Germanists
Discussion
Group
|
|
Germanists |
Minutes of the Meeting of the
Joint Germanists (GDG) and Social Sciences & History
(SS&H) Discussion
Groups Last revised 03/03/04
at the Goethe Institut, Toronto on Sunday, June 22,
2003, 9:30-11 AM
GDG chair Helene Baumann (Duke) welcomed the group and
thanked Ulla
Habekost and the Goethe Institut for hosting us. The
attendees introduced
themselves and made announcements, which included the
following:
1) Upcoming election for GDG chair-elect (James Burgett
will become
chair after the Toronto meeting).
2) Humanities Bibliographer position at Northwestern is
soon to be
filled.
3) As outgoing chair of the GRP, Tom Kilton noted that
the four working
groups welcome participation from new members, and
announced that a meeting
was scheduled for July 29th, before IFLA, in Munich. New
GRP chair is
Jeffrey Garrett.
4) Gordon Anderson (U. Minnesota) announced that ACRL
would again be
supporting a booth at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Russia is
this year's guest
country, so perhaps SEES members would be interested in
coming. There is
some travel money available as well from ACRL: four
stipends in the amount
of $500 each. Nedbook is also expected to offer travel
stipends.
5) Dick Hacken (Brigham Young) urged us to
consider including
special
collection holdings in GRP's digitization projects.
6) Sem Sutter (U. Chicago) announced that an Art and
Cinema Studies
bibliographer position would soon be posted.
7) Chris Klein mentioned that the Historical Society of
Mecklenburg
publishes the German-Canadian Yearbook and the quarterly
Canadiana
Germanica, which contains current events and news. He
brought examples to
the meeting.
8) SSH Chair Rebecca Malek-Wiley reminded everyone of the
upcoming elections
for Secretary/Chair-Elect of the SSH group. (Incoming
chair Laura Moore had
to step back for health reasons.) David Lincove of OSU and
Thea Lindquist
of Boulder are running.
Ulla Habekost, Librarian of the Goethe Institut Inter
Nationes Toronto for
25 years, spoke first. She extended a warm welcome, also
on behalf of the
institute's director. She summarized the Goethe Institut's
recent
activities, including its 2001 merger with Inter Nationes.
The Goethe
Institut Inter Nationes is subsidized by the German
Foreign Office and is
40% self-supporting. There are 125 institutes in 76
countries; Canada has
two now, in Montreal and Toronto, both of which were
founded in 1962. The
Vancouver institute closed in 1999, after 15 years. The
Vancouver Public
Library took over the library's collection, and some
programs are still run
through the consulate there.
Goethe Institut Inter Nationes promotes the German
language, cultural
cooperation, and the all-round image of Germany around the
world. In
addition to offering language classes, the institute in
Toronto runs film
series, exhibitions, and readings. The Montreal branch
focuses on new
media, dance, and theater. The institutes naturally
collaborate with
Canadian cultural institutions as well as those of other
countries. The
public served by the Goethe Institutes was formerly
comprised chiefly of
German immigrants; now it is mostly made up of teachers,
researchers, and
some second-generation Germans. Each Goethe Institut has
two employee
types: "transferables,” generally directors, who serve
average terms of
five years, and "permanents" like Ulla, who remain with
the institute.
The libraries are one-person libraries, though new media
might bring some
expansion. Ulla reported that AV materials are more
important now than
ever, with the Toronto library holding some 500 videos.
The Toronto
institute has the largest German newspaper collection in
the city. There
are approximately 800 active users, defined as those who
borrow materials.
The second speaker, Dr. Mark Grzeskowiak, editor of the
German-Canadian
yearbook and teaching at the University of Toronto --
whose research
interests include postmodernism, detective theory, and
Ernst Jünger and
translations of works by the German political and legal
theorist Carl
Schmitt -- gave a very interesting presentation about the
influence and
contributions of early German immigrants in the area, and
about the
controversy surrounding plans for a condominium
development on the site of
the historic St. James Cathedral site in 2000.
The group then enjoyed refreshments (Kaffee und Kuchen)
provided by the
Goethe Institut and was able to peruse their book and
video collections.
Minutes submitted by Marianna McKim (for James Burgett)
