Dr. Sommer’s keynote address served to introduce and contextualize the three-hour “Pre-texts” workshop that she [...]]]> SALALM 57 Keynote Address
Presenter:   Professor Doris Sommer (Harvard University)
Moderator:     Lynn Shirey, Harvard University
Rapporteur:   Sarah A. Buck Kachaluba, Florida State University
June 18, 2012 9:00am-9:45 am (this started later than was originally scheduled)

Dr. Sommer’s keynote address served to introduce and contextualize the three-hour “Pre-texts” workshop that she facilitated.  Pre-texts (http://pre-texts.org/), she explained, introduces literature to students of all ages as “recycled material,” and encourages all workshop participants to own pre-existing literature and ideas and author new ones, thereby fostering literacy and civic engagement by promoting the role of Arts and Humanities education – including the study of literature – in cultural and social organization and development.

Sommer began by explaining that she came to her “Pre-texts” workshop as an academic, through her disappointment at watching her best graduate students leave literary studies in the Humanities to go into more “useful” fields such as law, public health, and government.  After reminding the audience about the classical relationship between civic responsibility, arts, and education, she also credited two undergraduates with shaming and charming her into working to revive this relationship through academic and civic work.  These students had created an NGO to organize after-school arts-workshops for girls in India, keeping girls in school by requiring them to attend school in order to stay in the workshops.  Pre-texts, she argued, similarly engages children, their parents, and their grandparents with the Arts and literature, “recycling” literature into new works of art (literary, visual or performance) in order to examine and find new solutions to social problems.  One example of how such workshops have translated into civic action is when children participating in Pre-text workshops acted out the stages of AIDS in preparation to talk to officials about public health needs.  Sommers also pointed to cartonera projects as an example of how literature can be literally recycled into new forms of art and used as a springboard for civic engagement.

Literacy, Sommers argued, is critical to civic engagement, as literacy levels serve as an indicator of wealth, violence and crime, and health throughout the world.  Pre-texts teaches this in theory and practice.  It similarly illustrates practical applications of other theoretical concepts.  As Sommer articulated, participants have “learned more literary theory than she ever thought possible by doing arts and crafts.”  One reason for this is the core concept that literature is recycled material.

In the question and answer session, David Block (University of Texas Austin) thanked Lynn Shirey for bringing Dr. Sommers to SALALM.

Adán Griego (Stanford University) asked what Dr. Sommers would say to the criticism that cartonera projects, which began with noble beginnings, have become rather chic.  Sommers responded that as an academic, she would say this is a problem as something loses its edginess and productiveness as it becomes popularized.  However, as a cultural agent, she would ask: what we can do to refresh the cartoneras project?

Peter Johnson (Princeton University) asked how Sommers mixes generations in a workshop and how we can use the workshop process to cut across social and class lines.  Sommers answered that she could not model this at SALALM but that everyone can cut and paste and everyone can be human statues to model a literary figure.  She explained that workshops host parent and grandparent nights and authorize children to facilitate them.  She also described a workshop project done with Boston public school teachers, called “grandmother tells a story” in which the teachers have students in ELL families go to their grandparents with stories, have the grandparents help them to translate the stories and then ask the grandparents for new stories to bring back to school (which validates diverse languages and traditions).

Suzanne Schadl (University of New Mexico) asked Sommers to talk more about ownership; how students become authors and owners of something they had not realized they were invested in.  Sommers replied that the first thing to do is read the text and ask questions of it, which authorizes/makes the reader an expert.  This departs from the conventional classroom in which the teacher asks a reading comprehension question, putting the student on the defensive and discouraging creative thinking.

Inicialmente, queremos agradecer a la ahora ex-presidente de SALALM, Lynn Shirey, por su dedicación en la organización de la conferencia y especialmente, por su interés en conocer y cumplir con la necesidades de los libreros.

En la reunión de este año, los asistentes discutimos cinco principales tópicos que se resumen en las [...]]]> English below.

Inicialmente, queremos agradecer a la ahora ex-presidente de SALALM, Lynn Shirey, por su dedicación en la organización de la conferencia y especialmente, por su interés en conocer y cumplir con la necesidades de los libreros.

En la reunión de este año, los asistentes discutimos cinco principales tópicos que se resumen en las siguientes propuestas:

- La primera en relación al propósito del seminario de ser una instancia de encuentro entre libreros y bibliotecarios. Mucho agradeceríamos que se programaran más espacios de tiempo entre los paneles, en que los participantes de la conferencia puedan visitar la Exhibición o agendar citas con proveedores. Idealmente, éstos serían después de los coffee breaks.

-         Acerca de la organización local: sugerimos – cuando sea posible- que la Exhibición se ubique cerca de los salones de los paneles. También, que las Bookdealers’ Consultations – si permanecen programadas previamente a la apertura del Book Exhibits – se puedan llevar a cabo en ese mismo salón, para así asegurar un espacio cómodo y disponible para todos.

-         El tercer tema es el interés manifestado por una posible Pre-Conferencia en Miami, 2013. Los libreros están interesados en la posibilidad de obtener una vista general de la transición hacia las RDA, una introducción a las herramientas de catalogación y recursos disponibles online, herramientas para encabezamientos de materias  y sistemas de código abierto. Intereses que fueron recogidos por John Wright, Ellen Jaramillo y Stephanie Miles – a quienes agradecemos por su iniciativa y trabajo – en el Libreros’ Workshop de este año.

- Sobre los Coffee Breaks: tomado en consideración las restricciones financieras que todos hemos experimentado de algún modo, en los últimos años. Los libreros consideramos que no podemos continuar patrocinándolos ya que son un costo sustancial a financiar en adición a la exhibición, conferencia, recepción y gastos de viaje.

- Finalmente, sobre la Fiesta de Libreros: al igual que el año anterior, expresamos nuestra intención de continuar llevándola a cabo a pesar de los crecientes costos y la disminución en los aportes recaudados por parte de los libreros. El acuerdo común es simplificarla, retornándola a sus orígenes.

Alejandra Cordero Berenguer
HBBooks H. Berenguer Publicaciones Chilenas

Library/Bookdealer/Publisher Relations

First of all, we want to thank our now past president, Lynn Shirey, for all her dedication in organizing this conference and especially for her interest in learning and fulfilling the bookdealers’ needs.

In this year’s Committee meeting, the libreros discussed five main subjects that led to the following proposals:

• The first one is in relation to the Seminar’s purpose of being: an annual encounter between librarians and book dealers. We would greatly appreciate the scheduling of more time in between panels, in which the attendees of the conference may visit the Book Exhibits or plan consultations. Ideally, they would be programmed after the coffee breaks.

• With respect to local arrangements: we would like to suggest, when possible, that the exhibit be held near the panels. Also, that the bookdealers’ consultations – if they remain in schedule before the opening of the Book Exhibits – may take place in the exhibition venue in order to make sure that there will be comfortable space for all who attend.

• The third subject is the interest in the possible pre-conference to take place in Miami. The libreros are interested in the chance to obtain: a general view of the transition to RDA; an introduction to the cataloging tools and resources available online; web tools for subject headings; and open source systems. All of the ideas collected by John Wright, Ellen Jaramillo and Stephanie Miles – to whom we thank for their work and initiative – in this year’s Libreros’ Workshop.

• Coffee Breaks: Taking into account the financial strains we all have experienced in some way in the last few years, bookdealers consider that we may no longer sponsor them, as they are a substantial cost to finance in addition to the exhibit, conference registration, reception and travel expenses.

