Among private efforts to increase availability of important Latin American publications in libraries of the United States was the grant made by the Carnegie Corpora~ tion of $250,000 in 1947 so that four university libraries of the United States could acquire necessary materials to support area study programs in Latin America. Area study programs antedated me, I might say. I had courses in Latin American history, Latin American literature, Lathn American geography, and Latin American economics; but they were all isolated programs before most in- stitutions in the United States had heard of Latin America and certainly before the area study programs came into being. Officially, the government of the United States had taken seriously the commitment it had made in one of the Inter-America Conferences in 1933 on American bibliographies, and a number of cultural conventions it had signed; so by mid-1940 the Library of Congress, particularly, through the Hispanic Foundation, had begun 5 442 SLL RT Ia I I II OT IS we a. the publication of several series of bibliographic publications on Latin America. One of the studies began about 1936, I believe. Another was the series of Guides to Official Publications of other American Republics. In many instances, these still remain, 30 years later, the only guides that have ever been done of the offi- cial publications of Latin American nations. The Hispanic Founda- tion has been very active in bringing libraries closer together; for a number of years it has invited sesihetin bibliographers to come and work with them, and so on. It also took the lead in en- couraging exchanges between Latin America and United States librar- ies of books, periodicals and official publications, and was one of the first institutions to establish an active Hispanic exchange program. Although a number of universities in the United States for de- cades had offered courses in Latin American literature, economics, and so on, as I said before, the creation of area study programs was a post-war development. A recent count of such centers shows well over 130 universities in the United States which have centers for Latin American Studies, or Institutes for Inter-American Studies, or something similar. There are now some eight regional councils of Latin American Studies. These councils are composed not only of university professors but of local scholars in the field of Latin American matters, business people, research people and so on. They have local memberships, and some of them are already filed with the Latin American Association which was created about three or four years ago and which has attempted now to bring into its order some of the regional councils. There are now six local groups of univer- 135 143 el sities that I know of, which form part of the large group for the purpose of Latin American and Inter-American Studies. One late development that I mentioned was the creation at City University of New York of an Institute on Puerto Rican Studies. As a matter of fact, this started before the Puerto Rican college; stu- dents began to demand such an institute because I think I had been talking about the possibility of an institute for Puerto Rican culture for two or three years. Interestingly enough, it was the year 1956 which was signifi- cant in all kinds of Inter-American and library matters. The federal government of the United States that year passed its first Library Services Act, which was to provide about seven million dollars for rural public library services in the United States. In 1956 a nation- al standard was approved by the American Library Association. An International Relations Office was created by deeetban Libracy Assoc- fation, at that point from a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. The Council on Library Resources was born that year from a grant from the Ford Foundation. Also in 1956, the International Inter-America Cultural Council, a specialized council of the Organization of Ameri- can States (OAS), called upon the Congress of OAS to initiate a library development program and insisted they should have budgets separate from thet of the library of Pan American Union. At the same time, in 1956, an International Advisory Committee was named to aid in the creation of an Inter-America Library School in Mid-Colombia University of Antioquoia, Medellin, Colombia. Plans were made in 1956 to open the new school the following February. It was in 1956, too, that Stanley West and I talked about what the University of Florida needed. He had been trying to do something in the acauisi- 137 144 eee tion program and decided they needed a new help maybe, and I had been at it a little bit longer than anyone else (I always seem to be at something a little longer than anybody else). Pan American Union said they would be happy to help the University of Florida. I went down to spend a week or so there looking at what they were doing, in acquisitions and exchange of publications, and we agreed that we were ahead of most people at that point and that there were a lot of people in the United States who had experience. We needed to pool our experience to see how we could all come out better than we were. So we arreed there was a need for small conferences representative of people who were concerned with Latin American Studies--not only librarians, teachers, professors, but the people involved in the book trade, because, after all, libraries couldn't exist without the book trade. I don't know if the book trade could exist without us or not, io, especially in children's books, because they tell me that 91% of all children's books published go to libraries. But at least we know that we are quite dependent onthe book trade. So that year we de- cided we would hold a meeting representing these various interests. Fortunately, the University of Florida had a small estate at Chinse- gut Hill, Brooksville, Florida; so we held our first Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials (SALALM) there. Some 20 working papers were prepared by specialists in all kinds of things: periodicals, maps, government publications, and everything else. We thought that we could get together for three days and resolve all the problems. That was 14 years ago. The problems, we thought, were in about three large categories. One was to know what had been done, what was in issue; two was how to get what is needed for particular ) 138 149 libraries; and three, how to process and preserve the material ac~- quired. We had invited 26 participants and six observers. Although this meeting was only two days we didn't take quite so long to re- solve the problems. Well, this was called ostensibly to consider the problems in finding, buying and controlling library material relating to Latin America, and all that we--although we considered that we have done very well in those two days--had to do was to extend, to explore a little bit further and a little more in depth some of the complicated problems which turned up at that meeting. Well, I suppose we might have expected that, like Parkinson's Law, the problems increased at about the same rate that we dis- cussed them. Every time we got one problem resolved another five or six turned up. So we didn't hold just one meeting, but we have held 13 of them; but from the first meeting of the Seminar on the Acquisi- tion of Latin American Library Materials we have given special attention to the Caribbean. And as Irene Zimmerman told us before, we have had annual reports on Library and Bibliographic Activity, some given by Enid Baa, some by Cepeda and some by others who know what has been going on in the Caribbean in libraries and bibliograph- ies. 4 One of our principal interests has beenghe development of this Pilot Bibliographic Center for the Caribbean, and our interest has been very great in the Caribbean Regional Library in general. We have felt that considerably more funds were needed to be able to achieve what we knew could be achieved, and where all the elements were actually in existence for it to be achieved. By 1968 we entered another period. We found that there was an awful lot that needed to be done, that the Seminar working as an informal group of people that got together once a year by virtue of dpemndeia My! ov RA Bua 139 146 on a EE the little bit of money which Pan American Union devoted to publish- ing the annual reports that there were other things that needed to be done. This takes a long time to work out so we organized, or we incorporated, the Seminars last year, and, by January of this year, we had formal recognition in the District of Columbia. We have felt there were a number of publishing activities we needed to carry on, and I must report that one of the practical things we have done since incorporation was the presentation to the National Endowment for Arts and Humanities of the proposal for cooperation with the Archives of the Indies. The United States Government would not have given a grant to Pan American Union as the General Secretariat of an international organization, but as a govern~ ment agency, it could give it to 4 private non-profit corporation; so the proposal for funds of $10,000 to hold a meeting of specialists in Seville was presented in the name of the Seminars on Acquisition. During the first 13 meetings of the Seminars some 182 working papers have been prepared. This represents the greatest sources of information on the book trade in Latin America and on Latin American bibliography. If anyone wants to study the problems of the area and the accomplishments of the area, I think this is where they will find the greatest treasure house of information. We have published final reports of each of the seminars, many of them are still in print. Those which aren't in print are available on microfiche by Microcards. We have issued nine semi- annual prints of NEWSLETTERS. The semi-annual NEWSLETTER is an attempt to find out who is doing new things in microfilming. 