Submitted by
Sergius Yakobson, Chief
July 10, 1964

I. ACQUISITIONS

During his travel in the spring of 1963 for the Library to East and Southeast Europe — the first official visit paid by a Division representative to this area — the Assistant Chief surveyed cultural organizations and activities and established direct contact with the heads of close to 100 libraries as well as with scholars, publishers, book dealers, and representatives of publications export agencies. The fiscal year under review witnessed the fruition of these discussions, which in a multiplicity of ways proved beneficial to the strengthening of the Library's current and older Slavic collections. In close cooperation with the Processing Department, the numerous recommendations of his travel report concerned with speeding up current acquisitions, improving the quality of receipts, and reducing their cost were gradually implemented. The procurement programs from Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Yugoslavia were revamped through a realignment of sources and changes in methods of acquisition. Such measures were called for by the limited usefulness of national bibliographies as primary recommending tools resulting from the fact that they list new publications so belatedly that an inordinately high ratio of selections proves to be unavailable by the time the orders reach the dealers. In response to this situation a network of limited blanket order arrangements was instituted based on the Division's specifications of types and numbers of essential materials to be delivered automatically and immediately after publication. Whenever blanket orders are not practicable, e.g. in Poland, periodical book trade lists which announce forthcoming publications a few months ahead of time are now being used as principal selecting aids.

It is imperative, of course, that these "hard core" publications thus secured be supplemented at a later point through the Division's individual recommendations from additional bibliographic sources. In the course of these reorganizations, the Prosveta Publishing House and Export Agency in Belgrade — granting an unusual 20 percent discount — became the Library's main supplier of Yugoslav materials. The National Library of Cyril and Methodius in Sofia is the principal resource for the Bulgarian publications.

Another outgrowth was the expansion of official exchanges with Poland and Yugoslavia through the addition of quite a few titles to the roster of serial publications received from these countries. In this context, it should also be noted that more than 900 pieces of official publications were made available by the Parliamentary Library in Helsinki.

As to the Library's major East European exchange partners, as a follow-up of the Division's recommendations, they were requested to supply their own publications regularly and automatically so that these materials could be disregarded in purchase programs and duplication avoided. Thus, close to 50 Bulgarian learned periodicals are being regularly received on exchange from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Library is now assured of complete representation of the sets of six encyclopedias currently published in parts and supplied by the Lexicographical Institute in Zagreb. Also the Serbian Academy of Sciences sent 141 important academy publications missing from the Library's collections, and desiderata of pre-World War II periodicals were made available by the University of Warsaw Library.

Mr. Matko Rojnić, a distinguished librarian and Director of the National and University Library in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, renewed contacts with the Assistant Chief when spending several days in the Library, and discussed on this occasion with various officers the expansion of exchange relations. As a result, the Library should be in a position to draw in the future on an extensive duplicate collection of retrospective Croatian, Hungarian, and German materials held by Yugoslavia's largest library institution. In connection with Mr. Rojnić's visit, the Divison also arranged for him to select from Library duplicates some 150 American publications as a contribution to the rebuilding of the National and University Library in devastated Skopje, Yugoslavia. Similarly another visitor to the Library, Professor Boško Novaković, literary historian at the University of Novi Sad, Yugoslavia, who is also closely associated with the Matica Srpska, the venerable Serbian cultural and publishing institution, assured the Division of his full cooperation in filling vital lacunae in the coverage of publications sponsored by these two institutions.

The more munificent flow of funds for the purchase of retrospective materials gave the Division's recommending officers an opportunity to delve into dealers' lists and offers with such relish that the supply of money was depleted by the middle of May of this year. Noteworthy among retrospective acquisitions were shipments of older Polish and Yugoslav books, the latter including rare Croatian materials published during World War II in the puppet state of Croatia.