• And finally, about the Libreros’ Reception: last year, we expressed our intention to continue hosting it despite the rising costs of having this event and the decreasing monetary contribution of exhibitors. The common agreement is to simplify the reception, returning it to its beginnings.

Alejandra Cordero Berenguer
HBBooks H. Berenguer Publicaciones Chilenas

The year 2012 ended with the energizing news of Roberto Delgadillo’s winning the “I Love My Librarian Award.” We were also happy with the comforting fact that the world did not end on Friday, Dec. 21st, 2012, after all.  What a wonderful irony! This  eschatological belief of the Mayas has preceded the occurrence [...]]]> Presidential Message

The year 2012 ended with the energizing news of Roberto Delgadillo’s winning the “I Love My Librarian Award.” We were also happy with the comforting fact that the world did not end on Friday, Dec. 21^st, 2012, after all.  What a wonderful irony! This  eschatological belief of the Mayas has preceded the occurrence of this conference as we are engaged in our pursuit of the nature and role of the indigenous peoples thought and action towards the improvement of the global human condition in the postmodern world.

As the year 2013 started, I have been pleased by the wonderful reception of the 58^th Conference among both members and non-members of SALALM. I have received interesting proposals for presentations, panels, workshops and roundtables. Thus, I feel confident that we will have a vibrant and exciting conference.

In the meantime, the challenges of organizing the conference are becoming more evident. One of them is finding resources to facilitate the attendance of diverse groups of participants from Latin American countries. The cost of traveling to Miami to participate in SALALM is often beyond the personal and/or institutional means for many of our Latin American colleagues. As such, we are exploring ways to encourage individual and institutional donations to support the conference.

This year we are going to re-institute the No-Host Thematic/Topical Meals: A SALALM initiative for collegial community-building.  This great idea, suggested by Peter Johnson, will not only allow us to reach new participants but, more importantly, will enable us to share knowledge. This is also a good idea for networking. The abundance of  restaurants near the beautiful Westin Colonnade Hotel at Coral Gables will contribute to making this meal-related initiative very appetizing.

Peter Johnson kindly agreed to write the rationale behind this initiative plus the guidelines for its implementation.  I am cordially inviting all of you to read the information below and seriously consider submitting a proposal to lead a discussion table in a No-Host Meal.

Warm regards to all,

Martha Mantilla
University of Pittsburgh

Guidelines for Topical Meals – A SALALM Community-building Initiative

One of the most important functions that SALALM provides is that of building personal and institutional networks that form a strong community to meet the challenges involved with assisting scholars and students conducting research on Latin America. SALALM consists of many different types of communities as demonstrated by the work of its various committees, the content of its annual conferences, the hosting of affiliated groups, and the queries posted and resolved on LALA-L. Since its founding in 1956, SALALM has responded to the many changes occurring in Latin America and influencing research, and throughout all these years a critical factor has been the strength of the individual and collective networks formed by individual SALALM members.

SALALM LVIII expects many members to participate, and anticipates welcoming a good number of new members and student members. We hope to facilitate the community building between these two groups by re-instituting the program option of small group discussions around a focused topic during a meal. The centrality of food to community is well known, and so too is discussion and learning; SALALM LVIII proposes to combine both aspects for our conference attendees.

The no-host meal consists of a speaker along with five individuals (who have signed up in advance). The leader selects the restaurant and makes the reservation; those participating meet at the indicated time and place to go together to the restaurant. Each participant is responsible for his/her meal costs, including taxes and tip. Often restaurants automatically add the tip for groups of six or more; the menu will indicate that, as will the final bill. Because many restaurants will not issue individual bills for groups, participants should come prepared with cash.

By limiting the discussion to six people, a more focused and rewarding time is feasible. Participation by Libreros, bibliographers, publishers, catalogers, reference specialists, and scholars in the past made these meals an important additional learning experience, and opportunity to meet new people. Topics included publishing under dictatorships, acquisition of non-traditional publications, buying trips, cataloging rule changes, teaching research skills, new trends in archives, and disaster planning.

If you would like to participate as a leader, please send a title and three – five line description of the topic to President Martha Mantilla martham@pitt.edu.

Discussions may be in English, Portuguese, Spanish or any combination thereof.

1. Proposals to lead a discussion table should include the following points:

• Brief title that clearly identifies the subject matter
• Descriptive text of what the substance is, in 3 – 5 sentences
• Brief biographical statement referencing qualifications to speak about the topic, in 1 – 3 sentences

2. Proposals can be on any topic germane to the interests of SALALM

3.  Proposals should be sent by e-mail to the President by 1 March for consideration to include in the conference program

4.   Proposals accepted, and discussion leaders notified on or before 15 April

5.   Confirmation of acceptance by the discussion leader sent to the President within 1 week of receiving the notification

6.   President provides the SALALAM Host Institutions with all relevant information to be included in the conference program

Discussion leader’s responsibilities

1.  Prepare a single paragraph descriptive synthesis of the key points

2.  Submit this text to the President and LALA-L, subject line: No-host Meal Discussion: your topic’s title

3.  Check the conference program for your assigned day and time

4.  Select a restaurant from the Host’s list and make a reservation for 6

5.  On the posted sign-up sheets and/or the conference website, note the restaurant name and address

6.  Meet at the sign-up sheet board 15 minutes before the assigned time

7.  Evaluation:  send the President a short e-mail with your assessment

Present: David Block, Hortensia Calvo, Cecilia Sercan, Rafael E. Tarragó (Chair), John Wright

Rafael opened the meeting and addressed the first item in the agenda, a recommendation made by Ana Maria Cobos in the name of the Nominating Committee to the effect that Article III Section [...]]]> SALALM LVII
Sunday June 16, 2012 8-9am

Present: David Block, Hortensia Calvo, Cecilia Sercan, Rafael E. Tarragó (Chair), John Wright

Rafael opened the meeting and addressed the first item in the agenda, a recommendation made by Ana Maria Cobos in the name of the Nominating Committee to the effect that Article III Section 1a and 1b of the present Constitution of SALALM be changed to express the adoption of e-ballots for SALALM elections. The members present agreed to introduce wording equivalent to that proposed by Ana Maria Cobos in the section on elections of the new chart of the SALALM.

The next item in the agenda was the SALALM Mission Statement. The draft for a Bylaws of SALALM drafted by Jane Garner and now being revised by the Committee includes a SALALM Mission Statement. David Block proposed the statement, “SALALM’s mission is to provide information resources that support research and teaching on Latin America and the Caribbean,” and the committee members present accepted it.

During the revision of the new Bylaws of SALALM some members of the committee sent their comments on articles after their revision had been made. Rather than going back, we moved ahead, but with the intention of revisiting those articles. The members present revisited the revisions of three articles. In Article II Section 2 and Section 3, David suggested that reference to the Western Hemisphere and to “inter-American studies” be deleted, because that terminology is no longer in use. Those members present agreed to make those changes. In Article III Section 2a (Personal Members), Rafael proposed the addition of Paraprofessional Members, because the addition of this type of personal membership was agreed by the Executive Board at the 2002 conference, and those members present agreed to the addition of  Paraprofessional Members category, and to its being described as “Paraprofessional Members shall be those engaged in librarian tasks without the title of librarian.” Rafael also proposed that in Article III Section 2c (Sponsoring Members), this membership be open to individuals as well as to institutions willing to sustain programs and activities of SALALM, and the members present accepted his proposal. Because there is no longer a SALALM Newsletter, Rafael  proposed to change Article III Section 3 (Rights and Privileges), because presently it states “All classes of members in good standing shall equally receive general communications of the SALALM Secretariat and the SALALM Newsletter.” He proposed to change that statement to:

“All classes of members in good standing shall equally receive general communications of the SALALM Secretariat.” There was agreement to this proposal, but Hortensia suggested that there should be a reference to LALA-L in that statement, to the effect that personal members have access to it. It was agreed to continue deliberation about the exact wording to be used in this section of Article III. The draft of the new Bylaws of the SALALM says in Article VIII Section1, on the subject of the annual seminar: “SALALM shall hold a program meeting once a year at a time and place determined by the Executive Board,” but Hortensia remarked that the Host decides the specific time and place of the annual conference. The group agreed to continue deliberation about this section of Article III by e-mail.