140 147 This isn't any attempt to list all the microfilming because micro- filming is listed by the Library of Congress Center. When we first -_ started we were somewhat overawed by the Association of Research Libraries and by their Farmington Plan, for it took us two or three years before we could tell the Association of Research Libraries what we thought they should do as far as Latin America is concerned. And then there was a sub=committee that was formed to revise the Farmington Plan in regard to Latin America. Of course, the Farmington Plan never aimed to do more than provide or be assured of one copy in the United States of all important publica- tions all over the wordd. That one copy naturally was not going to be sufficient to 130 different institutions maintaining Latin American Studies programs, saying nothing of other research institutténs. 3 So the problem was how to get current material, as we were not so concerned with retrospective material, how to be aware of what was currently being published in Latin America; and there were many institutions of course which had been sending buyers to Latin America to buy current publications on a one-time basis. This didn't always remain a continuing effort. So at one point we suggested that there should be some kind of cooperative acquisition agent that would be sent Lo Latin America. So the library of Congress took the cue and sent William Kurth to Latin America, and some 11 or 12 libraries contributed to paying his travel expenses in 1958. Well, he got so much information, and he also got so much cooperation on the part of the book trade and oun associations and institutions publishing materials, that we decided that one of the most important B- things was to maintain a cooperative acquisition agent in Latin America. All that is fine, except that libraries and universities 141 are not set up to pay salaries of other people to teavel expend Latin America. So we combined these two things, one the necessity of having a cooperative acquisition agent, and two, the interest in the book trade itself in providing service to libraries. We decided the most natural thing would be to ask Stechert-Hafner, Inc. to main- tain a cooperative acquisition agent in Latin America. We got them at an unsuspecting moment, I guess, and they agreed to make an at- tempt to do this. We all felt it would cost a lot more money for the first two or three years before they even made their expenses much less a profit. The first person sent to Latin America from the Secretariat for the acquisition project was Dr. Nettie Lee Benson from the librarv of the University of Texas. Well, the University of Texas couldn't lend her to a profit-making organization, so she was actually contracted by the New York Public Library and she spent six months, and her contract was renewed for another six months, visiting book publishers and other publishing enterprises in Latin America to establish continuing relations. And as a result of her going down there, Stechert-Hafner finally agreed to do this on a continuing basis and they described the Latin American Cooperative Acquisition Project (LACAP) in the following terms in their brochure: LACAP is a cooperative enterprise which provides its participants with a steady flow of printed materials currently published in all the countries of Latin America. LACAP was organized in 1960 by the University of Texas, the New York Public Library and Stechert Hafner, Inc. as a result of the deliberations and recommendations of the Seminars on the Acquisi- tion of Latin American Library Materials. Stechert-Hafner, Inc. 142 assumed the complete financial responsibility for the project for the first several years. LACAP was fortunate in securing services of a leading Latin American librarian of the United States who could travel throughout many countries to make necessary contacts with the book world in Latin America, establish the basic organization pattern for continuing services, and acquire what other publications were available at the time. By 1962 LACAP established the first regional office in Bogota, Colombia. A second office was opened in Rio de Janeiro in 1967 to function in coordination with the Library of Congress Title Ilc program. Well, by mid-1968 the number of subscribers to LACAP stood at 38, principally libraries in the United States, Australia, Canada, Colombia and England. The total number of imprints received for 1966 had increased about 10% over those of 1965, or slightly fewer than 4,000 titles included at cost of slightly less than $18,000. Now, they are assured of getting one copy of each of the new titles LACAP imports from Latin America. However, any library which wishes to procure titles but not all of the publications which LACAP has to offer, or libraries which have wellestablished exchange programs, can use the list which Stechert-Hafner pub- lishes periodically, known as LATIN AMERICAN BOOKS, a listing of current and retrospective materials. An oft-expressed hope has been that LACAP would do more in the Caribbean area, and that Stechert-Hafner Company cooperate with the Caribbean Regional Library and libraries in the Caribbean to make this possible. In the conversation I have had with Dominick Coppola, he has agreed or is willing to consider any kind of assistance which librarians in the Caribbean feel is necessary. 150 The cause of coxperative acquisition of research materials on Latin America received assistance from the federal government be- ginning as early as 1958, with the passage of the National Defense Educational Act (NDEA) which permitted grants to libraries for the teaching of foreign languages. In many foundation grants, and in many selected universities of the United States, special Latin American study subjects were set up in both NDEA funds and in foundation grants. To stimulate wider dissemination in the United States libraries of works published in Latin America, the Hispanic Foundation of -the Library of Congress obtained a grant from the Ford Foundation a few years ago for the development of a national acquisition plan for Latin America. Stanley West was contracted by the Library of Con- gress to submit a national acquisition plan, and he did submit two or three of the original plans. @ne of the latest efforts has F been the inclusion of a new title in the Higher Education Act, which is called Network for Knowledge. We have had some discussion with the research branches of the federal government of the United States Office of Education for the development of coffoperative pro- grams or information networks in Latin America. We have been hopeful that the federal government will actually give assistance to the American Library Association for holding a national con= ference on information networks. But at least the Office of Education is fully aware of the effort of the American libraries to acquire materials from Latin America, and they are aware of the necessity of developing a network of information centers in the United States on Latin America. 144 Another thing that has kept me busier: than I might have been otherwise has been the passage of the Bi-lingual Fducation Act, Title VII, of last year's Elementary and Secondary Educational Art, which permits the expenditure of millions of dollars to create bi- lingual schools in the United States for Spanish-speaking school- children. The moral support of SALALM to the Library of Congress in gratitude of the Association of Research Libraries in promoting the expansion of the Higher Education Act to include Latin American acquisition and cataloguing were expressed in resolutions of the 10th Seminar in 1965 and, as I mentioned before, the Library of Con- gress has opened an office in Rio de Janeiro for the purpose of acquiring more materialggrom Brazil. In 1966 we opened the office; in the next six or eight months, two thousand Brazilian titles were sent to the Library of Congress. Brazilian libraries now are cata- loguing this information and sending cards to the Library of Congress. The conclusions of all this are the mere enormity of the prob- lems of vastly increased production of all kinds of publications and the higher costs of publication, the difficulty of cataloguing, of bibliographic control of both old and new, and of a larger and more exacting public to be served by libraries. Ali this has forced libraries in the United States es cooperative efforts whether they want to or not; in order not to drown in the need of publications they have learned not only to swim themselves, but to apply life-saving techniques to others. The cooperative acquisition experiments and continuing programs 145 152 in the United States not only can be used to advantage by librarians in the Caribbean, but the experience--the success or failure--in the United States can be applied to similar programs in this area. The greater restrictions among libraries in the Caribbean in terms of financial, bibliographic and human resources, make cooperation with- out any question a basic requirement. DR. DIX: Thank you very much, Mrs. Shepard. Any you familiar in detail with any part of the history of cooperation in the United States know how brilliant a job Mrs. Shepard has done, because it is a long and terribly complex story. Now, I think the question here is what all of this has to do with us in this room. In other words: is there anything this conference ought to say about cooperative activities, further cooperative activities in this area of acquisition and cataloguing: We have talked about the general i) principle of each island being centrally responsible for collecting materials originating there. The possibility of the Bibliographic Center of the Caribbean Regional Library and its publication, CURRENT CARIBBEAN RBIBLIOGRAPHY-~is there more that should be dis- cussed here? “MRS, SHEPARD: I am not sure whether anybody has a copy of a report of the meeting held for the Caribbean Regional Library two years 7go. That report designated which were key librar- ies and what would be their major responsibilities, didn't they, Enid? MISS BAA: Yes. MR. BREEN: Yes, I think in the original concept we had a local agent having