CAORC Meeting In Senegal

The ACMS is a member of a consortium called the "Council for American Overseas Research Centers," otherwise known as CAORC. I recently returned from the CAORC US & Overseas Directors meeting which was held January 4-5 with an extension tour January 6-9 in Senegal. The West Africa Research Center (WARC) hosted the conference at its center located in Dakar. Approximately 50 people attended the conference to discuss future collaborative work among the member centers as well as other institutions with area studies programs. CAORC organizes these meetings every 2-2.5 years, and they are a great opportunity for the member centers' directors to share ideas and learn about how other centers operate.

CAORC has been instrumental in securing funding for several programs and activities at the ACMS. The US-Mongolia Summer Field Research Program has been funded with CAORC support each year since its inception, and much of the computer hardware available in the center was purchased using CAORC grant funds. The Digital Library for International Research (DLIR) is also a CAORC project which provides the ACMS, along with other member centers, with an online catalog for its library.

More information about CAORC, its programs, and the programs of member centers is available at www.caorc.org.