The committee adjourned at 9am.

Respectfully submitted,

Rafael E. Tarragó, Chair
Constitution and Bylaws Committee

Moderator: Gerada Holder (National Library and Information System Authority of Trinidad and Tobago)
Presenters: Sandra Boyce (National Library Service, Barbados); Gerada Holder (National Library and Information System Authority of Trinidad and Tobago); Danielle Fraser (National Library and Information System Authority of Trinidad and Tobago), Glenroy Taitt (University of [...]]]> Panel 9, June 18, 2012, 9:00am-10:30am

Moderator: Gerada Holder (National Library and Information System Authority of Trinidad and Tobago)
Presenters: Sandra Boyce (National Library Service, Barbados); Gerada Holder (National Library and Information System Authority of Trinidad and Tobago); Danielle Fraser (National Library and Information System Authority of Trinidad and Tobago), Glenroy Taitt (University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago)
Rapporteur: Peter S. Bushnell (University of Florida)

Sandra Boyce presented “Safeguarding the Barbados Crop Over Festival: A Collection Management Approach.” In Barbados, Crop Over originated as a festival in the plantation society to celebrate the end of harvest. The enslaved looked forward to this celebration with music, dancing, food and games. In 1974, the festival was revived to attract tourists during the slow month of June. Since then it has become a national festival, part of the island’s intangible cultural heritage. The documents relating to the festival include both print and non-print formats. The collection is diverse and dynamic with governmental and non-governmental institutions responsible for its management because of their role and function. The four agencies reviewed in this presentation were the National Cultural Foundation (NCF), the Nation Publishing Company (NPC), the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), and the Government Information Service (GIS).

The NCF was established in 1983 to manage the festival. Its collection contains photographs, newspaper clippings, video, CDs, and posters. It is in the process of being digitized along with moving towards standardization and a more proactive collection development policy.

The NPC was established in 1983 and automated in 1994. It covers the social, economic and political development on a daily basis. It produces the annual Crop Over Souvenir and recently launched the website www.nationcropover.com. There are plans to digitize the collection.

The development of a cultural heritage includes both tangible and intangible aspects. Its valorization is undergoing rapid development. Bills concerning cultural industries and antiquities are being drafted. Conversations, dialogues, and symposiums on cultural policies to facilitate partnerships and collaboration are being held. Finally, Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2011.

The way forward: collection management is critical to the development and sustainability of the intangible cultural heritage; librarians and information specialists must manage the Crop Over Collection effectively and efficiently; it must collaborate to maximize limited resources; standards and guidelines must be set; best practices must be adopted in designing a model collection; there is a need for open access in light of intellectual property and copyright; preservation policies and guidelines must to designed to make the collection sustainable; timely and accurate information needs to be provided through various channels; skills and expertise must be constantly upgraded; changes must be embraced constantly; roles need to be redefined and revamped to accommodate these changes. This will enable collection management to be dynamic and diverse.

During a question and answer discussion it was mentioned that Barbados did not have carnival on a regular basis until the 70s. Angela Kinney (Library of Congress) asked about copyright. An audience member answered that it lasted until 50 years after a person’s death. This led to a brief discussion of copyright in general. There then followed a brief discussion about publishing crop over material.

Next, Gerada Holder presented “Collecting Carnival: Creating a Carnival Collection at the Heritage Library Division, NALIS.” The goal of the Heritage Library Division is to preserve and promote the culture of Trinidad and Tobago. The sections of the division consist of: operations and client services; preservation and conservation lab; and collections management (oral history, genealogy and performing arts; special collections; indexing; acquisitions).

Carnival itself is defined as Trinidad and Tobago’s annual pre-lent festival that originated in the period of African enslavement. At its core is music, masking and merriment making. Significant influence has come from the islands’ French, Spanish, African, British and Indian cultures. For the period 1997-2004, statistics were given as to visitor arrivals (from a low of 27,414 in 1997 to a high of 42,646 in 2000). For 2004, the average expenditure per tourist per day came to $345 ($95 for accommodation, $109 for entertainment, $56 for shopping and $45 for other).

The major components of carnival are music (extempo, calypso, soca, chutney soca, rapso), mas (junior, ole mas, traditional, pretty mas), fetes (public and private parties), competitions (extempo, calypso/soca/chutney soca), and steelpan (the national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago).

The importance of carnival is reflected in the cultural and historical development of Trinidad and Tobago. It also has a significant impact on the economy, provides a showcase for creativity, and helps create communities.

Existing carnival information at the Heritage Library Division include: Wayne Berkeley Collection, Bill Trotman Collection, calypso lyrics database, interviews, photographs, audio visual (music CDs/carnival shows/competition DVDs), periodicals, monographs and information files/pamphlet collection. The Performing Arts, Genealogy and Oral History Section (PAGOH) deals with four major areas: record life-history and thematic interviews; record-on-the-spot interviews with performers, record cultural activities through photographs and video; network with performers and cultural organizations to collect ephemera and other non-published information.

The four major methods of acquisition are through purchase, gifts/donations, deposits and loans. Sources include newspapers, carnival organizations, networking with collectors and traditional booksellers/music shops.

As part of the UNESCO Memory of the World: Trinidad and Tobago Register, there is a digital archive.

The challenges of collecting carnival material include deciding/narrowing on what should be collected, creating non-traditional avenues for the collection of carnival data/information and changing the public’s attitude towards valuing and saving cultural (and by extension) carnival material. The challenges of then indexing carnival is the creation of information files per carnival topic, the adaptation of relevant LC subject headings to accommodate local terms, the creation of carnival descriptors/thesaurus and the use of carnival subject specialists (non-librarians). Carnival information files can include: information by year, carnival bands with their bandleaders listed in alphabetical order, specific biographical files on calypsonians which can include sobriquets along with surname. In addition to traditional carnival descriptors, specific terms such as jab jab, blue devil and Dame Lorraine can be used.

Finally there are two general questions to consider for the future. What additional methodology should be applied for carnival acquisitions/collections? What should be the form for collaboration among carnival stakeholders given the different organizational mandates?

Kinney (Library of Congress) asked about Indian (Hindi) influence in carnival which led to a brief discussion. Hortensia Calvo (Tulane University) talked briefly about Tulane’s carnival collection.

“Keeping Our Culture: A Look at the Development of Preservation and Conservation at the National Library of Trinidad And Tobago” by Danielle Fraser started with an overview. The National Library and Information System Authority (NALIS) was established September 18, 1998 by the government of Trinidad and Tobago as a statutory authority. In preserving Trinidad and Tobago’s national heritage, NALIS is responsible for collecting Trinidad and Tobago imprints, works by Trinidad and Tobago nationals, other works about Trinidad and Tobago or the Caribbean, and oral history of Trinidad and Tobago. A look at trends in library preservation cannot ignore work done by the Library of Congress, the British Library and IFLA. For IFLA, a core activity on preservation and conservation (PAC) is to create a focus on issues of preservation and to initiate worldwide cooperation for the preservation of library materials. There are 14 IFLA-PAC Regional Centers with NALIS being made the regional center in 2004 for the English-Speaking Caribbean.

