Submitted by
Sergius Yakobson, Chief
July 6, 1966

SUMMARY

The Congress, Government, the academic community, and individual clients called upon the Division for a total of 41,198 direct reference services, a 4.6% gain over FY 1965. 9,624 lists and offers were screened as a basis for the recommendation of 35,645 current and retrospective additions to the Library collections. A total of 678,175 items were processed for service to readers and 31,921 units were prepared for binding. Almost 8,800 cards, primarily for articles in periodicals, were incorporated into the area reference files.

Notable strides were made in the Division's bibliographic and publishing programs. Under the auspices of the Hispanic Foundation and with the financial support of the Ford Foundation, the Division completed Latin America in Soviet Writings. This bibliography consisting of two volumes covers the years 1917–1958 and 1959–1964, respectively; the second hard cover volume is already published by the Johns Hopkins Press, and the first is scheduled to appear shortly. The reference aid Newspapers of East Central and Southeastern Europe in the Library of Congress was also released this year. Continuing its series of area guides the Division is now readying for the printer Czechoslovakia. A Bibliographic Guide and East Germany. A Selected Bibliography. Work is going forward on a third edition of The USSR and Eastern Europe. Periodicals in Western Languages, since its second edition released in FY 1965 met with very active demand and became a quick sellout. Five articles on themes relating to Central and Eastern Europe were contributed to the Quarterly Journal.

A display currently on view in the Rare Book Room was organized by the Division in honor of the millennium of Poland's adoption of Christianity, and Czechoslovak, Hungarian, and Polish cultural organizations were assisted in preparing various commemorative exhibits.

I. ACQUISITION OF MATERIAL

In the reporting year the Division's major acquisitions efforts have been concentrated on the countries of East and Southeastern Europe and on the areas in which materials in the Finno-Ugrian languages are published. There is a good reason for this trend if one considers that the development of the Library's Russian collections can look back to a relatively long tradition — inaugurated some 60 years ago when the then-acquired Yudin Collection provided a solid cornerstone and starting point for further expansion — and that German publications have been given rather steady attention over the years. Other areas, in the past often peripheral and accidental to the Library's collection interest, became, however, only recently the beneficiaries of systematic and specialized procurement care and supervision. It goes without saying that this situation did not fail to leave perceptible effects in coverage and composition of the Library's collections on these areas. The need to redress these deficiencies is obvious. Some basic materials are still conspicuous by their absence and files of leading newspapers and periodicals, especially for the period between the two World Wars, are frequently incomplete or missing altogether. Large-scale programs of micro-filming these materials directly in the countries of origin, where the most complete holdings are often exclusively available, appear to be the indicated approach toward filling these lacunae, and the Division has done considerable spadework to this end.

At the present time the procurement of current publications from the countries within our area assignment does not present insuperable difficulties. The Library is in a position to obtain a representative cross section of the contemporary output, and as elsewhere in the world, signs of a containment of the publications explosion and of a somewhat receding flood are perhaps in sight for this area too. The main problem consists in improving effectiveness and speed of acquisitions operations and sifting receipts of the desired quality and quantity from the aggregate raw publications production. Far more complex is the task of shoring up the retrospective collections. The dynamic growth of Slavic and East European studies in the United States and elsewhere in the past two decades has made a direct impact on the antiquarian marketplace, which as a result of a rapidly dwindling supply of secondhand books has become clearly a vendor's market with large numbers of affluent libraries competing to buy at spiralling prices. This development is reflected in the mounting percentage of orders returned unfilled because of previous sale to other, perhaps faster-moving buyers.

Acquisitions of monographic publications from the entire area of the Division's responsibility have continued to show generally an upward tendency. Book receipts for the calendar year 1965 reached an all-time high of some 41,000 items. On the average the total intake of books amounted to almost 20% of the book production in the area, ranging from a low of 7.5% for Albania (where no organized procurement program is feasible in the absence of diplomatic relations between the United States and that country) to a high of 33.3% for German-language books. Substantial accruals were registered for Baltic, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Polish, and Yugoslav materials. Rumanian receipts showed an even larger increase — 324% over 1964. The acquisitions volume from Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union was comparatively stable and a decrease occurred only for Bulgaria, accounted for, in large part, by a levelling off of Bulgarian book production in 1965.

