When SALALM Took Root in Kansas

• By: MMachuca
• On: 05/22/2025 12:23:44
• In: SALALM Conferences

Summer of 1968. The world was in motion:

• Across the United States, protests against the Vietnam War intensified, culminating in the dramatic scenes of unrest at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
• In Mexico, university students were mobilizing en masse, setting the stage for the Tlatelolco massacre just months later.
• Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated in April; Robert F. Kennedy followed in June.
• Paris had just emerged from the events of Mai '68, when students and workers nearly brought the French state to a halt.
• And in Prague, the Czechoslovak experiment in "socialism with a human face" was about to be crushed by Soviet tanks.

Such was the state of the world when 115 librarians and scholars gathered in Lawrence, Kansas, for the thirteenth Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials (SALALM XIII). Hosted by the University of Kansas Libraries, the meeting was modest in size but marked a pivotal shift: SALALM would become a formal organization, electing officers and laying the groundwork for the institution it is today.
 
Documenting this moment was Kent E. Miller, then a young librarian at KU—and still a valued member of the KU Libraries staff. In fact, he was recently honored for an extraordinary 60 years of service. His report captures not only the discussions of the day—on microfilming, retrospective collection development, and bibliographic control—but also the spirit of an emerging community of Latin Americanists determined to build something enduring—one reel of microfilm at a time.
 
His report follows:
 
XIII SALALM
 
The thirteenth Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials met at the University of Kansas Libraries June 20-22, 1968, with 115 participants from the United States and
Latin America. Although previous Seminars had provided a forum for the discussion of problems of acquiring Latin American materials on a less formal basis, one of the highlights of XIII SALALM was the formalization of the institutional structure by incorporation. As a part of the process, officers were elected, with the distinguished historian A. Curtis Wilgus of Miami, Florida, as the first president, and Carl Deal, formerly at K. U. and currently at the University of Illinois, as vice-president and president-elect. Dr. Gilberto Fort, Latin American Bibliographer in the K. U. Libraries, was elected to the executive board, while Marietta Daniels Shepard, who has very largely carried the organizi.ng burden of previous seminars, was appointed executive secretary.
 
As in other years, the Seminar was devoted primarily to a specific problem. The major focus was upon developing collections of retrospective materials, with two working papers dealing specifically with this topic. In addition, four working papers on topics of continuing concern to the Seminar were presented.
 
The first working paper was a progress report by Mrs. Shepard, who discussed current programs of significance to Latin American librarians. Most important among these are several microfilming projects, some in the planning stages, and others already begun. Basic census and statistical publications from several Latin American countries are being filmed and are available from Pan American Books, and publications from other countries are being considered for reproduction by this firm and by Microcard Editions. OAS official records and Pan American Union publications are also being reproduced in microfiche by Microcard Editions. Newspaper microfilming is being done by two agencies. The Center for Research Libraries is filming official gazettes from the Latin American countries, and a few other major dailies. The University of Florida Library is filming newspapers from the Caribbean area, and a few selected papers from other countries. Official documents listed under “Recent Books” in the Inter-American Review of Bibliography are currently being microfilmed by the Erasmus Press. One of the most interesting projects discussed in “Mexico on Microfilm,” a plan to film Mexican archives. Funded by a consortium of libraries, this work is scheduled to begin with the judicial archives of Guadalajara, with a projected total of 20,000 rolls of microfilm.
 
Also of continuing interest to SALALM were the papers of Jane Garner, Herman H. Cline, and Rosa M. Abella. The Garner report listed significant acquisitions of subject collections and serials in the Latin American field by U. S. libraries. Cline reported on bibliographies produced and in progress since the last SALALM, with most of his material compiled from other published sources. The second supplement to the bibliography of periodicals emanating from the Cuban exile community was contributed by Miss Abella. The original compilation and the first supplement appeared as working papers in previous Seminars. The last two working papers dealt chiefly with retrospective materials: a list including both retrospective and current titles for college and university undergraduate collections, by Nina Cohen, and a description of the preservation of retrospective Latin American materials from the New York Public Library on microfilm, by Joseph A. Rosenthal.
 
The six sessions of the Seminar gave all participants the opportunity to raise questions and make comments on these papers, and upon other topics. One of the significant areas of discussion was the shortage of qualified librarians in all Latin American countries. Remarks were made by several graduates of the Escuela InterAmericana de Bibliotecologia, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellin, Colombia, and by the Director of the school, Dr. Luis Floren, explaining the efforts being made at this institution to fill the gap. Other programs, such as that at the University of Texas, and at the Kansas State Teachers College, which prepare specialists to work with Latin American materials, were mentioned.
 
The Seminars provide an excellent opportunity for the interchange of ideas among Latin American library specialists in the United States, and also librarians from Latin America and other regions of the world. The results of the XIII SALALM, working papers and proceedings, are available in provisional form at the University Libraries, and will be published this Winter by the Pan American
Union.
 
Source: Miller, Kent (1968). SALALM XIII, Books and Libraries at the University of Kansas, Lawrence. Volume 6, Number1, Pgs. 5-6. September 1968.