To enhance a systematic and coherent acquisitions program for retrospective materials, collection surveys in depth were initiated for German, Hungarian, and Polish publications and it is planned to extend them gradually to other areas within the Division's assignment. These surveys, probing subject by subject into those categories of research publications of older days, both monographs and periodicals, which an advanced investigator can expect to find in an outstanding research Library, will result in evaluative statements assessing both the strengths and weaknesses of the Library's collections and comparing its holdings with those in other leading U.S. library centers. Want lists of significant desiderata to be secured on microfilm or in printed form will be a byproduct of this project. Along similar lines, the Division's specialists reviewed the Library's current holdings of dictionaries, grammars, and language textbooks to detect weak points and bring the collections of these reference works up to standard strength.

Another phase of activities was directed toward improving the quality of Finnish non-current collections with the support of a grant of $500 which Dr. Elemer Bako helped to secure from the Finlandia Foundation. An intensification of exchange relations with the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek in East Berlin and the Deutsche Bücherei in Leipzig in which Dr. Arnold H. Price took an active hand brought to the Library a valuable collection of journals published between 1815 and 1945 by various agencies of the Prussian local government as well as significant East German reference materials of more recent date.

In its efforts to complete the Library's holdings of important periodical sets and to enrich the collections with rare books — which, if at all procurable on the market could be acquired only at exorbitant cost — the Division has placed increasing reliance on various types of photoreproduction. When, at the request of the Centre de Documentation sur l'URSS et les pays slaves in Paris, the Division reviewed Library runs of national bibliographies of the constituent and autonomous republics of the USSR, some gaps in these basic though difficult to procure bibliographic materials came to light and action was recommended to fill them. Availing itself of an offer from Mr. Lawrence S. Thompson, Director of Libraries, University of Kentucky, who through a private arrangement with Soviet libraries had secured microfilms of practically all 17th century Russian publication, the Division made provisions for the receipt of these materials by the Library. When received they will constitute, along with the Library's substantial collections of 18th century Russian materials, an invaluable store for historical and linguistic research. Finally, Dr. Stephen A. Fischer-Galati, who served the Library as an expert on Rumanian affairs in the summer of 1961, acted during a recent visit to Rumania as a voluntary intermediary between the Library and the Rumanian Academy of Sciences in opening up possibilities for the procurement of a very interesting collection of a large number of Rumanian periodicals which are nowhere else available in the U.S. As an outgrowth of this initiative, an extensive offer of such materials was recently examined by the Division's specialists, who earmarked a considerable number for possible procurement.

II. ORGANIZATION OF THE COLLECTIONS

The Descriptive Cataloging Division's need for additional space for cataloging arrearages overrode the merits of the Division's proposal made in FY 1963 to add current unbound Albanian, Hungarian, and Rumanian serials to its custodial responsibilities in the interests of making the area scope of the Division and of the Slavic Room coextensive and of synchronizing the Division's recommending and servicing operations. The Division still hopes that at some future date a more benign space situation may resuscitate the realization of the plan. Meanwhile, its staff set about with all energy to make space available on Deck 8 for the swelling volume of uncatalogued materials. As a result of a two-pronged attack in Project Space Reclamation, it became possible to vacate 60 sections for the use of Descriptive Cataloging Division, 10 more than had been requested originally.

First, many thousand pieces of offprints of articles, old periodicals, and books, nearly all unrecorded and outside of the servicing and custodial responsibilities of the Slavic and Central European Division, were subjected to a thorough screening, chiefly by Dr. Robert V. Allen, with the result that approximately 60 percent were set aside for retention and cataloging, 20 percent discarded outright, and the remaining 20 percent referred for similar selection by the Science and Technology Division. Having reduced this mishmash of materials to more manageable proportions, the staff rearranged them to permit a simpler and more logical grouping which would insure some measure of bibliographic control over these collections until they are cataloged. Moreover, it was possible to vacate additional space when the Division was authorized to implement its former proposal to transfer Russian Language UN documents from Deck 8 for microfilming.

As a byproduct of these activities some unique early Soviet periodicals and newspapers too brittle to be bound were found and were earmarked for microfilming. Among these materials were copies of Rabochii i Soldat, the predecessor of Pravda. Other still serviceable sets of periodicals were recommended for binding even before cataloging so as to protect them from progressive deterioration. Also, some 500 books of the Yudin collection which at one time were removed from it by optimistic catalogers were restored to their shelf positions and Mr. Andrew Fessenko prepared for them provisional identification cards so that these important research materials can be located.