The availability of a specialist in Greek affairs on the staff made it possible for the Division to assume the added responsibility for recommending Greek books and serials. The development of the Library's Greek collections, in the doldrums for many years past, rested on a casual blanket order arrangement through which about 100 books, not always judiciously selected, reached the Library annually. This year a vigorous beginning was made toward a planned and organized procurement endeavor exploring new sources of supply and insuring the Library of the receipt of such essential current and older publications as ought to be at hand in a leading research library. During the year under review the Division agreed to look temporarily after the recommending of Greek and Hungarian science and technology publications, which otherwise would have remained unattended in the wake of resignations in Science and Technology Division.

Contacts established with foreign librarians and book publishers placed the Division in an advantageous position to participate at the request of the officers responsible for planning programs under Title II of the Higher Education Act, in preliminary negotiations related to the provision of advance bibliographic information for the Library's shared cataloging activities and a possible expansion of publications procurement from the East Central European area. Promising information was obtained through extended correspondence with Mr. Josef Vinárek, Director of the State Library of Czechoslovakia, who visited the Library last year, as well as through personal talks with Mr. Zbigniew Daszkowski, Deputy Director of the Polish National Library, Dr. Slobodan Jovanović, Chief of Acquisitions and Exchanges, National Library, Belgrade, Yugoslavia, and the members of the delegation of Rumanian book publishers visiting this country. Connections along these lines were also turned to good account in the advancement of more immediate acquisitions aims, such as substantial additions to the depository set of official publications supplied by Czechoslovakia and the receipt of a list of Polish newspapers and periodicals on microfilm — along with actual samples — from the Polish National Library, which offers the prospect of strengthening the Library's somewhat inadequate collections in this domain. In a similar vein, discussions among Mr. Jovan Marjanović, professor at the University of Belgrade and one-time Director of the Yugoslav State Archives, representatives of the Exchange and Gift Division, and spokesmen for this Division laid the groundwork for the possible future acquisition, in exchange for American microfilms, of important microfilmed research materials needed by the Library and available only from Yugoslav archival repositories.

Study travels abroad undertaken by the Chief and Dr. Bako (see Section IV), proved effective media for activating and advancing the Library's acquisitions objectives. While visiting cultural institutions in the Federal Republic of Germany, Dr. Yakobson secured a number of lists of their publications from which missing Library desiderata were identified upon his return. He also encouraged the German libraries to intensify the exchange of duplicates. During his stay in Finland, Dr. Bako managed to obtain extensive lists from bookdealers and libraries which subsequently were used to strengthen the Library's Finnish collections with important 19th century cultural and literary journals, reference works, and publications on the recent history of literature, ethnology, and anthropology. Contacts initiated on this occasion led to the presentation to the Library by the Embassy of Finland in Washington of collections of photographs of Finland and of Finnish children's books.

High priority was given to sustained efforts directed toward the development and strengthening of the Library's retrospective collections. Such probings in-depth, while often disclosing an impressive fullness and richness of the cumulated store of knowledge of the past, did not fail to bare many a soft spot in the Library's holdings, and on occasion even the absence of items of obvious importance, which had eluded the rather coarse mesh of the nets cast out in the past. For example, a reference inquiry occasioned the finding that there are gaps even in our early holdings of the leading Soviet newspapers Pravda and Izvestiia and corrective steps were taken to obtain microfilm of the missing issues. A multitude of factors combined to make this search for missing material as thorough and comprehensive as possible: screening of catalogs and lists; systematic collections surveys; information gathered on acquisitions trips; data derived from the handling of reference requests, or when preparing bibliographies; and last but not least, the counsel of outside specialists and foreign scholars who examined sectors of the Library's collections in the course of pursuing their research in the Library.

Collections surveys focussed searchlights on specific subjects or areas, authors, and institutions which ought to be represented satisfactorily in our collections. A few examples will illustrate such endeavors. A review of holdings of the works by 57 prominent Yugoslav writers resulted in the discovery that some important titles for the period before World War II were missing. On the basis of items cited in Historiographie Yougoslave, 1955–1965, collections on Yugoslav history were scrutinized, with the result that 25% of the works listed proved to be "delinquent" and were recommended for procurement. Subject-by-subject surveys of the Hungarian and Polish collections were continued and led to detailed recommendations for remedial action.

