Bogota’s 2013 Book Fair: A Brief “Recorrido”

By the time I arrived in Colombia’s capital for the 2013 Bogotá Book Fair (Filbo) the book festival had already opened its doors to the public, with a group of SALAMistas among those in attendance. A la caza de los libros noted Wisconsin’s Paloma Celis Carbajal as she joined an eager weekend crowd of book enthusiasts.

One of the first stops was Arte Dos Gráfico. Our library already holds a large selection of their artist books, and after a two year absence from the Fair, there were bound to be novedades to enhance ours and the collections of other SALALM libraries.

Thanks to my SALALM colleagues who had already explored the many pabellones, on my first day at the fair I knew I should stop by the aisle housing several independent publishers: Luna, Laguna, and La Silueta that were new to many of us. Their collective output ranged from detective fiction to graphic novels. Along with Tragaluz, they provided a representative sample of quality titles from the independent press.

The ever present e-book could also be found at Filbo, and not just at the “bigigies.” The independents have realized that a new community of readers expects digital content and some of them now sell e-book cards at over 12 bookshops in Bogotá where lectores can buy an e-book and upload it to their laptop, ipad, etc. They are also available for several e-readers. An adventurer SALAMista wanted some detective fiction and bought an e-card on the spot. We hope to hear a report on that experience.

The fair is divided into several pabellones, with some publishers having a presence at all of them, often confusing but also reminding a tired Californian of the variety of Colombia’s publishing output. This year Portugal was the featured country and fair publicity included several allusions to a “sea of books” that “engulfed the reader.”

At one of the booths selling remainders “from the best publishers in the world,” the vendedor seemed certain that my accent was from Spain and asked if I knew the Nobel laureates from the other side of the Atlantic. I named what I could remember (Cela, Benavente and Echegaray) and he asked, “were they any good?” I was tempted to give him the polite version of NPI (no puedo informarle), but opted for “algunos mas que otros.”

Wondering through a sea of books one can find the unexpected, like a cookbook (Cocina criolla cartagenera de Veddá Veddá, OCLC: 757913880) from Transformemos, which has been honored at a culinary contest in Paris, as the radio report notes. An earlier video showcased the proud Cartageneros long before their recetas de cocina were to become an international sensation.

After an exhausting 2 days at the crowded Corferia aisles, a late afternoon excursion to the movies became an adventure through a cartelera dominated by foreign titles, with only one Colombian production that turned out to be the right choice: Roa. The film explores the 1948 killing of a well-known political leader in what became the Bogotazo, that left more than 3,000 dead and ushered in a period of political violence. It’s based on the novel El crimen del siglo and has been reissued with the protagonist on the cover to capitalize on what is certain to become a local hit, which we hope can reach the art house circuit in the United States.

Although he has lived away for many years, Gabriel García Márquez, Colombia’s Nobel laureate, dominates the literary scene and he is being introduced to a new generation of readers via a graphic novel (Gabo memorias de una vida mágica) published simultaneously in Colombia and Spain.

On the last day the weather indicated rain and a visit to Librería Lerner seemed like good way to supplement Filbo’s offering. The Lerner-Norte staff endured the capricious requests of 2 SALAmistas, at times bombarding the knowledgeable Don Willie with an avalanche of non-existent titles: “todas la reinas in the title and published by la gallina ciega,” insisted yours truly. Don Willie patiently looked around and found it, Locas de felicidad (OCLC: 611409632) published by La iguana ciega!

The 2013 Filbo will be open to the public for 14 days. It expects over 400,000 vistors, among them would have been a group of SALALM and REFORMA librarians whose visit was supported by book fair organizers: Cámara Colombiana del Libro and Proexport. The group’s visit was highlighted on the book fair’s blog.

Adan Griego,
Curator for Iberoamerican Collections
Stanford University Libraries

Images/Photos
1) Feria del Libro

2) Hortensia Calvo (Tulane), Teresa Chapa (North Carolina-Chapel Hill), courtesy of Adan Griego

3) E-books, courtesy of Adan Griego

4) Entrance to Portugal’s Pabellón, courtesy of Paloma Celis-Carbajal (Wisconsin)

5) Gabo graphic novel, publisher image.