In 2005 a preservation consultant recommended the following: develop a PAC laboratory; hire library conservators; and develop policies and practices. Early implementation of a preservation plan included the purchase in 2005 of a Wei T’o Dryer and Insect Exterminator (BDIE) and hiring and training staff to develop a laboratory.

Some of the lessons learned include: keep stakeholders informed; prevention is better than the cure; everyone wants to know how to preserve; document everything.

Tony Harvell (University of California, San Diego) asked if there was a disaster plan. It is under exploration. Stacy Norris (Library of Congress) asked about the preservation of non-book material. They know that the need is there but they are just in the early stages. Some digitizing is being done and they are slowly replacing obsolete formats with more current ones.

The final presentation was by Glenroy Taitt on “Write It, Say It, Snap It: Documenting the Heritage of St. Joseph, Trinidad’s First Capital.” This is a project in the works with a final goal being a book. Using his background as a librarian, historian and photographer he has been able to gather a lot of information. For gathering memories of St. Joseph itself, he has worked with his mother and godmother. He gave his mother a copybook with the hope that she would write down her reminiscences about St. Joseph. After some delay, she finally filled up one book and asked for a second. Eventually she used a third. For his godmother, he recorded a batch of interviews for oral history. Between these two sources he was able to get a large amount of information that now needs to be edited. He then entertained us with a few stories from his mother and godmother. The final part of his presentation was a comparison between historical and contemporary photographs. For the Mosque built in the late 40s, there was only his photo.

Moderator: Lynn Shirey (Harvard University)

Rapporteur: Ellen Jaramillo (Yale University)

Martha Mantilla (University of Pittsburgh): “I’d like to start with the Executive Board Committee. Is there anything that the officers of that Committee would like to say? – No? Members at Large of that Committee, is there any business we want [...]]]> June 19, 2012, 3:00pm-4:00pm

Moderator: Lynn Shirey (Harvard University)

Rapporteur: Ellen Jaramillo (Yale University)

Martha Mantilla (University of Pittsburgh): “I’d like to start with the Executive Board Committee. Is there anything that the officers of that Committee would like to say? – No? Members at Large of that Committee, is there any business we want to cover? – Nothing. Closing Executive Board Committee, we’ll move on to Local Arrangements.”

Gayle Williams (Florida International University): “Point of order: our President hasn’t closed the meeting yet. (President) Lynn Shirey should run the business meeting; Martha, as incoming president, should convene the second Executive Board Committee meeting that follows.”

Lynn Shirey (Harvard University): “My announcement is, ‘All protocols observed!’” [Applause and laughter]

Roberto C. Delgadillo (University of California, Davis): “We’re going to go through those things again, beginning with the Executive Board Committee, and read through the agenda of the first, the Executive Board Committee meeting, and summarize the points.”

Shirey: “Executive Board Committee has nothing new to report. Does Local Arrangements have anything further to report?”

Local Arrangements Committee, Elmelinda Lara (The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago): “The final report is that we had about 295 conference attendees. Expenses were $2,000 (US). Income was about $4,000 (US) , so we’re ahead.”

[Applause]

Constitution & Bylaws Committee, Rafael E. Tarragó (University of Minnesota): “This year the Constitution & Bylaws Committee reviewed the draft of a revision of the Constitution and Bylaws of SALALM, from 2000. This draft is for something called the “SALALM Bylaws.” We undertook the work of combining the two documents, the Constitution and the Bylaws, into a single “Bylaws.” We have revised that first draft, and my predecessor as Chair of the Constitution & Bylaws Committee, Jane Garner, has agreed to re-write our draft to include all revisions that the committee as a group has made. This final draft should be ready by the end of December 2012. In order to revise the Constitution & Bylaws, a vote by the membership is necessary. The committee will be contacting the membership to ask for comments about the changes, or suggestions, and they should get back to us. We’ll analyze all requests and hope to have the final draft for the 2013 meeting, and a vote by the membership. The Committee hopes that the new charter facilitates an understanding of the structure, mission and operation of SALALM and explains the details such as any proposal, for example, for a name change for the organization, how it must go through the process for incorporation as a non-profit organization, and must be registered in Washington, D.C. We hope that the document will be taken seriously by the membership when we send it out, and be voted on at the May 2013 conference in Miami.”

Policy, Research & Investigation Committee, Cecilia Sercán (Cornell University): “The committee met and reviewed two subcommittees which we were asked to disband, and they have been disbanded: Official Publications, and Gifts and Exchanges Subcommittees. There are two committees that asked to be merged and they are the Bibliographic Instruction and Reference Services Subcommittees. They have been merged and they came up with a new name: Research and Instruction Services. The Nominating Committee also asked that we do some revision of the “Operations Handbook,” basically mentioning the change that was made in going from paper to electronic ballots. They gave us the text to do it so we will update the Handbook. The other thing we will be doing, but this will be after the Constitution & Bylaws Committee finishes their work, is updating the citations to the part of the Constitution that are in the “Operations Handbook.” We’ve handed out the resolutions we have to vote on.”

Ellen Jaramillo (Yale University): “I know you all have copies, but I have to read the resolutions into the minutes:

“Resolutions for SALALM LVII

Be it resolved that SALALM thank the Campus Libraries, The University of the West Indies-St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago; the National Library and Information System Authority, Trinidad and Tobago; and the Library Association of Trinidad and Tobago for hosting SALALM LVII.

Be it resolved that SALALM thank the academic and corporate sponsors of SALALM LVII: Casalini Libri; Ebscohost; Elsevier; David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies; Harvard University; Latin Knowledge Consulting Group; OCLC; Phoenix Park Gas Processors; Scrip J. Trinidad and Tobago Limited; the UWI Bookshop, St. Augustine Campus; the UWI Marketing & Communications Office; Wanter Enterprises; and Zap Graphics.

Be it resolved that SALALM thank the coffee break sponsors: Books from Mexico; Digitalia; E-libro; Elsevier; HB Books Publicaciones Chilenas; Howard Karno Books; Iberbook-Sánchez Cuesta; Iberoamericana Libros-Editorial Vervuert; Librería García Cambeiro; Libros Andinos; Libros Argentinos para Todo el Mundo; Libros de Barlovento; Libros de Todo Mexico; Puvill Libros; Retta Libros; Susan Bach Books from Brazil, Libros Centroamericanos.

Be it resolved that SALALM thank the Libreros’ Reception sponsors: Books from Mexico; Casalini Libri; Digitalia; E. Iturriaga & Cia., S.A.; Esteva Servicios Bibliotecarios; Gavilanes Books from Indoamerica; HB Books; Howard Karno Books; Iberbook-Sánchez Cuesta; Iberoamericana Libros-Editorial Vervuert; the Latin American Bookstore, Ltd.; Librería Linardi y Risso; Libros Andinos; Libros Argentinos para Todo el Mundo; Libros de Barlovento; Libros de Todo Mexico; Libros Latinos; Puvill Libros; Retta Libros; Sonia Silva Com’ercio de Livros; Susan Bach Books from Brazil; Swets.

Be it resolved that SALALM thank the Local Arrangements Committee, chaired by Elmelinda Lara, for the enormous work in arranging the conference, and especially for the arrangements made to organize transportation from and to the airport for the participants.

