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  Annual Conference Minutes:
  

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Present: Nina Palmin (Library of Congress), Brad Schaffner (U of Kansas), Grazyna Slanda (Harvard U), Jared Ingersoll-Casey (Ohio State U), Richard Fitzsimmons, Secretary (Penn State)

There were eighteen (18) persons in attendance.

Nina Palmin, chair, convened the meeting at 2:15PM. An agenda was distributed.

Nina Palmin read the Committee's charge. The Minutes of the 1998 Mid-Winter meeting (New Orleans) were unanimously approved upon the motion of Brad Schaffner, seconded by Grazyna Slanda.

It was noted that new committee members are welcome, volunteering was encouraged and that Brad Schaffner will follow-up with appropriate ALA paperwork.

The day's program consisted of two reports. Brad Schaffner presented findings and distributed a draft report on "The Results from the Preservation Condition Survey of the University of Kansas Libraries' Slavic Collections." It was mentioned that the study was an outgrowth on the study of Kansas' general collection (College and Research Libraries, vol. 58, no. 2 (March 1997): 115-126). Brad reported that it was the first study in the U.S. on Slavic materials. He reported on the procedure employed. Kansas did study as an aid to guide the Libraries in spending preservation monies, including proportion of funds to be allocated to deacidification. Findings were: paper is not that brittle, despite amount of acid paper used; that strong bindings protect acid stock from brittleness; that the Libraries' environmental conditions are related to holdings' physical conditions; and that Polish and Russian publishers are increasing publishing on acid-free stock.

The second part of the program was a report by Galina Kislovskaya, Deputy Director General of the Library for Foreign Literature, Moscow, Russia.

Galina commented on her publication, "Preservation Challenges in a Changing Political Climate," published jointly in 1996 by The Commission on Preservation and Access (Washington) and The European Commission on Preservation and Access (ISBN 90:6984-167-3). This publication updated an earlier Commission report.

Galina announced that the Russian Minister of Culture approved a national preservation program in May 1998. This program was approved by officials from major Russian libraries. This is a ten-year program and global in scope. It has seven (7) components: Usage, Book Monuments, Security, Staff training, Inventory, Reformatting, and Conservation. It was noted that the environmental situation in Russia is "catastrophic." Library preservation is seen by many as a "cinderella" issue, but persons' consciousness has been raised. Security issues are being addressed in preservation-related collections.

Archive collections in Russian libraries have been microfilmed. Russian standards are similar to United States standards; both are a reflection of International Federation of Library Association (IFLA) standards. Master negatives of books are stored in old military vaults. It is a long battle to get proper space.

"Displaced" collections are emerging as a political issue. Recently an historical Hungarian collection - 1,042 volumes of Calvinistic materials - was discovered. Upon hearing this, Grazyna Slanda questioned, "will 'displaced' Polish collections be returned to Poland?" Galina said while it is the law to return collections, "it probably won't happen." It was noted that via the Internet, collections are being made available.

Alan Pollard noted SEMP microfilming of Russian newspapers, 1991-95.

The meeting adjourned on unanimous consent at 3:30 p.m.

--Minutes submitted by Richard Fitzsimmons.