6) Lerner Book shop staff, courtesy of Adan Griego

7) SALALM librarians, courtesy of Adan Griego

See other images in Facebook

Tags: book fairs, Colombia
Category SALALM Blog, SALALM Speaks |

Dumb Assessment to Smart Assessment: Measuring Student Learning

Do you assess your instruction or research classes? Not sure where to begin? Think it’s all a waste of time? You need to attend the amazingly titled “Dumb Assessment to Smart Assessment: Measuring Student Learning” workshop to be held at SALALM this year.

Designed and facilitated by Anne Barnhart, AJ Johnson, Meagan Lacy and Alison Hicks, this workshop will focus on the assessment of library instruction.  We’ll take student learning outcomes focused on Latin American Studies-related topics and then create assessment tools with appropriate evaluation rubrics. Facilitators will guide participants through the creation of measurable assessment tools and practical rubrics. Participants will learn about the value of assessment and collecting and managing assessment data.  Participants will also submit a project to the workshop facilitators and then later in the course of the SALALM conference the workshop facilitators will give the participants feedback on their work.

PLEASE NOTE: Attendance is limited! Please reserve your spot by emailing Anne Barnhart: barnhartuwg@gmail.com

Important Details

• Date: Saturday 18th May, 9-12.30
• Location: At the SALALM hotel (Westin Colonnade Hotel, Coral Gables, Florida)
• Cost: Free!
• Pre-requisites: None! While this workshop will build on the work done in Trinidad, attendance at the 2012 preconference is not a prerequisite for participation.

Category SALALM Blog, SALALM Conference, SALALM Events, SALALM Speaks |

Bandits, Rebels and Other Subversives at an Antiquarian Book Fair.

The month of February is shorter this year but it brought plenty of visual stimulation: from the Codex International Artist Book Fair right up to the California Antiquarian Book Fair, with several of the same exhibitors and librarians attending both events.

On the Fair’s opening day private collectors are among the first to arrive looking for one (or several) of the many treasures brought from all over the word, some more affordable than others. This Fair alternates between Los Angeles and San Francisco and one year the rumor was that a Hollywood actor in dark glasses was among those “early birds.”

As librarians, our mission is to document culture in its multiple manifestations. And there we were: Theresa Salazar (Bancroft Library), several other colleagues from as far as England and yours truly, sharing the exhibit hall with SALALM vendors (Alfonso Vijil and Beverly Karno) along with other rare book enthusiasts.

This year there were fewer exhibitors from Europe, mostly from the U.K and Germany, with others from France, Holland and even one from Hungary.

As I made my way through the exhibit hall, I encountered a pristine copy of Album Pintoresco de la Repúbica Mexicana, from a French exhibitor, with a price tag of $30,000 for the original 1850 edition! I asked if I could see it and the vendor was most affable. How can I forget the image of the women making tortillas. Once I had a peculiar reference question: to verify if a similar image by Diego Rivera had a title other than tortilleras. The patron wanted to include it in a textbook to teach Spanish, where the language has to be as neutral as possible and she hoped for another word to reference that culinary art that other visual artists like Carl Nebel captured in their travelogues.

At $1,200 and even $3,500 a copy of the 19th-century California “bandit” Tiburcio Vasquez looked like a bargain! The legendary Californio has been in the news recently after the city of Salinas, birth place of Nobel laureate John Steinbeck, decided to name a school after Vasquez. Interestingly, news headlines used some of the same words from this book: bandit and murderer. Other media venues opted for gang leader, outlaw and even serial killer!

More affordable items could also be found, like Mexican vintage travel brochures for less than $30. Some pamphlets were jointly issued by the National Tourist Council and the railways, while others came from the Pemex Travel Club and were clearly designed to showcase the country’s cultural heritage to tourists. Gone was that 19th century publicity aimed at luring potential foreign investors to mining and agricultural ventures during the Porfiriato when an add referred to the regions of the western sierras as a “sub-tropical Switzerland.”

There were other visually attractive items, like a Spanish Civil War poster. By the last day of the Fair it seemed to have found a home away from the Bolerium Books radical movements collection. From the same period, there was also a display case with several first editions of Hemingway’s novels next to an original matador outfit and photos of the writer and other celebrities at a corrida, clearly when the fiesta brava was considered quite a glamorous event.