Be it resolved that SALALM thank Roberto Delgadillo for his six years as Rapporteur General and for his work in modernizing the collection and dissemination of reports.

Be it resolved that SALALM show its support the work of Professor Doris Sommer with Pre-Texts on creative literacy by donating an amount to be determined by the Executive Board to one of their programs.”

The final resolution was tabled, there not being any precedent for SALALM to have done something like this in the past, with the recommendation that it be sent to the Finance Committee. The Finance Committee had met this year before Dr. Sommer did her presentation, but Tarragó noted that there is a proviso in the Constitution that speaks to making charitable contributions and expenses not anticipated, and that they must be voted on by the Executive Board. The final resolution was tabled, and will be discussed in Executive Board.

A motion was made by Peter Bushnell (University of Florida) to approve all the Resolutions except the last one and was seconded by Williams. All resolutions, with the exception of the final one, were voted on and unanimously approved.

Membership Committee: No report.

Editorial Board: Hortensia Calvo (Tulane University) said that Orchid Mazurkiewicz (HAPI) told her that there was nothing additional to report.

Finance Committee: Paula Covington (Vanderbilt University): reported that they met twice and the Investment Working Group also met. They decided that TIAA-CREF will manage SALALM’s accounts, and as Covington then noted: “We have a recommendation for selling two investments which have not done well: Fidelity and Franklin. This seems like a good time to sell them. There was a proposal that we purchase directors’ and officers’ insurance, and there is a subcommittee that will be looking into those proposals. There was also a proposal that we have something like an audit but with a lesser compilation of work, depending on the kind of software [that] is implemented and what kind of audit trail it provides us with. Most of these things are the result of various recommendations by the fraud report that we received a few years ago. We’ve been trying to work towards those best practices and trying to prevent potential fraud, so these proposals will be looked into. We received the conference reports. Philadelphia did very well; I don’t have the exact figures. We made a profit which is good because we’re trying to build up the endowment. There’s a proposal for a change in the registration membership policy that will go to the Executive Board. $1,000 was approved for additional scholarship funds, and up to $3,000 for this additional insurance, although we’re looking at lower quotes. Those things were added to the budget that Hortensia proposed.”

Nominating Committee: Stephanie Rocío Miles (Inter-American Development Bank ): “This was the first time that SALALM used electronic ballots, and it worked very well. For 2014, Officers are: Vice President/President Elect: Roberto Delgadillo; Members-at-Large [2012-15]: Paloma Celis-Carbajal and Daisy Domínguez. Some of the things we discussed were some details of how to run elections in the future; candidates should be aware that their biographies are going to be made public on our website; a few standardizations of the cut-off date, that people have to register by a certain date so that they will be eligible to vote.”

LALA-L, Gayle Williams (Florida International University): “The number of Latin Americanist Librarians Announcements List subscribers has exceeded the number of personal memberships. The requirement for the LALA-L subscription is maintaining current membership in SALALM. Be aware those of you who did not renew membership for this fiscal year which is about to end, because of the move to better compliance with renewing one’s SALALM membership in order to vote, you will be dropped from the rolls of LALA-L until the Secretariat confirms to me your renewed membership. The deadline is September 1st.”

Calvo: If someone renews right now, their membership will be over on August 31st. You’d need to renew after September 1st in order to be considered a member for next year.

Outreach/Enlace, Sócrates Silva (HAPI): “The Enlace raffle made $693 (US) and $2,548 (TT).

Communications Committee: No report.

Ad Hoc Committees:

I). Webinar Pilot Project Working Group: Calvo: “Orchid asked me to say that she mentioned at Executive Board that she is proposing that a task force be set up to oversee webinars.”

II). Scholarship Task Force: Peter Johnson: “The Task Force for spring term consisted of: Alison Hicks, Jesus Alonso-Regalado, Paloma Celis-Carbajal, Gayle Williams, Nathalie Soini who is at Ontario CA, Mary Jo Zeter and me. We received 28 applications over the course of two semesters, and we awarded three scholarships. One of the individuals is engaged in archival work dealing with Latin America and the other two are in library work. Biographies and photographs are on our website and that is being archived. We received $684 in donations plus a matching grant of $250. Spring term will be funded from a donation from an anonymous individual and this organization will spend $99. We hope to be able to count on the collaboration of those of you at universities with library schools and archival programs, to make yourself available to talk about these scholarships and SALALM. We’ll be sending out on LALA-L further information on new ideas to better integrate these awardees with the process of mentorship.”

Affiliated Groups:

CALAFIA: No report.

LANE: No report.

HAPI: No report.

LAMP: No report.

Libreros: Darlene Hull (Libros de Barlovento): “The consensus among the libreros is that they want to keep the fiesta, they are interested in having it manifest itself in a simpler form: DJ and drinks. The consensus on coffee breaks is that the libreros don’t want to sponsor any more coffee breaks. They want more time without conflicts for consultation.”

LASER: No report.

MOLLAS: No report.

ALZAR: No report.

ISIS:

LARRP: Williams: “This spring LARRP, working with CRL (College & Research Libraries) was able to get a significant discount for a one-time purchase of “Brill’s Classic Mexican Cinema” online database. Everyone who wants to go in on it should contact CRL by the extended date of September 1st. Having worked with it, I found, was not too highly specialized so I recommend that people get a trial. We agreed during our budget review not to raise membership fees. LARRP wants to move forward with new possibilities of projects and we are always entertaining ideas. Melissa Guy will head a group that will play an advocate role with some of the federated searches or discovery tools and will provide them suggestions for Latin American content. Fernando Acosta Rodríguez informed us of a digitization initiative that he’s trying to get off the ground: Princeton will digitize their political pamphlet collections that have not been microfilmed and new receipts. Other than asking for help in funding, we’re not sure how this will impact an activity for LARRP members. I’d like to express appreciation to Paula Covington & the IT people at Vanderbilt for investigating the feasibility of migrating LAPTOC. We’ll know more about that over the summer.”

Future Meetings: Meiyolet Méndez (University of Miami): “Next year’s SALALM will take place in Miami. Dates are May 17-22, 2013; that’s not the actual conference dates but we’ve reserved that space in the hotel for those dates. It is in the Westin Colonnade, Coral Gables, Florida. I double-checked the figures: Single and Double Rooms-the price is the same per night–$149.US; Triple–$169.US; Quadruple–$189.US, plus about 7% hotel tax on each [**internet search=12.5% Miami hotel tax]. Prices include wifi in the rooms. Breakfast is not included but the hotel is in walking distance of at least 100 restaurants. It’s in a walkable area of the city. It’s a 20 minute cab ride to the beach; an hour to the Everglades. Gayle and I hope to plan a joint host’s reception [with FIU] at the University of Miami’s Cuban Heritage Collection.”

Williams: “I’m planning on putting together a panel on and also a post-conference library field trip to FIU’s special collections. Bear in mind the hotel rates will be honored for 2 days prior and 2 days after the conference.”

Hull: “Something I didn’t mention from the libreros report that has to do with the conference is that, in conjunction with our good cataloging friends, John Wright, Stephanie, Ellen, etc., [we] have discussed having a pre-conference workshop on RDA.”

Williams: “We’re aware of that and have let Brenda Salem, new chair of the Cat. & Bib Tech. Subcommittee, know that unlike this year, the announcement of a pre-conference came out after some people had already made travel plans and couldn’t change them, we’re encouraging her to start developing plans and by the time the conference website is created in the fall, and registration, hotel registration, etc. all roll out we can have their information so that people can have that so people can take that into account when making their travel budget and travel plans.”

