(For the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1957)

I. ACQUISITION OF MATERIALS

The account of the Division's activities this year will emphasize major trends, developments, and problems, omitting the manifold routine operations described in detail in previous reports.

This chapter can perhaps be best prefaced by a few key figures pointing up the tremendous growth of East and Central European procurement operations in the last four years. Thus, comparing the fiscal year 1953 and 1957, one finds that postwar materials recorded in the Monthly List of Russian Accessions rose from 4,741 to 11,709 monographs; 2,839 to 8,918 issues of periodicals; and 501 to 1,148 periodical titles. Corresponding figures for the East European Accessions List were 3,155 monographs and 10,532 periodical issues in 1953, as compared with approximately 7,500 monographs and 25,540 periodical issues in fiscal 1957. A similar trend appeared in retrospective additions to East and Central European collections.

While the responsibility for developing these collections rests, of course, on the Library's subject specialists, it can be said that the aforementioned results reflect in no small measure the activities of this Division. This is evidenced by the fact that, in the same period, recommendations made by this Division advanced from 17,045 in 1953 to 25,361 items in 1957, selected from a total of approximately 113,300 and 658,000 items respectively. This rise was largely attributable to an increased supply of materials from existing, and the opening up of many new procurement channels. At the same time, the Division's recommending officers continued to be guided by discriminating criteria of selectivity which place substance before quantity.

In turn, the rapid influx of material markedly increased the Division's workload not only in selection operations but also in a variety of other ways. More new serial titles, textbooks, and related materials had to be screened, searching operations had to be amplified, and the scrutiny of a larger number of new bibliographies, catalogs, and related selection aids led to new procurement possibilities. For instance, an up-to-date bibliography of USSR periodicals was used to recommend that hundreds of Soviet research institutions be contacted to enter into new exchange arrangements. Similar proposals for other countries within the Division's area assignment have yielded gratifying results.

Similarly, the Division formulated and submitted to the Exchange and Gift Division a proposal for exchange arrangements whereby the Library would receive automatically all the publications (excepting in medicine and agriculture) from the major East European academies of sciences. In support of this proposal, the Division pointed out that substantial savings could be achieved by avoiding duplication because of overlapping purchases and exchange requests; that it would save time for the Slavic and Central European Division and the Exchange and Gift Division by freeing both of handling numerous individual items; and the Library would be reasonably sure of receiving all publications issued by these leading scientific centers. So far, the Czech, Slovak, and Polish Academies of Science have accepted these proposals, and declared their readiness to supply automatically all their serial and monographic publications within LC's subject interest, and negotiations with other academies are pending.

Because of the fast rate of growth, it became more urgent to employ control devices which would test the evenness of the collections and detect possible major gaps. Special attention was given to LC's holdings of basic East European bibliographies as to adequacy and completeness. The more important ones listed in standard sources were searched, in the collections, and it was found that LC's coverage, while varying from country to country, was by and large quite adequate except for Rumanian materials. Want lists for bibliographic "must" items were submitted to the Exchange and Gift Division for acquisition in book form or on microfilm.

Repeated surveys of subscriptions to East European periodicals brought to light various deficiencies. The Division recommended the elimination of duplication and the simplification of the present subscription system, by switching, whenever indicated, from purchase to exchange procurement and by consolidating purchase orders instead of dispersing them over many dealers and sources. Since it was found, that many essential serial publications which had been subscribed to were being received only irregularly or not at all, the Order Division, at the Division's recommendation, introduced new checking procedures to reduce, if not entirely eliminate, such hazards. The Division's part in implementing recommendations stemming from special collection surveys carried out by consultants will be discussed in the following section.