Not everything was old, the current can gain new life as unique and rare, like the limited edition portfolio of protest art: Migration NOW, or even a historical map of 1825 North America, reminded us that the region constantly experienced movements of people both North-South and East-West, and this time: North-South.

Adan Griego, Stanford University Libraries.

Images:
1) Alfonso Vijil, Theresa Salazar and Clemente Orozco (courtesy of Adan Griego)
2) Beverly Karno and Adan Griego (courtesy of Peter Hanff, Bancroft Library)
3) Las tortilleras (http://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3519047)
4) Tiburcio Vasquez (www.dsloan.com/Auctions/A15/A15Web183-185.htm)
5) Travel posters (courtesy of Adan Griego)
6) Protest prints (http://migrationnow.com/)

Tags: antiquarian book trade, book fairs
Category SALALM Speaks |

Latin America at the 2013 International Codex Artist Book Fair

When the first Codex Artist Book Fair opened in 2007 it was a bold move, probably questioned by those who saw the future of books in anything but the printed word, much less, those handmade, not matter how artistically crafted. Six years later, opening day for Codex IV experienced such a success that organizers ran out of tickets and had to improvise as the day progressed. An elderly couple wondered what was going on: “it’s a book fair, an artist book fair,” I added, on my way the exhibit hall. They were seen later that day browsing the aisles with almost 200 exhibitors from all over the world.

As in previous years, Europe had the largest contingent but Latin America was well represented with over 10 artists and exhibitors: Mexico alone had eight registered exhibitors. Several of the Latin American artist books are present in many SALALM libraries, like the works of Taller Ditoria from Guadalajara and Catherine Docter from Guatemala. Perhaps less familiar is the cultural production of several other book artists, all of whom have been admired by the more than 4,000 attendees at Codex IV.

Mexico’s varied presence is due in great part to the Codex Foundation’s efforts to reach beyond Western Europe and Anglophone speaking-areas. A recent cultural “encuentro” of California and Mexican book artists was held in several venues: Tequila and Guadalajara (Fall 2011) and Puebla (Summer 2012). That fruitful artistic dialogue has come North. It will soon travel East to our nation’s capital later this Spring at the Mexican Cultural Institute.

Latin America was also present with fellow SALALMista Steven Daiber from Red Trillium Press, who had recently returned from Cuba, also attending from the Caribbean was Consuelo Gotay. Germany’s Eckhard Froeschlin arrived via Matagalpa, Nicaragua. San Francisco’s Luis Delgado Qualtrough and Moving Parts Press augmented Latin America’s presence.

You can check Codex Mexico for more photos of both Codex 2013 and the previous exhibits in Mexico. There will also be updates on the upcoming Washington, DC show that opens in late March and will have a symposium on April 19-20.

See also blog posting from Codex III in 2011.

Adan Griego, Stanford University Libraries.

Tags: artist books, book fairs
Category SALALM Blog, SALALM Speaks |

Doing a HAPI Internship Remotely

In the digital age one can obtain a college degree, work, and yes even do an internship from home. Many professional, economic, and lifestyle options exist today that were unimaginable a decade ago. Indeed, long distance collaboration, both synchronous and asynchronous, is becoming an increasingly commonplace feature of work and learning.

A HAPI internship can be completed remotely and designed with considerable flexibility. I chose to do mine over the Fall 2012 semester so that I could obtain 3 credit hours toward my MSLS degree at the University of Kentucky. The professional knowledge I gained was invaluable, and the compensation I earned paid for the college credit and then some.

The purpose of my internship was to help HAPI director, Orchid Mazurkiewicz, evaluate the quality of the journals indexed by HAPI and help her devise more objective criteria for selecting and deselecting titles. A bibliometric analysis was undertaken to explore how HAPI’s content “measured up” in the universe of Latin American serials, its content representing about 3% of known Latin American titles. This task was a tall order. It involved considerable fact finding that taught us about the strengths and weaknesses of various Latin American databases (Latindex, BIBLAT, SciELO, Redalyc, and SCImago). We also discovered the strengths and weaknesses, uses and misuses, of different bibliometric measures (impact factors, use measures, etc.). In addition, we got a good sense of the challenges involved in soliciting qualitative information from the SALALM membership. In the end, we learned important things about HAPI, about the global imbalance of scholarly literature, and about judging the worth of journals. In essence, we laid the groundwork for developing a systematic approach to improving and ensuring the intellectual caliber of HAPI’s indexed content.