Jaramillo: “The group that has been working with the libreros is not actually a part of Cat. & Bib Tech. Subcommittee; it’s a separate group, but we’ve asked all the members of the Subcommittee for their input and to work with us on this.”

Anne Barnhart (University of West Georgia): “Along that line, the group that did this year’s instruction pre-conference will send out a poll on the listserv. If it’s warranted, we’re considering doing a longer version of the workshop at next year’s conference.”

Williams: “Mei Méndez is Chair of Miami’s Local Arrangements Committee and we look forward to seeing you all there.”

Shirey: “There is a proposal for 2014 that John Wright will present and the Executive Board will vote on later today.”

Wright read the letter of invitation from H. Julene Butler, University Librarian, BYU, to Hortensia, on behalf of SALALM, to convene its annual conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, on a day in May or June 2014 that is mutually convenient. She has read and accepts the responsibilities of the host institution, and John will serve as BYU’s contact person. The Library remembers fondly the experience they had hosting the 39th SALALM meeting in 1994. They value the work of SALALM and look forward to renewing our acquaintances at its 59th conference. Wright added that since Dr. Butler steps down in September he was glad to have gotten her signature before she leaves the position.

Unidentified speaker: What is the theme for the Miami conference?

Mantilla: “The theme for SALALM LVIII is going to be: Pan-Indigenism, Cosmovision and Globalization: The Confluence of the Indigenous Modes of Thinking in the Americas. The idea is to gather the feedback from this conference and to start the conversation very early, to put up the website early in the fall, so we can prepare throughout the year. We’re planning to have workshops at the beginning and at the end, so we’d like to collect that information very early to allow for planning. I want to expand on what [then Pres.] John Wright did [in SALALM LIII, 2008], and twist a little bit. There are currently systemic indigenous communities communicating mainly through the Internet, throughout all the Americas, and I think we need to pay attention to what they are saying, to what they think. I’d like to establish an equal dialogue with them. It will be a challenging project.”

Tarragó: “This topic of indigenism is very timely because many of our responsibilities are combined with Latino studies, and where we live many immigrants are members of indigenous communities and are preserving their traditions. This aspect is perhaps something that can be talked about.”

Mantilla: “It’s not just for South America, etc. but also for the native peoples in the United States, so please help us to work on this wonderful project.”

Shirey: “Thank you Martha. I’ll report on the new committee chairs.”
Executive Board Committees:
Constitution & Bylaws Committee – Rafael Tarragó continues in his term as Chair;
Policy, Research & Investigation Committee – new Chair is Ellen Jaramillo;
Editorial Board – Orchid Mazurkiewicz continues as Chair [at the Executive Board’s pleasure];
Membership – Adán Griego continues as Chair;
Finance – Paula Covington continues in her term as Chair;
Nominations – new Chair is Stephanie Rocío Miles. New members are: Marisol Ramos and Phillip MacLeod;
Communications Committee – Daisy Domínguez continues as Chair [at the Executive Board’s pleasure].

Substantive Committees/Subcommittees:

Library/Bookdealer/Publisher Relations Subcommittee – New Chair is Jared Marchildon;
Gifts and Exchanges Subcommittee has been dissolved;
Official Publications Subcommittee has been dissolved;
Electronic Resources – new Chair is Michael Scott;
Audio-Visual Media – new Chair is Miguel Valladares.
Cataloging and Bibliographic Technology – new Chair is Brenda Salem.

Shirey: “I now declare this meeting closed, and we’ll proceed to the Executive Board Committee meeting which will be chaired by incoming President Martha Mantilla.”

Imaging Trinidad: Art, Activism, [...]]]> Panel 1, June 18, 2012, 11:30 am-1:00 pm
Moderator: Wendy Pedersen (University of New Mexico)
Presenters: Pablo Delano (Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut); Jolie Rajah and Georgia Alexander (The University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago); Gabrielle M. Toth (Chicago State University)
Rapporteur: Ellen Jaramillo (Yale University)

Imaging Trinidad: Art, Activism, Archive / Pablo Delano (Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut)

Delano began in saying that he has spent a large amount of time in Trinidad over the last fifteen years.  In 2008 he published “In Trinidad: Photographs by Pablo Delano”, a book of black and white photographs that tries to capture the essence of a uniquely intercultural society at work, worship and at play.  He displayed photos from the book throughout his talk, wherein he explored some of the issues around being a practicing artist/documentarian.
Trinidad struck a chord with him from the time of his first visit in 1997.  The drumming he heard during Carnival in Port-of-Spain was essentially the bomba drumming done by Afro-descendants in Delano’s native Puerto Rico.  He thought: how is it that Puerto Rico has sent a delegation of bomba drummers to Trinidad and Tobago?  Well, he said, they hadn’t; this was bomba drumming from where it originated, in Africa.  He felt because of his Caribbean upbringing that he had an inherent understanding of Trinidad, but at the same time also felt as though he were in a foreign place because of the East Indian presence, which is not found in Puerto Rico or in other parts of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean.  Delano stated that we’re all products of this colonization which began with Columbus, but has taken varying forms throughout the Caribbean.  For example, he was very taken with the huge influx of sailors in Trinidad during World War II, and the incidence of “Sailor Mas” during Carnival.  He calls Trinidad a country of tremendous visual contrasts that demonstrates a high level of “convivencia”, a word that he feels doesn’t translate well from Spanish: “It’s a kind of balance where people have found a way to live with each other.  Convivencia allows for disputes and feuds but there is nevertheless a kind of coexistence.  Coming from my background in Puerto Rico, where everything artistic is politicized, I was very taken with the way Trinidad has identified the arts as a way to build a post-colonial identity.  All artists, especially documentary practitioners, have something of the archivist in them.  When your subjects bring out family photos, what do you do with them?”  Delano’s response was to photograph the photographs, and return the originals to the family, but he thinks that the idea of setting up a databank of photographs that people have kept in their families could prove to be an extraordinary resource, an incredible treasure trove of vernacular photography.  He’d like to delve further into the relationship between archivist and arts practitioner, because one thing that is most obvious when one does this kind of work is that one inevitably documents things which will change, because the subjects die.  In looking back over the last fifteen years of photographs that he’s taken in Trinidad, he thinks some may not be his best work from an artistic standpoint, but the photos memorialize people who have made huge contributions to this culture and to this island.  He thought he’d use this opportunity to throw out these questions about what the relationships are between practicing artists who are compelled to document the images they see around them, and archives.  Where will all these images end up?  He doesn’t know what to do with all the photographs he’s taken, or with the old postcards he’s bought on E-bay, some of which are quite unique.  Delano is still dealing with the archives of his parents, who were artists in Puerto Rico.  He concluded with the hope that practicing artists and archivists find more common ground and ways to work together to make sure that these kinds of materials are not lost.

The Writing is on the Wall: Graffiti as Social Commentary in Trinidad and Tobago / Jolie Rajah and Georgia Alexander (University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago)

Rajah began by saying that as soon as they heard the theme for this conference, graffiti immediately came to mind.  They recalled a lot of graffiti in the urban areas of Trinidad and Tobago, especially in Woodbrook and Port-of-Spain, and saw graffiti every day on the UWI, Saint Augustine campus.  She noted a lack of academic research in this area and they thought that they could contribute to this body of knowledge.  By way of introduction for those who don’t know much about graffiti, they provided a few definitions.  One identifies graffiti as intrusive, emblematic and opportunistic, a form of popular protest, a people’s art.  The second identifies graffiti as a form of communication that is both personal and free.  It offers intriguing insights into people and the society to which they belong.  Graffiti has a rich and ancient history, dating back to prehistoric man, and ancient Greece, Egypt and Rome [displayed slides up through 1960’s and 1970’s wall tagging].  The 1980’s marked the worldwide spread of graffiti.  Hip Hop identified with the art form, and mass media played a role in spreading it from New York around the world, including Trinidad. There are two types of graffiti: the public and the private.  The focus of their presentation was on public graffiti, and Rajah pointed out that in Trinidad and Tobago, graffiti is illegal.

