Papers of the Thirty-Seventh Annual Meeting of the SEMINAR on the ACQUISITION of LATIN AMERICAN LIBRARY MATERIALS
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SALALM and the Area Studies Community SEMINAR ON THE ACQUISITION OF LATIN AMERICAN LIBRARY MATERIALS XXXVII HAROLD B. LEE Liwwn BRIQHAM YOUNG UNIVERSIT> PROVO, UTAH SALALM and the Area Studies Community SALALM Secretariat General Library University of New Mexico SALALM and the Area Studies Community Papers of the Thirty-Seventh Annual Meeting of the SEMINAR ON THE ACQUISITION OF LATIN AMERICAN LIBRARY MATERIALS Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection University of Texas at Austin Austin, Texas May 30-June 4, 1992 David Block Editor SALALM Secretariat General Library, University of New Mexico ISBN: 0-917617-39-8 Copyright (c) 1994 by SALALM, Inc. All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America HAROLD B. LEE LIBRARY BRIQHAM YOUNG UNIVERS1T> PROVO, UTAH Contents Preface ix Acknowledgments xi The State of Area Studies 1. Area Studies in the Twenty-First Century 3 Dayvdd J. Greenwood 2. Latin America in a Public Planet 11 Greg Urban 3. El V Centenario desde el punto de vista indígena en Ecuador 19 José E. Juncosa Multiculturalism 4. Miami and the Cuban Revolution: Ties across the Straits of Florida 27 Tony A. Harvell 5. San Antonio: Capital of Insurgent Mexico 43 William Beezley 6. Commentary 52 Henry Schmidt 7. Vascos en USA: problemas bibliográficos 54 Jon Bilbao 8. Eusko Bibliographia: antecedentes, estado actual y proyectos 62 Luis Moreno vi Contents 9. Base de datos de bibliografía vasco-americana 71 Maribel García Mazo 10. Basque on the Title Page 80 Linda White Figures in the History of SALALM and the Latin American Book Trade 11. Genaro García: Portrait of a Book Collector 97 Carmen Ramos Escandan 12. Nettie Lee Benson: Beyond the Orthodox 106 John Wheat 13. Emma C. Simonson 113 Rachel C. Barreto 14. The First Two Decades of SALALM: A Personal Account 118 Donald F. Wisdom Library Operations 15. Las publicaciones oficiales en América Latina, en especial el caso de México 155 Rosa María Fernández de Zamora 16. Approval Plans from a Dealers Point of View 166 Vera de Araujo Shellard 17. Approval Plans for Latin American Acquisitions: Some Aspects of Theory, Strategy, and Cost 169 Dan C. Hazen 18. Selection and Acquisition of Latin American Mono- graphs at the U.S. National Library of Medicine 176 Nelda Coligan 19. Collection Patterns in Research Libraries for the Scientific Literature of Latin America 181 Gayle Williams Contents vü 20. Latin American Forestry Research: Resources and Strategy 188 Laura Shedenhelm 21. Cataloging Backlogs: Taming the Monster 220 Nelly S. González About the Authors 229 Program 231 Preface The Thirty-Seventh Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials took place at a time when both traditional area studies and library structures were in flux. "SALALM and the Area Studies Community" entitled a meeting dedicated, at least in part, to exploring the implications of emerging trends in government and foundation support for area studies, the reconfiguration of library functions, and the electronic revolution. Austin, Texas, proved an excellent site for the meeting since it holds diverse area programs, a graduate school of library and information studies, and a library system with world-class collections and an impressive technical infrastructure. Between May 30 and June 4, 1992, some 300 conference participants witnessed panels, roundtables, workshops, and demonstrations on a wide range of issues. The full program appears at the end of this publication. What you have before you now is a representative sample of papers presented at those forums organized around four sub themes: The State of Area Studies, Multiculturalism, Figures in the History of SALALM and the Latin American Book Trade, and Library Operations. The twenty-one essays published in this volume, however, do not capture the full range of activities from the sessions. Ross Atkinson and Brooke Sheldon, speaking as library administrator and library educator, respectively, made it clear that the fate of area studies in the library is far from clear. While each cited the particular skills that area librarians have brought to collections and access, both suggested a de-emphasis of collection development functions as libraries abandon collection building as a paradigm and library skills become more generalized. The second important theme not reflected in the published papers is the emergence of electronic Latin Americana. Database demonstrations of on-line services and compact disks ran for the entire afternoon of June 1. Printed versions do not appear here but recordings of these sessions reside in the SALALM Archives at the Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas. David Block IX Acknowledgments I spent the last trimester of 1991 in Quito, Ecuador, leaving the organization of SALALM XXXVII to the Local Arrangements Committee. The