Submitted by
David H. Kraus, Acting Chief
October 14, 1984

PREFACE

The Division experienced a crisis in leadership in the middle of the Fiscal Year with the resignation of Chief Lovett. The Acting Chief continued along the lines laid out by the Chief, namely to achieve a greater visibility in West European affairs while maintaining a long-established presence in East and Central European matters.

In this report, we have attempted to give a picture of the Division's experience in the past year in the light of the direction it has set for itself. Comments and constructive criticism from readers will be welcome.

I. THE EUROPEAN DIVISION AND LIBRARY OF CONGRESS COLLECTIONS

A. Acquisitions

The outstanding acquisitions event of FY 1984 was Chief Lovett's trip to Italy, with visits to institutions in Rome, Naples, Milan, and Florence. This was the first acquisitions trip to Italy by a Division recommending officer and it opened new avenues of exchange and strengthened established procurement arrangements. The immediate result was receipt of more than 200 titles as gifts. Specialists Allen, Armbruster, and Hoskins visited libraries and dealers in Italy and France for the Library while on private trips to Europe. Among the direct results of these visits were a microfilm of the Polish newspaper Czas (1850-1939) and an exchange offer of 350 volumes from the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.

Recommendation of current materials increased somewhat during this fiscal year (see Section A) despite the departure and non-replacement of two recommending officers in the middle of the fiscal year (see Section V). With Chief Lovett's departure, the Division has had to abandon its Scandinavian recommending activities until a Scandinavian specialist can be added to the staff. Acting Chief Kraus assumed the recommending duties of Yugoslav specialist Popovitch upon her resignation. This brings to five the number of countries for which the Acting Chief is recommending officer, because of language facility. It is hoped that some relief for this situation can be found in FY 1985.

In the area of retrospective recommendations, all recommending officers were active. Specialist Allen made systematic and substantial recommendations of Russian works pertaining to America in connection with his publication project (see Section II. B.). Among other major recommendations were those by Specialist Krewson–the microfilm collection "Immigrants in America," and a film of the Catalog of the University Center in Cologne, Germany.

As part of the Division's goal of systematic collection building, the Acting Chief prepared analyses of the publishing situation in Cyprus and in the Albanian region of Yugoslavia (Kosova) vis-à-vis the Library's receipts in recent years and recommended new blanket-order arrangements. Specialist Armbruster undertook a similar study of Italian government publications. On the recommendation of Specialist Allen, a new blanket-order for Russian emigré publications was placed with a dealer in New York.

Some gifts of note that came to the Library through or partially through the Division's efforts were three-hundred works on Romanian history and culture prepared by the National Library of Romania and presented to the Library by the Romanian ambassador, the foreign-language periodical collection of the Association of American Railroads, and a private gift of 500 volumes of Hungarian material. Among the nonprint gifts were Polish and Czech collections of photographs of political and literary figures.

The following authors read for the Library's Archive of World Literature on Tape in their native languages: Jan Blomstedt (Finnish), Pavel Matev (Bulgarian), Antonine Maillet (French), Iordan Radichkov (Bulgarian), and Hans Weber (German).

B. The European Reading Room. Custodial Responsibilities

There were several important developments in the custodial aspects of the Division's activities in this fiscal year. The physical layout of the European Reading Room was changed to accommodate new shelving that will permit the addition of more than one-thousand West European reference works without reducing the existing collections. West European newspapers and periodicals were added to the reading room's periodical displays, and an area at the entrance to the reading room was reserved for new West European books. The reference collections in the room were arranged by country or groups of countries, rather than by Eastern vs. Western Europe. This, together with the addition of a reference librarian fluent in French to the reading room staff, has given the reading room the "European look" the Division has been trying to achieve for several years. The rearrangement has also made it possible to shelve key reference works of all countries in the immediate vicinity of the reference desk, thereby speeding reference service. Two displays were mounted in the reading room- a display of works on Romanian history and culture, and a display honoring Alexander Bölöni Farkas, a Transylvanian who wrote on American democracy in 1834.

