Report by Marie Sexton, Principal Librarian, Asian Collections, National Library of Australia on the meeting held 18-20 May 1996, prior to CONSAL X, Kuala Lumpur.
Kent Mulliner (chair), Ohio University ; Australia : Oliver Mann, Northern Territory University, Darwin; George Miller, Australian National University Library, Canberra; Marie Sexton, National Library of Australia, Canberra; Indonesia : Amelia McKenzie, National Library of Australia Regional Officer, Asia, Jakarta; Will Tuchrello, LC Field Officer, Jakarta; Malaysia : Asma Ahmet, Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur; Jacelyn Chang, LC Malaysian Office, Kuala Lumpur; Zaleha, Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur; Singapore : Ch'ng Kim See, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies; United States of America : Lan Hiang Char, University of Hawaii Library, Honolulu; Judith Henchy, University of Washington Libraries, Seattle; Susan Go, University of Michigan Library, Ann Arbor; Lian The-Mulliner, Ohio University Library; Virginia Shih, University of California, Berkeley
Saturday p.m. : New technology : an approach to co-operation :
Sunday : Materials acquisitions
Monday a.m. : Preservation
Monday p.m. Report on LC Acquisition Programs and final resolutions
Oliver Mann spoke on "Co-operative indexing : the need". He listed some of the various types of indexes for the Southeast Asian region with their variations and overlaps and gaps. Backlogs have effected the currency of many indexes. Problems with funding and staff, financial and time constraints affected outputs. Sometimes initial seed funding is reduced or runs out. Overlap between indexes means that there is wasted effort which could be used to fill gaps. Some co-operation between indexes is already in place : INTAN MAS and LIPI exchange records, for example. Possibilities for co-operation might be to rationalise existing efforts; pair institutions to work on a single topic or index; come to common agreements on formats, thesauri to be used, standards, etc.; medium of publication might be discussed between producers. Use of multiple CDROM, containing a number of databases, would mean that there could be consolidation of searching.
During discussion, Kent Mulliner described the initiative that the U.S. Association of Research libraries (ARL) has sent to CORMOSEA. He, Judith Henchy, and Carol Mitchell (of the University of Wisconsin) have been named to a CORMOSEA committee to respond. Essentially, the ARL has invited CORMOSEA to present a proposal for the next phase in its Global Research Program. The ARL proposes focusing on a table-of-contents/indexing database for Southeast Asia with document delivery. The ARL program is described in Jutta Reed-Scott, Scholarship, Research Libraries and Global Publishing. Washington, D.C., ARL, 1996.
There was some difference of emphasis in approach in the group between those who sought fast access through a system like Carl-Uncover to Southeast Asian information and those who felt that there should be attention given to the greater dissemination and co-ordination of indexing already being done in the countries of the region. The indexing of vernacular periodical publishing raised a different set of problems to those in English language publications. A limited amount of the indexing done in the region was already available on the Internet or in disk form as well as print form. The commercial realities of indexing were discussed : when indexing commences in machine-readable form, the database to be searched is small and does not attract much use and revenue; the selection of titles must also be effected by demand, rather than strictly limited to research value.
Courses of future action might include the following :
1. encouraging more libraries to input data into the Australian National University Library's Indonesian Serials Database (http://www.anu.edu.au/Asia/Indo/IndSer.html) . This was a fairly cost-effective type of indexing and to date, there is little Bahasa Indonesia periodical indexing available online. If this approach worked, it could be tried for the periodical literature of other countries where there is a lack of current online indexing.
2. encourage discussion within the region of materials which are not yet indexed e.g. theses, collected works, newspapers.
3. encourage the CONSAL National Libraries to seek funding to encourage discussion of issues of standards, formats, etc. Possibly the ASEAN Committee of Culture and Information (COCI) might be interested? In ASEAN projects, there were "Dialog Partners", which provided for the twinning of countries from outside the region with countries in ASEAN.
