Mapping of Internationally-Funded Citizen Security Projects in Central America

We are pleased to announce the launch of the Mapping of Internationally-Funded Citizen Security Projects in Central America, a joint project of the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), which tracks and documents international assistance for citizen security in Central America.

The Mapping Study and the online platform, the first of its kind for the region, provide a tool for strengthening planning, coordination, and monitoring among governments of Central America, donor governments and agencies, multilateral institutions, and civil society organizations that work to address problems associated with violence and insecurity in the region.

The tool allows for the identification of citizen security programs and projects that are being implemented or are in the design phases at the national level in Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, and Costa Rica, as well as at the regional level. Using the information found in the database, it is possible to see how much is being invested in citizen security, what issue areas are receiving funding, where the resources are going (geographically), and who the main donors are for citizen security projects in Central America.

The Mapping Study is being continuously updated through the important collaboration of the international donors operating in the region. To date, the database includes more than 600 projects that together total approximately US$ 2 billion, financed by more than 30 multilateral and bilateral donors and agencies, as well as private foundations. The Mapping Study also tracks non-monetary South-South collaboration in Central America.

The Mapping Study’s online database makes doing research using the information possible and easy. We invite you to use this resource by visiting www.seguridadciudadana-centroamerica.org. In order to facilitate access to and use of this tool, we invite you also to publish the Mapping Study’s icon (located on the top right of this post) on your website, linking it to the Mapping Study website.

The Mapping Study is an innovative and unprecedented instrument that promises to be a useful tool for those who study the region and work on the issue. We hope that the Mapping Study will be of great use to your research and work.

Sincerely,

Adriana Beltrán
Senior Associate
Citizen Security Program
Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA)

Karelia Villa
Modernization of the State Specialist
Institutions for Development Sector
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)

Category News |

Diario de Pernambuco Now Online, 1825 – 1863

The Latin American Collections in the Special & Area Studies Collections Department, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida are proud to announce the online launch of the Diario de Pernambuco, starting with the first issue on November 7, 1825 through March 1863.

The Diario de Pernambuco is acknowledged as the oldest newspaper in circulation in Latin America.  The issues from 1825-1923 offer insights into early Brazilian commerce, social affairs, politics, family life, slavery, and such. Published in the port of Recife, Brazil, the Diario contains numerous announcements of maritime movements, crop production, legal affairs, and cultural matters. The 19^th century includes reporting on the rise of Brazilian nationalism as the Empire gave way to the earliest expressions of the Brazilian republic. The 1910s and 1920s are years of economic and artistic change, with surging exports of sugar and coffee pushing revenues and allowing for rapid expansions of infrastructure, popular expression, and national politics.

 See the Diario de Pernambuco in the UF Smathers Libraries’ South American Digital Collections here: http://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00011611

 The Diario de Pernambuco is held by very few libraries, and only on microfilm, making it difficult to conduct research and even to access this important publication. Recognizing this critical need, Richard Phillips, Head of the Latin American Collections at UF, proposed and was awarded funding to conduct the first phase of this project. The first phase of the digital project to digitize the Diario de Pernambuco is now complete with the first issue from November 7, 1825 through March 1863 now all openly online for worldwide access. The Latin American Collection has submitted a proposal for funding a second phase of this important project.

Funding for the digitization of Diario de Pernambuco provided by LAMP (formerly known as the Latin American Microform Project), which is coordinated by the Center for Research Libraries (CRL), Global Resources Network. Ongoing support for the open, full, and free online access and permanent digital preservation provided by the UF Smathers Libraries.

Note: The functionalities and features of the [UF Digital Collections or Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC)] are supported using the UF-developed SobekCM software. SobekCM is released as open source software under the GNU GPL license and can be downloaded from the SobekCM Software Download Site: http://ufdc.ufl.edu/software.  To learn more about the technologies, please visit the SobekCM page: http://ufdc.ufl.edu/sobekcm.]

Contacts:

Richard Phillips, Head of the Latin American Collections, ricphil@uflib.ufl.edu, 352-273-2746

Laurie Taylor, UF Digital Collections, Laurien@ufl.edu, 352-273-2902

Tags: digitization, institutional news, University of Florida
Category News |

Meet the Spring 2013 SALALM Scholarship Winners!