responsibility which we didn't spell out. We were going to leave it up to the community to select one most ) important local agent. MISS BAA: I think one of the main difficulties with this particular area has been simple lines of communication. We have been unable to communicate with each other. Perhaps we should try to make it easier for people to do this. If we can set up a network of Telex-connected libraries it might speed up communica- tions. I think perhaps several people in this room from various parts of the region may have these facilities near or at their con- venience but are not aware of it. I, for example, found that I can use Telex or Telex equipment right in my department and this was only evident two weeks ago. I believe that the University of the West Indies at Jamaica has Telex, and perhaps the Trinidad campus may have it, too. We can do a whole lot more in the way of communication than in conventional writing of letters and waiting for the mailman to bring them. The telephone is also a speedy and more efficient medium. DR. DIX: I know nothing about the existence of any Telex network in this area. MR. McDONALD: I can speak of their efficiency in Connecticut, as we have an eleven-library teletypewriter yystem. The five academic libraries on the system have taken a further step in the presence of teletype, and have gone so far as to fund the posi- tion in the Yale library, which is the largest library on the network. We feel we can approach our girl, let us call her that, there freely for interlibrary loans and reference service. The four libraries that contribute to make this position available at Yale are the University of Connecticut, West End University, Trinity College and Connecticut College. You can see 147 154 wa’ we are all very much smaller than Yale, have a great deal to gain by this association and, yet, under this arrangement we are not impos- ) ing as heavily as if we should be coming to them without this quid pro quo. Of course, we are a srall area and the inet of Telex there would be small compared to what it must cost here. Nevertheless, I think it is important to know what equipment alrezdy exists in the region, as Miss Baa has said, and to learn how it could be used to advantage. DR. JORDAN: I have investigated this, I know Telex exists between St. Vincent and St. Augustine. I mentioned to Miss Baa that we will explore what is possible. I certainly endorse Miss Baa's point of view. If we could maintain closer contact, it would enhance cooperative efforts an awful lot. MR. McDONALD: It is toogeshits that you will each have some unique resources that the other will occasionally want. But ) we are finding Telex communication is good for library purposes. You get, for one thing, a written record you can't get by telephone, and this is valuable. It can be more accurate than something that comes from word of mouth. J don't know how fast your mail service is, cer- tainly telecommunication would speed up that process of communication and transfer of information. DR. DIX: Well, I think something like that must be included in our recommendations. Let us move on to the next topic. I should like to stop on time. We have a little less than 20 minutes left. Obviously we are not going to get library training and man- power in, just as well take that in the morning. None of these things can happen without people. People are important and are at the core of the whole thing: I don't want to ~ slight that. On the other hand, I think if our recorder Mrs. 168 loo POSTS RY eR eRRRE Te tenn Shepard does her work well late tonight, everything will be in good, order for tomorrow. Let's devote a little time to preservation of books and records--Miss Robinson. MISS QOBINSON: May I just add two things to supple- ment what was said about the Institute of Jamaica. There are several important things in the Botany Department of the Institute of Jamaica I forgot to mention earlier, since scientific information on natural history seems to be a little short in the area. The Institute has in addition tc these microfilms special collection* which I mentioned. It owns 75,000 specimens from all over the West Indies, not just from Jamaica, but also from mainland countries around the Caribbean Sea. It lends these specimens to accredited institutions or researchers in other places. We also have two very importent botahfcal indices. DR. DIX: Thank you very much. All right, assuming everything we have talked about works, we have the books--some of the books that we need in some of these libraries and we have the bibliographic apparatus for making it known and machinery for getting them to the reader. We turn our attention now, briefly, to the problem of preservation of this material. If the fungus attacks it, it is no good eventually to anybody. Mr. Alden has special interest in this problem, and I have asked him to say a word at least about the importance of preserving the original material in answer to the microfilm people who want to film every- thing. This is one way, but there are some things that need to be preserved in their original format. Mr. Alden. MR. ALDEN: I am going to be brutally brief, perhaps brutally frank. To begin with, I hope: that all of you 106 149 in the process of collecting materials won't get discouraged just because of the difficulty in getting the things that you think you ) want. Librarians should have a certain amount of humility, I think. They should have the ability to envisage the needs of 50 years from now. If it is in print and you can get it, get it and don't say it isn't worth keeping. One of Mrs. Stephenson's impressive statements is that she goes to the printers. If it is in print, it is going to be sociologically and historically valuable, and it is not for us to make value judgements of this sort. May I remind you that the history of printing is a valid form of study and research inits own right. There are other fields of learning besides history, socio- logy, science and literature. There is also the history of transmission of human thoughts in its own right. Goine on to the technique of book preservation, actually the problem of the Caribbean is not really different from that of the J) rest of the world, there is 4 difference of degree. Everything is just a little more exaggerated in the Caribbean. So, it is imperative that all librarians know something about scientific techniques of book preservation that we have explored and which has been so well set forth in the past 30 years. Typical of the problem is what Mr. Wagner pointed out about the exhibit cases. The fluorescent tubes will perhaps destroy materials because of ultra-violet waves and the heat which the tubes in the cases give off is destructive to materials. That is just a typical example. I hope that Ann Richter will find someone to bring out a new retision of LIBRARY CARE OF BROOKS which will give you the guiding principles. I have brought down from Boston Plumbe's book on THE PRESERVA- 150 157 TION OF BOOKS IN TROPICAL AND SUB-TROPICAL COUNTRIES. 1 can't really recommend it, it is simply a series of expedients, solving one problem while ignoring aother. To have a research collection in the tropics these days and not to have air conditioning is a contradiction of terms. Air conditioning is absolutely essential. So much has been said of photocopying reproduction and Xerox here that I find it necessary to refer to an article on the subject of photo-reproduction and preservation in the LIBRARY JOURNAL for November 1, 1966. TI am afraid, in using photo-reproduction, librar- ians are frequently naive. Tt is very good to put a book, magazine or newspaper on microfilm but, let's face it, microfilm is no more permanent than a well-printed book on decent paper. It is a mistake to use the master negative as a reading copy, all reading should be t done from a print from the master negative and the master neg? *tve itself preserved in svecified conditions of temperature and humidity. We should be careful not to use rubber bands around master negatives. We forget there is sulphur in the master negative and this will des- troy it. We go on to talk about Xeroxing. Anyone who is experienced with Xeroxing of material knows that you can make direct Xeroxing of a book without damaging it. It is naive to think that making Xerox copies will serve as reproduction and preservation because, unless you use proper paper, your Xerox copy is going to fade. I will say that University Microfilms uses prints that have some life. As librarians we are humanists and too frequently ignore the Finding of scientists, but the time has come when people have to defer to the scientist to do their own job better, and to respect t scientists for their knowledge. " DR. DIX: Now, suppose we hear Mr. Hervieu's comments - 108 on this subject and discuss the two together. MR. HERVIEU: (Through interpreter) The title of the ~ paper is "The Conservation of Books and Documents in vhe Antilles". The conservation and preservation of books and documents in the Antilles demands more attention than in most other geographical areas in the world since one has to deal continually with the ef- fects of the tropical climate, hurricanes, and earthquakes. The prevention (i.e., conservation and preservation) and, if necessary, the cure (i.e., restoration) are the two tasks of the librarian or archivist in the Antilles. I will examine both aspects and will describe the method used in Guadeloupe for restoration. 1. Preservation. A. The matrix (composition of the written or printed document). It will not be necessary here to discuss papyrus and parchment which cannot be preserved in the Antilles unless exceptional precautions - are taken. The Archives in Guadeloupe include only two documents on parchment. Thus, only paper is of interest. Paper is basically made of cellulose obtained from various vegetable sources such as rags (linen, hemp, or cotton), tree bark, special grasses, Or wood (coni- fers or other trees such as the elm). The resistance of paper to aging varies with its composition; it has been shown that paper containing mostly cellulose (cellulose which is insoluble in a solution of 17.5% sodium hydroxide) is much more durable. A high humidity causes paper to hydrolize and to crumble. Thus, it is important to be able to control and lower the relative humidity; in other words, to air-condition. Moreover, the degree of acidity of paper affects its durability. Modern paper is by and large fairly acidic, which results in lower resistance to aging. 