Resolutions on vernacular Southeast Asian indexing :
The International Southeast Asian Resources Specialists agreed on the following strategy to achieve a comprehensive indexing coverage of vernacular Southeast Asian periodical literature and composite works :
Resolution 1 : Short term
Based on the existing Indonesian Serials Database (http://www.anu.edu.au/Asia/Indo/IndSer.html) at the Australian National University, it was agreed that participants will investigate the possibility of contributing indexing of additional titles not now represented in the database.
Additional funding will be sought to continue data input at ANU and develop indexing capabilities within Indonesian institutions.
Resolution 2 : Medium term
Build links with and develop the expertise of institutions in the region in developing electronic indexing, with provision of appropriate technology infrastructure support. The CONSAL National Librarians' Group survey of databases was endorsed and the co-ordination of electronic indexing efforts within the Southeast Asian countries was encouraged.
Resolution 3 : Long term
The meeting endorsed a proposal to the ASEAN Committee on Culture and Information (COCI) for a co-operative regional indexing database, which would build on existing indexing efforts. As provided in the ASEAN mechanism, US and Australian libraries could work as Dialog Partners in the project to support this application.
As Dialog Partners, they could facilitate access to information created outside the region. English language indexing data can be provided by US librarians to the regional databases. National and international library and information science bodies should be involved.
Resolution 4 : A mirror site (for the vernacular Southeast Asia indexing) should be provided in the United States. It would be desirable to include entries from the Bibliography of Asian Studies.
Australia
Amelia McKenzie presented a paper on the operations of the Indonesian Acquisitions Program. She pointed out that the program is quite small and tightly focused and her keywords for its operation were simplicity and cost effectiveness. There were now five participant libraries which received packages : Monash University (Clayton, Victoria) , Murdoch University (Western Australia) and Flinders University of South Australia, Northern Territory University (Darwin) and the National Library of Singapore. The National Library of Australia receives a wide selection of commercial monographs and serials, newspapers and government publications through purchase and exchange from her Program. The greatest problem is in the dispatch of materials out of the country and customs clearances, etc. She said that the best long-term solution for the supply of Indonesian books is for the development of a local Indonesian book supply trade which can supply library materials such as books, serials and newspapers to overseas customers.
Marie Sexton then presented a paper on the wider Australian situation and covered issues such as preservation, electronic materials and collaborative activities. Preservation activities from Australia had mainly focused on the development of infrastructure in the Southeast Asian region through training programs, promotion of preservation and the international activities of the IFLA Regional Centre for Preservation and Conservation (PAC) which operated in the National Preservation Office, National Library of Australia.
Dr T. Matthew Ciolek of the Coombs Computing Centre, Australian National University, had established an international centre of excellence in the listing of Asian electronic sources. Highlights of indexing activities in Australia were : INTAN MAS at the Northern Territory University, the Indonesian Serials Database (http://www.anu.edu.au/Asia/Indo/IndSer.html) at ANU and the Directory of Databases on Asia (http://www.alia.org.au/~apsig/directory.html) which has been recently compiled by Nereida Cross (University of New South Wales) and edited by Susan MacDougall for the Asia Pacific Special Interest Group of the Australian Library and Information Association. Both this directory and INTAN MAS are included in the new electronic publication Asia ROM : social sciences and Asia, issued by INFORMIT of Melbourne and available through SilverPlatter.
National collaborative efforts on Asian librarianship have been fostered by the Distributed National Collection Office, NLA, through the holding of meetings and the compilation of statistical information.
Library of Congress, Kuala Lumpur Office :
Jacelyn Chang described the operations of the Office in acquiring Malaysian publications for the participants in the Library of Congress Southeast Asian Acquisition Program. The Kuala Lumpur Office had been set up in 1990 to improve the supply. It has two employees. Commercial publications are supplied by Parry's Bookstore. Government publications are acquired direct. Serial publications are now being sent direct to US participant libraries from Kuala Lumpur. Publications from Brunei and Eastern Malaysia will be given more attention in future in order to improve supply. The impact of the operation of the Library of Congress programs upon the local booktrade was discussed.