Among other steps taken to improve the serviceability of the collections, keys to the location of all Slavic materials on Deck 8 were prepared and prominently displayed in several places to facilitate the orientation of users and make self-service possible. It is hoped that arrangement, efficiency of operations, and appearance of Deck 8 compare favorably with any other serial custodial area in the Library.

At the same time, the staff of the Slavic Room continued to make every effort to accommodate the special needs of individual or organizational readers. A recent example of this type of service is the immediate routing and special charging for a total of 71 periodical titles needed for newly established projects of the Science and Technology Division.

An ever present preoccupation of the Division has been the developing of a highly concentrated and expertly selected up-to-date reference collection in the Slavic Room. To this end, a continuous review, striving at a purposeful replacement of existing reference aids by more recent or more adequate ones was conducted and, because of the torrent of publications on the area, the resultant replacement quotient was quite sizeable.

III. USE OF MATERIALS

1. Reference Activities

In the Division's reference work, assistance to the Congress has traditionally played a role of prominence. Among the more extensive services of that kind was the preparation of a chronology of events demonstrating the expansion of Russia eastward from the Urals within the last 400 years with special emphasis on Russian-Chinese relationships, as well as a translation of the original text of the nuclear test ban treaty, which was needed for an interpretation of some specific points of that agreement. Very often incoming Congressional inquiries are the aftermath of current events, such as requests for ascertaining Soviet press reactions to President Kennedy's assassination or to racial unrest in the U.S.A or a spot inquiry for information on the Soviet system for ratification of treaties; the last was received during the Senate floor debate on the nuclear test ban treaty.

A certain measure of relaxation of restrictions imposed in Eastern Europe on cultural contacts with the non-Communist world has probably accounted for the receipt of direct requests for reference or bibliographic aid from this area. Thus, the National Széchenyi Library in Budapest, which is in the process of compiling a new edition of a union catalog of rare Hungarian books, solicited a detailed inventory of pertinent Library of Congress holdings. Similarly, the Presidium of the Ukrainian Society for Cultural Relations and other institutions in the USSR showed interest in American materials on Ukrainian men of letters.

Scholars and graduate students were among the Division's regular clientele. For instance, a scholar from UCLA who was preparing for publication a study on Dickens was supplied by the staff with detailed data on Dickensiana in several languages within the Division's linguistic competence. Professor Gyula Décsy, an outstanding authority on Finno-Ugrian linguistics and recently a guest lecturer at Indiana University, was given a thorough orientation to the parts of the collections which are of special interest to his studies and Professor Anselm Strittmatter acknowledged research assistance received in the Division for an article on liturgical manuscripts in Hungarian libraries.

A few examples will suffice to illustrate how the specialized area and subject knowledge of the Division staff was brought to bear on a multitude of briefing and consulting activities. Students on their way to begin university study in Poland under official exchange auspices were briefed on specific aspects of culture and higher education in that country. The Department of State was advised on how to obtain from the Soviet Union historical and archival materials on Russian-American political relations and the Office of the Secretary of Defense on special aspects of Soviet foreign policy. Turning to the Balkan area, the Director of the American Book Publishers Council in charting itinerary and program for a visit of an American publishers' delegation to Yugoslavia sought and received detailed information for the purpose, and a party of wives of diplomats accredited to the Washington Bulgarian legation took part in an orientation session on the Library's functions and facilities in general and Bulgarian collections in particular.

Ad hoc bibliographies and collection surveys formed an integral part of the Division's reference services. Major assignments of this type are epitomized by a highly selective list of current English publications on Finland and its people which a patron of Finnish extraction intends to present to several research and university libraries in this country. Other lists of references focussed on such subjects as media of communications in Germany, Alaskan history, Shakespeare in Polish, the Czech underground movement in World War II, and works by foreign authors on pre- and post-Revolutionary Uzbekistan. At the instance of a Congressional committee, a quantitative survey was made of the Library's book resources on the political, social, economic, and cultural life of the Soviet Union and Russia. And while digging in the Library's Russian Winter Palace Collection for data on the Grand Duchess Anastasia, who is believed by some to have escaped assassination in Ekaterinburg during the Revolution, Dr. Allen brought to light a valuable index to that collection which will stand us in good stead for future work.