15? One should also worry about the acidity of the ink used. In the second part, the importance of acid neutralization in the restoration process shall be pointed out. RB. The enemies of books and documents: the destructive agents. Man is probably the most destructive agent but, in the Antilles, one is mostly concerned with the fight against humid heat and its direct consequences , insects, and mold. The humid and tropical climate of the Antilles which, in general, means temperatures higher than 72° F. and a relative humidity of more than 65% (sometimes reaching 95%), causes 4 physical and chemical deterioration of paper as 4 result of the hydrolysis of cellulose. In addition, one has to face a biological deterioration in the form of mold. Finally, paper is attacked by insects such as termites, silverfish, cockroacnes, and boring worms which, from my experience in Guadeloupe, seem to be more dangerous than termites. The best preventive measure against all these enemies, as is well known, is air conditioning which brings the temperature down to about 70° F. and the humidity down to 50%. Of course, the use of insecticides is also necessary, ethylene oxide in an autoclave is both insecticidal and fungicidal. I can offer two practical recipes for leather bound volumes: 1) Always use 4 glue containing an insecticide and 2) Maintain the leather with a special cream, Creme 212, manufactured in Paris. Other animals are also dangerous, such as rodents; but only when the archives are left untended for 4 long time. One shouldn't forget fire which, in the past, has certainly been the most destructive agent of books and documents, not only of itself but mostly by the water used to combat it. In Guadeloupe, the fire of 1955 in the Archive Department was not very destructive; but employees spent later nearly five years drying the documents. One should use dry chemicals against fire, such as sodium bicar- bonate and, as a preventive, metal shelves or treated wooden shelves. Finally, hurricane, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions have caused grave destructions in the Antilles, particularly in the French Antilles. Protection by architectural means will be used against the first two. 2. Restoration. Paper deteriorated by insects, humidity, mold or fire, if not renovated, must be at least protected against all future attacks. It must therefore be restored. There are various restoration processes, some classic and traditional, using a starch paste as adhensive to repair the damaged document and others more modern, involving plastics. However, paste is sensitive to humidity and, in general, plastics do not age well. This is why current methods used by librarians as well as archivists call for materials which have long proven their stability and innocuousness (i.e., cellulose acetate and tissue paper). There exist other well proven restoration processes but they are expensive; the best known is the Barrow process. Un- fortunately, it calls for equipment which is too expensive for the archives or libraries of the Antilles, where financial resources are generally limited. Only one method, the "Indian method", 154 161 which involves lamination at ambient temperatures and which was developed in India by M. Y.P. Kathpalia, appears to be suitable because of its low cost. Its usefulness was demonstrated by M. Kathpalia and M. Y. Perotin (see BULLETIN D' INFORMATION SUR LA PATHOLOGIE DES POCUMENTS ET LEUR PROTECTION AUX ARCHIVES DE FRANCE, no.1l, 1961, p.32-34). This method, as well as the former one by Barrow, assumes that the document to be restored has been previously neutralized. There are several neutralization methods; at the Archives of Guadeloupe, we use a sincle bath in a solution prepared by adding 40g. of magnesium carbonate per 20 litres of water (or one pound per 55 gallons) and through which carbon dioxide has been bubbled. After having heen bathed and dried, the documents are then sandwiched between two sheets of cellulose acetate and two sheets of tissue paper. The sandwich is then dipped in acetone bhrough an apparatus with rubber rollers powered by an electrical device. This process was developed in Paris at the Archives of the Department of Seine ("India 7"). The acetone dissolves the cellulose acetate which brings the document and the tissue paper in contact. Finally, all that remains is to place the restored document in a press be- tween two sheets of transparent paper. It should be noted that it is easy to restore books in this way since one many initially prepare sheets by uniting two pages in the same sandwich. DR. DIX: Thank you, Mr. Hervieu and Mr. Caron. I think we shall recess for the day, and I remind you all of our social engagement tonieht. 162 155 MARCH 19, 1969, 9 A.M. DR. DIX: I think we must get started. To reassure any of you that have plans to catch a plane and so forth, I pro- mise that we snall adjourn at twelve o'clock no matter what, give or take a few minutes. Today we will move right in to the one item left over vesterday: manpower and training. I hope that we can finish this by coffee break. Mr. Gocking, will you start right in? MR, GOCKINGY I was asked to be ready to speak about manpower and training in relation to libraries in the West Indies which I have interpreted to mean in the territories served by the University of the West Indies, and formerly grouped under the name of British West Indies. There is really no apt term to describe them as a group any longer and perhaps they are no longer a group in any proper sense of the word, which indeed is now a major consideration for them and for the University in their mutual relations. First, a word about terms. Terms can have very devious pro- perties, vou have just seen me stumble over one. Two others that I have been obliged to use cause me to stumble also, but for a dif- ferent reason: “manpower” and "training". Occasionally I use them both myself but recognizing and grudgingly acceding to defeat, particularly in the word ‘manpower’. After two centuries of indus- trial revolution, we have become habituated and unconsciously use the word “horsepower’ as an index for the amount of power man has been able to generate. Training is inseparable from manpower and vice versa. If man- power is to be a unit, input and output, it must be reasonably 156 163 EF TET Rhee Re ee constant at least in specific functions. Man must be trained to perform particular kinds of functions, up to predetermined and measurable standards satisfactory for the time being. There is much sense in this, and also something dangerous; because training cannot denote a system of securing 4 desired response by exerting a kind of force other than by winning consent and understanding. I do not think or believe, myself, that these two terms can be honestly dismissed as mere trickery OF personal idiosyncracies. The library can go no further. The library is essentially a human institution and it is impor nt that we speak in humane terms of the library and the kind of education librarians should have, that they be fit to render service. They continue to speak about the supply of librarians in the West Indies and of their professional education. I think you will understand me well enough. May I say here that, continuing in the context in which libraries are said to be, I have thought of tell- ing you if there had been time of something of the human efforts made in the British West Indies in the last 25 years, particularly to bring their libraries up to modern standards and even to “asst 4 very quick glance back to one hundred years ago to see where thev started, with what limitations. I think I might have to forego that. DR. DIX: Don't forego very much. MR, GOCKING: lL thought, too, it was quite a de- liberate and unusual opportunity for exchange of information. Perhaps it wouldn't come amiss if I very briefly--from my own personal knowledge, not documenting the paper--gave you historical 164 197 documents of libraries of the West Indies. This is where the man- power needs to be rooted in this area. The much criticized colonial system brought public libraries to the West Indies almost simultaneously with the libraries in England. The Barbados Library was established in 1847, and Trinidad Public Library in 1851. Libraries in Jamaica were founded about the same date and, during the second half of the 19th century, most of the islands in the Eastern Caribbean had their own little public libraries. Of course, they were not public libraries in the modern sense, but subscription libraries, very modest, sup~ ported from public funds. They existed frankly for small educated elites able and willing to pay them a modest subscription fee for the kind of service they provided. Their minute funds hardly sufficed for a limited number of fashionable magazines, and some novels and biographies and the like. Nevertheless, in the course of their existence, they managed somehow to gather certain bodies of local West Indian material, since becoming greatly valuable, although they took insufficient means to preserve them. They were staffed with only one person, often a poorly educated one in relation to modern education, thus a sort of janitor. On occasion, there was one better. They served a useful purpose through individual devotion and public spirit, and they 158 Seno ett eceecteageet tt Can et | ASD eT began to employ not only one person but two, sometimes three, even four. That is manpower. This state of affairs continued to the outbreak of World War Il, but about a decade before that, problems intervened. Unremarked at the time as usual, and in an unexpected guise, it took the form of a ghost or spirit» Andrew Carnegie, the great benefactor of libraries. You all know about benefactors in the United States and the United Kingdom; but there was also a Carnegie Corporation of New York, which was responsible for other parts of the British Empire which then existed. Somehow they got to hear about the West Indies and, very discreetly, got the Colonial Office in London to agree to their sending somebody to investigate the libraries in the area. It was Dr. Ernest Savage who departed on December 3lst, 1932, for the West Indies, and went through them very carefully and des- cribed the condition of the libraries. He wrote a report to the Carnegie Corporation which is a basic reference book for the British West Indian libraries. This report was given to the Library Association in London in 1934. It is called THE LIBRARIES OF BERMUDA, THE BAHAMAS, THE BRITISH WEST INDIES, BRITISH GUIANA, BRITISH HONDURAS, PUERTO RICO, AND THE AMERICAN VIRGIN ISLANDS: A REPORT TO THE CARNEGIE CORPORATION OF NEW YORK. After a great deal of difficulty the Carnegie Corporation sent $70,000 to put this scheme into effect. DR. DIX: Thank you very much, Sir. That was a very admirable summary and projection of needs. Will you go right ahead with your summary, Dr. DeRosa? 