[Sigiii-l] FW: [ALAWORLD:1906] LC African & Middle Eastern Reading Room to close

[J. K. Vijayakumar]

FYI. 

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-alaworld at ala.org [mailto:owner-alaworld at ala.org] On Behalf Of
Lauris Olson
Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2006 12:33 PM
To: ALA International Relations Round Table
Subject: [ALAWORLD:1906] LC African & Middle Eastern Reading Room to close

Dear IRRT colleagues - 

Effective late December 2006, the Library of Congress will close
its African and Middle Eastern Reading Room. This reading room is
the public service point within the Library of Congress for Africa,
the Near East (including Central Asia and the Caucasus), and for
Hebraica (including Jewish studies and Biblical studies, ancient
and modern Israel, the ancient Near East and pre-Islamic Egypt). 
The Library of Congress web site indicates that, in most cases, 
materials written in the vernacular languages of these areas must be 
accessed through the African & Middle Eastern Division reading room.
  
The AMED Reading Room is being closed to accommodate a permanent
exhibition gallery showing the recently-acquired Jay I. Kislak
Collection of early Americana.     
  
The Library of Congress plans to move its Africa-related reference
service to a reading room shared with its European Division (ED),
according to Dr Mary-Jane Deeb, director of LC's African and Middle
Eastern Division (AMED).

The current AMED and ED Reading Rooms each hold 20,000-volume
reference collections - dictionaries, handbooks, statistical
publications, atlases, and bibliographic tools. To share the same
reading room, both core collections will need to be reduced by half.

Dr Deeb told me yesterday that she believes public floorspace in the
Library of Congress is available for a stand-alone AMED Reading Room.
She has started negotiating within the Library of Congress for this
new, separate reading room.
  
Closing the AMED Reading Room diminishes the Library of Congress's
mission to make its resources available and useful to the American
people. Alongside other recent decisions, this appears to be more
evidence that the Library of Congress's leadership sees the world's
largest library as merely a museum for books rather than a living
research facility encouraging knowledge and creativity.

Librarian colleagues have suggested that deleting or concealing
"Africa" from among the Library of Congress's public service points
insults or denigrates Africa, that visiting dignitaries from African
states might read this move as policy directed toward them. But I am
amazed that the Library of Congress leadership would reduce or
constrain public reference support for African research at a time
when public interest in the continent is at a peak. It goes without
saying that cuts in reference collections on Afghanistan, Iraq,
Israel, and Palestine make absolutely no sense during this time of
national awareness, involvement, and sacrifice.

Please help to preserve the African and Middle Eastern Reading Room!
Please speak out to affirm the importance of research support for 
African studies at the Library of Congress. 

There are several ways to help - but all ways involve letter-writing,
phoning, or e-mailing.

First, these are the Library of Congress directors who create and
implement policy for the African and Middle Eastern Reading Room:

(1) Jeremy Adamson, Director, Collections & Services Directorate.
Library of Congress, 101 Independence Avenue SE, Washington,
DC 20540-4800. Phone: 202-707-9176. Fax: 202-707-6269.
E-mail: jadamson at loc.gov  Dr Adamson oversees the Reading Rooms. 

(2) Deanna Marcum, Associate Librarian for Library Services.
Library of Congress, 101 Independence Avenue SE, Washington,
DC 20540-4000. Phone: 202-707-5325. Fax: 202-707-6269.
E-mail: dmarcum at loc.gov  Dr Marcum oversees all collections
services and public services, and is Dr Adamson's supervisor.

(3) James Billington, Librarian of Congress, 101 Independence
Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20540-1000. Phone: 202-707-5205.
Fax: 202-707-1714. E-mail: libofc at loc.gov
The buck stops with Dr Billington.

Second, the title says it all: Library of Congress. Please consider
contacting your congressional representative. Ask your senators and
representative to contact THEIR librarian, Dr Billington, about
preserving the AMED Reading Room. You might also request that they
ask Dr Billington for his short-term and long-range plans to
sustain and advance research support for African studies within the
Library of Congress.

If you don't know how to contact your congressional representatives,
here's some help:
"Write Your Representative:
  http://www.house.gov/writerep/
"U.S. Senate: Senators of the 109th Congress:"
  http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

The House of Representatives's Committee on House Administration
oversees the management of the Library of Congress. Committee members
are listed at: 
  http://cha.house.gov/about/default.htm
They are: Vernon Ehlers (R, MI), chair. Juanita Millender-McDonald 
(D, CA), ranking minority-party member. Bob Ney (R, OH). John Mica 
(R, FL). John T Doolittle (R, CA). Thomas Reynolds (R, NY). Candice
Miller (R, MI). Robert A Brady (D, PA). Zoe Lofgren (D, CA).

I have placed this matter on the agenda for the Africana Librarians
Council at its sponsored-organization business meeting during the
African Studies Association annual meeting, Friday morning 9-11:30 AM,
17 November 2006. All ASA members with an interest in library issues
are considered to be ALC members and are welcome to participate in
the discussion.
  
Thanks in advance for spreading the word and for lobbying!
Yours, Lauris Olson
African Studies Bibliographer, University of Pennsylvania Library
and Chair, Africana Librarians Council (2005-2006)

-- 

Lauris Olson
Social Sciences Bibliographer   e: olson at pobox.upenn.edu
Van Pelt Library/6206           W: http://pobox.upenn.edu/~olson
University of Pennsylvania      p: 215 / 898-0119
Philadelphia, PA  19104-6206    f: 215 / 898-0559
U.S.A.
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