It is gratifying to note that investigative thrusts of this sort did not fail to produce concrete confirmation of the productivity of such ventures. Among the year's notable acquisitions initiated by the Division were the following: five volumes of the important Polish lexicographic work Encyklopedja powszechna Orgelbranda and a standard work on medieval heraldry, Heraldyka polska wieków średnich, by Franciszek K. Piekosiński; numerous missing volumes of Hugo von Hofmannsthal's Gesammelte Werke in Einzelausgaben and Friedrich Schlegel's Kritische Friedrich-Schlegel-Ausgabe; several basic works on the 17th century Czech theologian and educator, Jan Amos Komenský (Comenius), and the Unitas Fratrum, as well as three calendars published in Prague in the 16th and 17th centuries and constituting a valuable addition to the Library's remarkable collections on the Czech renaissance; the collected works of the Russian writer Evgenii Zamiatin; the first edition (1768) of a rare work on Lithuania, Litvanicarum Societatis Jesu historiarium provincialium, by Stanisław Rostowski; and, finally, 43 volumes of Hungarian archival inventories and studies along with 14 hitherto missing volumes of the Finnish national bibliography and a sizeable group of first critical editions of Finnish historical and linguistic works.

II. ORGANIZATION OF MATERIALS

In anticipation of the forthcoming expansion of the public reference area in the Slavic Room, the Division has developed detailed plans aiming at optimum utilization of facilities and informational resources in the interest of effective service to its patrons. Much thought and time were given to the task of reinforcing the quality and speed of service to readers by a compact and well-selected collection of books and periodicals for readers' use. As a result about 1,000 new reference books have been earmarked for addition as soon as the expected new shelf space becomes available, which will then house an aggregate of 7,500 volumes. In this pursuit priority consideration was given to strengthening the collections for the hitherto somewhat underrepresented Slavic countries outside of the Soviet Union and, in particular, to bringing together a solid and broad body of significant bibliographic material, which is the starting point and the bedrock for study and investigation of the area. Constant weeding out of older editions and dated materials has been one of the expedients in coping with the familiar syndrome of "too many books — too few shelves."

Good progress was achieved in the never-ending struggle for improved bibliographic control over diverse materials in the Division's custody. The establishment of a card file of about 350 current USSR and East European newspapers, representing titles regularly or occasionally received and arranged by place of publication and title, is a significant step in this direction. Another improvement that was accomplished involved the preparation of an inventory of the substantial assemblage of official USSR standards for the period 1926–1965. These materials, which offer valuable information on Soviet industrial developments, are now accessible for exploitation by interested readers.

Some 25,000 to 30,000 volumes of the original Yudin Collection continue to linger in a semi-cataloged state on Deck 8 where the responsibility of servicing them devolves on this Division. Harboring a mine of research information, often of unique character, these materials are frequently sought after by visiting scholars. To facilitate the ready location of these research resources thorough and systematic shelf-reading and, when indicated, relocation of publications were undertaken and completed. Also, a special project involving the integration into the permanent collections of a sizable number of unbound Soviet newspapers and periodicals was completed. All these measures have contributed to the traditionally neat appearance of the Deck 8 custodial area and to the ease of servicing the collections stores there, properties which have been the subject of favorable comments by Library officials and users alike.

As in previous years, the Division staff screened regularly current book receipts with a view to designating important books for priority cataloging and also reviewed large numbers of new serial titles to make the indicated serial decision. On numerous occasions the specialized area and language know-how of the staff have been placed at the disposal of various Divisions of the Processing Department. To exemplify this type of activity, at the request of the Descriptive Cataloging Division, Dr. Bako worked out a proposal concerning the capitalization of Finnish institutional names.

