Submitted by
Paul L. Horecky, Chief
July 13, 1973

I. ACQUISITION OF MATERIALS

Quantitative indicators can serve as a kind of yardstick to measure the work which the Division does to assure proper coverage of the part of the world for which it is responsible. During the current FY, the Division's recommending officers screened 11,895 national bibliographies, exchange offerings, and dealers' lists and made 33,890 recommendations for acquisitions.

In the absence of precise figures on the Library's total acquisitions of Slavic, Central, and East European material in FY 1973, perhaps the 56,000 proof cards received by the Division for titles from this area (representing roughly one third of the area's total book production) can serve as a measure of the effectiveness of the Library's acquisition programs.

The Library obtains a substantial portion of the publications of most of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe through comprehensive acquisition programs (NPAC and PL-480). However, the "automatic receipt" of publications does not relieve the Division's staff of the need to ascertain the adequacy of the materials received and of seeing to it that important items are not overlooked. In the case of Poland, our recommending officer also makes selections for 18 other research libraries participating in the PL-480 programs.

There are a few countries in our area of assignment with which no comprehensive agreements have been concluded — Albania, Greece, Cyprus, and Hungary. In these cases the Division's specialists must select materials on an item by item basis, which is time consuming, but which has led to some noteworthy acquisitions in special categories. For example, a group of about 50 titles relating to Greeks in foreign countries was selected by the Greek specialist and 232 volumes of major Hungarian governmental and educational serials were chosen by the Finno-Ugrian specialist. In the case of Albania, the procurement of publications was impaired by the lack of diplomatic relations between the United States and Albania. In FY 1973, however, the Division made proposals for renewing the effort to set up satisfactory direct exchanges with Albania and to acquire Albanian publications through the University of Priština, which is in the area of Yugoslavia largely inhabited by Albanians.

Efforts to broaden the area specialists' knowledge of pertinent world publication resources and to put this knowledge to the benefit of the Library were made in conjunction with personal travel, during which official leave was granted for acquisitions missions.

In FY 1973, for example, the Greek specialist, when visiting Greece and Cyprus, discussed library and book trade matters with government officials and private dealers. As a result, the Library has received substantial gifts from the two governments, and a blanket order arrangement was made for the receipt of Cypriot publications. The Czechoslovak specialist conferred with officials of the State Library in Prague and the information thus obtained has opened new avenues of exchange with that library. The Soviet specialist's visit to the Austrian National Library and to the University Library in Vienna helped to locate significant Ukrainian-language publications from areas which before 1918 were part of the Hapsburg Monarchy. While in Yugoslavia, the Chief discussed new methods of obtaining East German and retrospective Slovenian titles with a representative of the Slovenian publishing house Cankarjeva založba. In mid-June the Polish specialist returned from a visit to Western Europe during which she conferred with officials of a number of libraries and other institutions of the Polish émigré community, and at the very end of the fiscal year the Finno-Ugrian specialist spent some time in Finland in the interests of procurement. Preparations are underway for the Soviet specialist to visit the Soviet Union in the latter part of this calendar year.

Other activities of the Division's staff, though not in themselves directly concerned with acquisitions, had a distinct impact on that function. For example, compilation of The American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies brought to light a number of English-language titles in this field which were missing from the Library's collections. Likewise, nine extensive surveys of the Library's collections on East Central and Southeastern Europe (see Section III), pinpointed areas of strength as well as of weakness, and prompted acquisition action to eliminate deficiencies.

Staff members who combine reference and acquisitions functions find that one activity influences the other, for readers' questions often point out areas in which there is need for additional materials. One very topical example was a query about the women's rights movement in the Russian Empire which showed a gap in our collections that we are endeavoring to fill by a number recommendations, including the purchase of microfilm of the proceedings of a convention on that topic which met in St. Petersburg in 1909.

The following are a few of the more notable acquisitions of this FY.