Elements that contributed to the success of the project were: (1) weekly Skype meetings with Orchid, (2) coordination of all project tasks using a project management software, BaseCamp, that was accessed online with a password, (3) open source software for designing surveys, (4) my past experience with database design, data analysis, and statistics, and (5) free online access to the bibliometric data of Latin American databases. Abilities to work independently, communicate effectively in writing, as well as set and meet deadlines were also important.

Factors that affect the success of an online internship are similar to those that would impact an in-person one. Clarifying expectations at the outset along with the nature/content of deliverables is of paramount importance. Integrity, that is, following through on what you say you are going to do is also critical. Flexibility and understanding on the part of both mentor and mentee are also necessary to accommodate life’s inevitable unexpected events. Dedication to a quality outcome, as exhibited through hard work and creativity, is also a big plus.

The most rewarding aspects of my internship may be yet to come. There’s no telling where the new friendships and professional associations will lead. Orchid and I plan to share the results of our bibliometric project at SALALM Miami as a prelude to publishing them in an academic journal. No matter who you are or where you reside, a HAPI internship could be a valuable step in your professional development.

Tags: BaseCamp, BIBLAT, bibliometrics, Bruce Bachand, distance learning, HAPI, impact factors, internships, journals, Latindex, Orchid Mazurkiewicz, Redalyc, SALALM Scholarship winners, SALALM58, SciELO, SCImago, use measures
Category SALALM Speaks |

Todos somos lectores: Reporting from the 2012 Guadalajara International Book Fair

At 26 you can claim a life of your own and Guadalajara’s 26th International Book Fair (FIL) has certainly lived up to that expectation, having been called the most important book event in the Spanish language by Spain’s leading daily El País, which carried a supplement dedicated to FIL events.

This year Chile was the featured country (also “honored” in 1999) and its book stand experienced such an avalanche of readers that by the second day a young writer said “I want to move to Mexico, here thye read my books,” pointing to her recent novel…clearly on the way to selling out.

Among the profesionales del libro were 100 librarians from the United States as part of the ALA-FIL Pass program, while fewer in numbers than in previous years, they were quite an enthusiastic group of book buyers. Jesus Alonso Regalado (SUNY-Albany) can probably claim to be the single most eager client: he acquired more than 100 new titles at the Chilean stand…and still had several days left!

As usual, the media conglomerates held the largest and most visible stands but there were also signs of other voices with Corredor Sur; Contrabandos; EGALES or Chile’s independent publishers and the more alternative Furia del Libro, all pointing to a segment of the book industry that struggles to remain competitive.

What was to have been a celebration of the literary prize awarded since 1992 became a cause célèbre: this year’s winner, Peruvian writer Alfredo Bryce Echenique, was accused of plagiarism. His name, while barely mentioned by organizers, still appeared in news coverage. With multiple events held in his honor, it almost felt as if the recently deceased Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes had been the winner. In fact, it was Fuentes who had calmed FIL’s boisterous crowd at the opening ceremony six years earlier as it booed the outgoing Minister of Culture.

The current Minister, Consuelo Saizar, has gained more respect than her predecessor. For a recent profile in the popular culture monthly Gatopardo, Saizar noted among her accomplishments the acquisition of personal libraries of several Mexican writers. These collections are housed in the Biblioteca de México “José Vasconcelos and are being made available to users in a state of the art facility similar to that of Guadalajara’s recently opened Biblioteca Pública del Estado de Jalisco “Juan José Arreola.”

This new Jalisco State Library has a capacity for 2 million volumes and among its holdings is the Benjamin Franklin collection of works on the United States. On FIL’s opening day, the United States ambassador presented a book donation to augment this collection at a ceremony attended by several REFORMA colleagues and I. This modest attempt at cultural diplomacy is noteworthy and could be replicated elsewhere, it costs so little and goes so far.