many hours put in by Laura Gutiérrez-Witt, Ann Hartness, Jane Garner, Don Gibbs, Margo Gutiérrez, Sonia Merrubia, Hugo Chapa, and Lynette Thorn, all members of the staff of the Benson Latin American Collection, and by Adán Benavides, of San Antonio, and Greta Pasch, of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, made the Seminar possible. The Committee and I would like to thank Harold W. Billings, Director of the General Libraries of the University; Dean Brooke Sheldon of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science; and Peter S. Cleaves, Director of the Institute of Latin American Studies for their generous support. And finally, I would like to acknowledge the presence of Nettie Lee Benson at this thirty-seventh meeting of the organization that she helped found. Although I have known Miss Benson since 1971 and have toiled countless hours in her library, seeing her again for the first time in five years caught me unprepared. After looking me over carefully, she allowed as how she recognized me, but thought that I looked old. She had retained her keen insight, and her nerve. Miss Benson's death in June of 1993 would mark this as the last meeting many of my colleagues and I would have with her. So as a gesture to what she meant to those of us who call Latin America our professional specialization, it seems appropriate to dedicate this publication to Nettie Lee Benson's memory. XI The State of Area Studies 1. Area Studies in the Twenty-First Century Davydd J. Greenwood Introduction The need for collaboration between international education administrators and the library systems and associations for mutual benefit could not be clearer in these times of increasing scarcity of resources. I welcome the opportunity to speak with you about the issues that confront us all. For today, my assignment is to set a general context for area studies and to stimulate discussions about the future of area studies and the particular role of the libraries in this future. In order to get to those points and because of my lack of expertise in library matters, I will speak to the general issues of area studies and international studies, leaving it to you to develop the implications. I also hope you will inform me how people with my responsibilities and how directors of area programs can be more supportive of your needs. The overall tone of what I say is critical. This is born of a sense of epochal changes in international studies generally, in the position of the United States in the global system, and what are clearly upcoming transformations of our educational system. I do not think any of us is sufficiently aware of the combined impact of so many changes. We shall probably look back on the period from 1970 to 1990 as a period of remarkable stability compared with what we shall experience next. The critical tone is also born of increasing worries about a complete lack of federal policy relevant to area studies or international studies in general. There is no sense of the obvious cause and effect relationships between federal support for international education and the availability of expertise that is sorely needed. Just how long a government can live off past investments is evident from the "greying" of the foreign language and area studies community. Finally, I am intentionally critical because I am worried by the sense of complacency the area studies community seems to exhibit in the face of demandingly complex challenges. While there has been some mobilization, the area studies community is still too content to fight over scraps and not willing enough to storm the barricades in Washington and demand the attention that allies in primary and secondary education and in the 4 Davydd J. Greenwood private sector would support. That said, I limit my brief comments to three themes. First I discuss the internal dynamics and wear and tear on the current area studies model. Then I review the impact of multicultural studies and "cultural studies" on area studies in higher education. Finally, I discuss the contradictory impact of international- ization fever on area studies. Theme 1. The Internal Dynamics and Problems in the Current Area Studies Model Despite some of the critical views I have about area studies—and I am myself an arealist—the record of area studies since World War I is a distinguished one, particularly in view of the paltry national resources devoted to it. A remarkable amount has been accomplished with modest resources and minimal administrative infrastructure. Whatever its failings, there were a number of fundamentally good ideas in the original National Defense Education Act. The National Resource Center model and accompanying fellowship program have assisted in the creation of programs of wonderful depth at many universities. These are true "national resources" and are real treasures. Furthermore, these centers provide a kind of comprehensive areal coverage that is not limited to just a couple of disciplines.