A valuable body of material relating to Czech religious history and to the Reformation was donated to the Library by the widow of the eminent scholar Professor Matthew Spinka. It encompasses several publications reflecting the religious life of Brethren churches in exile, such as a Czech language edition (1743) of the writings of Count Zinzendorff, a German religious leader and protector of the Moravian Brethren, who helped them found their settlements in Pennsylvania, and a Berlin imprint of 1757 of Comenius' Hystorya o Smučeni a Smrti, Pohřbu, y Wzkřisseni Pána nasseho Ježisse Krysta, the story of Christ from the Passion to the Resurrection. This gift further strengthens the Library's impressive research resources on Czechoslovakia's past, which have been built over the years.

Although the present collections for the study of late nineteenth century Russia are among the strongest outside the Soviet Union, the addition of microfilm of the major newspaper Golos for the 1860s to early 1880s has broadened their value to scholars, as has the procurement of a recent Soviet bibliography of nineteenth century illegal and prohibited publications.

Acquisitions of Tvrtko Čubelič's Književni leksikon, published in Zagreb in 1972, is a significant addition to the Library's sources of biobibliographic information on Yugoslav literature, as is Predrag Palavestra's study of postwar Serbian literature, Posleratna srpska književnost, which was issued in Belgrade in 1972. In this field, the Library has also acquired the first volume of a larger biographical dictionary of Yugoslav writers, the Leksikon pisaca Jugoslavije, which is sponsored by the Serbian learned institution Matica srpska of Novi Sad.

The heavy public demand for genealogical resources on East Central Europe revealed some gaps, which were filled in part this FY by the acquisition of photocopies of two important items, Stanisław Dunczewski's Herbarz wielu domów Korony Polskiej i W. X. Litewskiego. . . Kraków, 1757 (2 v.) and the Poczet szlachty galicyjskiej i bukowinskiej. Lwów, 1857. The former is a comprehensive armorial of noble families of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the latter an official record of the Polish noble families recognized by the Austrian government in the part of Poland under Austrian rule. A very rare item was acquired in cooperation with the Science and Technology Division: Tractatus preclarissimus in iudiciis astrorum de mutationibus (Cracovie, 1515), one of the earliest works on weather forecasting, by Joannes Glogoviensis, Copernicus' teacher at Kraków University.

Noteworthy acquisitions of materials in Greek were the 43 volume set Bibliotheke Hellenon Pateron kai Ekklesiastikon Syngrapheon, comprising works of the Greek Church Fathers, which are of importance for the study of Christianity as a whole, and 10 volumes of the large encyclopedia of Greek literature, Megalē Enkyklopaideia tēs Neoellē nikēs Logotechnias, as well as a four volume history of modern Greece.

Some German titles worthy of attention are the Biographischer Katalog (Boston, G.K. Hall, 1967. 2 v.) and the Länderkatalog (Boston, G.K. Hall, 1967. 2 v.) of the Institut für Zeitgeschichte of Munich. Research into another important aspect of recent German life has been enhanced by the acquisition of microfilms of the proceedings of state legislatures of the Soviet Zone of Germany (1946–1949).

From Finland one may cite such works as Eino Suolahti's Helsingin neljä vuosisataa, a history of that city's four hundred years, and a facsimile of the first complete Finnish printed Bible of 1642.

Finally, the Division staff participated in the Library's overall acquisitions activities in a variety of ways. For instance, the Chief served on the Library's Acquisitions Committee and the Area Specialist (Central Europe) helped formulate guidelines for procurement of doctoral dissertations from German universities. In response to a request from the Orientalia Division for information on the scope of the Library's intake of Russian-language materials on Oriental studies, a large sample of recent titles was surveyed and it was found that the Library's acquisition of such materials is quite satisfactory.

II. ORGANIZATION OF MATERIALS

Responding to suggestions made by the then Acting Division Chief in August 1971, the Director, Reference Department, approved in principle the addition of materials on several non-Slavic countries to the Slavic Room reference collections, subject to securing the requisite shelf space. Planning efforts toward that objective were subsequently instituted.