As recommended by the Chief of the Division after his survey of Slavic holdings in major West European libraries, the microfilming of catalogs of important Slavic collections was continued, the latest to be filmed being those of the Russian Union Catalog at the National Central Library in London and the catalog of the Istituto Pontificio Orientale in Rome. The value of such microfilmed catalogs here in the Library was demonstrated, for instance, when the Division recommended, on the basis of a replica of the Russian catalog of the Helsinki University Library, that films of missing issues of important Russian serials be secured from that Library. Recommendation for microfilming assumed an increasing significance in the Division's activities and was often relied upon when it seemed unfeasible or uneconomical to acquire originals. Thus, the Library's Russian Duplicate Exchange Program credits with other American libraries were used for microfilms of important Slavic newspapers and periodicals, and a project for microfilming Austrian dissertations is under way. In order to preserve and make accessible to the interested public important documentary materials of the recent Hungarian revolution, the Library arranged for the microfilming of a number of newspapers published in Hungary between October 1 and December 1956. The collection comprises 16 newspapers, some of which were called into being by the freedom fighters in the pursuit of their objectives, and which after the suppression of the revolution were continued under the same titles by the Soviet-controlled Hungarian government.

During the past two years, a number of signal Czech rarities have found their way to the Library's shelves and have grown into a rather unique collection which elevates the Library to a place of prominence among American and European repositories in this specific domain. This collection is admirably suited to supply the student of Bohemian political and intellectual history of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with source materials of extraordinary significance. Other retrospective materials acquired included the complete six-volume set of Slovan, edited by the pioneer Czech journalist, Karel Havlíček-Borovský, and which is considered one of the rarest and most important Czech political journals of the nineteenth century; and the seven-volume Teutsche Kriegs-Cantzley, a basic work for the study of the history of the Seven Years' War.

Of invaluable help to the Division's selection activities was the addition to its Table of Organization of a USSR Area Specialist. Under this arrangement, the three area specialists were enabled to devote themselves exclusively to the area of their assignment; and this proved to be very beneficial to the Division's acquisitions as well as other operations.

II. ORGANIZATION OF MATERIALS

Broad surveys of LC's special collections were conducted from time to time by regular staff members. However, it was felt that a need existed to have certain sectors of the Library's East European holdings surveyed by temporary consultants who, freed from routine responsibilities, could devote themselves entirely to the task.

In such a program, the Division enjoyed the full support of the Library administration which approved a six-week consultantship for Dr. Charles Jelavich. During that period, as a visiting consultant for the Division, Dr. Jelavich, Assistant Professor of History at the University of California (Berkeley), surveyed and evaluated the Library's pre-World War II Yugoslav periodicals. Embodying his findings in a report, Dr. Jelavich observed that "the Library's Yugoslav periodical collections compare very favorably with the collections at Columbia, Harvard, the Hoover Library, New York Public Library, and the University of California (Berkeley)." And having identified areas where improvement was desirable, Dr. Jelavich expressed his "confidence that if the Library were to complete both its academy holdings and major non-academy journals with missing volumes, and if the Library could purchase the items in the first priority, then the Library, without question, would rank first among the major libraries . . . collecting general Yugoslav materials . . ."

The Division's staff proceeded to follow up Dr. Jelavich's recommendations, a task which required extensive searching and the preparation of special want lists. Thus separate lists were compiled for serial desiderata to be requested on exchange from institutions such as the Serbian and Yugoslav Academies of Science, or purchased through commercial channels outside Yugoslavia, since the prospects of securing rare second-hand materials directly from Yugoslavia have been rather slim in recent years. However, by a fortunate coincidence, the Division, while working on the implementation of Dr. Jelavich's suggestions, learned of a second-hand bookstore in Ljubljana (Cankarjeva Založba) which, contacted subsequently by the Order Division, offered to supply several complete sets of missing periodicals. In short, these concerted efforts enabled the Library to make a long step toward a substantial strengthening of its Yugoslav serial collections.

In a similar fashion, the Division implemented recommendations contained in Ukrainica in the Library of Congress, a 94-page survey prepared by Dr. Rudnyckyj at the request of the Division during his consultantship last summer and released by the Library as an operational document in December, 1956. In the introduction Dr. Rudnyckyj compliments the Library as being "one of the most important centers of Ukrainian monographs and serials on the American continent."