Finally, through their day-to-day contacts with the collections, the Division's specialists have been at a vantage point in regard to the identification of rare materials, which, if left in the general collections, would be threatened by deterioration and possible loss. Thus, in searching a rare 17th century biographical work on Polish writers, offered by a dealer for $265.00, a copy of this title was located on the open shelves and was immediately recommended for transfer to the Rare Book Division.

III. USE OF MATERIALS

1. Reference Services

Rendering reference service to readers is, of course, the crux of the Division's activities and it is toward an efficacious discharge of this primary function that the operations described in the two preceding sections are directed. The pace of reader demand continued to accelerate and the figures show a grand total of 41,198 reference services performed, an increase over FY 1965 of 4.6%. For reference librarians, the only measurable indicator of customer satisfaction is a positive feedback. That our efforts did not go unappreciated is attested to by a sampling of this year's "fan mail": "This valuable listing has saved me a great deal of time and has undoubtedly brought to my attention numerous articles I otherwise might have missed." "Yours was a most prompt and authoritative answer." "We are most grateful to all the staff . . . for their unfailing courtesy and kind help." "I wonder whether the unfailing genial diligence of the Library of Congress and its staff is appropriately recognized in this country or elsewhere. Is there anything a mere citizen can do to pay off such a debt?"

Congress remained the Division's most important patron and its calls upon the specialist staff and reference librarians ranged over the gamut of services, from studies in depth and detailed analyses to answering spot inquiries and providing translations in a variety of languages within the Division's responsibilities. For example, the Chief and Dr. Allen prepared an evaluative study of various aspects of intellectual ferment in the Soviet Union, with particular attention to figures of the contemporary literary scene; a search in obscure sources identified an icon in the possession of a Senator; biographic data were supplied on Gavriil Logginovich Pribylov for use in a bill concerning the islands named for him which he discovered in 1786; and statistics were compiled outlining the part played in Soviet agricultural production by farming private plots of land. Among agencies of the government which sought help were: the Department of Commerce, which needed qualitative and quantitative data on East European trade publications; the local offices of the Social Security Administration, which frequently sought information related to the validation of birth dates of clients born in Alaska; the Bureau of the Census, which was assisted in preparing a bibliography on East German social science periodicals; the Government Printing Office, which received expert advice on the revision of pertinent foreign-language sections to be embodied in the forthcoming new edition of the GPO Style Manual; the Federal Aviation Agency; the Department of State; and many others. Business firms, cultural institutions, artists, musicians, and journalists were among the Division's clientele and a brief sampling of this segment shows such names as Harrison E. Salisbury of the New York Times; composer Leo Smit; the Foreign Policy Association of New York; the Research Analysis Corporation, McLean, Virginia; the Baltimore Museum of Art, which was attempting to identify the inscription on a gold and enamel necklace; and Professor William Edgerton of Indiana University, who is preparing a book on the Russian writer Nikolai Leskov. That reference information, as a rule book-oriented and impersonal, can at times have a direct impact on human life is illustrated by a letter in which the American Council for Emigrés in the Professions expressed thanks to the Division for furnishing data which facilitated the certification of a foreign-born physician's eligibility to practice medicine.

Many library units are in almost daily contact with the Division for a diversity of information. To epitomize this type of service, when the Soviet poet Andrei Voznesenskii gave a reading from his works in the Library's Coolidge Auditorium, the Division supplied biographic data for use in advance press releases and subsequently advised a local radio station on the best selections from his presentation for a broadcasting program. Also, translated and annotated Finnish and Hungarian titles were supplied to the Children's Book Section for use in a forth-coming publication, Children's Literature; a Guide to Reference Sources. From the nation's universities come other patrons, who visit the Division in large numbers and account for a substantial portion of the written reference inquiries received. One group of students — a class from Bucknell University escorted by their professor — made it a point to take a field trip to Washington to examine the Library's Slavic facilities and resources on the spot.