D. Ryan Lynch, M.S.I.S. in Library and Information Services at the SUNY Albany

D. Ryan Lynch has an A.B. in Latin American History and Hispanic Literature and Culture from Brown University, an M.A. in Latin American History from Emory University, and is currently completing an M.S.I.S. in Library and Information Services at the University at Albany, State University of New York.  Ryan has a professional background in academic museums and archives.

As a historian and scholar, Ryan has a strong background in colonial Iberoamerican history and literature but specializes in 20^th century Brazilian cultural history with a particular focus on the formation of a middle class defined by consumption in the 1950s.  She has presented widely on race, ethnicity, and class in Brazilian history including at the Conference on Latin American History of the American Historical Association and as an invited lecturer at the Museu Histórico da Imigração Japonesa no Brasil in São Paulo.  Ryan has taught courses on race, class, and popular culture in Latin American history at Skidmore College and Emory University.

As an archivist, Ryan worked with the New York State Archives on Ventana al Pasado, a project whose goal was to document the Latino presence in 11 archival repositories throughout New York State.  In particular, Ryan arranged several collections, created or enhanced finding aids and descriptions for around 60 multidisciplinary collections, translated into Spanish or edited translations of all finding aids and metadata for over 3000 images, and created bilingual web content.  More recently, Ryan worked as the Mellon-funded assistant registrar at the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, facilitating class use of the museum’s permanent collection by documenting the collection, conducting faculty outreach, helping faculty develop museum-based activities and assignments, and working with students using museum objects for class assignments.  Based on this experience, Ryan and Visiting Assistant Professor of English Alison Barnes recently published an article in Museum Management and Curatorship that is the first systematic examination of college teaching in museums.

Since August 2012, Ryan has worked as a graduate assistant in the Reference Department at the University at Albany Libraries, spearheading a roving reference project, developing graduate and professional school prep sections of the Undergraduate LibGuide, engaging in collection evaluation projects, and working on the reference desk in the science and main libraries.  In the spring semester of 2013, Ryan completed an internship with Sean Knowlton, Latin American and Iberian Studies Librarian for Columbia and Cornell Universities.  As part of this internship, Ryan helped to create new vendor profiles for the joint Columbia and Cornell collections; made recommendations for book, primary source, and database purchases or subscriptions; and created a Primary Sources LibGuide for Cornell University.

As a Latin American or humanities librarian, Ryan is eager to help future generations of students discover Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian cultures while exploring new strategies for partnerships with faculty.  Ryan’s research interests include applying ideas of embedded librarianship in the academic museum setting, the implications for special collections and libraries of her findings on college teaching in museums, and Brazilian Modernist art.

Betsaida Reyes, M.S.I.S. in Library and Information Services at the SUNY Albany

Betsaida M. Reyes is a graduating Masters student at University at Albany who found her passion while working as an assistant bibliographer for Latin American Studies.  That is when she discovered a perfect balance to her work in Spanish and her enthusiasm for the libraries.  Betsaida has an honorary dual BA in English and Spanish and a MA in Spanish Literature and Linguistics from University at Albany.  She started working at the University Library in her junior year as a student assistant in the acquisitions department.

Fueled by a productive tenure at University at Albany, Betsaida is inspired by any project involving Latin American studies.  Recent activities include volunteering at the Special Collections Department to digitize a collection of photographs taken in Mexico in 1950’s by the Jewish émigré Fritz Neugass. Betsaida is also an active participant of the “Librarian with a Latte” outreach program at the student center’s café. Initially the project was open mainly for Latin American studies students, but this semester it was expanded to the general student community.

In the past year, her work has focused on becoming a bibliographer for Latin American studies.  Given that information literacy instruction is a major part in the duties of a subject librarian, Betsaida spent many hours last semester observing information literacy classes.  This semester she has had the chance to teach several subject-based classes. Betsaida’s highlight of last year was the opportunity to attend the Feria Internacional del Libro (FIL) in Guadalajara, Mexico.  During her trip, she learned in great detail the art of collection development and current research trends.  Attending the FIL was also a great chance network with vendors and other bibliographers.