First, a pruning of the pertinent collections, particularly of those on the USSR and Poland, was conducted in the fiscal year under review and resulted in the withdrawal of approximately 1,200 volumes from the present collections. Also, the long-awaited additional shelving in the alcove area adjoining the Thomas Jefferson Reading Room was installed, and in June 1973 the Slavic Room was extended into part of the adjoining office area (following the move of two staff members to other quarters). As a result, between 2,000 and 3,000 reference books can be added to the Slavic Room reference collections, which now number close to 10,000 volumes. Basic collections for Albania, Cyprus, Finland, the German Democratic Republic, Greece, Hungary, and Romania have been selected or are being selected by the Division's area specialists for assignment to present Slavic reference resources. Almost 500 reference works have already been incorporated and an additional 1,000 volumes will be added in the foreseeable future. Thus, the Division's public reference resources for Eastern Europe are now aligned with its geographic assignment, and it is hoped that this change will be expressed in a redesignation of what is now the Slavic Room.

In FY 1973 the Slavic Room staff rendered reference assistance in person to about 13,000 readers and answered ca. 14,000 telephone inquiries from government agencies, the public, and the LC staff.

The following reference aids are maintained in support of these services: card files of books in the Slavic Room reference collections, arranged by country, author, and title (about 12,000 cards); an accessions record (visible file) of unbound Slavic and Baltic serial publications received in the Slavic Room from the early 1950's to the present (almost 10,000 entries); a file of LC cards for Slavic and Baltic serial publications (21,000 entries); and the New York Times clippings files of articles on Soviet and East European affairs which have been kept current since 1971. Slavic Room readers also have available on open shelves some 300 Slavic and Baltic periodicals and about 30 newspapers from the Slavic and East European area as well as selected Western-language periodicals on the area. Moreover, the collection of Samizdat materials for which the Library is one of three depositories in the United States is being serviced for readers. To date 10 volumes of this material (nos. 1–6, 10, 20–22) have been received, together with a subject bibliography and document register.

Another activity of the Slavic Room is the routing of a selected number of incoming serials to various divisions of the Library such as the Science and Technology Division and the Federal Research Division, over 1,000 periodical issues and 10,000 newspaper issues were thus routed in FY 1973. In addition, about 1,500 Slavic and Baltic periodical issues were charged to various government agencies and about 700 periodical issues were loaned to the Photoduplication Service.

On Deck 8 a total of 130,000 periodical issues and close to 500,000 newspapers were processed during this FY. With the help of the Slavic Room visible file — in which the aforementioned 130,000 periodical entries were entered — 30,000 incoming duplicate periodical issues were intercepted on reaching the Slavic Room for subsequent discard by the Exchange and Gift Division, thus preventing crowding of valuable space on the Deck. This file, along with binding records (ca. 10,000 cards) and a serial file for Cyrillic serials kept on Deck 8, greatly facilitated the servicing of Slavic and Baltic serials to a varied clientele.

III. USE OF THE MATERIALS

A. Reference

Our reference services involve fact finding and interpretation, bibliographic and analytic studies, ranging over many subjects and countries and running the gamut from the important to the seemingly esoteric, from the complex to the obvious. The scope of this work is reflected in the sum total of 42,296 queries received by mail, telephone, and in person from the general public, Congress, government agencies, the academic world, research organizations, business, and industry.

This FY was highlighted by combined reference and bibliographic activities which required a pooling of skills to combine the component parts of the Division's area of responsibility in an overall theme. Some notable examples were the surveys of the Library of Congress collections for nine countries of East Central and Southeastern Europe (see ensuing Bibliography Section) and a survey of the Library's holdings of statistical publications issued by eight of the countries. Both these projects were undertaken at the instance of the American Council of Learned Societies and its findings will be embodied in information to be disseminated for the benefit of the profession. At the request of the editor of Sociology and Eastern Europe, the Division prepared a list of East European libraries with strong social science collections, which has since appeared in that journal.

Cooperative and coordinated efforts of the Division staff were manifested intramurally as well. For example, the Publications Office drew on the linguistic capacities of the Division's area specialists for a review of the sections of the GPO Style Manual relating to foreign languages for the 1973 revision of that manual. In response to a request by the MARC Development Office, the area specialists reviewed the proposed international Extended Character Set designed to facilitate the preparation of machine-readable entries for languages using a non-Latin alphabet. At the invitation of the Manuscript Division, the Central European specialist helped collate Sigmund Freud's correspondence with his fiancée (1882–1886). Continuing assistance was extended to the Federal Research Division and the Latin American, Spanish, and Portuguese Division.