Librarians in other institutions also make frequent use of the expertise accumulated in the Division and seek advice on how best to start or build specialized collections in areas under the Division's geographical responsibility or to develop bibliographic programs. For example, the Chief was asked to survey the acquisitions program of the University of Wisconsin Library. Two librarians, Mrs. Bonnie Schultz of the Research Institute on Communist Strategy and Propaganda of the University of Southern California, and Mr. David L. Mitchell, head of the Library School, State University of New York at Albany, were counselled on how to strengthen Slavic and East European collections in their fields of concentration. The Department of German at Pennsylvania State University received the benefit of the Division's know-how in developing a specialized collection of German belles-lettres, and the Finno-Ugrian Seminar at the University of Göttingen, Germany, was aided in connection with the establishment of a center for bibliographic activities relating to their specialty. For some years past, the Division has reviewed for bibliographers at St. Antony's College in Oxford the draft of their annual survey of Soviet statistical works.

Exhibits proved a welcome opportunity to acquaint the public with the Library's pièces de résistance on Eastern Europe. For the fiscal year under review, the Division can report particularly prolific activities in this field. The millennium of Poland's emergence as a nation and the adoption of Christianity there was a most fitting commemorative theme to spark a request from the All-Chicago Committee to Celebrate Poland's Millennium — conveyed through a Congressional source — for the selection by the Division of Polish treasures in the Library for loan and display at an exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. An intramural display of other choice items (including rare books, manuscripts, maps, prints, etc.) was also organized by the Division in the Library's Rare Book Reading Room in honor of this historic anniversary. The Washington Chapter of the American Hungarian Federation was supplied with a list of 143 items to be shown at an exhibition in honor of the 400th Anniversary of the Hungarian book. The Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in America received advice as to suitable materials on Czechs and Slovaks in America to be exhibited at its next Congress in New York City. Moreover, a selection of Library publications along with lists of the Division's publications were dispatched for use at exhibits arranged by the Far Western Slavic Conference and the American Historical Association, both held in San Francisco.

2. Bibliographies and Related Studies

The preparation of bibliographies, area guides, and articles for publication by the Library continues to absorb a considerable portion of the skills and energies of the staff. For the fiscal year under review, gratifying results in the development of the publications program can be recorded: two important bibliographic tools appeared in print, four are in progress, and others are in the preliminary planning stage. Several Division publications of yesteryear were listed as valuable tools in a special issue on Eastern Europe of INTERCOM, issued by the Foreign Policy Association of New York.

Under the auspices of the Hispanic Foundation and with the financial support of the Ford Foundation, the Division completed this year work on the two-volume Latin America in Soviet Writings. The original version (for the years 1945 to 1958) of what has proved to be a bibliographic tool of lively interest to students probing into the extent of Soviet interest in Latin America appeared in 1959 and sold out so rapidly that it had to be reprinted the following year. Encouraged by this success, the Division in 1964 launched the new project, this time designed to list works published from 1917 through 1964 in two volumes, one for the years 1917–1958 and the other for 1959–1964. Together, they equip researchers in both the Latin American and Soviet fields with a bibliographic inventory reflecting the magnitude and growth of Soviet publication activities centered on Latin America. One of the volumes has already been published by the Johns Hopkins Press in attractive hard cover and the other volume is expected later this year. The project was conducted by a staff of two, hired for this purpose and working under the guidance of and in cooperation with the Division's regular staff.

Newspapers of East Central and Southeastern Europe in the Library of Congress, a companion volume to Newspapers of the Soviet Union in the Library of Congress (published in 1962) was also released this year and has already been acclaimed in College and Research Libraries as "especially useful because of the very complete data on specific holdings." This stocktaking of the Library's variegated, though often fragmentary, newspaper resources on the East Central and Southeastern European areas has served the Division well, especially in its efforts toward strengthening these holdings.

Continuing the program of bibliographic guides to various countries, the Division is now at work readying for the printer Czechoslovakia. A Bibliographic Guide. This work, compiled by Professor Rudolf Sturm of the faculty of Skidmore College and now being given editorial review by staff members, covers essential works, primarily in the Western languages. It is the third in a series of studies of which those on Rumania and Bulgaria, brought out by the Division with the help of outside consultants, appeared in 1963 and 1965 respectively.