In keeping with renovation plans, the Division was assigned Deck 13 (TJB) for its custodial materials. The current, unbound Baltic and Slavic serials from Deck 18 (TJB), and the retrospective materials from the Northwest Attic (TJB) were moved to Deck 13, together with the Cyrillic Union Catalog which was transferred from Deck 33 (TJB) to the Division's custody. This brought together key backup materials for service to the reading room and solved the vexing problem of service from the remote Northwest Attic. With respect to current serials, Processing Assistant Becker eliminated the backlog of Yugoslav serials and began on the Czech and Slovak backlogs. These represent "problem" materials that require special attention.

A disturbing note among all these positive developments is that the uncataloged retrospective materials on Deck 13 are now more accessible and items from this collection are beginning to disappear. We have asked the Collections Management Division to find cage doors for the bays housing these vulnerable materials. Another disturbing fact is the impending move required by renovation and the uncertainty of the destination of the European Reading Room. This has made it difficult to determine how we should proceed with developing the collections in the room.

C. Surveys and Evaluations

Several area specialists have conducted in-depth surveys of the Library's collections in connection with their recommendation and publication activities. Specialists Armbruster and Krewson have concentrated on building the reference collections in the European Reading Room. Armbruster's survey has encompassed the Main Reading Room's (MRR) holdings as well. In the process, she has made suggestions for filling out sets or replacing worn copies of several of the major French and Italian reference sources. Specialist Allen has made a penetrating survey of the Library's holdings of Russian works related to the United States (see Section II. B.) which has yielded more than 2,000 references to date.

On several occasions, the Division has turned to outside assistance to achieve some of its goals. Contractor Grant G. Harris completed a survey, begun in FY 1983, of uncataloged, prerevolutionary Russian serials in the Division's custody. His report and a set of his bibliographic cards are on file in the European Reading Room. In August, contractor Anne Minor was engaged to survey the uncataloged, early (1918-45) Soviet serials in the Division's custody. Her preliminary reports indicate that about half of these titles are not reported elsewhere. The Division's participation in the review of the Library's cataloging arrearages has been confined to French, but will expand to other languages now that these arrearages have been moved to a more accessible area. Outside the Division, but within the Library, Specialist Kovtun and Librarian Harris (see Section V.) assisted the Manuscript Division in identifying Czech and Russian materials among its holdings. Assistance was also provided to colleagues in the Prints and Photographs, Music, and Motion Pictures, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound divisions, as well as to the Congressional Research Service.

II. THE EUROPEAN DIVISION AND ITS CONSTITUENCIES

A. Reference Services

The volume of requests for information on Western Europe has continued to increase as the supporting collections in the European Reading Room have grown. There was a sharp drop in Italian requests immediately following the departure of Chief Lovett, but this trend has been reversed through the efforts of Specialist Armbruster.

The Senior staff handled 40,262 inquiries covering the Division's entire area of responsibility. The subject matter of the requests reflected current events, such as NATO and the EEC, U.S. sanctions against Poland, the Soviet attitude toward the Korean flight 007 incident, and the Italian press reaction to the nomination of Geraldine Ferraro, but also covered the more conventional subject areas such as literature, language, history, diplomatic and cultural relations, biography, demography, military affairs, religion, and economics. There was also the normal stream of requests for genealogical and related geographic and cultural information. The increased and improved use of the Library's automation resources (see Section III) by specialists, librarians, and searchers has bolstered an already strong reference service. The only problem area in reference services is one of twelve-years' duration, namely, the physical separation of the European Reading Room from the Division offices and area specialists. Renovation plans do not seem to offer relief for this problem in the near future.

B. Publications

The Division's publication program was extensive in FY 1984, and was enhanced by the addition of a Clerk-Typist to the staff. This made it possible to assign a greater portion of Secretary Rick's time to preparing drafts and camera-ready copy of publications. The Compucorp has also been an important technical factor in preparing texts. The publications finished and in progress reflect some improvement in the proportion of East and West European elements of the Division (see Appendix B).