A clear trend in the Division's activities was a mounting participation in the selection of current materials, as well as in the absorption of unprocessed materials into the Library's collections. Much time and effort went into operation "deck-clearing," which included work on a variety of materials that had been gathering dust on diverse levels of the Annex building:

1. On Deck 4, there was a unique collection originating from the former Publikationsstelle Berlin-Dahlem, and consisting of monographs and serials on the East-Central European and Baltic areas. At the request of the Processing Department, the screening of this collection was begun by the Division's area specialists at the beginning of April, and by June 30 an estimated 10,000 volumes of valuable materials in eleven European languages, including more than 200 serial sets, were selected for integration into the LC collections. When added, these materials will substantially strengthen LC's holdings in the field and close numerous significant lacunae.
2. An extensive and hitherto unprocessed collection of German pamphlets relating to various aspects of life in Germany under the Hitler regime, as well as to the activities of Germans abroad, was screened by the Central European Area Specialist in cooperation with the Chief of the Prints and Photographs Division to determine which materials should be retained.
3. The Division screened for retention or liquidation numerous uncatalogued Slavic materials (Deck 8) — in the first instance incomplete serials and translations.
4. In preparation for a transfer to the Library of a portion of a large German book collection presently in custody of the Departmental Records Branch in Alexandria, Virginia, a Division's staff member segregated such items as are wanted by LC and, jointly with Dr. Archibald C. Gerlach and Mr. Jennings Wood, selected certain materials to be microfilmed prior to their being returned to Germany.
5. At the request of the Serials Division, the Division selected U.S. foreign language newspapers in eighteen East European languages to be retained by LC for permanent custody. This was done in line with LC policies aimed at limiting the amount of such materials to be incorporated into LC collections.

III. USE OF MATERIALS

An index of the sharp increase in reference work is provided by the fact that in fiscal 1953 the Division rendered altogether about 3,200 direct reference services as compared with approximately 8,500 in fiscal 1957; and during this period, the annual total of reference letters rose from 62 to 488. Concomitantly, the Division's information files and auxiliary reference indexes were built up, enlarged and kept au courant. This not only added to the speed and efficiency of service but also reduced the working time allocated in individual reference problems. It was not exceptional that, in response to urgent Congressional inquiries, the Division's staff succeeded in coming up in time with the right answer where other government agencies disposing of large research units had failed.

Again last year the Division was called upon to participate in many ways in the preparation of extensive studies and reports for Congress. At the request of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, the staff wrote a 31-page documented report on Soviet Views on the Banning of Atomic Weapons Tests and on Radioactive Fallout, which was based on a scrutiny of the Soviet press. Substantial assistance was given in connection with the preparation of Soviet Economic Growth; a Comparison with the United States, a study which was released only a few days ago as a print of the Joint Economic Committee. The Council for Economic and Industry Research was supplied detailed bibliographical information for a study of Soviet foreign aid and trade which it was conducting for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The most recent Congressional assignment involves a series of biographical profiles of Communist leaders to be published by the House Un-American Activities Committee. This project, which is under the over-all direction of the Division Chief, is in progress; and several staff members were commissioned to contribute biographies within their area of competence.

Besides these major assignments, the Division answered as a matter of routine a great many spot inquiries and reference calls from the Hill and repeatedly prepared translations for Congressional Committees and individual members.

A number of agencies of the Government availed themselves of the reference service of the Division. Also among the clientele of the Division was an impressive array of scholarly, industrial, business, and labor organizations; representatives of the press and diplomatic agencies; and last, but not least, individual readers and inquirers from practically every state of the Union. Among foreign correspondents who sought reference assistance were residents of Argentina, Bulgaria, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Great Britain, Israel, Poland, and Sweden.

It goes without saying that, in the wake of the turbulent events in Poland and, particularly, Hungary, there was an upsurge of reference inquiries which reflected the interest of the general public in these happenings. In meeting this demand, various newspapermen came to the Division for information. For instance, the Baltimore Sun was given a biographical sketch of former Premier Nagy; the Scripps Howard newspaper chain inquired about the history of Hungary's Sopron University, nearly all of whose faculty and student body had fled to Austria; Readers' Digest wished to have a bibliography of English language works about the Hungarian national hero, Louis Kossuth; and the Christian Science Monitor requested data on the religious composition of Hungary. Later, when America opened its doors to the Hungarian refugees, the correspondence in the files of this Division began to illustrate the process of integration of the new arrivals into American life. The Army's Adjutant General's office requested, and later expressed appreciation for the receipt of, lists of Hungarian-American publications to be purchased for the refugee center at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey. The American National Red Cross was given a selected list of Hungarian-language story books for children and teenagers. In an endeavor to break down language barriers and to teach their charges the fundamentals of English, hosts to Hungarian refugees and teachers of Hungarian children wrote for lists of dictionaries and textbooks. Not all inquiries were focused on food for thought: desirous of introducing a Hungarian friend to the specialities of American cuisine, a reader wished to receive information on a book on American cooking written in Hungarian — and the Library's collections obliged even in this somewhat marginal request. Others were anxious to provide proof of their previous academic occupational background in Hungary and here, too, the collections often stood in good stead. One Hungarian newcomer thought the Library's collections to be of such all-embracing scope that they would shelter also her Hungarian birth certificate, a photostat of which she requested.