Issued by the Library in 1959, East Germany. A Selected Bibliography provided a guide to basic materials on this area published between 1947 and 1958. The area specialist for Central Europe has been at work for some time updating and revising the information contained in the original publication and the intensive editorial work now in progress is aimed at having the new, enlarged edition ready for printing before the end of the calendar year. Another Division publication, The USSR and Eastern Europe; Periodicals in Western Languages, released in October 1964 in over 1500 copies, was such a quick sellout that the need became obvious for a new edition of this unique survey of an important sector of publishing. The unusually active response to this publication and the unorthodox range of inquirers, including a number of European business and industrial firms, presented us with the still unsolved puzzle as to which promotional channel may have contributed to generating such broad interest. Work is now going forward on a third revised and enlarged edition (the first edition came out in 1958 under the title East and East Central Europe; Periodicals in English and Other West European Languages).

The Division took an active hand in launching a new project involving the preparation by the Sozialforschungsstelle in Münster, Germany, of a survey on the progress of German research on Latin America. This undertaking is being financed by the residue of the Oberlaender Trust, and the publication of the resulting study will be arranged with the cooperation of the Hispanic Foundation. The services of the Finno-Ugrian Area Librarian were temporarily placed at the disposal of the Legislative Reference Service to enable them to meet a Congressional request for the compilation of a bibliography of publications by Hungarian and Western authors on the Hungarian population of Rumania, which resulted in the completion, in cooperation with the Law Library, of a bibliography of over 1700 entries.

The specialist staff, as in previous years, contributed articles to the Quarterly Journal. This year's reports on various phases of the Library's acquisitions dealt with "Alaska before 1867 — Some Recent Soviet Publications," "The Matica Hrvatska and Croatian Literature," "Some Early Polonica in the Library of Congress," "Works Related to Minor Finno-Ugrian Languages," and "German History, a Review of Some Recent Publications."

IV. EXTERNAL RELATIONS

Contacts with domestic and foreign cultural institutions, other government agencies, and visiting scholars from abroad, in addition to providing a rich lode from which to draw new insights and essential information, often have very concrete implications for the activities of the Division and the Library. As discussed previously in the section on acquisitions, these relations yield profitable returns by turning up new channels of procurement, revealing new areas of interesting research, and promoting good will.

During the fiscal year just past, two cultural survey trips abroad by staff members were of particular note. The Chief, while visiting for two weeks West German universities, research institutions, libraries, and other sites of learning at the invitation of the government of the Federal Republic of Germany, was afforded the opportunity of observing at first hand the state and advances of Slavic and East European studies and of conducting useful conversations which should prove beneficial to the Library. When participating in the Second International Finno-Ugrian Congress in Helsinki, Dr. Bako was able to broaden the scope of a previous survey undertaken in 1964 and to probe more thoroughly into the availability of book trade and library materials of acquisitions appeal. The Assistant Chief has been awarded a grant by the American Council of Learned Societies for the purpose of participating with other members of the American delegation in the deliberations of the First International Congress of Balkan and Southeast European Studies to be held in Sofia late this summer.

On several occasions the area competence represented in the Division was mobilized for background briefings for representatives of other government agencies or private organizations planning trips to foreign lands. This type of activity is epitomized by the services rendered to Mr. Sydney Weintraub, Chief of the General Commercial Policy Office of the Department of State, who was designated in conjunction with a Foreign Service Institute Seminar to travel to Eastern Europe and report on its cultural scene. To this end, he was provided with data to assist him in devising a suitable itinerary, crystallizing foci of inquiry, and selecting introductory reading for the understanding of an area that was novel to his experience. Mr. Robert Frase of the American Book Publishers Council and the American Textbook Publishers Institute was given a detailed briefing and provided with background data for use during an official visit to Rumania by a delegation of American publishers. The Chief subsequently participated in a session at the Department of State where the delegation reported on their experiences and expressed particular thanks for the spadework done by the Division. The delegation's draft report on its findings was reviewed by Mr. Carlton prior to publication. While paying a return visit to this country in June 1966, four Rumanian publishing executives responsible for the major branches of Rumania's book production called on the Division for an informative conference, which opened promising vistas for broadening the development of the Library's Rumanian collections. Similarly, the Division's staff conferred with leading archivists from the USSR, Czechoslovakia, and Rumania, who participated in the Extraordinary Congress of the International Council on Archives held in Washington. Questions of strengthening the Library's holdings of archival guides and access to other publications and materials from these countries ranked high on the agenda of these talks. Among other groups of foreign visitors who were introduced to the Library's programs and resources were parties of Soviet citizens on tours sponsored by the Experiment in International Living, the Foreign Student Service Council, and the Georgetown University Summer Exchange Program.