159 DR. DE ROSA: Puerto Rico, an island in the Carib- bean with an area of approximately 3,421 square miles and a popu- lation of 2,739,000 inhabitants is in an upsurge of social, intellectual and economic development. For this conference, our prime interest is the problem related to library services on the island. University and College Libraries. Our government and some private institutions are aware of the great demand for better institutional library services and the professional personnel needed to maintain them. The existing institutional library ser- vices may be classified in two groups: governmental and private. The governmental institutions--the University of Puerto Rico with its main campus in Rio Piedras, one campus in Mayaguez, and another in San Juan--had to organize three regional colleges, in Humacao, Arecibo and Cayey, each one with a well-organized library. Plans have been made to establish at least two additional regional colleges; their locations have not been decided as yet, but pro- bably one will be in the San Juan area and the other in the Ponce area. Among our private universities and colleges we can mention: Catholic University of Puerto Rico, with its main campus in Ponce and regional colleges in Bayamon, Arecibo, Aguadilla, Caguas, Guayama and Mayaguez; Sacred-Heart University College in Santurce; Inter-American University with its main campus in San German and branches in Hato Rey, Aguadilla, Arecibo, Bayamon, Cayey, Fajardo, Guayama, Barranquitas, Las Marias, Humacao, Ponce, Ramey Field (Aguadilla) and San Lorenzo; and the Puerto Rico Junior College in 4 Cupey, Rio Piedras with branches in Caguas and r{o Piedras. 167 te” As universities and colleges open and expand, the logical con- sequence is that libraries will have to strengthen their resources and personnel and that new libraries will have to be established. This has created and will continue to create a great demand for professional librarians, as well as non-professional personnel. There is no problem with the non-professional group as our univer- sities are graduating an average of 5,000 students annually. Of all university libraries, the largest one is the General Library of the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras campus. For that reason this is the place where the majority of professional librarians are working. They have faculty status and equal salaries. The number of professional librarians is more or less the same today as it was in 1961. On the other hand, the number of students cn the three campus’s has increased 59%, and 14 new graduate programs have been established. We have to consider also that just now we are expanding and remodelline our General Library in Rio Piedras, with the aid of federal funds and at a cost of $4 million. This project will triple the capacity of our stacks and seats as well as personnel. The Inter-American University in San German and the Catholic University in Ponce will have new library buildings in the near future. The Catholic University's library will cost about $1.3 million. They expect their building to be ready for next summer. The Inter-American University's library will cost between “— $2.5 million, the definite date for its opening is still unknown. In other words, the whole panorama of the university libraries system is one with great manpower needs, needs that ought to be fulfilled for the benefit of the whole library system and for the - 168 benefit of the whole library system and for the benefit of the edu- cational program of the island. | mal en School and Public Libraries. Mrs. de Cardona has already given you the statistical development of public and school library systems as administered by the Department of Public Instruction. ‘The requirements for certification for school librarians are these: experience as a school teacher for at least two years and accumulation of 15 credits in Library Science. With these qualifi- cations they obtain a certificate as school librarian. A high percentage of our schovl librarians have this certificate; few of them have the master's degree. Standards should be raised and incentives should be provided so as to encourage these persons to pursue advanced studies. If the Graduate School of Library Science at the University of Puerto Rico, rio Piedras campus, opens, this will be an excellent opportunity for those interested in contin- uing advanced studies. The development of public libraries has been more rapid than the school libraries, as we have already said. They have taken advantage of the financial federal aid to promote organization of libraries and strengthen their collections. The problem of personnel is the same as we find in the school library program. The highest percentage of non-professional librarians is foupde in these libraries. The only requisite to apply for a position in these libraries is to pass a test given by the Office of Personnel of Puerto Rico. Some of the categories of these non-professional ‘librarians require the bachelor's degree, but in other cases not. Standards and salaries should be raised also in the personnel of ) the public libraries so as to improve the services rendered. 169 1¢? School library recommendations: 1. The establishment of 50 school libraries per year. 2. The creation of 50 positions of school librarian per year for the next 12 years (to 1980). 3. The creation annually of 25 positions of school librarians'assistants. They will work cfcer the regular class periods until 9:30 P.M. Public libvary recommendations: 1. The establishment of 10 public libraries annualiy for the next four years. 2. The creation of 10 positions of library assistants annually until the pro- fessional persennel is avzilable. Besides these recommendations, the four years'program also provides for an annual increase of 6 libraries in public housing projects, 60 in rural libraries, 12 in special libraries, and, for : bookmobiles, one per year for 1969-70, 1970-71, 197172. The total recommendation of the different types of libraries is 138 for the first year and 139 for subsequent years. Spectal libraries: Cur next copic of discussion wili pe that de of special libraries. This type of library is scattered all over; we tind them in private commercial associations and organizations, such as banks, publishing firms, constfuction companies, government agencies, municipal, insular or federal, and professional or social associations and crganizations. As a general rule, althovgh there are exceptions, they are small libraries, specializing in certain subjects of interest, and usually iibrarians working in chem (in Puerto Rico) are non-professional. Salaries paid are too iow and they cannot compete with other libraries. Some of the government libraries are among the exceptions. They are in a much better position than the rest of the group. Their book collections are larger, they have more personnel; some have professionai librarians 163 170 and salaries are higher. One of the most important special government libraries is that of the Caribbean Economic Development Corporation, usually called CODECA from its Spanish name: Corporacion de Desarrollo Economico del Caribe. This library is well known among all those interested in the Caribbean region, for its valuable resources in Caribbean subjects for study and research. The library is under a profess- ional librarian, Mrs. Paulita Maldonado de la Torre, who was to have participated in this conference but for reason of illness is not with us. As most of you already know, we had the privilege of having Miss Enid Baa, Director of Libraries and Museums of the Department of Education, Virgin Islands of the United States, and one of the mem- bers of the .