Winter 2003/04

President’s Message

Recent evidence suggests that the amount of important historical evidence and data that North American research libraries are unable to preserve is growing. Back runs of newspapers from the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and other emerging regions are becoming scarce even in our major research libraries. And information “published” to the World Wide Web by political groups in those regions is not being adequately archived. The Center is addressing the challenge of “preserving the diversity of knowledge sources” creatively and collaboratively.

ICON Survey Results

Read the key findings of a survey conducted by the International Coalition on Newspapers (ICON) on the size, scope, and status of international newspaper collections at 40 North American academic and research libraries. Survey results identified an alarming attrition in the retrospective holdings of foreign newspapers available from many major collecting libraries. For a full report of the survey, visit the ICON Web page.

Partnership on African Theses and Dissertations

The Center has been enlisted by the Association of African Universities to help develop an equitable and sustainable plan for disseminating the research products of African scholars. The plan must address key concerns, such as IT infrastructure, higher education capacity, and control of intellectual property. Additional links are available at DATAD Project.

Increasing Use of Center Collections

In several ways the Center and its members have been expanding access, streamlining services, and generally “closing the distance” between the user and Center collections. Two new members of the Center’s staff, Morgan Elmore and Don Dyer, will build further upon this effort.