As in past years, members of Washington's diplomatic corps availed themselves of the Division's services both in regard to reference problems and to Library orientation for new members of their staffs, in particular cultural attachés. Representatives of the Czechoslovak, Finnish, German, Polish, Rumanian, and Swiss embassies visited the Division for such purposes.

The pages of the Division's guest book vividly reflect the burgeoning, with the helping hand of the U.S. Government and private foundations, of cultural exchange programs with countries within the perimeter of the Division's geographical assignment. This year's roll of visitors included: Michael Tatu, staff writer of Le Monde in Paris and Jean-Pierre Saltiel of the French Foreign Office; Dr. A.F. Kleinberger of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem; Prince Emmanuel of Liechtenstein, accompanied by the Swiss Cultural Attaché; Aleksandar V. Stefanović, editor and literary critic, Slavko Macarol, Rector of Zagreb University, and Ivan V. Lalić, noted writer, all from Yugoslavia; Dr. Otto Löhmann of the State Library of the Prussian Cultural Foundation (Marburg/Berlin) and Professor Karl C. Thalheim of the Free University in Berlin; Dr. A.A. Fomin, Deputy Chief of the All-Union Institute for Scientific and Technical Information in Moscow and Professor Vladimir A. Vinogradov of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences; Robert Satanowski, Director of the Poznań Opera and Leopold Tyrmand, distinguished novelist, both from Poland; Shigeto Toriyama of the Slavic Institute, Hokkaido University in Japan; Professor Constantin Daicoviciu, eminent Rumanian historian; Professor Istvan Söter, Rector of the University of Budapest, Dr. Ludovík Holotík, Director of the Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, and Dr. Zdeněk Šamberger, Director of the State Archives, both from Czechoslovakia; and Phyllis Auty, educator and well-known writer on Yugoslav affairs.

V. ADMINISTRATION AND PERSONNEL

Midst the day-to-day preoccupation with the search for viable answers to problems of how best to streamline and expedite current operations, administrators may sometimes lose sight of the full perspective and shape of things to come. The overall planning activities and deliberations on the clarification of Library objectives, in which the Library has been engaged so vigorously during the year under purview, afforded a welcome opportunity of training our sights at the developments and transformations which the Division's work is certain to experience in the approaching '70s and '80s. A look into the crystal ball occasioned by the request for space estimates to be used in advance planning for the third Library building made the Slavic and Central European Division of the next decade or two emerge in new dimensions. Sharply increasing readers' demands, coupled with expected acceleration in the output of printed matter, would appear to justify projections for substantial annual increase rates in the volume of custodial materials and the size of reference collections. Almost two and one half times more seating capacity in the public reference areas will be needed to accommodate the readers anticipated for 1985 and, concomitantly, a nearly doubled staff would be required to cope with this growth and satisfy the pressing need for substantive reference and specialized bibliographic services. In conjunction with advance work being done in the Library toward a machine-readable catalog, the Division endeavored to clarify and define the specific needs for information retrieval as postulated by an area approach. One of the facts revealed on this occasion was the disclosure, to the surprise of many, that there is a total of over 90 languages in which printed matter is published in the Division's area of responsibility. Short term events at hand also produced considerable activity. Preparations went forward for a purposeful relocation of staff and facilities in the expanded Slavic Room area, to be occupied when the next-door alcove space is vacated.

Two additional study rooms were obtained, on a temporary basis, in order to alleviate a troublesome situation endured by two staff members who had formerly been housed in the poorly ventilated South Conference Room; this area is now used only by personnel whose duties require them to be absent from their working areas for some length of time. By concentrating shelving and rearranging the materials stored there, Bays 1 and 2 on Deck 8 were vacated and made available to Orientalia Division, which is beset with space predicaments even more pressing than this Division's.

The system of weekly reporting sessions, inaugurated last year by the Assistant Chief as an additional channel of information and communication with staff members under his supervision, has worked well and is being continued, with gratifying results.