Betsaida is completing her MA in Information Science this Spring and looks forward to working with SALALM’s Communication Committee.  She has recently accepted a position at the University of Kansas as the Iberoamerican Librarian.

Tags: SALALM Scholarship winners
Category News |

2013 Election Results

The Nominations Committee would like to extend its congratulations to our newly elected SALALM officials. El Comité de Nominaciones quiere felicitar a los nuevos representantes de SALALM.

VICE PRESIDENT/PRESIDENT ELECT (Vicepresidente/Presidente Electo):

Luis Gonzalez (Indiana University)

EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBERS AT LARGE (Miembros del Comité Ejecutivo):

Melissa Gasparotto (Rutgers University)

Sócrates Silva (University of California at Santa Barbara)

Thank you to all who participated in this year’s elections. Gracias a todos aquellos que participaron en las elecciones de este año.

Nominating Committee

Stephanie Rocío Miles, Chair
Harvard University

Marisol Ramos
University of Connecticut

Phil McLeod
Emory University

Category News |

Welcome, new members!

Jennifer Osorio

Jennifer Osorio is the Social Sciences and Humanities Team Leader at UCLA’s Young Research Library. She serves as the liaison to a number of departments including English and American Literature,  Comparative Literature and Ethnic Studies. Since the Fall of 2011, she has also been the Interim Librarian for Spanish and Portuguese and Latin American Studies.

Jill Westen received her MLIS from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2010. From that time until present, she has been an Information Literacy Librarian at Wartburg College in Waverly, IA. She is subject liaison to English, Modern Languages, Music and Art (and interim History and Biology). A major part of each semester is her work with Spanish students and the Spanish and Latin American collection. She also has an MFA in Fiction from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop and is currently shopping a novel.

Category News |

Brazilian Film Series at Indiana University

The “Nelson Pereira dos Santos: Fifty Years of Brazilian Cinema” film series is coming to Indian University April 14-21, 2013.

The film series is part of a number of events honoring Brazilian filmmaker Nelson Pereira dos Santos at Indiana University. In 2012, dos Santos received Indiana University’s Thomas Hart Benton Mural Medallion, the highest honor for individuals who embody the values of the institution.  After Indiana, the celebrated filmmaker will go on a short U.S. tour arranged by IU, which includes visits to UCLA, the Wexner Center at Ohio State, and the City College of New York.  Read more about his visit here.

For complete programming click here.

Luis A. González
Librarian for Latin American Studies
Indiana University

Category News |

Spring 2013 Newsmakers

Angela Carreño (New York University) has been awarded the Coutts Innovation Award in Electronic Resources Management  for her leadership in developing e-book models to serve both local institutions and consortia. Her efforts have also increased the availability of e-books from Spain and Latin America. ¡Felicidades, Angela!

Ruby Gutierrez (HAPI) recently published an article on back-of-the-book indexing in Latin American scholarly monographs. The article, entitled “Scholarly Publications in Latin America: Where, oh Index, Art Thou?”, appears in the March 2013 issue of The Indexer: The International Journal of Indexing (Vol. 31, No. 1), published by the UK-based Society of Indexers. Congratulations, Ruby!

Paul Losch

Pamela Howard-Reguindin was recently interviewed on the Library of Congress website.

Paul Losch from the University of Florida Latin American Collection has won the University of Florida Employee Recognition Committee Star Performer Award for his instrumental work researching and coordinating the conversion of a legacy census data set from the Latin American Data Bank at UF. Parabéns, Paul!

Wendy Pedersen of the Zimmerman Library at the University of New Mexico Albuquerque was recently promoted to Spanish Language approval selector for all Spanish language materials excepting works in Art, Art History, Photography,  and items for Special Collections. Suzanne M. Schadl, Coordinator of Inter American studies & Curator of the Hispanic & Latin American Collections, notes, “For many years, Wendy has administered Latin American approval plans and made valuable notations for Latin Americanist selectors.  Her comments have been indispensable for me over the last five years. I am so happy that UNM has recognized and rewarded Wendy’s talent with this well-deserved promotion.”  Congratulations, Wendy!