Librarians were not just book buyers: Paloma Celis Carbajal (Univ. of Wisconsin) participated on a panel discussion about the editoriales cartonersas; Patricia Figueroa (Brown University) was busy interviewing new writers for Nuevas Referencias, her bilingual blog; and I presented on
e-books.

One of the local dailies misquoted some of my presentation but Milenio’s summary of the current e-book landscape in U.S. libraries and the need for additional Spanish language digital content was right on the mark.

I hope to continue presenting with humor and tono jocoso, as the Guadalajara daily complimented this humble experto!

Adan Griego, Stanford University Libraries

Tags: book fairs, Chile, FIL-Guadalajara, travel notes
Category SALALM Speaks |

Dispatch from the South: Santiago’s International Book Fair-2012

For Chilean publishers this has been a hectic month with both the LIBER-Barcelona and Frankfurt book fairs in October, while preparing for the country’s most important cultural event of the year: the 32nd annual Santiago Book Fair (FILSA).

The Fair opened to the public featuring Ecuador’s president not only as the main political figure of the país invitado, but also as an author himself. There followed a one day hiatus for municipal elections where the ruling conservative party unexpectedly lost several important posts. I arrived as the polls had closed and one of the winning candidates celebrated in the capital’s Plaza de Armas.

Unlike previous years, the professional days were held after the Fair’s official opening with Education and Library conferences complementing several panel presentations on publishing. Nowadays, such a discussion cannot avoid at least a round table on e-books.

One of the speakers from Brazil reminded attendees that the future had already arrived and that reality included e-books. Perhaps the engaging appeal to retool from a neighboring Latin American country found an audience more willing to accept that call than those that have previously come from United States or European presenters, where often a local response is: “that’s over there, in our countries….”

Also attending was Amazon’s representative for the Southern Cone, based in Buenos Aires, noting that Chileans are among the top consumers of digital content, with the obvious call for publishers to add their titles to the Kindle’s many e-book options. Interestingly enough, the Fair itself had a space showcasing a Kindle and Nook e-readers, featuring publicity from Buscalibre; Amabooks; and DigitalBooks sharing the same area with the alternative publishers of La Furia del Libro that included several graphic novel titles.

Many of the same media comglomerates seen at other Spanish-speaking book fairs were present, always with the most visible spaces. Even when they dominate the publishing landscape, these publishers don’t always distribute Latin American authors within the hemisphere. So, it was not unusual that Oswaldo Bazan’s latest novel published by Mondadori in neighboring Argentina could not be found either at the Fair or some of the likely bookshops in the city, Metales Pesados and Ulises. One of the few exceptions is Pedro Lemebel, perhaps the country’s best known chronicler who filled up the Fair’s largest auditorium at the launching of his latest book Háblame de amor.

Long distance travels often bring insomnia and late night local TV programs can sometimes lead to great discoveries, as was the case of the young writer ADO (Antonio Díaz Oliva) whose novel La soga de los muertos was the subject of a long interview.

This year, Chile is the featured country at the upcoming Guadalajara International Book Fair and the more than 150 US librarians attending will see a wide selection of publishers and titles. Cuarto Propio’s gender studies and social science/humanities books, Lom’s humanities and social science collection (much of it already available as e-books via Digitalia), and Uqbar’s film studies titles will most certainly be of interest to academic libraries. For the public library sector, Literalia will bring several children’s books. Pehuen will also have children’s titles, along with a series of photography books documenting the indigenous Mapuche culture, which can be of interest to both public and academic users.

US book lovers may soon be able to read some of the same books that the more than 260,000 attendees browsed at FILSA-2012. Check it out at your the nearest library!

Adan Griego,
Curator for Latin American Collections-Stanford University Libraries

Tags: book fairs, travel notes
Category SALALM Speaks |

Enlace Fellows share their experiences at SALALM57

Haber sido beneficiaria de la beca Enlace para participar en el LVII SALALM- Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials entre el 16 y el 19 de junio de 2012, ha sido una excelente experiencia personal y profesional.

Es muy importante no sólo por el honor de haber recibido apoyo del SALALM para viajar a Puerto España (Trinidad y Tobago) para dar a conocer las maravillosas colecciones de la Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango del Banco de la República (Bogotá, Colombia), sino porque SALALM es un espacio en el que es posible intercambiar conocimientos y experiencias con bibliotecarios y libreros de diferentes lugares del mundo, especializados en América Latina.