Throughout the entire fiscal year the Division maintained a perfect score as to work stability of its regular staff without a single case of employee turnover. However, Mr. Robert F. Price, one of the Slavic Room reference librarians, who also serves as recommending officer for Yugoslavia, will leave the staff in August in order to pursue research in Belgrade.

Staff members derived great benefits from participating in various training programs. Mr. Carlton, who besides his other duties serves also as the Division's editor, was chosen to attend a course on manuscript preparation held at the Government Printing Office. The professional personnel took part in a seminar devoted to better communications with the public, and members of the administrative staff attended courses in preparing time and attendance records.

VI. PROFESSIONAL BUT UNOFFICIAL ACTIVITIES

1. Relations with Scholarly Groups

The Chief maintains continuing liaison with the scholarly community through his membership in the Joint Committee on Slavic Studies (JCSS) of the American Council of Learned Societies and the Social Science Research Council and in the Coordinating Committee for Slavic and East European Library Resources (COCOSEERS), composed of members of the JCSS and the Association of Research Libraries. In addition, he is a member of the Committee on Linguistic Information (CLI) and the chairman of the local chapter of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS); he is presently serving on the panel which is planning the program for the second National Conference of AAASS to be held in Washington in 1967. He participates in the activities of the Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs, with which he became affiliated two years ago, and is active in the newly-formed Subcommittee on East Central and Southeast European Studies of the JCSS. In addition to his regular committee work, Dr. Yakobson this year attended, as a member of CLI, a Conference on Vital Contemporary Issues of Information in the Language Sciences held at Airlie House in Warrenton, Virginia, and served in an advisory capacity at the annual meeting of the Inter-University Committee on Travel Grants, held at Madison, Wisconsin. Dr. Yakobson and Dr. Horecky also took part in the sessions of the American Political Science Association, which were held this year in Washington. The Assistant Chief is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Slavic and East European Subsection, Association of College and Research Libraries, American Library Association. This year he attended a meeting of this group which was held during the ALA Mid-Winter Conference in Chicago. The Chief and Dr. Allen attended the annual convention of the American Historical Association in San Francisco, where Dr. Yakobson chaired the luncheon meeting of the Conference on Slavic and East European History. Dr. Allen presented a paper on "Soviet Historians and American History; the Civil War and Reconstruction in an Eastward Light," which attracted considerable comment. In addition, he participated in a panel discussion on research facilities in the Washington area held at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. Dr. Bako attended the Second International Finno-Ugrian Congress in Helsinki, and Dr. Hoskins the International Congress of Historical Sciences in Vienna.

2. Other Activities

Individual contributions made by the staff cover a wide spectrum of scholarly endeavor, as illustrated by the following examples. Dr. Allen taught a course in Russian history at George Washington University. Dr. Balys is co-author of a chapter on Baltic mythology in Wörterbuch der Mythologie. Dr. Bako presented a paper on the question of Hungarian dialects spoken in various parts of the United States at the Helsinki congress mentioned above. The Johns Hopkins Press called on Mr. Carlton's services as a proofreader for the two-volume Latin America in Soviet Writings. Mr. Andrew Fessenko did course work in library science at Catholic University. Dr. Hoskins prepared two reviews for the American Historical Review and Mr. Robert F. Price contributed an article on Croatian literature to the New Catholic Encyclopedia. Dr. Horecky's book, Russia and the Soviet Union; A Bibliographic Guide to Western-Language Publications was listed among "Selected Reference Books of 1964–1965" (College and Research Libraries), outstanding reference books of 1965 (Library Journal), and the year's outstanding academic books (Choice). Dr. Price is the author of an article on "The Germanic Forest Taboo and Economic Growth" appearing in English in Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, published in Wiesbaden. The Bucknell Review of December 1965 contained an article by Dr. Yakobson on "Conflict and Change in Soviet Historical Scholarship." Dr. Weinfeld serves as assistant editor of Inspel, a recently initiated newsletter published by the Special Libraries Section of the International Federation of Library Associations.

Submitted by
Sergius Yakobson, Chief
July 6, 1966