In July I developed a "virtual" site visit to bring the Biblioteca Max von Buch of the Universidad de San Andrés in Buenos Aires, Argentina onboard as our Argentine partner. I prepared the project agreement and sent it as an e-mail attachment to library director, Irene Münster, to review, then print out the two copies and sign and return by snail mail to me. Irene and I had also met during the 2001 Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials meeting to review project activities. The library's initial assignment is for twelve Argentine journals but as specified in the partner agreement, they will add journals from Uruguay and Paraguay in the future.
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In August I began training Andrea Saladino, the librarian responsible for LAPTOC data entry, via e-mail in how to enter table of contents entries. Some of the journals in San Andrés' assignment had homepages with table of contents that I could use to compare Andrea's work as she began inputting. Andrea sent many e-mail messages with very detailed questions as particular points came up and her work immediately showed she understood my replies. She is very capable and has continued inputting entries with few follow-up questions. I should point out that Andrea's written English is flawless and she initiated contact with me in that language though she was aware I was always willing to communicate in Spanish. That is probably why our "virtual" site visit worked so well. There is still much to be said for the advantage of being present at the partner institution to see how their particular facility is organized and can examine first hand their journals collection. |
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Gayle Williams
ARL Coordinator of Latin American Partnerships