Cooperation in the improvement of bibliographic access to and the fullest possible utilization of the records of the Alaska Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church — which serve both as an evidential source for the authentication of citizenship and social security claims and as a fount of information for historical research — was another recurrent feature in the Division's reference work. Mr. Robert G. Carlton, the Division's specialist on these documents, assisted the Manuscript Division in their project of indexing the vital statistics section of these records, evaluated the portion of the index which has already been prepared (1900–1936), oriented prospective indexers who are to prepare the section for the pre-1900 period, and himself performed a pilot study to explore ways of indexing older records.

The Division's day-to-day reference work was multi-faceted in the broad sweep of subjects covered, the geographic spread, both domestic and foreign, and the variety of the clientele. Samples from the mailbag reveal an impressive cross-section of individual and institutional clients, government, the world of learning and research, international organizations, business, and, last but not least, the general reader in search of information. Intramurally, numerous units called on the Division in phases of their work for which no specialized area skills were available. Among them were, on a continuing basis the Hispanic Foundation, General Reference and Bibliography Division, the Photoduplication Service and Microfilm Reading Room, as well as the Science and Technology and Music Divisions in bibliographic projects requiring review of sections of manuscripts or contributions of titles of Hungarian and Finnish materials.

That the labors outlined above are accomplishing the mission of providing the public with the services it needs is attested to by the many clients who thoughtfully expressed their appreciation. The Curator of the Slavic Room, Mr. Alfred C. String, Jr., was commended by the Executive Director of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy for his prompt handling of an urgent inquiry and other letters of praise contain such phrases as: "My feelings of gratitude to your Division have been growing for some time. . . I think I should finally say thank you and tell you how valuable your help has been.", "This is exactly what we have been looking for...", "Thank you most sincerely for the very complete presentation. . . ", and "I greatly appreciate the care and effort you took."

2. Bibliographies and related studies

In keeping with its aim to sharpen the tools of bibliographic control over East European materials, the Division has vigorously pursued in this fiscal year a variegated publishing program, as illustrated by a number of projects, either completed or in various stages of preparation. The regular staff focussed its talents on this important task reinforced by consultants and short-term personnel, who all joined forces to work on specialized bibliographies and area studies.

The first of these area studies, Rumania. A Bibliographic Guide, came out in the fall of 1963. This pilot study represents a concise bibliographic area guide characterized by high selectivity and brief evaluative comments. A quotation from a letter from Professor Charles Jelavich of Indiana University illustrates how the scholarly world received this work: "The Slavic Division, the Library, and Stephen Fischer-Galati [the author] all have earned the lasting gratitude of all of us who work in the Balkan field. The publication is a model. You can't imagine what such a work will mean for graduate training and research. Such aids are indispensable. I shall require all my students to purchase copies. . . Now, all you have to do is to have similar volumes prepared for Albania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia. . . and the scholars in the Balkan field will sing your praises for ever after." Professor Jelavich seems to have read the Division's mind, since plans for work in this direction are already well under way. Dr. Marin V. Pundeff, a former member of the Law Library staff, at present teaching at San Fernando Valley State College in California, spent seven weeks in the summer of 1963 compiling a similar guide to Bulgaria, now ready for publication.

In the course of the preparation of these two guides, the compilers uncovered missing titles of relevant books and periodicals and embodied them into want lists for acquisitions use by the Division.

The USSR and Eastern Europe: Periodicals in Western Languages went to the printer in April of this year. A substantially revised and updated version of an earlier Division list published in 1958, this unique research and reference tool fills a pressing need; its predecessor volume has long been out of print and is available only on microfilm. This bibliography inventories 655 titles, including abstract and translation journals; it is the work of the Assistant Chief and Mr. Carlton, who in addition to the work done in Washington canvassed scholars and cultural institutions in France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, and Spain as well as some countries of Eastern Europe to secure the most recent data in the field of periodical publishing for which flux and change are particularly characteristic.