Graffiti has a language of its own.  “Tagger” is the person doing the graffiti.  “Bomb” is the act of going out and doing graffiti.  “Tag” is your name or nom-de-plume, written up on a wall (and may identify your work).  A “throw-up” is a piece on a wall in which someone puts their tag or a few letters, in some colors or in an outline, to show that they were there, to take up space to grab attention.  There is a lot of literature about graffiti, particularly in North America and Europe.  Some of it focuses on whether graffiti is art, vandalism, or visual pollution.  Rajah spoke of graffiti as communication, and of its role in the culture, saying: “We are all actively involved in the communication process, whether we are sender, receiver, the source, or the destination, or bring something to bear when we look at or construct a message.  Graffiti represents a communicated opportunity, and reveals something about the society in which the artist lives.”
Alexander went on to profile some graffiti found in Trinidad, some of which no longer exists.  They secured the
permission of someone who has photographed graffiti throughout Trinidad to display these works.  Some of the tags (or names) of local graffiti artists give food for thought (Ghost, Craze, Louse, etc.) and she showed numerous examples of spray-painted and some of pasted and of stenciled graffiti.  One that particularly impressed the audience was of the early construction of the National Academy of the Performing Arts where our host reception will take place.  There had been controversy in the local media on the government’s decision to award the construction contract to a non-Trinbagonian company.  The slide showed the security wall surrounding the construction site on which was stenciled the words: Made in China.
Alexander showed a video on the work of the artist Mamph, wondering what roles librarians could play in capturing and preserving these kinds of works.  Little has been documented so far.  One is the Urban Heartbeat project, encountering art in public spaces.  One event took place in Queen’s Park, Trinidad.  Another site that nicely displays Trinidad graffiti art, but in talking with the site owner, she mentioned that he is thinking of taking it down due to there being little traffic on the site.  Another interesting site is Alice Yard, an artistic space in Woodbrook that is used for various types of artists to display their work.  She noted that perhaps one way libraries can help to preserve this transient art is to adopt sites like these.
Rajah and Alexander created an on-going, open-ended questionnaire using Google.docs, which is a work-in-progress. They posted on social media, sent mass emails, nagged, harassed, and begged local artists to respond. (Because of the nature of graffiti and its illegality in Trinidad and Tobago, many prefer to remain anonymous).  They learned that many refer to themselves with terms like bomber, paster, etc., based upon the media that they employ.  They asked what materials they used, at what times of day (generally early hours) and where they prefer to do graffiti.  Respondents said that their themes are mostly taken from their own creativity and from social, political and environmental issues.  They noted that through their work as artists, because they consider themselves artists, or social activists in some cases, they hope to change people’s interpretation and understanding of graffiti.  They also hope to provoke thought and to make art more accessible to the public, who in some cases would never visit an art museum or gallery, or to get the public to pay attention to certain social or political issues.  This is their way of raising awareness.   The majority of respondents thought that there should be designated legitimate spaces where graffiti art could be legally displayed, and that it should be captured for future appreciation, examination and study.

Art, the Americas, Abstracting and Archiving: Documents of 20th Century Latin American and Latino Art: A Digital Archive and Publications Project / Gabrielle M. Toth (Chicago State University)

Toth began by saying that she has the good fortune to serve as a research assistant for this project.  She provides indexing and abstracting of documents pertaining to Latin American and Latino art, specifically governing the U.S. Midwest.  As an example she showed a slide of a letter of thanks for a presentation on “Posada: Printmaker to the Mexican People,” an exhibition held at the Art Institute of Chicago in the spring of 1944.  This was the first major showing of Posada’s work in the U.S. [José Guadalupe Posada, 1852-1913]. The project digitized a gorgeous catalog of the exhibition, and a corrido she found that was written in honor of this event, and which refers to Chicago’s gangster heritage: “Corrido of the Coming of Don José Guadalupe Posada to the Famous North American City of Chicago,” which includes a verse that reads: “In the book by these two professors it tells how Don Lupe hated crime.  Had he come here in our 1920’s, he’d have had a magnificent time.”
The documents in this archive cover high art, low art, formal art, activist art, and everything in between, across the Americas.  In January 2012, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, in collaboration with its research institute, the International Center for Arts of the Americas (ICAA), launched the book series “Documents of 20th Century Latin American and Latino Art.”
The Museum of Fine Arts and the ICAA have devoted ten years and approximately $50,000,000 to the recovery and publication of primary source materials related to 20th century Latin American and Latino art.  The launch in January is the first phase of the archive which will ultimately feature more than 10,000 primary source materials hunted down by hundreds of researchers in 16 cities throughout the Western Hemisphere.  There are currently about 200,000 documents from Argentina, Mexico and the American Midwest.  All of the documents should be available by 2015 and the website will continue to develop over time.  It will continue in perpetuity, making it an indispensable archive of Latin American and Latino art.  Along with the online archive, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and Yale University Press will co-publish a series of thirteen books, called: Critical Documents of 20th Century Latin American and Latino Art.  Some of the documents in this archive will be translated into English and organized by theme, so that the documents will be accessible to the non-Spanish speaking generalist (think: the undergraduate student at many of our institutions) as well as the higher-level researcher.  The books and the archive will refer to each other, so that a researcher can see something in the book and then go to the archive to find the full document in its original language.  Toth played a video in which the founder and director talks about the project.  In the spirit of social justice, this archive in many instances brings to light artists or regions which were neglected in the past.  In addition, the project seeks to remind everyone that Latin American and Latino art are not merely derivative or flow from European art but they bring great contributions and encapsulate some of these major art movements in and of themselves.
The project had a three-pronged approach.  The first phase was a recovery process where various researchers looked for missing or unknown documents.  Once the documents were found, assistants indexed and abstracted the articles or documents, which were turned into local units and were later sent to the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston.  The Museum sought permissions and had the documents digitized, and had the information put into the database.  Toth demonstrated the database and pulled up an article she had worked on, by Victor Sorell, who taught at Chicago State University for over 40 years and has recently retired.  It shows the citation information, and a brief synopsis of the article.  Sorell is one of the editors of the book series and was overwhelmed by the amount of material he found.  Toth became involved when Sorell heard her speak on Chicago’s Latino community (incidentally it was a paper she had given at a previous SALALM conference).  He said who better to index and abstract these articles than a librarian familiar with Midwest Latino communities?  She was grateful to be of assistance and was able to learn a lot about art. As a librarian, she expected there to be some kind of thesaurus or some guidelines as to how to handle these documents.  There being none, she was given free reign to index every word that she thought important.  Toth said that she didn’t know much about art, so she assumed that every word could be important.  For example, our previous presenters talked about the materials artists used, both paint and spray paint.  Toth said she would have agonized: are they the same, are they different, so she would have indexed them both.  As a Chicagoan she would recognize local names, like Mayor Daley.  Neither the first nor the second Mayor Daley was at all artistic, but they were mentioned and scholars at some point might find this kind of information useful, so she put that down.  Another thing was that Chicago is a city of neighborhoods, and of neighborhoods within neighborhoods, whose names may change over time.  For example, she ran across mention of “La Villita” a neighborhood which is currently primarily a Mexican neighborhood.  It was once known as “Little Village” and earlier as “South Lawndale.”  Which name should be noted?  She put them all down.  She wanted to make sure that whoever wants to access this will be able to find the information.
Toth said it was interesting to see how the work that she did later appeared in the database.  She showed examples of the forms she filled out about each document, which helped to populate the database.  They show the numerous descriptors that she assigned, and a brief abstract (they were told to be brief).  She then showed the resulting database entry where many of the descriptors had been stripped, and the abstract has been expanded by someone more knowledgeable about art, who had added a lot of specific commentary which helps put the artist’s work into a broader context.  Again, a social justice aspect of this is recovering and publicizing the fact that there are Latino artists in Chicago, and in Gary, Indiana, and in other tiny little hamlets all over the Midwest.  The project gave voice to a lot of artists, collectives and groups active in the Chicago area in the 1970’s.  Toth ended by urging all to have a look at this database, pointing out that it’s very easy to search, and it’s all free.