Category News |

Tony Harvell Retires

Tony Harvell

This past January Tony Harvell retired after almost 38 years  as an information professional.  His career as a Government Documents librarian started at Ohio University in 1975, later at Miami University in Ohio.  He worked at the University of Florida (1981-1983) and later at the University of Miami (1983-1991). While at the University of Miami, he received his MA in Latin American Studies and began working as Latin American Bibliographer there.

In 1991 he moved to California to the University of San Diego to be Head of Reference and Librarian for Latin American & Iberian Studies. Tony was  later promoted to Head of Collection Management. In 2003 he became Head of Acquisitions at the University of California-San Diego (UCSD), with Latin American Studies always at his side, even if not always as part of his formal duties.  At SALALM’s 59th annual conference (2004), Tony earned the Jose Toribio Medina Award awarded for the best reference work that year (Latin American Dramatists since 1945: a Bio-bibliographical Guide).

In 2009, he was promoted to Distinguished Librarian status at UCSD, the highest rank for the librarian series at the University of California. More recently, Tony assumed the role of Latin American and Iberian Humanities Librarian at UCSD and chaired the California Cooperative Collection Development Group (CALAFIA).

Tony’s first SALALM conference was in 1987 in Miami. Throughout those 25 years, he was an active member serving in various committees. Many of us remember his quick wit and humor, which could make even the driest meeting more enjoyable.  He plans to travel, learn Italian and spend many a sunny day at the beach. Our CALAFIA colleagues and I wish him well on his “jubilación.”

Adán Griego
Stanford University

Tags: retirement
Category News |

Lesbia O. Varona and Esperanza B. de Varona Retire

Dear Friends of the Cuban Heritage Collection,

We write to you to inform you of the retirements of two of the University of Miami Libraries’ most distinguished Professors and colleagues Lesbia O. Varona, Associate Professor and Esperanza B. de Varona, Professor and the Esperanza Bravo de Varona Chair of the Cuban Heritage Collection. Both have informed us of their intention to retire from the University faculty May 31, 2013.

Lesbia O. Varona

Associate Professor Lesbia O. Varona

The work of innumerable students and scholars of Cuba has been enriched by the generosity and expertise of Lesbia O. Varona. She has supported their work by building deep and comprehensive collections and through her tireless efforts as a reference librarian, always on the trail of just the source needed to answer the thousands of research questions that have crossed her desk. Mrs. Varona began her career in research libraries in Havana, Cuba at the Bibliotheca Nacional José Marti, Cuba’s national library, where she worked until 1966. After her arrival in Miami Mrs. Varona joined the staff of the Otto G. Richter Library and has continued to do so over the past four decades. After completing a BA in Spanish at the University of Miami and a master’s in library science at Florida State University, Mrs. Varona became a University of Miami Faculty member with her appointment as Serials Librarian in the Periodicals and Government Publications Department and was soon promoted to Head of Microforms and Reserves, a position she held for ten years. Mrs. Varona currently serves as the Libraries’ Reference Librarian and Cuban and Latin American Bibliographer for the Cuban Heritage Collection and has received distinction as a bibliographer due to her part in building the Libraries’ renown and comprehensive Latin American and Cuban holdings. Mrs. Varona is also known for her extensive scholarly knowledge of literature, the performing arts, theater, and the humanities which she has also used to build rich and deep resources at the University and to support the research of innumerable students and scholars. Mrs. Varona has been an active member of the Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials (SALALM) and is an active participant in the cultural life of South Florida.

Professor Esperanza B. de Varona, the Esperanza Bravo de Varona Chair of the Cuban Heritage Collection

Mrs. Esperanza B. de Varona has contributed unparalleled leadership, creativity, and service and has worked effortlessly as a librarian and archivist to build and establish the Cuban Heritage Collection as one of the most comprehensive internationally recognized archives in the world. Mrs. de Varona’s career at the University of Miami has spanned 40 years and included extensive work and service to the Libraries most specifically to its special collections. Mrs. de Varona led the initiative to build the Roberto C. Goizueta Pavilion and also worked in partnership to secure the Collection’s most recent grant award from The Goizueta Foundation that has supports the acquisition, processing, and digitization of materials and the creation of the undergraduate scholars and graduate fellows research programs. Mrs. de Varona’s reputation and influence have attracted many valuable collections to the University, and she has acted as an outstanding ambassador for the Libraries and the University.