-nference planning committee, as director of CODECA's library, too. Both of them, Miss kaa and now Mrs. De la Torre, backed by Pan American Union, have worked hard in trying to estab- lish a Regional Bibliographic Center for the Caribbean in this library. This Center, if established, can be the answer to many of the problems of the Caribbean libraries and others. Other libraries worthy to be mentioned in this classification are the ones of the: Supreme Court, Economic Development Administra- tion, Government Development Bank, and Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico. Most of them are in great need of professional librarians and some need additional non-professional personnel. One of the main obstacles to cheir development is this need for trained professional librarians; but, before this can be solved, measures will have to be adopted to revise the salary scale provided by the government. Séiaries are too low and there are no incentives for the professional 1A4 ee wa group working in the libraries. Other private organizations or associations having outstand- ing special libraries are Colegio de Abogados de Puerto Rico, Associati6n Medica de Puerto Rico, Ateneo Puertorriquefio, and the daily newspaper, EL MUNDO. Training. One problem common to all of our libraries, as we have seen, is the lack of trained personnel. In Puerto Rico, per- sons interested in obtaining their professional degree usually go to the United States. Every year our Department of Education has been uable to find qualified available candidates to take generous scholarships offered for this purpose. The general outcry has been to try to establish a Graduate School of Library Science in our University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras campus. Universities and Colleges. The College of Education of the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras campus, has been giving for some years a program of 18 credit hour courses in Library Science, at the bachelor's level. Our Department of Education grants a certifi- cate of school librarian to teachers who have completed at least 15 hours of credit. The majority of our school librarians have this certificate, although there are a few with the master's degree. Besides what the University of Puerto Rico is doing on the Rio Piedras campus, the Mayaguez campus and some of the regional colleges are cooperating also in upgrading the status of school librarians. In the Regional College of Humacao, the basic courses for school librarians certificate have been given for eome years. Because of the lack of professional librarians this training was dis- continued. At present, these courses are given on the Mayaguez campus and in the Regional College of Arecibo. * The Mayaguez campus has also sponsored conferences, lectures and seminars. Just recently a small group of librarians had the opportunity to attend a seminar on automation. Automation is the key word for future library development. The Mayaguez campus has great plans on this subject and has taken the lead in it. Private universities and colleges share with the government university the task of preparing school librarians. The Catholic University in Ponce has a program of seven courses, with a total of 21 credits in Library Science. The personnel of this library also offer counseling on library matters to those interested in the subject. The Sacred Heart University College in Santurce, an institution at university level, gave during past years six courses in Library Science. The purpose was to prepare school librarians also. This program was discontinued last year. ) The Puerto Rico Junior College is very active in the training of librarians. It is a coeducational college and was the first of its kind to be established in the island and in the Caribbean area, in May, 1949, in Kio Piedras, Puerto Rico. It offers two different programs: one leads to an A.S. (Associate in Science) and the other is a three-year educational program by which the student can work as a teacher in the elementary schools, or as a school librarian. Students taking this last program can complete their bachelor's degree in education or study advanced courses in Library Science. The program for the Associate in Science is a two-year program, and it gives the student a well-rounded cultural background and also the specialized courses in Library Science. The curriculum pre- pares the student for positions as library assistants in public and ) private libraries. 16 173 Department of Education 6f Puerto Rico. The Library Services Division of the Department of Education has a special practical training program for public librarians before they start to work. As we have said before, they are non-professional librarians, most of them having the basic information needed to fulfill their duties. School librarians also have a special training before they take xharge of their libraries. By means of conferences, lectures, seminars and workshops they are trained in the different library techniques. It is a continuous educational program as library problems arise. General Library of the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus. To meet the demand for professional librarians, the General Library has been sending persons to the United States to study for their master's degrees. Usually they send two non-professionals, members of their staff, and the University of Puerto Rico gives them scholarships. This program has been in effect for many years and the great majority of our present professionals have benefited from this program. The other campuses of the University of Puerto Rico have similar programs. Our Library has also sent members of their personnel to attend special seminars in the United States and other countries, especial- ly those seminars related to automation. At present we are not mechanized but we are Studying the whole situation and making plans, especially for ordering, circulation and cataloguing. In a preliminary step for our Graduate School of Library Service, the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras campus, started in January, 1968, to give some courses in Library Science at the graduate level. This was made possible by arrangements between our 167 1744 Director of Libraries, Miss Josefina del Toro, and the Graduate Library School of the University of the State of New York at Albany, New York. This made it possible for two visiting professors from Albany to come to our University to give the courses. This program was continued with great success during the summer of 1968. Institute of Library Science. An initial step to the creation of this school was the organization of an Institute in Library Science for 25 participants, in late August. A proposal was sub- mitted to the U.S. Office of Education, recommending to offer an festitute in Library Science at a graduate level, to 25 participants. The proposal, with a total budget of $211,358, was approved. The program started in August, 1968, and will be finished in July, 1969. Each participant receives $75. weekly plus $15. for each dependent, if any. The regulations for this Institute are the same as for other accredited library schools. The Institute requires a program of 36 advanced credit hours. Of these, 30 must be in post-graduate courses in Library Science and the other six electives, which will supplement the subject specialization of the student. Participants of the Institute have had the privilege of having as lecturers distinguished personalities in the library field. To give you an idea of the lecturers and the subjects discussed, we will include a list.of the lecturers that have been or will be speaking: October 30, 1968 - Library Problems of Multi-Campus Universi- _ ties, by Dr. Michael Reynolds, formerly Director of the Regional Campus Libraries, University of Indiana. December 2, 1968 - Professional Status of Librarians, by Dr. Robert B. Downs, Dean of Library Administration, University of Illinois. 168 179 Januar, 16, 1969 - University Libraries of Latin America, by Professor William V. Jackson, Library School, University of Pittsburgh. February 19, 1969 - International Aspects of Librarianship, by Dean Nasser Sharify, Pratt Institute, ¢hool of Librarianship (formerly Head of Office of International Librarianship, State University of New York). March 16, 1969 - Education for Librarianship in the United States, by Dr. Lester E. Asheim, Directci, Office for Library Education, American Library Association. March 19, 1969 - Library Developments in Federal City College, Washington, D.C., by Director Robert T. Jordan, Office of Media Services, Federal City College. April , 1969 - Mrs. Marietta Daniels Shepard, Associate Librarian, Pan American Union. The Institute is under the able leadership of Dr. Thomas E. Benner, ex-“hancellor of our University and now assistant to the President the University of Puerto Rico, Dr. Jaime Benitez. Participants of the Institute will get a certificate accredit- ing the graduate studies they have done in Library Science. Eventually, when the Craduate School of Library Service is estab- lished, these certificates will be considered for confirmation as an equivalent to aster's degree. Sociedad de Bibliotecarios. The Sociedad de Bibliotecarios de Puerto Rico, organized in 1961 by a group of enthusiastic librarians, adopted as one of its main objectives, to promote the establishment of a Graduate School of Library Services. Recently--March 7 and 8, to be exact--we had our annual convention. We had the privilege to have with us our Honorable Governor, Mr. Luis A. Ferre, and our Secretary of Education, Dr. Ramon Mellado. In their messages their interest in the promotion of libraries was received with great en- thusiasm and pride by the members. 16° 176 The Soci: ty's activities and attainments for such a short period of existence are surprising. Besides promoting the estab- lishment of a Graduate Library School, the Society has sponsored conferences, workshops, brief talks and lectures; it was responsible for the study made by Miss Mary Gaver of Rutgers University, and ex- President of the American Library Association, and Mr. Gonzalo Velazquez, Director of the Library Services Division of the Depart- ment of Education on "School Libraries of Puerto Rico’. It is re- sponsible also for organising a very active committee for the betterment of libraries in Puerto Rico, for creating a fund for scholarships for graduate studies in Library Science, and for pub- lishing a Bulletin (although its appearance is irregular). It prepared and published a guide to the libraries of Puerto Rico; it has revised =..ary scales and position classification schemes for the Departmen. of Education and the Puerto Ricc Junior College, and it has promoted library legislation, among other things. The Graduate School of Library Service. The establishment of a Graduate Library School in Puerto Rico has been promoted by several worthy friends of the cause. Among them we should like to mention the valuable help that Pan American Union, especially Mrs. Marietta Daniels Shepard, has given to the organization of the school. Also we can mention the untiring help of Dr. Thomas E. Benner, who never knows the words "no" or "impossible'; Dr. Robert Burgess of the State University of New York, for his valuable work as advisor, and equally important, our Director of Libraries, Miss Josefina del Toro, who has worked really hard on this project. The proposal for the establishment of the Graduate School of Library SerWice has been presented to the University's authorities. 