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Dear safranim, This letter was sent to the Library of Congress from the Africana Librarians Council. I am certain that our membership and the institutions that we represent share similar concerns. Thanks, Heidi Lerner Heidi G. Lerner Hebraica/Judaica Cataloger Catalog Dept. Stanford University Libraries Stanford, CA 94305-6004 ph: 650-725-9953 fax: 650-725-1120 e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED] ----- Original Message ----- From: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Margaret Hughes To: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED] ; <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED] ; <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED] ; <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED] ; <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED] ; <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED] ; <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED] ; <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED] ; <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, May 15, 2006 10:08 AM Subject: [Fwd: ALC letter sent to LC re SARs decision] Dear ALC colleagues - You'll find below a text version of the letter from the Africana Librarians Council sent to the Library of Congress regarding the 20 April 2006 decision to cease creating series authority records. [snip] Yours, Lauris ============================================ TEXT OF LETTER 12 May 2006 Beacher J.E. Wiggins Director for Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Library of Congress Washington, DC 20540-4300 Dear Director Wiggins, The membership of the Africana Librarians Council - the organization of professional librarians working in African studies and a sponsored organization of the African Studies Association (U.S.) - has requested that I notify you regarding our concern over the Library of Congress's 20 April 2006 decision to cease creating series authority records and providing controlled series access in bibliographic records. Series control, as with all aspects of bibliographic control, is critically important in the ever-expanding world of book publishing in Africa. As with many industries in developing countries, African book publishing often seems unsystematic, with books typically printed in short runs and reprinted several years later exhibiting changes in bibliographic elements. We see any erosion in bibliographic control as harmful to the Library of Congress's mission to collect research materials from African countries and also to its Cooperative Acquisition Program partnerships with U.S. research libraries. We observe that African studies readers in the U.S. rely upon series names as brands of quality. Several major African publishers have made formal arrangements with U.S. and other publishers to co-publish, reprint, or distribute their titles outside Africa. To navigate through this confusing and duplicative literature, bibliographers, acquisitions librarians, and - most important - readers, especially scholarly readers, need controlled series names. Your annual report for FY2005 noted that the Library of Congress has moved to improve the cataloging capabilities of its overseas offices. The Library of Congress's overseas offices serve as a major acquisitions source for U.S. research libraries. Your achievement - including direct inputting into Voyager - will accelerate access to overseas acquisitions for American readers, as the bibliographic records created by the overseas offices are becoming available to Library of Congress Cooperative Acquisition Program partners even as we unpack the shipping boxes! Preserving the privileges of overseas office cataloging staff to produce authority records takes advantage of in- country headings research, which replaces costly transatlantic communication. Continuing the practice brings economic benefits by reducing State-side workloads - both at the Library of Congress and among those U.S. research libraries building African collections with one or no Africanist cataloger - with no or negligible fiscal increases. And most important, it would strengthen the professionalization of librarians in developing countries. We hope that you will lead a re-examination of the Library of Congress's series authority decision. We ask also that you avoid making similar decisions in the future without consulting your partners in the Library of Congress's Program for Cooperative Cataloging, and your professional colleagues in the Asian, African and Middle Eastern Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries and in the Cataloging & Classification Section Committee on Cataloging Asian & African Material of the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services. Please do not hesitate to contact me directly to discuss the Africana Librarians Council's position on this matter. Yours sincerely, Lauris Olson Chair, Africana Librarians Council Also, Social Sciences Bibliographer, University Libraries, University of Pennsylvania -- Heidi G. Lerner Hebraica/Judaica Cataloger Catalog Dept. Stanford University Libraries Stanford, CA 94305-6004 ph: 650-725-9953 fax: 650-725-1120 e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED] Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the AJL =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: Hasafran @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