El tema del Seminario, Popular Culture: Arts and Social Change in Latin America, permitió una riqueza excepcional en las exposiciones, no sólo porque en algunos casos eran tópicos poco desconocidos, sino porque algunos fueron presentados desde perspectivas muy interesantes. La oportunidad de escuchar en los diferentes paneles las experiencias y proyectos en curso de diferentes instituciones me permite estar al tanto del trabajo que adelantan para adquirir, preservar y divulgar sus colecciones; así como conocer las fortalezas, inquietudes e incertidumbres que enfrentan (y enfrentamos) en nuestra misión.

Adicionalmente, la oportunidad de dialogar de forma abierta y productiva con los participantes, de hacer o retomar contactos, estuvo mediada por una muy buena disposición e interés mutuo. Destaco la posibilidad del encuentro con libreros especializados, el cual resultará en el fortalecimiento de nuestras colecciones, resultado muy importante para mi institución.

Finalmente, encontrar tanta calidez humana, profesionalismo e interés en nuestra región hace que SALALM sea un foro ideal para trabajar en el rescate y preservación del patrimonio cultural latinoamericano, por lo que considerar regresar es un propósito firme para el futuro.

Diana Patricia Restrepo Torres

Diana Patricia Restrepo Torres & Fernando da Silva Assumpção

Apresentar o trabalho, no SALALM, a respeito do projeto de catalogação e higienização do Acervo da Academia Brasileira de Literatura de Cordel, trouxe sensações surpreendente. A literatura de cordel, certamente, é a manifestação cultural, dita popular, mais próxima dos bibliotecários e das bibliotecas. Porque, como produto final, de nossa expressão máxima, são os folhetos, os livros e os livretos.

O tema de SALALM deste ano – cultura popular, permitiu dar luz a este tipo de expressão cultural, contribuiu para o debate, a valorização, a difusão do cordel. Para nós do Brasil e, envolvidos com a literatura de cordel, sentimos que ampliar os espaços, desfronteirizar e transbordar os limites geográficos permite dar um papel significativo ao que representa a literatura de cordel no que tange ao processo de identidade nacional.

Obrigado ao SALALM e que eu possa contribuir mais vezes ao tão coeso e harmônico grupo.

Fernando da Silva Assumpção

Tags: Enlace, SALALM57
Category SALALM Speaks |

Pecha Kucha 2012!

Standing room only at the very last panel of the SALALM 2012 conference: Pecha Kucha! This is the third time that we have run a Pecha Kucha, where participants are allowed roughly 7 minutes to present their work. There was a wide variety of fabulous topics- thanks to presenters and participants!

Here are the presenters’ presentations and details. Enjoy!

Alison Hicks, University of Colorado, Boulder.

What Digital Collection? Issues of Collection Development, Cataloging Trends and Standards, and Ethical Considerations of Underground Music in the Caribbean and Latin America / Samuel Wicks (University of Pittsburgh)

Developing Local Cataloging Procedures for Access to Foreign-Language Films / Tina Gross (St. Cloud State University)

Strategies for Patron-Initiated Acquisitions / Sarah Wenzel (University of Chicago)

Collaborative Digital Archiving: a Non-Custodial Approach / Carolyn Palaima (University of Texas)

Library Outreach using Library a la Carte (TM) / Laura Shedenhelm (University of Georgia)

Publish or Perish? Supporting Graduate Students as Aspiring Authors / Barbara Alvarez (University of Michigan)

Tags: Alison Hicks, Barbara Alvarez, Carolyn Palaima, Laura Shedenhelm, Pecha Kucha, SALALM57, Samuel Wicks, Sarah Wenzel, Tina Gross
Category SALALM Speaks |

Cine Chileno Online

Jesus Alonso-Regalado (SUNY Albany) just updated his Latin American and Spanish Videos Freely Available on the Internet: A Guide to Web Resources – Library Guides at University at Albany page to include CINE CHILENO ONLINE, in his words, “an excellent website that provides access to many Chilean feature films, documentaries and short films online.” Check it out!

Tags: Chile, film, Jesus Alonso-Regalado
Category SALALM Speaks |