170 ave Although there is not a definite acceptance of it as yet, plans have been made to open the School by August, 1969. Right now, applica- tions for admission are being accepted. Without too much advertise- ment, already we have received applications from as far away as Ecuador and India. I have brought some of these forms; if anyone is interested in having one, please see me after the meeting. The basic requirements for admission are: 1) a bachelor's de- gree in arts or science, 2) a minimum average of 2.5 (scale A-4,B-3, C-2,D-1,F-0) and 3) to have demonstrated an interest and capacity for library work. Candidates must be able to understand and read the Fnglish and Spanish languages. Classes will be given in Spanish, but most of the textbooks to be used are in the English language. In our University, the language of instruction is Spanish, as our first la:« age is Spanish. But also we have to understand and read the Engissh language. Many of our faculty members are English- speaking, and most textbooks used are in the English language. Some courses are given in the English language; it all depends on the language mastered by the professor, and if students all speak and understand the same language. Regulations are flexible in this respect. It will not be possible for our Graduate School of Library Service to put into effect this plan as there are limitations of teaching personnel in the beginning. The School's faculty will be two full-time professors and the Director, who will have a part-time teaching job. In the future the staff will be increased. The School will be located in a new annex that has been built adjoining the General Library of the University of Puerto Rico, rfo Piedras campus. DR. DIX: Thank you. Miss Baa. 171 178 MISS BAA: In regard to manpower and professional training in the Virgin Islands, when we consider the personnel shortage on the continent, I figure that we are very fortunate here in the Virgin Islands. First, because of the climate and people who like to come to this climate to work, we can get the benefit of many librarians who come from the United States to re- side here. So, with a population of 64,000 more or less, and a school population of some 13,000 or 14,000, we find that we have a surprising number of trained librarians, and one in each of the school libraries. In the public libraries we have already five or six trained librarians which I think is an exceedingly good pro- portion. Per!:*s we also have potential for additional trained librarian »>ecause I have a number of applications from mainland librarians who are very anxious to come here even before they have completed Library School. DR. DIX: This is a good point that occurred to me. As I see it, up in the cold climates where some of us live, we see people paying enormous amounts of money to enjoy their vacations in this beautiful area. You have something working for you there. MISS BAA: That is one reason, and the other is that our salary scale for librarians is practically on the same standard with national scales. DR. DIX: I think we perhaps better take our break here. Now, Mrs. Shepard, I know, will have something later on specific recommendations, a summary on this library training and 172 "9 manpower situation. So, let us take one moment for our coffee break and come back and address ourselves to this summary. (AFTER COFFEE BREAK) May we come to order, please. Now we come to the heart of the matter, the moment of truth when we find out what we have said. Let me put what we are and what we are about to do in the proper context. This body, of course, has no status. It is an ad hoc group, it wasn't convened to make recommendations to anyone. On the other hand, some record of the matters is very much worth reporting and passing on to the appropriate people that should receive it. I'll ask Mrs. Shepard to read these conclusions and I'11 ask each of you to interrupt to ask to speak if you think some different interpretation should be put upon what was said re, any amendments or additions, and when we get all through, * will simply attempt to find out if the group as a whole is prepared to say we agree on these points. That seems like a fair ground rule. MRS. SHEPARD: I would think it might be well for youyou to jot down any modification that you consider should be incorporated into a final set of these resolutions as far as wording or contents is concerned. Also, I am suggesting that you let me know if you want to receive information on SALALM. I have no pride of authorship so, if I have misconstrued what some of you have said, I hope you will let me know. si 180 1. That each institution in the Caribbean strive to maintain 4 maximum of self-sufficiency in library resources in accordance with the purpose of each institution, that it give special attention to the collection of local materials, and that it share its resources with other institutions and their users by engaging in cooperative projects aimed at making maximum use of existing resources and by providing inter-library loan service. 2. That the benefits of modern technology and automation be utilized to the fullest degree which is feasible to bring thei? holdings vi libraries and archives into a better state of organiza- tion, preservation and utilization. 3. That efforts be made locally to get the support of law- makers for the passage of legal deposit laws wherever necessary, and for the deposit of official publications in key libraries of the region and elsewhere; that improved programs be put into effect for the international exchange of publications as well, and for national and local planning for improved library services; and that libraries cited for legal deposit make increased efforts to achieve enforcement of such laws as well as current bibliographies of such materials. 4. (a) That renewed efforts be made to carry out the recom~ mendations of the 1967 conference on the Pilot Bibliographical Center for the Caribbean, so as to assure the continuance of the Caribbean Regional Library to serve that function and to coordinate cooperative library and bibliographic attivities;(b) to experiment with and assess the results of automation in the regular and up-to- date production of the CURRENT CARIBBEAN BIBLIOGRAPHY (CCB) in machine-readable form for publication and for the preparation of 174 181 specialized and national listings of data stored; (c) to train librarians for regional cooperative programs of locating, record- ing, and cataloging local materials for inclusion in the CCB; and to provide photocopying services for Caribbean current and retro- spective materials. 5. That funding agencies be encouraged to provide adequate financial support for bibliographic projects and other cooperative activities in the Caribbean to make maximum use of available re- sources. 6. That recognition be civen to the Government of Puerto Rico and to CODECA for their support of the Caribbean Regional Library for study and research purposes, and that hope be expressed that it extend its financial support for the purposes for which the library w-s entrusted to Puerto Rico. 7. That steps be taken to initiate the Pilot Acquisitions Project restricted to the area of the English-speaking Caribbean, as proposed at the 1967 conference. 8. That the means be sought to carry out a new survey of library and archival resources of the region, whether public or pri- vate, business, ecclesiastical, family, personal or other types, which would seek. not only usual directory information but data on special collections and special tvpes of materials such as archival documents. manuscripts, theses, microfilm and other types of reproduced materials, seria] holdings, newspaper clippings, local materials, special reports, old maps and prints, drawings and sur- veys, phctographs, autographs, incunabula and rare books; and identify the areas of specialization of each institution. 17 182 9, That the SALALM Committee on Acquisitions add to its list in progress of second-hand bookdealers the names of booksellers in the Caribltean and elsewhere handling both current and retrospective materials. 10. That librarians and scholars unite to prepare guides to the location of Caribbean materials in repositories of the region and elsewhere, to comnlement the guides to archival materials in Furope and North America, and that the Pan American Institute of Geography and Historv be invited to give special attention to the Caribbean area. ll. That the conclusions of the forthcoming conference on public libraries sponsored bv CODFECA and the Virgin Tslands Public Library, and the Conference of University and Research Librarians to he held in Mav/June, and the pre-SALALM meeting of Caribbean librarians in June be transmitted to the participants of this conference. 12. That academic librarians of the rerion make their needs as well as their activities known in such conferences as the recent meeting of Fectors of Caribbean Universities, so as to achieve increased status and support for library services. 13. That librarians collaborate in the creation of local and regional] union catalogues of holdings of libraries in the Carib- bean area «o facilitate inter-library loan or photoreproduction of materials needed for research, and that attention be civen to the subject as wel] as author approach to the materials. 14, ‘hat wherever possible centralized cataloging services be provide! by kev Libraries in the aribbean as a means of over- coming the cataloguing manpower shoriage and of increasing the "6 183 efficiency of the Saiceilaiae involved, as well as achieving an increased standardization of cataloguing information. 