Bellagio Secretariat report
Katherine Salahi
Katherine Salahi is co-ordinator of the Bellagio
Publishing Network.
Taking on the Newsletter has been the major task
and delight of the year. Drawn to this job as a publisher and editor,
the downside till recently has been the lack of any hands-on publishing.
So Philip Altbach's offer of the Newsletter at the beginning of the
year was accepted with relish.
Getting up and running proved harder than anticipated,
partly to do with learning desktop publishing and mailing lists on spreadsheets,
both newer technologies than this particular publisher had tackled before.
In time the marvels of the electronic age far outweigh the pain of entry,
but those of us old enough to have started with cut-and-paste and handwritten
envelopes have had to travel a long and challenging way.
Other Secretariat activities continue to include
liaising with donors and African publishers, particularly APNET, culminating
in the annual meeting; acting as an advocate on behalf of African publishers
at a number of northern-based meetings; and providing an accessible
reference point for intercontinental communications.
A new departure has been the development of links
with other networks working in the area of culture and development.
The secretariat is involved with an exciting new initiative to create
a pan-African cultural movement with a major festival every four years.
The movement is planning a formal launch in the spring of 1998, with
publishing firmly on the list of cultural activities to be included.
[end] [BPN, no 21, 1997, p 17.]
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