The following description is meant to show the variety of Division publications. The Division continues to produce pamphlets that commemorate an event or honor a European who has had an impact on American history or thought, for example Victory at Vienna and Ignacy Jan Paderewski. These bibliographies of easily accessible English-language publications have proved popular with cultural organizations and public libraries; several have gone into second and third printings. Specialist Bako's Finland and the Finns and Chief Lovett's bibliography of Contemporary Italy are major bibliographical works with more than 1,000 main entries each and with indexes. Specialist Allen's Russians Look at America: The View to 1917, scheduled for completion in spring 1985, is a probing of the Library's sources which covers many topics that have not been treated before in the literature. This publication will be in narrative form with extensive bibliographic citations. Specialist Kovtun's The Czech Declaration of Independence is an original piece of research based primarily on the Library's holdings. The Guide to the Uncataloged Russian Imperial Government Serials Collection of the Library of Congress on Microfilm is a new type of publication for the Division. It comprises prefatory material, photo-reduced bibliographic cards of titles and holdings, with indexes, representing a collection previously in the Division's custody but now on film. It was produced jointly with the Preservation Microfilming Office and is planned as the first in a series of "Guides" to Division custodial materials that will be given similar treatment.

Streamlining the information gathering techniques of the American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies, together with the assembly of an excellent staff, has resulted in the unprecedented publication of two annual volumes of the bibliography (1980 and 1981) in one year. The manuscript of the 1982 volume will be completed by the end of this calendar year. This "catching up" will increase the research value of the annual volumes.

In addition to the planned publications described above and cited in Appendix B, Division specialists contributed 15 articles to the Library of Congress Information Bulletin. Specialists Armbruster, Bako, and Kovtun, and Chief Lovett published articles in professional journals as well.

C. Translations and Special Studies

The majority of the translations made by Division staff were for Congress. Eighty nine such translations were made, mostly from Polish, but also from Czech, Finnish, German, Russian, French, Bulgarian, Romanian, and Ukrainian. This is a significant increase over FY 1983 (see Appendix A). A letter of thanks was received from the Congressional Research Service for the Division's assistance in translating into Russian a House of Representative document intended for a U.S. – U.S.S.R. cultural symposium. Translations were also made for the Librarian, the Deputy Librarian, and for several divisions that lack staff capability in certain languages.

Requests from Congress via the Congressional Research Service for special studies (see Appendix D) ranged from a short paper on the contribution of Hungarians to American culture, to Polish generals who directed the Underground Movement in World War II, and the history of the French Academy. Several special studies (see Appendix D) were made at the suggestion of academic or government patrons.

III. AUTOMATION

The European Division began quite late to make intensive use of the Library's automation facilities, chiefly because of space, wiring, and equipment problems. In FY 1984, however, the Division made great strides in this direction. The most important developments were the conversion of the Division's Sycor terminal to a Multiple Access Facility and the appointment of Searcher Posey as the Division's Automation Liasion. Of nearly equal importance was the dramatic increase in the use of the terminal in the European Reading Room for acquisition purposes (records of additions to the collections and searches for prospective additions) and for reference, particularly since Librarian Harris joined the reading room staff in mid-fiscal year.

Searcher Posey has become adept at using ROSCOE and the Janus Retriever, a powerful tool that has provided in-depth backup for the American Bibliography project, bibliographic projects of area specialists, and special studies of the Chief and Acting Chief. Searcher Posey has kept the Acting Chief briefed on automation developments on a regular basis, discussing possible innovations and applications of new techniques to the Division's needs. She has also demonstrated to the staff features of the Library's automation facilities that might improve their searching techniques or efficiency. All these factors have brought use of automation to the foreground of the Division's activities. Toward the close of this fiscal year, the Division began looking into the use of commercial data bases in the humanities and social sciences as a means of improving reference and bibliographic services, and into the use of the Compucorp for preparing multilingual bibliographies with complex diacritical-mark problems. Searcher Posey is a member of the RAG (Retrieval Advisory Group) Authorities Subcommittee, representing Research Services; and has engaged in other formal automation activities (see Section V).

IV. EXTERNAL RELATIONS

The Division had another productive year in this area of its activities. Chief Lovett was a member of the U.S. delegation to the International History Conference on Regionalism and Federation, held in Florence, Italy, October 25-27. Acting Chief Kraus served on the Bibliography and Documentation Committee of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies. Specialist Bako was named Associate National President and Chairman of the Cultural Committee of the American Hungarian Federation. Specialist Armbruster chaired a session at the annual meeting of the Northeast Modern Language Association. The Chief, Assistant Chief, Specialists Armbruster, Bako, Hoskins, Kovtun, Krewson, and Librarian Popovitch attended or presented papers at scholarly meetings outside the Library.