Questions:

T.K. Sangwand (University of Texas at Austin): I was hoping you could talk a little bit about the demographics of the graffiti artists and if you were able to distinguish any sort of stylistics in the social theme patterns among the different demographic groups.
Rajah: What I have noticed is that it’s generally thought that graffiti is a young person’s thing.  Of the ten graffiti artists we’ve interviewed so far, out of the eighteen that we know exist, five of them were over 26.  What we didn’t mention in the presentation is that there are crews, loosely-based groups, many of whom are all under 26.  They tend to be taggers, the most basic style. As they hone their art, they deal with more themes. Mamph, for example, is in his forties.

T.K. Sangwand (University of Texas at Austin): What is the gender ratio?

Rajah: I had thought it was only men and was surprised to find that two of our respondents were women, and there is another we haven’t met yet, who we suspect is a woman.  Georgia asked me to mention the artist “Rap 868.” “868” is the area code for all of Trinidad and Tobago.  One of the artists we spoke with said that using this as a tag is neutral: it doesn’t identify, race, gender, color, class, etc.

Jeff Staiger (U. Oregon): You mentioned providing legitimate spaces for the graffiti; could you elaborate?  My initial reaction was that transgression is of the essence and once you provide sanctioned spaces, you’ve neutralized it or contained it. How do the artists feel?
Alexander: They said that there’s definitely a need for space for young people to express themselves.  One respondent said that you can provide space, but someone may push the envelope and cause trouble for everyone else.  People may still seek to go outside of those spaces to get the thrill factor.

Toth: I have a question: In Chicago graffiti is a problem, but we also have murals.  Some of what you’ve shown appears muralistic.  Chicago spends a lot of money quickly painting over graffiti, because they see graffiti as the first step in horrific crime coming into a neighborhood.  How is balance achieved between the artist and the state?

Alexander: Graffiti is a form of protest.  To legitimize it allows the protest, but at the same time there’s that
adrenaline rush of doing something risky, the thrill of being caught, etc.  There’ll always be that aspect because some of it is considered vandalism.  Art is open to interpretation: who’s looking and what do you perceive it to be, so that is a message in itself.
Rajah: There isn’t a clear-cut answer; that’s a chance we take, but by putting up a space for it, it sends the message that we embrace graffiti as a form of art.

Barbara Robinson (University of Southern California): In Los Angeles we’ve had a large mural movement. Graffiti taggers have actually destroyed a lot of the murals, requiring them to be painted over because they were so defaced.  The images you’ve shown seem to me to be more like murals, not at all what we’re used to seeing in L.A., which seems to be put up to merely show that they’ve been there.  The beautiful murals that were there for 20 years are now gone.

Alexander: That’s happened in Trinidad, too.  There’s the deviant aspect – the gang-related, focused more in certain more dangerous areas.  But sometimes it’s a dialogue between artists.  You don’t know the identity of who has left something and the only way you can comment is by writing on that piece.

Robinson: After they got rid of the murals that had been defaced, they created a hanging that shows the previous mural, but it’s not affixed to the wall.  They’re attached temporarily so if someone destroys the hanging it can be removed.

Alexander: These people are obviously venting, so maybe there should be designated space for graffiti.

Delano: It’s not easy to draw a line between the so-called “good” graffiti and the so-called “bad” graffiti. Even the so-called “good” graffiti comes from a history of transgression.  For example, in Hartford, Connecticut, there is an old art-deco building called the Beacon Lighting Company and this building was plagued by graffiti. Finally the management decided to reach out to the taggers and commission them to do a mural.  They ended up with a beautiful mural, with the name of the company.  Where you place that is kind of complicated.  Another example is Barcelona, a city filled with spectacular graffiti that overall respects the stone.  The graffiti is on the steel gates and stops at the ancient stone walls. It’s a delicate balance. Sometimes when taggers hit established graffiti, they don’t think that they are defacing it; they think they’re adding or becoming part of it.

Toth: In Chicago, the murals were threatened by urban renewal.  This speaks to quality art versus non-quality.  If part of the project is to have the community involved, it means that all sectors should be involved.

Rachel [Dean?] (NALIS, National Library and Information System Authority, T&T): Just a statement in regards to graffiti: one of the artists you mentioned, Clinton, is exhibiting and selling his graffiti.

Rajah: Some of the artists are becoming quite sought-after and have been asked to do things like sneakers, air-brushing them graffiti-style, etc.

Alexander: Graffiti is becoming quite commercial here and is showing a positive social message.

Serials Subcommittee Report

Chair: Alison Hicks (2009/2012)

Deb Kern ha elaborado una nueva lista de nuevas publicaciones periódicas, con predominio de Brasil, y Guayanas, esta lista será repartida entre los miembros del SALALM. También indicó que existían posibilidades de un nuevo proyecto con la Library of Congress [...]]]> Chair: Virginia García (2009/2012)

Serials Subcommittee Report

Chair: Alison Hicks (2009/2012)

Deb Kern ha elaborado una nueva lista de nuevas publicaciones periódicas, con predominio de Brasil, y Guayanas, esta lista será repartida entre los miembros del SALALM. También indicó que existían posibilidades de un nuevo proyecto con la Library of Congress en Rio, que no estén en las bases de SCIELO ó HAPI

Las nuevas publicaciones periódicas estarán disponibles aqui. Esta lista será incluida en la relación de nuevas publicaciones preparada por Ruby Gutierrez.

Peter Altekrüger y el IAI catalogaron 5,500 publicaciones periódicas, las mismas que están disponibles la base de datos ZDB: http://dispatch.opac.ddb.de/LNG=EN/DB=1.1/

Marginalized People and Ideas Subcommittee Report

Chair: Richard Phillips (2011/2014)

Richard Phillips hizo una exposición sobre las ventajas y desventajas de los sistemas de pensión y jubilación, así como todas las penurias por las que atraviesan todos las personas de la tercera edad, que pertenecen a este sistema.

Sonia Silva describió el crecimiento demográfico, así como todas las condiciones sociales y económicas por las que atraviesan los brasileros que viven en la zona fronteriza con el Paraguay. Esta población es conocida por el nombre Guayos.

Library/Bookdealer/Publisher Subcommittee Report

Chair: Linda Russo (2009/2012)

El tema general de este comité giró alrededor del tema de los e-books. Todos los participantes explicaron las bondades de este formato de libros, pero también se conversó sobre la desventaja que este nuevo formato puede traer para los libreros.