15. That Caribbean librarians cooperate in drawing up various kinds of lists, such as a list of the principal subject fields of interest to them, such as slavery and emancipation, interracial] relations, plantatior life and problems. tropical agriculture, oceanography, fishing and other regional industries, political parties, trade unions, tourist trade, and similar topics. 16. That librarians in the Caribbean area cooperate with the SALALM Coi.mittee on Acquisitions to compile a list of regular library accessions of local materials and those of the Caribbean region to supplement current bibliographies of the region. 17. That fundine agencies be encouraged to provide adequate funds to assure the continuance and expansion of the CURRENT CARIBBEAN BIBLIOGRAPHY in machine-readable format as well as in printed form and to permit the Caribbean Regional Library at CODECA to continue to experiment with automation so that its re- sults may be useful in similar projects in other areas of Latin America. 18. That the inlividuals anc institutions compiling biblio- graphies of the Caribbean area on a regular basis be commended for their work and requested to keep them as up-to-date as possible, current and comprehensive. 19. That Caribbean libraries seek to achieve better relations with commercial and institutional publishers of the area so as to improve local collections of local materials and to provide biblio- graphic information as well as copies of local material in original or reproduced form for other libraries and regional centers. 184 177 20. That Caribbean librarians collaborate with the SALALM committees and sub-committees in identifying collections of nonbook materials such as newspaper collections, card and manuscript indices to them and to such materials as parlianrentary records, as well as unpublished bibliographies in card and manuscript form of interest to the region. 21. That recognition be given to the St. Thomas Public Library in the publication of its MICROFIL“ CATALOGUE, that other libraries be encouraged to follow its example and that the support of all libraries be given to this institution in its willingness to serve as a promotional and training center for cooperative and local microfilm activities and to keep up-to-date and disseminate infor- mation on photographic facilities of the Caribbean for copying purposes; and that Caribbean librarians and technicians take ad- vantage of the technological services offered by Virgin Islands libraries in building their respective services for a) microfilm processing, b) consultative technical services, c) training in microtechnology and other photographic services. 22. That the national and other archives of metropolitan countries of Europe consider presenting to their former colonies in the Caribbean microfilm copies of documents relating to the history of former colonies, in accordance with the recommendation of the 1968 International Conference on Archives. 23. That the Oeganization of American States be commended for its agreement to collaborate with the Government of Spain in com- pleting the cataloguing of the Archives of the Indies in Seville and the publication of the record of its holdings, as well as for its plan for archival development as part of the new regional cultural development program of the OAS to parallel the present 178 180 J? oo - —— renee ce PETE RE AEE EET LEST LALIT ILL EE LOL, LOTT LRG EON TT OE NE Library Develonment Program. 24. That librarians and archivists of the area be alerted to the potential value of personal archives and notes of scholars and to the wealth of information to be found in unpublished research projects, and that they seek to absorb such materials into their collections. 25. That the Library of Congress be encouraged to include in its MARC II tapes bibliographic information on materials in Spanish and Portuguese emanating from Latin America, Spain and the Caribbean; to accept the collaboration of Caribbean libraries in providing bibliographic information from the region; and to cooperate with the French Documentation Center at Bordeaux so that its French Caribbean materials may also be reflected in the Library of Congress MARC II tapes. 26. That materials in special need of attention be identified in the Caribbean area in a cooperative effort of the librarians and archivists, and that the services of such commercial enterprises as University Microfilms and G.K. Hall be invited to copy uniaue library and archival collections for the purposes of preservation and of making more widely available their contents. 27. That libraries of academic and research institutions develop oral history collections to take advantage of personel recollections such as the tapes being made of former slaves, now centenarians, by the University of Guyana. 28. That authors, publishers, librarians and educators give special attention to the need for locally based educational and library materials for school and litrary purposes in the region, ee as well as for materials useful for the study of the Caribbean in the United States and elsewhere. 29. That all modern communications media such as Telex be utilized to the fullest to speed up the request for and dissemina- tion of bibliographic information both for bibliographic compila- tion and for inter-library loan purposes. | 30. That in the construction of new buildings for archives and libraries special attention be paid to the need for the installation of air conditioning for the preservation of hooks, documents, and other library and archival materials. 31. That librarians of the Caribbean area strive to develop a plan of cooperative acquisitions on which to hase further cooperative efforts. 32. That librarians of the Caribbean area strive to collect comprehensivelv all local materials without regard to the con- sideration of value judgments as to the intrinsic value of each item. 33. That a more consistent cffort be made to seek informa- tion concerning the collection of Caribbean materials in libraries of the United States, Europe, and elsewhere. 34. That, for the satisfaction of professional manpower needs, fervent hope be expressed for the success of new pro- fessional library schools in the Pritish West Indies and Puerto Rico and that attention be paid to the training of paraprcefessional technicians and assistants required. DR. DIX: Are there any other things’? I note that President Wanlass has just come into the room. I would like him to be present when another, different resolution is presented. 187 Can you take a minute or two--1 think he wants to say a word of farewell. The chair now recognizes Mr. Gocking. MR. GOCKING: This resolution is one which I am sure we will all join with no dissenting voices. Don't be alarmed. It is one of thanks to our hosts, the people who called us together, the College of the Virgin Islands, and who have done so splendidly and given us the opportunity to meet with each other once more. The generosity with which this has been done, the care given to it, and the different facilities provided, we do not know how to properly express our thanks, our very deep gratitude for such a job performed so splendidly. I speak on behalf of all present here and say to him and to his subordinates our very deep sincere thanks, our very warm thanks for your kindness. DR. DIX: I am sure that resolution is accepted by acclaimation. President Wanlass. PRES. WANLASS: We don't suppose to rival in the qual- ity of our farewell, but we do say-~and I am speaking for all Virgin Islands residents, I think--that the people who go from the Virgin Islands always come back and, as you think about your few days here, I think vou should ptan another return, another visit, another meet- ing. Certainly there is a sense of welcome as you go and [ am asking you to come back. It is that welcome of return which is part of what I want to leave with you. In addition, I want to express my thanks to the committee that was responsible for the meeting and I won't mention them by name, but they will know. You see, the President really does very little and what is important to be done, and has been done, has been entrusted to an important group of people. They know I am thankful and ex- press the thanks of all of vou to them as well. Cc) Pr tole — Daal el 2. MeDONALD: T am not accustomed to having the last word, if indeed it turns out that J do. But I must thank all of you for your willineness to come long distances and to gather here,for your thoughts and efforts informing us all about your library, your problems and your interests. To those of you that prepared papers, our great thanks. ‘“hether vou got to deliver them in full or not, be assured that I want them so they can be made a part of the record of the conference. Thanks has been expressed to members of the commit- tee for their effort. I would like to repeat that, to thank Ernest Wagener for his help and service; Miss Baa has rendered tremendous service, “irs. Shepard, and all. I want finally to express my great appreciation and sense of indebtedness to Bil] Dix for chairing this conference so masterfully. JI promised you at the beginning vou will feel that we had chosen the right man for the job, I am sure you Can all agree with me that we did just that. Thank you. PR, DIX: It is the prerogative of the chair to have the last word. Let me make a personal observation of how much I am impressed by what is going on here, and by the energy and foresight of this College in initiating this conference. It seems to me the benefits of a conference of this sort rests only in small part in its series of recommendations; in a large part, it is the sense of people getting together, as people sharing their common experiences and needs. I think we have made one more step on a fairly long ladder. It has gone on, it will go on into the future. I am im- pressed by the quality of librarians in this area, the way in which you are aware of the needs and have been working for them. So with that note, I declare this conference adjourned.