Southeast Asia
Ch'ng Kim See then outlined the general state of material acquisition within the region. Her library at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) is probably the only comprehensive Southeast Asian collection in the region. She raised questions concerning the continuance of the Library of Congress programs in the region and the high cost of field trips to acquire material.
Can acquisition trips be dealt with on a more co-operative basis? Various issues and problems were discussed. These ranged from accounting problems in the distribution of costs to possible unwanted duplication of materials. This can occur very easily unless you can travel with an exact record of what is held through a database on a PC or a detailed list. It was agreed that bilateral partnerships were possibly more likely to work, rather than multi-party.
It was agreed that it was useful to share information of forthcoming acquisition trips but that there is a difference in what can be shared as some information was sensitive and not wise to share around (e.g. names and addresses of underground political groups).
Kent Mulliner suggested that he set up a new listserver called "SEA-ACQ" to share around Southeast Asian acquisition information.
General discussion : on Sunday afternoon, there was discussion of collecting and acquisition issues.
Rationalisation of serial collecting was often difficult in the region as supply of titles was sometimes erratic, leading to lack of certainty on holdings. This was a great problem with regional serial publications.
Reliance on copies of materials from outside the region was discussed. This had negative political implications but reflected the problem of incomplete or inaccessible materials in Southeast Asian countries with few widely available listings.
The role of newsletters such as CORMOSEA, the British Southeast newsletters and the defunct SEAMRG newsletter was discussed. They were valuable but often lacked much input, especially from the region.
Resolutions on acquisitions :
Resolution 5 : Information sharing, especially on new contacts and projects, was endorsed.
Resolution 6 : An email list to facilitate the sharing of information should be set up; this listserver should be used to inform others of forthcoming book buying trips, with the possible outcome of co-operative purchasing. Kent Mulliner will do this.
On Monday morning, preservation activities in the region were discussed.
Judith Henchy described her work in Vietnam in setting up preservation microfilming programs with John Dean of Cornell.
Asma Ahmet described the Malaysian situation. There was acceptance in Malaysia of the need for a national plan and register of microform masters. Newspapers are microfilmed on a co-operative basis with various libraries and archives taking responsibility for specific titles. Publishers were not generally producing mf of their own titles. Serials will be considered next for collaborative mf projects by Malaysian libraries. In the Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia, Malay manuscripts and rare books will be tackled as the next project. It was agreed that the Malaysian model set the standard for the region. It was a reflection of a settled society and a strong economy together with good library planning.
The lack of long-term depositories for microfilm negative masters in the region was agreed as a major problem. Another aspect of this was the desirability of storing other sets of masters out of the region.
Unfortunately, microfilm is thought to be a passe medium of storage by government and funding sources although the move into direct digitising of records seemed unlikely.
Desirable outcomes for the region were :
1. that the US National Commission on Preservation and Access be encouraged to work in co-ordination with other existing players e.g. the Preservation and Conservation Centres to set up regional infrastructure for Southeast Asia.
2. outside access be provided to in-house mf projects.
3. regional master negative repositories be set up as well as repositories out of the region.
The meeting considered that a regional meeting should be organised by a central body like the IFLA PAC of important stakeholders, such as national libraries, archive authorities and planning bodies in the region, to discuss some of these issues.
It was agreed that complex cultural and political issues were involved rather than just technical and storage questions.
Resolutions on preservation :
Resolution 7 : Action on building infrastructure in the region to assist the preservation of heritage library materials was endorsed; the US Commission on Preservation and Access was encouraged to work in co-ordination with IFLA PAC, SARBICA (Southeast Asian Regional Branch - International Council on Archives) and the UNESCO Memory of the World Program in discussing the issues and developing the infrastructure.
Resolution 8 : Specific projects should continue on the preservation of discrete collections where otherwise they would be in danger of loss.
Resolution 9 : An evaluation and critique of specific projects might reveal criteria which lead to success or failure. This might be usefully funded as a research project involving a variety of parties in the evaluation.