The bulk of the reference questions, covering a wide range of subjects, pertained to Russia and the Soviet Union: Russian settlements in North America; the great Moscow fire of 1571; Soviet publications on American Indians; Russian "tabu" words; the attitude of the Soviet press toward Solzhenitsyn, and others. Some examples will illustrate the subject and geographic spread of inquiries for other countries: Foreign relations of the Baltic States in 1939 and 1940; the libretto of an opera by a 19th century Czech composer; the recommendations of the American Economic Mission to Greece (1947); Hungarian linguistic elements in Romanian toponomy; the current political and economic situation in Poland; and Yugoslav political parties between the two world wars.

The highest frequency of demands for reference assistance concerned information in the registers of baptisms, marriages, and deaths of the Russian Orthodox parishes in Alaska, in connection with federal action taken to compensate Alaskan natives for land losses. In FY 1973, 405 individual transcripts from the registers were provided in English translation for the Alaskan Bureau of Vital Statistics. Toward the end of the FY, the indexes to the registers were completed and microfilm of the registers made available to the Alaskan Bureau of Vital Statistics, and this time-consuming task was turned over to the Bureau.

Examples of reference assistance to government agencies are the identification of an article by the Polish Chief of Staff on Soviet preparedness for nuclear war — for a defense agency, and materials on Romanian attitudes toward national minorities before and after World War II — for the Department of State. Congress was served in many ways, including the frequent translation of materials.

Foreign diplomatic representations also called on the Division for assistance. This year the Division provided information for the embassies of Czechoslovakia, Poland, Greece, Cyprus, Germany, and Yugoslavia. The Central European area specialist, in cooperation with another LC staff member, the German Embassy, and the Department of State, helped locate two medieval German manuscripts, a part of the Hildebrandslied and a codex of the Willehalm, which had disappeared in the wake of World War II and had found their way to the United States. These manuscripts were subsequently returned to their rightful custodian in Germany.

The extent to which Slavic and East European studies have become part of the American academic curriculum is reflected in calls for service made from all parts of the country. For example, Concordia Teachers College inquired about the availability of a 19th century Serbian newspaper; a professor from Wilkes College sought advice and assistance in preparing a Baltic bibliography; a professor at Pennsylvania State University was informed of bibliographic sources on Romanian politics; and a doctoral candidate at Tulane University inquired about literature on American correspondents in the USSR in the 1920s and early 1930s. Many inquiries originated from foreign academic institutions as well: the University of Western Ontario was advised on the history of the Library's Yudin collection; the Ibragimov Institute of Language, History, and Literature in Kazan', USSR, sought information on a 19th century American Turkologist; and the University of Amsterdam wished to know sources on the forced assimilation of Tartars in the USSR.

The roster of prominent visitors to the Division included, among others, Mr. Boris Stukalin, Chairman of the Committee on Publishing, Book Trade, and Printing, USSR; Professor George F. Kennan of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University; Mr. Beno Zupančič, member of the Yugoslav parliament; Dr. Evangelos Kofos, Balkan Affairs Specialist of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and Dr. Emanuel Turczynski of the Ruhr-Universität, Germany. On such occasions the Division's guests were briefed on the Library's Slavic and East European resources and services and often were aided in solving specific reference problems. For instance, a professor from West Germany was assisted in his search for published and unpublished materials on the fate of the Romanian Jews during World War II and for an 18th century Greek newspaper published in Vienna; a researcher from the Hungarian Academy of Science required materials for her study of Hungarians in the United States; and periodical sources were searched to help a Yugoslav author engaged in a study of Western attitudes toward Yugoslavia during World War II.

An important part of the Division's work is the preparation of exhibits which bring the public's attention to the richness and variety of the Library's holdings. Three renowned East European personalities were thus commemorated this year.

An exhibit on Jan Amos Komenský (Comenius), a 17th century Czech educator and philosopher, displayed examples of his works and of the extensive published research devoted to him. The exhibit coincided with the Sixth Congress of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, which convened in Washington in November.

In honor of the 500th anniversary of the birth of Nicolaus Copernicus, rare books, maps, globes, and pictorial materials were selected from the Library's collections by the Division and the Science and Technology Division to illustrate the inception and establishment of the heliocentric system.