Many other reference questions and problems, far-flung both as to area and subject, taxed the knowledge and, at times, the imagination of the staff members. Thus, one inquirer sought enlightenment on the elusive subject of love and romance under communism whereas another reader asked for biographical material on the Nazi daredevil, Otto Skorzeny, who led the raid resulting in Mussolini's escape from prison in 1943, and later operated behind the Allied lines during the Battle of the Bulge. Other requests involved fewer elements of romance and suspense. For instance, the Director of the Central Library of German Classical Literature in Weimar German Democratic Republic requested and received data on the Schiller literature published in the United States, and the librarian of Wilkes College thanked the Division for "your fine service in sending me the bibliographical information on early Croatian literature. . ." The Boston Herald of May 17,1957 reported under the caption "Northeastern Professors' Protest; Piracy of Textbook by Moscow Charged," on a press conference in which two educators discussed the unauthorized translation of their chemistry textbook in the Soviet Union on the basis of information supplied to them by this Division.

A representative of the International Communications Library Project at the Los Angeles State College Foundation received advice in connection with the establishment at the College of a special library collection on Yugoslavia, comprising about 500 selected books in West European languages, illustrated magazines and audiovisual aids. And a librarian of the University Library, Lódż, Poland, asked for and obtained bibliographical references concerning Henryk Kaussowski who, after the Polish insurrection of 1830, found asylum in the United States and in 1891 founded the Library and the Museum of the Polish National Association in Chicago.

Often the opportunity arose for the Division to act in an advisory capacity in Library affairs relating to East-Central Europe. At the request of the Librarian, proposals were worked out for the "People to People Book Committee" as to how the Soviet cultural penetration of Yugoslavia could be counteracted; and entries of newspapers in the languages of East and Central Europe were reviewed and revised for a third edition of Newspapers on Microfilm compiled by the Union Catalog Division.

As in previous years, bibliographies and reference aids prepared by this Division, or under its supervision, had to meet certain clearly defined criteria:

1. Non-availability of up-to-date coverage in the field.
2. The publication must be germane to the area and subject responsibilities of the Division and must represent a serviceable tool which facilitates primarily the reference service rendered by the Division and which preferably will also be of value in operations in other LC areas.
3. The publication should also be distinctly useful to government agencies, librarians, area specialists, and students.

How do the bibliographies and reference aids completed by the Division in the fiscal year under review or currently in progress meet these specifications?

1. Polish Abbreviations, published in 1955, has been unavailable for almost one year because of exhaustion of the original stock. A second and enlarged edition was completed in fiscal 1957 and will be released shortly.
2. Czech and Slovak Abbreviations was released in 1956 in approximately 500 copies, the bulk of which has been sold. The preparation of these two titles was directly prompted by the need of LC units engaged in the cataloging and servicing of East European materials, as well as in reference work. In addition to being in steady use within the Library, these two reference tools proved to be in great demand by domestic and foreign institutions. Because of the proven demand for this type of publication, the release of similar lists for Bulgaria and Yugoslavia are under consideration.
3. Estonia, a Selected Bibliography was prepared by Dr. Salme Kuri under the administrative direction of this Division which is reviewing it currently as to substance and form. The rough draft of this bibliography has already proved useful in answering several Congressional and other reference inquiries, and a number of letters have been received inquiring when this bibliography would become available.
4. Experience has shown that students of East and Central European affairs have repeatedly addressed reference inquiries to this Division concerning the availability of periodicals published in the West European languages in this field. In order to meet this reference need adequately, a card index containing bibliographical information on such journals has been set up in this Division. Since no bibliography of this type is available at the present time, the information presently incorporated into the Divisional reference files might well become the nucleus of a bibliography to be prepared for publication at a later date.
5. The Central European Specialist contributed to the Library's Documentation Project a working paper listing East German government publications.
6. Because of lack of manpower, work on Manuals of the Slavic and East European Collections of the Library of Congress, for which some raw material was collected in past years, had to remain in abeyance. Such guides would be of the greatest assistance to actual and potential users of LC collections.