Mrs. de Varona’s service to the University and the Profession are also extensive. She served as a member of the UM Academic Personnel Board, as a founding member and later president of the Society of Florida Archivists, and as a member of the State Historical Records Advisory Board as appointed by three consecutive governors. She is a member of the Society of American Archivists, the Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials (SALALM), and an honorary member of the Beta Phi Mu, the International Library and Information Studies Honor Society. Mrs. de Varona has spoken at many national and international conferences and events and has received many honors and awards to include the Floridiana Award, presented by the Cuban Women’s Club in 1994; the International Award from the Asociación Cultural con Cuba en la Distancia in Cádiz, Spain in 2003; an Award of Excellence from the Society of Florida Archivists in 2004; a Proclamation by Miami-Dade County Office of the Mayor and Board of County Commissioners naming Friday, May 14, 2004 as Esperanza B. de Varona Day; and the “Tributo a la Mujer Hispanic Award” in the category of education by the magazine Vanidades, the world’s leading Spanish-language women’s lifestyle magazine in 2006. In 2009 Mrs. de Varona was also honored as one of the recipients of the Sara Hopkins Woodruff Spectrum Awards for Women awarded by the American Red Cross, receiving the JN McArthur Education Award. Mrs. de Varona has mentored women and Hispanics during her long career and tirelessly promotes the preservation and dissemination of diverse cultures and histories in the community. Mrs. de Varona has worked to build an archive that will serve for generations and leaves a legacy that will support the research of scholars and students internationally for years to come.

We are very pleased to add that both Lesbia and Esperanza will continue to be active in the Cuban Heritage Collection as volunteers so their colleagues, the Libraries, researchers, and the community will continue to benefit from their invaluable experience as we move forward. Their service to the University and their efforts in support of the Libraries and the profession are significant. It is impossible to adequately thank them for their contributions.

Please join us in congratulating them on their distinguished careers and service and wishing them all the best in their retirement.

William D. Walker
Dean and University Librarian
University of Miami Libraries

Yolanda Cooper
Deputy University Librarian
University of Miami Libraries

<

Tags: retirement
Category News |

History of the Book in Hispanic America, 16th-19th Centuries

California Rare Book School is a continuing education program dedicated to providing the knowledge and skills required by professionals working in all aspects of the rare book community, and for students interested in entering the field. Founded in 2005, CalRBS is a project of the Department of Information Studies at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. CalRBS is supported by an informal consortium of many of the academic and research libraries and antiquarian booksellers of Southern California.

For more information, course descriptions, and course and scholarship applications, please see: http://www.calrbs.org/

SALALM members may be particularly interested in “History of the Book in Hispanic America, 16^th – 19^th Centuries,” August 12 – 16, 2013, taught by Daniel J. Slive (Bridwell Library) and David Szewczyk (Philadelphia Rare Books and Manuscripts Company). This course has previously been offered in 2007, 2008, and2012. The course will be based at UCLA.

This course will present a comprehensive introduction to the history of the book in Hispanic America from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries.  The focus will be on colonial period imprints, ca. 1539 through ca. 1830, produced throughout the region.  Topics will include the introduction and dissemination of the printing press; the elements of book production (paper, ink, type, illustrations, bindings); printers and publishers; authors and illustrators; audiences and market; monopolies; and censors, collectors, and libraries.  Additional selected subjects to be discussed include the art of the Spanish American book (including 19^th-century lithography), modern private and institutional collectors, and reference sources.  The course will include first-hand examination of materials in class and field trips to UCLA Special Collections, the Huntington Library, and the Getty Research Institute to view additional rare Hispanic American resources.  Intended for special collections librarians, area studies bibliographers, institutional and private collectors, members of the trade, and scholars with an interest in the region, knowledge of Spanish is not necessary.

Tags: professional development
Category News |