The 150th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Petőfi, Hungary's foremost 19th century poet and activist in Hungary's struggle for independence in 1848–1849, was commemorated by an exhibit which focused on Petőfi the man in the setting of his time and the place he occupies in Hungarian and world literature.

Published articles are another vehicle by which the area specialist aids research in Slavic and East European affairs, imparting to the public information on specialized segments of the Library's collections. Thus, the Russian and Soviet specialist authored a biographical article, which is scheduled to appear soon in the Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress under the title "The 150th anniversary of the birth of Fedor M. Dostoevskii."

Naturally, letters of appreciation, expressing the customer's satisfaction, are sweet music, and quite a few such letters came in. After a briefing in the Division, Mr. Cyrus S. Eaton, industrialist and active promoter of East-West relations, wrote to the Chief ". . . may I tell you how grateful I am to you and Dr. Allen for your most cordial hospitality to my associates and me." The wife of the Polish Ambassador remarked, "Yesterday was a memorable day. We wish to thank you for the truly remarkable tour of the Library of Congress. . . " A letter from a prominent Washington, D.C. law firm acknowledged the Division's assistance in solving a reference problem on Germany as follows: "First I would like to thank you for your invaluable help. Your agency is by far the most helpful and best informed of all the agencies here in town."

B. Bibliography

We can look back on a banner year of bibliographic enterprises. The division considerably expanded its activities in this area when, in January, it began compiling the American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies for 1973. This annual bibliography, sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS), records current publications, primarily by North American authors on Slavic and East European subjects. Published since 1956 under academic auspices, the Bibliography has suffered considerable delays owing to difficulties in finding trained staff and needed publication sources. In the interest of ensuring currency and full coverage, the AAASS requested the Library of Congress to prepare the Bibliography for 1973 on an experimental basis and it provided the funds to employ a bibliographic assistant and to cover certain other expenses connected with the Bibliography. By agreement between the Library and the AAASS, the Slavic and Central European Division will compile the Bibliography and the AAASS will publish and distribute it. This one-year agreement is subject to renewal, contingent on the availability of funds.

To date close to 1,000 entries have been prepared by the Division; 830 journals are being screened and the material is selected and organized in card files. In addition, the Division regularly receives a computer printout on selected subjects from the Congressional Research Service, pertinent cards from the Shared Cataloging Division, and a monthly printout of items selected from the MARC data base. The computer program which provides this MARC information was prepared by the MARC Reference Service in consultation with the Department and with the Assistant to the Chief, who is in charge of the bibliography project.

The large numbers of journals and the extensive monographic materials searched in connection with the Bibliography have benefited the Division staff in general, alerting them to numerous items of interest in the areas of specialization and strengthening the Division's overall reference potential. The benefit has been mutual, in that staff members have called attention to sources outside the normal coverage of the Bibliography.

Work on three ongoing reference and bibliography projects has been continued: the file of Festschriften on Slavic studies; the continuation file of Soviet and East European periodicals in Western languages; and the area reference file. This latter file, which is based on titles selected from Library proof sheets and the screening of about 100 Western language periodicals, has been enriched by additional English-language sources supplied by the Bibliography, while the Bibliography has drawn extensively on information in the area reference file. All told, 7,950 items were added to the reference file this FY.

The final drafts of the surveys of the Library of Congress collections for four Slavic and East European countries were completed and submitted to the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) in the latter part of 1972 as the Library's contribution to the Council's forthcoming Handbook of Library and Research Resources on East Central and Southeastern Europe. The Division's respective area specialists prepared the drafts for the German Democratic Republic, Greece, Hungary, and Poland, while other staff members assisted visiting scholars who readied the surveys for the five remaining countries of the area. The surveys will not only be of vital importance to scholars, researchers, and librarians at large, but will be a valuable working tool for the Division staff in their daily service to readers.

The special bibliography Polish Books in English, prepared by the area specialist for Poland, was completed this FY. It contains over 1000 entries with subject and personal-name indexes. Covering the period 1945–1971, this work lists books and pamphlets published in English in Poland and Polish books translated into English abroad. Yugoslavia: a Bibliographic Guide, finished by Prof. Michael Petrovich of the University of Wisconsin and submitted to the Publications Office in 1970, is still with the printer awaiting publication.