Nearly five years ago the Division issued in cosponsorship with the Hispanic Foundation Latin America in Soviet Writings, 1945–1958, which because of the timeliness of its subject proved to be a great success and such an active seller that it had to be reprinted in 1960. With this in mind, the Hispanic Foundation secured a grant from the Ford Foundation making it possible to continue the bibliographic coverage of this vital area with a dual approach. Two new bibliographies are now being prepared by the Slavic and Central European Division, one bringing the first listing up to date and the second providing coverage for the years 1917 through 1944. Mr. Leo A. Okinshevich of the staff of the Cyrillic Bibliographic Project, one of the compilers of the original bibliography, has been transferred to the Division for 18 months as head bibliographer and is being assisted in the work by Mrs. Natalie Z. Serebrennikov.

Professor Peter Scheibert's survey of the resurgence of East European studies in West Germany after World War II was first envisaged in 1958 when Dr. Fritz T. Epstein, then the Division's Area Specialist for Central Europe, discussed the project with him during a trip abroad. Because of the author's serious illness, the complete manuscript did not reach the Division until late in 1962 and proved to be nearly twice the size originally contemplated. Meanwhile, inroads had been made on the funds of the Oberlaender Trust of Philadelphia (which was financing the project) by heavy printing costs for Dr. Gisela von Busse's West German Library Developments since 1945. It was therefore decided that, under the circumstances, the best course of action was to add Professor Scheibert's work to the collections in its original manuscript form and announce the availability of both microfilm and Xerox copies to interested scholars.

A listing of the Library's holdings of East and East Central European newspapers on which a number of the Division's area staff have been working under the editorship of Mr. String had to be temporarily delayed because of difficulties in filling a vacant position and the resultant need to give the service schedule for the public reference program precedence over this bibliographic project.

A new approach was inaugurated in the Division's yearly reports on acquisitions for the Library's Quarterly Journal. In line with the publication's new editorial policies, this year's contributions on Eastern Europe and the USSR focussed on special themes instead of covering in summary the "whole waterfront," as was customary in previous years. Articles for the Journal thus dealt with bibliographic activities in Poland, publishing events inspired by the centenary of the Matica Slovenská, recent research on Rumania, a look at Austria's publishing industry, receipts from the Baltic states and the Finno-Ugrian area, and Russian documents about the U.S.A.

IV. EXTERNAL RELATIONS

The interchange of information with individuals and organizations all over the world, as well as with organizations and federal agencies here in the nation's capital, is an important and fruitful field of operations. Long-established relationships and new acquaintances as well offered the Division many welcome opportunities to bring to the Library gifts of important materials and to make use of new channels of acquisitions.

In the first section of this report, it was shown how tangibly the Library's procurement program benefited from professional consultations and contacts of Division staff members with various institutions and individuals. Some additional concrete examples will corroborate this point. Through the Chief's affiliation with the American Council of Learned Societies, the Library was able to avail itself of offers of publications made to the Council by the All-Union State Library of Foreign literature in Moscow and by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Dr. Allen, while on a vacation trip to Paris, investigated duplicate stocks in a number of French libraries. Dr. Etsuo Kohtani, director of the KDK Kojimachi Institute in Tokyo, who visited the Division and conferred with the Chief while on a trip to the U.S.A, has agreed to supply the Library with Japanese materials dealing with Russia, Red China, and the world communist movement. The fruits of the Assistant Chief's negotiations with cultural centers in Eastern Europe during his acquisitions trip in 1963 are still being harvested, as described in detail above.

Through panel meetings with other government agencies, the Chief and the Assistant Chief were enabled to gain an insight into cognate operations conducted in the East European field by other federal organizations or to be of service in a consultative capacity. In November, the Chief was invited to attend the Inter-Agency Roundtable on Area Studies sponsored by the U.S. Office of Education in order to compare problems of area training in the universities and in federal agencies. He also visited with the Associate Director of the National Bureau of Standards, Dr. W. A. Wildhack, to discuss with him automation methods used at the Bureau. The Assistant Chief participated in a debriefing session at USIA for four representatives of the American publishing industry. He also served on two occasions on a panel of experts called together by the U.S Office of Education to screen applications and make recommendations for the award of fellowships under the National Defense Education Act.