When this Division was assigned the responsibility for German language materials, it was also given the task of administering and bringing to a conclusion the Library's Foreign Consultant Program, which had been in operation for several years under the financial sponsorship of the Oberländer Trust Fund. Under this program, a study by Professor Curt Bondy (Hamburg) on Social Psychology in Western Germany, 1945–1955 was published by the Library in 1956. Typed scripts of two other surveys Youth in Western Germany also by Mr. Bondy, and The Humanities in Austria by Dr. Paul Feyeraband (University of Leeds) were added to the Library's collections. Negotiations are in progress concerning the preparation by Dr. Gisela von Busse (Deursche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Bad Godesberg) of a study on the reconstruction of the library system in West Germany since the end of World War II and a report by Professor Werner Markert (Tuebingen) on East European resources and studies in Western Germany during the last decade.

In February, 1956, the Library undertook, pursuant to an agreement with the U.S. Information Agency, to screen Soviet materials for items pertaining to Latin America and to prepare a card index of such entries. In extension of this bibliographical program, which has been under the Division's supervision and administration, a card index of relevant items in 1956 Soviet imprints was prepared and delivered to USIA in April 1957. Presently the Division is exploring budgetary requirements for a similar program focused on Soviet writings about African affairs.

Finally, a word should be said about the numerous contributions which the Division made to the Quarterly Journal of Current Acquisitions. The August issue for 1956 featured an 18-page account by Dr. Horecky of publishing and procurement developments with regard to Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Yugoslavia. The May 1957 issue, the largest one that has appeared since 1949, was devoted predominantly to current and retrospective materials of importance received in the Library from East European countries. Of the seven articles and reports, four were written under the auspices of the Division. Dr. Jelavich is the author of "Bulgarian 'Incunabula'" in which he reviews rare Bulgarian books purchased by the Library some time ago and refers to them as a collection which "can be regarded as one of the most complete in the entire Western World for the so-called 'Renaissance' period of Bulgarian history" and as being "of immense value to all students of Bulgarian, Balkan, and Slavic history because it provides the major source for the study of the intellectual and cultural development of the Bulgarian nation prior to the explosive events of the 1870s." Dr. Horecky authored an article "The Czech Renaissance, Viewed Through Rare Books;" in addition, he contributed to the same issue an analytical report on current Slavic (non-USSR) acquisitions; and Dr. Bako prepared the annual report on "Hungarica."

IV. EXTERNAL RELATIONS

Close contact was maintained by staff members with the scholarly community engaged in Central and East European research.

Dr. Yakobson, continuing to serve on the Joint Committee on Slavic Studies (of the American Council of Learned Societies and the Social Science Research Council), attended meetings of the committee in New York City on November 11 and May 4. On both occasions the Library's Slavic activities loomed large on the agenda. The Division Chief also participated in a meeting of the Committee on Documentary Reproduction of the American Historical Association in Washington on March 22 and 23, and in a conference at the National Institutes of Health of the Scientific Advisory Panel for the Russian Translation Program on May 31. Furthermore, he accepted an invitation to serve as a member of the National Committee on Uralic and Altaic Studies with headquarters at Columbia University.

Relations between the Library and other institutions of learning in this country were enhanced by consultant services rendered by staff members in connection with the development of special collections. Thus, Dr. Yakobson, at the invitation of the School of International Relations at the University of Southern California, spent four weeks in August 1956 surveying the holdings of the University's von KleinSmid Library of World Affairs and making recommendations for strengthening its collections, particularly in the field of Soviet-Asian relations. As a guest of Indiana University, he reviewed in February 1957, the University's program of instruction and research in the East European field, evaluating the pertinent University library collections and making recommendations for the future development of study programs and resources.