The Publications Committee of the AAASS, in concert with the American Association of University Publishers (AAUP), requested the Division to compile a list of Central and East European scholarly journals which review or might review American publications in the humanities and social sciences. Accordingly, the Division prepared an annotated list of such journals for 10 countries. This material will be distributed by the AAUP to its constituent academic presses as an aid for spreading knowledge of American scholarly publications in Eastern Europe. Appreciation for the Division's effort was expressed by the Publications Committee of the AAASS in the following terms: ". . . the material kindly provided by the Library of Congress is of a superb quality, and will be most useful to publishers and other interested institutions and agencies."

The Division's area specialists again contributed lists of notable recent reference works to the semiannual Foreign Acquisitions Newsletter, published by the Association of Research Libraries, and cooperated in the organization of an exhibit of key reference works for the Library's Reference Book Roundup.

In addition to planned bibliographies, the Division found numerous opportunities to prepare ad hoc bibliographies on topics such as Agoston Haraszthy, a Hungarian viticulturist who pioneered the wine industry in California, and the foreign policy of Walther Rathenau, a German statesman at the time of the Weimar Republic.

IV. ADMINISTRATION AND PERSONNEL

The vacant position of Assistant to the Chief and East European Specialist was filled in July with the appointment of Professor David H. Kraus of the School of Information and Computer Science, Georgia Institute of Technology. Mr. Kraus joined the staff in September, on completing his teaching and research obligations at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Mr. Kraus brings to the Division nearly 30 years of experience as an administrator, teacher, and researcher in the Slavic and East European field. Mrs. Susan B. Hornik, a graduate of George Washington University, joined the Division staff as Bibliographic Assistant on the American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies project.

The Division, however, is typified by the stability of its personnel roster rather than by change, as exemplified by the service awards presented this year. Mrs. Ilze P. Smits was presented the 25-Year Federal Service Award, Mrs. Helen E. Saunders received the 20-Year Federal Service Award, and Messrs. Basil Nadraga and George E. Perry received the 10-Year Federal Service Award. Mrs. Smits, Mr. Perry, and Mr. Nadraga have spent a large portion of their federal service with this Division.

In July, Mr. Albert E. Graham and Mrs. Helen E. Saunders were selected as the Division's representative and alternate, respectively, on the Reference Department; Human Relations Committee. Subsequently, Mr. Graham was elected Chairman of the Promotion and Recruitment Subcommittee of the Human Relations Committee. Mr. George E. Perry is Chairman of the Committee on Acquisitions of the Reference Roundtable.

The Division has been at the giving and receiving end of orientation and training programs. The Soviet area specialist described the work and mission of the Division at a session of the Library's Professional Orientations Series, and the Chief briefed the Library's interns on the role of the Division in Slavic and East European studies. The Assistant to the Chief received extensive orientation into the activities of the various divisions of the Library. Mr. David P. Rose, a recruit in the Library's Intern Program for 1972–1973 spent a part of his internship with the Division.

The Chief and the Assistant to the Chief completed the Training Office course "Personnel Policies and Procedures for Supervisors" and the Assistant to the Chief attended the MARC Institute. With Library support, Messrs. Justyn Iwasechko and Mykola Kormeluk attended work-related courses not presently offered by the Training Office.

The Maintenance Review of Positions for this FY was conducted by the Division in cooperation with the Placement and Classification Office. After consultation with the staff members concerned, certain emendations in several position descriptions were recommended to reflect changes that had occurred since the last Maintenance Review or to describe the positions more accurately.

V. EXTERNAL RELATIONS

The Division's staff had another active year in promoting the Library and its collections through close relations with professional organizations, through contacts with visitors and representatives from the countries for which it has major acquisitions and reference responsibilities, and through broadcasts and visits to those areas.

Offices held by staff members in professional and scholarly organizations provided a bridge between the Library and the scholarly community. Thus, the American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies project (see Section III) came to the Division through the efforts of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, on whose Committee for Bibliography and Documentation both the Chief and the Assistant to the Chief and the Assistant to the chief serve actively. The Chief was appointed to another term on the Joint Committee on Eastern Europe of the American Council of Learned Societies and the Social Science Research Council.