The Chief represented the Library at a meeting on Slavic bibliography and indexing held in conjunction with the ALA meeting in Chicago. The gathering was organized and chaired by Professor Oswald P. Backus of the University of Kansas.

The expansion of U.S. official cultural exchange programs with some East European countries brought growing numbers of scholars, writers, artists, and officials from this area and when playing host to them the Library relied in diverse ways on the Division's assistance. Staff members acted as cicerones when linguistic considerations called for such services, the visitors received briefings on the Library's East European collections and facilities, and, not infrequently, such meetings developed useful items of information for the Division's specialists or were turned to good account from the viewpoint of acquisitions activities. Particularly well represented were visitors from Yugoslavia and they included Professor Jovan Djordjević of the University of Belgrade, President of the Legal Council of the Yugoslav government and the principal drafter of that country's constitution; Marijan Matković, well-known Croatian novelist and playwright; as well as Dr. Anton Vratuša, Director of the Office of the President of the Federal Assembly of Yugoslavia.

Privately sponsored groups of travellers represented another contingent of visitors from the East European orbit. Two large groups came from the Soviet Union. The first, 21 strong and all participants in the Experiment in International Living, appeared unannounced in the Slavic Room, but found the Division in readiness and received an impromptu briefing from the Chief, which elicited a letter of appreciation from the Washington offices of the organization. Another large group came to the Division under the sponsorship of the East-West Relations Committee of the YMCAs. The Chief addressed these visitors in the Whittall Pavilion and afterwards they were taken on a tour of the Library. Representatives of a great variety of trades and professions, including a milkmaid who is also a deputy to the Soviet Supreme Council, were among this delegation.

A sampling of the roster of individual visitors shows such names as: Professor L.L. Hammerich of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters; Miss Ilse Cohnen, librarian of the West German Foreign Office; Dr. Vladimir Kemenov, member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR; Vaino Linna, noted Finnish novelist; Professor G.H. Bolsover, Director of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London; Robert H. Mason, Counselor of the British Embassy; and Professor Ludwig Zabrocki, Chairman of the Department of Germanic Languages, University of Poznan.

V. ADMINISTRATION AND PERSONNEL

The Division's administration devoted a great deal of effort to personnel matters, principally in the fields of recruitment, training, and classification.

The Chief, the Assistant Chief, and individual staff members cooperated fully with representatives of the Classification Office in the cyclic review of all of the Division's positions in order to put position descriptions into the new, simplified format and to insure that they fully reflect the actual duties assigned to each employee. It was also an opportunity to eliminate any obsolete positions and duties or delegations of authority and to make realistic appraisals of assignments in positions where the emphasis has shifted from one area of endeavor to another. The cyclic review resulted in the upgrading of five positions in the Division and the downgrading of one.

Recruitment, always difficult in an area where special language and area skills are of paramount importance, proved to be a real stumbling block. When Dr. Barbara Krader resigned in August to move with her husband to Columbus, Ohio, where she is now a member of the Ohio State University faculty, Mr. Carlton was promoted from his position of Slavic Reference Librarian in the Slavic Room to take her place. Mr. Carlton's old position had to remain vacant for nearly a year in spite of strenuous efforts to locate a suitable replacement. After exhaustive interviewing, recruitment both in Washington and all over the U.S., and intensive screening of all the available candidates, a suitable applicant was finally located as a result of the Division's talent search at Indiana University. This candidate, Mr. Robert F. Price, a graduate student, interviewed by the Chief while on a business trip to Chicago, reported to the Slavic Room at the beginning of June.

In order to round out the Division's language coverage of the countries within its area responsibility, arrangements were made for the in-service training of two area librarians in Rumanian. Under the tutelage of Mr. Konstantin Athanasiu of the Cyrillic Bibliographic Project, Mr. Carlton and Dr. Janina W. Hoskins are receiving instruction for two hours each week and are rapidly becoming proficient in a language which hitherto had not been adequately represented in the Division. Dr. Balys was nominated for the Library-sponsored training course on the provision of services to readers and Mr. Carlton for the course on the development and control of the collections.