Resolution 10 : A regional master microform and digital repository is a desirable model, based on regional co-operative prototypes such as SEAMEO (Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation) and in co-operation with SARBICA (Southeast Asian Regional Branch - International Council on Archives).
Resolution 11 : The national preservation planning model in Malaysia of the Standing Committee on Microfilm (SCOM), co-ordinated by Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia, involving libraries from various sectors, was endorsed.
It was agreed that another meeting of the group should be held, with the permission of the CONSAL organisers, as part of CONSAL XI. This would be in Singapore in the year 2 000. Greater representation and participation from librarians in the region should be organised.
Resolution 12 : Participants recommend that an international meeting on Southeast Asian Research Resources should be held at the time of CONSAL XI in Singapore in the year 2 000.
Resolution 13 : the Library of Congress Acquisition Programs in Southeast Asia play a vital role in assisting libraries outside the region to collect, preserve and improve access to information on all areas, especially through their co-operation in working with local national, academic and research libraries. The successes to date justify strengthening these programs.
Resolutions on vernacular Southeast Asian indexing :
The International Southeast Asian Resources Specialists agreed on the following strategy to achieve a comprehensive indexing coverage of vernacular Southeast Asian periodical literature and composite works :
Resolution 1 : Short term
Based on the existing Indonesian Serials Database (http://www.anu.edu.au/Asia/Indo/IndSer.html) at the Australian National University, it was agreed that members will investigate the possibility of contributing indexing of additional titles not now represented in the database.
Additional funding will be sought to continue data input at ANU and develop indexing capabilities within Indonesian institutions.
Resolution 2 : Medium term
Build links with and develop the expertise of institutions in the region in developing electronic indexing, with provision of appropriate technology infrastructure support. The CONSAL National Librarians' Group survey of databases was endorsed and the co-ordination of electronic indexing efforts within the Southeast Asian countries was encouraged.
Resolution 3 : Long term
The meeting endorsed a proposal to the ASEAN Committee on Culture and Information (COCI) for a co-operative regional indexing database, which would build on existing indexing efforts. As provided in the ASEAN mechanism, US and Australian libraries could work as Dialog Partners in the project to support this application.
As Dialog Partners, they could facilitate access to information created outside the region. English language indexing data can be provided by US librarians to the regional databases. National and international library and information science bodies should be involved.
Resolution 4 : A mirror site (for the vernacular Southeast Asia indexing) should be provided in the United States. It would be desirable to include entries from the Bibliography of Asian Studies.
Resolutions on acquisitions :
Resolution 5 : Information sharing, especially on new contacts and projects, was endorsed.
Resolution 6 : An email list to facilitate the sharing of information should be set up; this listserver should be used to inform others of forthcoming book buying trips, with the possible outcome of co-operative purchasing. Kent Mulliner would action this.
Resolutions on preservation :
Resolution 7 : Action on building infrastructure in the region to assist the preservation of heritage library materials was endorsed; the US Commission on Preservation and Access was encouraged to work in co-ordination with IFLA PAC, SARBICA and the UNESCO Memory of the World Program in discussing the issues and developing the infrastructure.
Resolution 8 : Specific projects should continue on the preservation of discrete collections where otherwise they would be in danger of loss.
Resolution 9 : An evaluation and critique of specific projects might reveal criteria which lead to success or failure. This might be usefully funded as a research project involving a variety of parties in the evaluation.
Resolution 10 : A regional master microform and digital repository is a desirable model, based on regional co-operative prototypes such as SEAMEO, and in co-operation with SARBICA.
Resolution 11 : The national preservation planning model in Malaysia of the Standing Committee on Microfilm (SCOM), co-ordinated by Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia, involving libraries from various sectors, was endorsed.
Resolution 12 : Participants recommend that an international meeting on Southeast Asian Research Resources should be held at the time of CONSAL XI in Singapore in the year 2 000.
Resolution 13 : the Library of Congress Acquisition Programs in Southeast Asia play a vital role in assisting libraries outside the region to collect, preserve and improve access to information on all areas, especially through their co-operation in working with local national, academic and research libraries. The successes to date justify strengthening these programs.
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