Recognizing the importance of the Library's Russian and Soviet resources for scholarly research, Professor S. Frederick Starr of Princeton University had preliminary discussions with the Director of the Reference Department and with the Chief, which were further pursued by Professor George F. Kennan of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University, concerning the possible role of the Library in a projected center for Russian and Soviet studies to be established in Washington. In early June, Mr. Cyrus S. Eaton, banker and industrialist, who indicated an interest in this prospective study center, was briefed in the Division on the Library's research capabilities in Russian field.

The Division continued to attract foreign visitors. Hardly a week went by without a visit from some distinguished scholar or official from Europe. There were librarians from Germany, Hungary, the U.S.S.R., and Yugoslavia; scholars and writers from Czechoslovakia, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, the U.S.S.R., and Yugoslavia; and diplomats or other officials from Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechoslovakia, the Federal Republic of Germany, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Poland, the U.S.S.R., and Yugoslavia.

Of particular significance was the visit of a delegation of Soviet publishers, who were guests at an official luncheon in the Library and who were subsequently briefed by the Division's Soviet specialists. Relations with East German cultural institutions, which had been initiated in the preceding year, continued with some noteworthy representatives visiting here. The Minister-Counselor of the Embassy of Cyprus presented 40 Cypriot books to the Library in a special ceremony attended by the Librarian. This gift was one of the fruits of a visit to Cyprus by the Greek Area Specialist in 1972 (see Section I).

Modern technology afforded staff members still another medium of cultural communication. Dr. Bako, Dr. Hoskins, and Miss Navon availed themselves of such an opportunity when they participated in Voice of America broadcasts to their respective areas of interest in connection with exhibits they had prepared (see Reference Section). Visits abroad by staff members are another effective medium for establishing or strengthening professional contacts and cultural links with librarians, scholars, and publishers. Six staff members made such visits to East Central and Southeastern Europe in FY 1973 (see Section I) with beneficial results for the Library.

VI. PROFESSIONAL BUT UNOFFICIAL ACTIVITIES

The staff's professional commitment was not confined to the library's workday, as the following survey of major, privately undertaken activities illustrates.

Dr. Robert V. Allen continued to edit the list of articles on Russian history for the American Historical Review.

Dr. Elemer Bako authored the Guide to Hungarian Studies (2 v. Hoover Institution Press, 1973), which contains reference to some 4,400 books, serials, and articles. In addition, he was asked by the Finnish government to serve as an advisor for their projected exhibit on the history of printing and publishing in Finland.

Dr. John P. Balys contributed a selected bibliography to The USSR-German Aggression Against Lithuania (New York, Speller, 1973), prepared by Bronis J. Kaslas, and edited several articles on Lithuanian folklore for volume 2 of the Encyclopedia Lithuanica (Boston, 1972).

Mr. Andrew Fessenko published an article on historical aspects of Ukrainian bibliography in Ukrain'ska knyha of Philadelphia.

Dr. Paul L. Horecky continued as editor of the forthcoming Handbook of Library and Research Resources on East Central and Southeastern Europe for the American Council of Learned Societies, a project which also covers the Library's pertinent collections (see Section III). He has also been directing the preparation of two analogous guides to research materials in repositories in Poland and Yugoslavia.

Dr. Janina W. Hoskins made a major contribution to bibliographic research with her Early and Rare Polonica in American Libraries (Boston, G.K. Hall, 1973), which lists ca. 1,200 books in some 200 American libraries. She also participated in several official celebrations commemorating the 500th anniversary of the birth of Copernicus.

Mr. David H. Kraus was active in the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (see Sections III and IV).

Miss Anita R. Navon received her master's degree in library science from Catholic University, while Mr. Albert E. Graham continued his work toward that degree.

Mr. George E. Perry attended the convention of the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association and served as chairman of its American Revolution Bicentennial Committee. He also serves on the Committee for the Observance of the Bicentennial of the United States of America of the Greek Orthodox Church in the Americas.

Dr. Arnold H. Price prepared a survey of Harvard University's East German holdings for the American Council of Learned Societies, chaired a session at the annual meeting of the American Historical Association, and continued to edit lists of articles on German, Swiss, and Austrian history for the American Historical Review. Also, he attended local sessions of various professional groups concerned with German history.