Chief Lovett organized two symposia that were held at the Library in cooperation with foreign embassies. The first, presented with the cooperation of the Embassy of Greece, commemorated the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of author Nikos Kazantzakis, the second, presented with the cooperation of the Embassy of Finland and the United States Information Agency, was devoted to academic and cultural exchanges between Finland and the United States. At this symposium, Specialist Bako read a paper on the development of the Library's Finnish collections. During this fiscal year, the Division played host to many distinguished visitors from the scholarly and diplomatic communities. They included Romanian ambassador Mircea Malitza, French ambassador Bernard Vernier-Palliez and Mrs. Vernier-Palliez, Hans Maier, Bavarian State Minister of Education and Culture, Péter Agardi, Head of the Cultural Section, Central Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Party, professors Ernesto Galli della Loggia, University of Perugia (Italy), H. Gordon Skilling, University of Toronto, Rene Wellek, Yale University, John Basil, University of South Carolina, Francis Conte, Bordeaux University, and J.P.A. Coopmans, Tilburg University (Netherlands), as well as cultural attaches Viktor Polgár (Embassy of Hungary), Eleonore Linsmayer (Federal Republic of Germany), Pierre Colombert (France), and Peter Vincenz (German Democratic Republic), to name but a few of the visitors.

V. ADMINISTRATION AND PERSONNEL

Fiscal Year 1984 brought a great deal of change in personnel in a division that is traditionally quite stable. There were three resignations- Bibliographic Assistant Iovine in December, Senior Reference Librarian and Yugoslav specialist Popovitch in January, and Chief Lovett in April. Stephen Paczolt took Ms. Iovine's place on March 5 and Grant G. Harris replaced Ms. Popovitch on June 18, after serving on a temporary basis beginning on March 20. Assistant Chief Kraus was named Acting Chief in April. At the close of the fiscal year, the chief's position remained vacant.

A new position, Clerk-Typist, created to strengthen the office staff, was filled by Catherine Williams in February. Much needed supervisory assistance for management was provided by reactivation of the position, Head, European Reading Room (formerly Head, Slavic Room). Mr. Albert E. Graham, who had twelve years of experience as reference librarian in the European (Slavic) Reading Room was appointed to this position. Student aids Meryl Vlatis and Cassandra Rich completed their tours of duty on August 31. Ms. Charida Cowans began her duties as Student Aid on September 4. The European Division shares her services with the African Section of the African and Middle Eastern Division. Processing Assistant David Stephenson was promoted from GS-5 to GS-6 and Bibliographic Assistant John Mitchell was promoted from GS-6 to GS-7 during this fiscal year.

The Division was fortunate to have the services of several interns. Library of Congress Intern Dr. Donald Panzera chose to spend his optional time in the European Division and prepared a report on scholarly associations worldwide that are concerned with Germanic studies. Several students were accepted for unpaid internships. These were Richard Munro, Georgetown University, and Mireille Meyers, University of Maryland, who worked with Specialist Armbruster; David Fairchild, Georgetown University who worked with specialist Krewson; Robyn Young, University of New Hampshire, and Sara Wild, University of Maryland, who worked under the direction of the Assistant Chief and Specialist Allen.

The Division participated actively in training and management programs. Chief Lovett attended the Management Retreat in November. Acting Chief Kraus took the Equal Opportunities course offered by the Staff Training and Development Office and participated in two outside management seminars: "Building Management Excellence through Communications," and "How to Pick the Right People." The latter course proved extremely helpful for improving Division interview techniques. Librarian Popovitch and Specialist Krewson took the Staff Training and Development Office course "Coping with Stress." In the area of automation, Searcher Posey and Bibliographic Assistant Paczolt took the FEDLINK course on OCLC. Bibliographic Assistant Mitchell also took the advanced MUMS and SCORPIO courses offered by the General Reading Rooms Division.

In related administrative matters Chief Lovett chaired the selection panel for the position of Chief, Hispanic Division. Librarians Sarah Pritchard and Gregory Anderson of the General Reading Rooms Division (MRR), served on a part-time basis in the European Reading Room to alleviate the staffing problem posed by Ms. Popovitch's resignation and to gain experience in the everyday operations of a smaller, specialized reading room. The General Reading Rooms Division has the sincere thanks of the European Division for this cooperation.