The entire staff was briefed on the new statistical definitions and procedures put into effect by Reference Department at the beginning of the fiscal year. Mr. Carlton, the Statistical Coordinator, made a thorough study and reevaluation of all of the Division's accounting procedures, which led to a general tightening and simplification of reporting methods. A new Division statistical form was devised, which took the place of two forms used when the old procedures were in effect.

VI. PROFESSIONAL BUT UNOFFICIAL ACTIVITIES

As always, the professional staff in off-duty hours devoted their many and varied talents to a wide spectrum of activities outside their Library assignments, participating as officers and members in projects sponsored by a number of professional organizations and in writing, translating, editing, and teaching.

1. Relations with scholarly groups

The Chief continued to serve as a member of the Joint Committee on Slavic Studies (JCSS) of the American Council of Learned Societies and the Social Science Research Council and of the Coordinating Committee for Slavic and East European Library Resources (COCOSEERS), a group composed of members of the JCSS and the Association of Research Libraries. From this vantage point, he is able to view the whole field of Slavic studies as well as to serve in a senior advisory capacity. He was a member of the four-man program committee for the first national meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS); as the 1964 chairman of the Conference on Slavic and East European History, an affiliate of the American Historical Association (AHA), he also participated in planning the activities for the 1964 annual AHA meeting. In addition, he participated in the deliberations of several ad hoc groups organized to deal with special problems. One such gathering, called together by the American Council of Learned Societies, considered problems of financing in the Slavic field and another group, led by Professor Robert F. Byrnes of Indiana University, was dealing with the future of the Polish Library in Paris. The Chief accepted invitations to become affiliated with several other organizations — the Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs and the Société Historique et Littéraire Polonaise (established in Paris in 1832). He has also been asked by Hansberry College of African Studies, University of Nigeria, to become an Honorary Member of the College Advisory Council.

The Assistant Chief was commissioned by the American Council of Learned Societies and the Coordinating Committee for Slavic and East European Library Resources to organize and direct the preparation of a companion volume to his previous Basic Russian Publications (University of Chicago Press, 1962). As the editor of and a contributor to this work which will provide an annotated guide to western writings on Russia and the Soviet Union, he has been in close cooperation with a team of leading scholars in Slavic studies both in this country and abroad who are contributing to the volume. He was assisted in editing this work by Mr. Carlton. Three staff members, Dr. Allen, Dr. John P. Balys, and Dr. Krader contributed sections to this forthcoming volume.

Staff members found professional meetings to be an excellent forum from which to disseminate information concerning the Library's resources and facilities in the Slavic field. In addition to the Chief's participation mentioned above, four staff members, Dr. Allen, Dr. Horecky, Dr. Hoskins, and Mr. String, attended the AAASS conference held in New York which drew over 600 members from the U.S. and abroad. The Division was also represented at the meetings of the American Historical Association and the American Political Science Association. Dr. Balys was elected president for 1964 of the Institute of Lithuanian Studies and Dr. Bako attended the 17th annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies held in Washington.

2. Other Activities

Staff members had an active year in their extra-curricular roles as teachers, translators, authors, and editors. Dr. Price conducted a reading course in European economic history at American University and also served that institution as an examiner. Mr. Carlton did a considerable amount of translation work for the U.S. Joint Publications Research Service and Dr. Bako concluded his work of tape-recording American-Hungarian dialect materials under a grant from the American Philosophical Society. Dr. Balys was the staff's most prolific writer, with contributions during the year to Wörterbuch der Mythologie, the Lithuanian Encyclopedia, Lituanus, and the Slavic and East European Journal. Dr. Hoskins wrote a book review for the American Historical Review and Dr. Horecky is the author of an article on "The Slavic and East European Resources and Facilities in the Library of Congress," which appeared in the June 1964 issue of the Slavic Review. Dr. Price and Dr. Allen continued to serve as section editors for the American Historical Review.

[Signature: Sergius Yakobson]