Many domestic and foreign scholars visited the Division for consultation in the field of their specialization. Among them were Professors Robert N. Carew Hunt of Oxford University, Gotthold Rhode of Mainz University, Magne Skodvin of the Advanced Teachers College at Trondheim (Norway) and Bertold Spuler of Hamburg University, Messrs. Muriel Grindrod, Editor of International Affairs, Uno Willers, Royal Librarian, Stockholm, and others.

V. ADMINISTRATION AND PERSONNEL

In the spring of 1956 the Division proposed to the Reference Department that: (1) the position of USSR and East European Specialist (GS-12) be changed to Central European Specialist; (2) the position of Slavic Research Analyst (GS-11) be redescribed as East European Specialist (GS-12); and (3) an additional position of a USSR Specialist (GS-12) be established. It is a matter of great gratification that this reorganization materialized in the fiscal year 1957, and Mr. Boris I. Gorokhoff, formerly head of the Slavic Languages Section, Descriptive Cataloging Division, joined the Division staff on February 19 as USSR Specialist. The availability of three area specialists with clearly defined areas of responsibility had made it possible to narrow down the previously existing imbalance between workload and manpower and to streamline, intensify and speed up the operations under the Division's jurisdiction.

From the standpoint of continuity and stability it remains, however, a source of grave concern that over one-third of the Division's positions are non-appropriated and paid either from Working Funds or by outside sources. These positions, consisting of Polish Reference Librarian, Hungarian-Finnish Reference Librarian, and Bibliographer and Exchange Assistant are all engaged in day-to-day regular library activities. Yet at the same time they are revokable either because of the lack of funds or because of withdrawal of support by the sponsor. Naturally this situation creates an element of uncertainty in the personnel structure and planning of the Division, and a consolidation through conversion of the indefinite positions into permanent and appropriated ones would be most desirable.

From December 17 to January 31, Professor Charles Jelavich of the University of California at Berkeley served as visiting consultant for the Division with assignments that were discussed previously in this report.

Miss Patricia S. Sullivan, Research Assistant and Secretary of the Division, resigned after 4 years of meritorious service to accept another position outside of the library, and was succeeded on March 11, by Miss Nellie M. Apanasewicz. Mrs. Helen J. Mavritte, Clerk-Stenographer, formerly of the Economics Division of the Legislative Reference Service, joined the staff on May 2, replacing Mrs. P. E. Donovan, who resigned for personal reasons after having been with the Division for two years. As an employee sponsored by Working Funds, Mrs. Yolanda Horan was detailed by the Air Force for ten weeks, ending March 31, to Camp Kilmer, N. J., which functioned as a processing center for Hungarian refugees. During her absence from the Division a considerable work backlog accumulated and, with the lack of a replacement, searching activities and the maintenance of the Divisional reference files were practically at a standstill. The Commanding Officer, Air Force Section, Security Center (Ft. Geo. G. Meade, Md.) commended her for her work in these terms: A". . . . I sincerely believe that the fulfillment of our difficult and unique mission would have been impossible were it not for the continuing and personal sacrifice which you and your fellow workers were called upon to do. . . . . Without your professional confidence, and personal integrity, I assure you, that our mission would have been most difficult to accomplish."

VI. PROFESSIONAL BUT NON-OFFICIAL ACTIVITIES

Again this past year staff members took an active part in various professional pursuits within their area and subject specialization. The Division was represented in force at the 20th annual meeting of the Society of American Archivists which was held on October 11 and 12, 1956, at the Willard Hotel in Washington. The opening session, under the chairmanship of Dr. Wayne C. Grover, Archivist of the United States, was devoted to "Archives Administration in Eastern Europe." On this occasion the rostrum was "monopolized" by the Division staff: Dr. Yakobson acted as a moderator and detailed reports were presented by Drs. Epstein (USSR), Horecky (Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria) and Wojcicka (Poland). Written adaptations of these addresses appeared in the April and July 1957 issues of The American Archivist.

Staff members displayed initiative in engaging in many similar pursuits, including lecturing, writing and serving in professional organizations. To enumerate them here would repeat the announcements which appeared regularly in the LC Information Bulletin. Dr. Wojcicka continued her studies in Library Science at Catholic University.

[The report is signed by Sergius Yakobson. Ed.]