Submitted by
David H. Kraus, Acting Chief
October 27, 1989

PREFACE

In Fiscal Year 1989 division specialists made three acquisition trips to Central and Eastern Europe, and organizaed a symposium that brought specialists from France and the United States to the Library of Congress. Reference services increased substantially over last year's, reflecting intense interest in the French Revolution and affiliated topics, and the radical changes that took place in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Division staff were active in the planning or execution of exhibits and scholarly events, in professional organizations, and in the preparation of Library and academic publications.

Another positive development was the addition of a new specialist to the staff. However, staffing also presented the negative aspect of the division's program. The division still lacks a permanent chief, several specialists, and an adequate staff for its ongoing bibliographic project. Part of the problem is financial, part a dearth of suitable candidates.

The positive aspects of Fiscal Year 1989 far exceeded the negative, however, as the following presentation will indicate.

I. MAJOR DEVELOPMENT

Of the several important developments this fiscal year, perhaps the most important for the future was the addition of a Ukrainian specialist to the staff. Mr. Bohdan Yasinsky, who headed the Preservation Microfilming Office for many years, transferred to the European Division bringing with him the background and expertise to serve as Area Specialist for the Soviet Union with specialization in the Ukraine and responsibility for Byelorussia.

In addition to providing a much needed strengthening of the professional staff's capacity to serve readers specializing in the Soviet Union, it demonstrated the Library's interest in Ukrainians, the second most populous Slavic people with substantial ethnic representation in the United States and Canada. The response of the Ukrainian community was immediate and enthusiastic. Mr. Yasinsky set about to determine the Library's needs with respect to the Ukrainian collections, and to make arrangements for acquiring missing materials. These efforts included an acquisitions trip to Ukrainian resources in Austria and Poland, and the expansion of contacts with Ukrainian organizations and resources in the United States.

II. ACQUISITION OF MATERIALS

Three acquisition trips to Europe were made by division staff. Specialist Kovtun and Yasinsky sought primarily to explore newspaper and periodical sources in order to strengthen the Library's holdings for research purposes. Specialist Leich spent a month in the Soviet Union, primarily to improve and expand exchanges. He also explored possibilities for establishing a Library of Congress office in Moscow, including a site and staffing. His trip included Novosibirsk and nearby Akademgorodok, important sources never before visited by division specialists. Kovtun's trip has already yielded results, including an agreement in principle with the Czech and Slovak national libraries for exchanges of microfilms and cooperation in bibliographic and reference matters. Yasinsky's trip provided information on Ukrainian-language resources in Austria and Poland and the means for exploiting them.

The most striking purchase of the fiscal year was the first edition of Alexis de Tocqueville's De la democratie en Amerique in four volumes (1835-40), recommended jointly by Specialist Armbruster and the Rare Book and Special Collections Division. Another purchase of note was microfilm of missing years of the Czech newspaper Čas.

Significant gifts received through the solicitation of division staff were a private collection of 500 volumes of Italian works on the Risorgimento and Italy before and during World War II, and current works from Switzerland and Austria donated by PRO Helvetica and the Austrian Cultural Institute, respectively.

A special effort was and is being made to acquire independent (samizdat, uncensored) publications from the Soviet Union and the Soviet bloc countries. The Chief identified several dealers of Polish independent publications and materials are being acquired from them. Specialist Leich expressed our interest in these materials in the USSR and brought back samples, and Specialist Kovtun arranged a mini blanket order for Czech and Slovak independent publications with an institution in West Germany.

III. ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT OF MATERIALS

Arrearages and their elimination became an especially important topic for the Library of Congress this year. The division chief and librarian Harris met with representatives of the Library's Data and Assault groups from the Special Project Team on Unprocessed Arrearages to specify arrearages in the division's custody, to estimate what it would take in time and money to bring them under bibliographic control, and to determine the level of bibliographic control that would be appropriate for each collection in the arrearage. Meanwhile, state I of the program begun last year to catalog the Division's Yudin arrearage, namely materials in good condition, was completed, leaving about 1,200 items that will require preservation as well as cataloging.

Division staff have been very active in keeping the collections in the European Reading Room current, with shelf-reading, replacement of one thousand volumes with new books, moving of materials into adjacent areas, and expanding the division publication display area.

Five displays were shown in the European Reading Room: "Five Hundred Years of the Book in Finland" (November through March); "The 40th Anniversary of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany" (April and May) "Mihaly Eminescu, National Poet of Romania" (June and July); "Arnost Lustig, Czech Writer in Washington" (August 1 – September 10); and "Anna Akhmatova" (September 11 – October 31). Preparation of a display usually reveals Library treasures and gaps, and leads to improved holdings and publicity for the Library's collections. Further, displays often interest an embassy or cultural group and attract gifts. This year the Eminescu display fit all these categories, drawing interviews by the Voice of America and the United States Information Agency, as well as gifts from the Romanian Embassy, visiting scholars, and cultural groups.

The shutting off of the air conditioning on the current serials deck (Deck 13, TJB) from October, 1988 to April, 1989, for asbestos abatement and replacement of the air conditioning system required considerable devotion to duty and personal adjustment by the deck staff. They managed admirably and are to be commended for maintaining regular service during this difficult period.

IV. REFERENCE SERVICES

Reference requests continued to be dominated this year by the events in the Soviet Union (about 80% of the requests in the European Reading Room) and by the French Revolution and its commemoration at the Library and elsewhere, and by the 1992 European integration. The Librarian's office made frequent and extensive demands on the division and its resources, particularly in connection with visitors to the Library from Europe and the Librarian's trips abroad. Specialist Armbruster and Leich and the European Reading Room staff were called upon most frequently, but all the staff were involved. Intensive reference assistance was given to the White House research staff prior to the President's trip to Hungary and Poland.

Reference questions put to division staff covered all the countries of the division's responsibility in the whole range of the social sciences and humanities, as well as business-related queries. Requests were up over 20% over last year, pertaining not only to the major topics cited at the beginning of this section, but increased patron interest in all Europe. Assistance to readers included groups of patrons. Examples are cooperation with a State Department team investigating Soviet labor and construction practices in connection with our old and new embassy buildings in Moscow, and orientation to the Library's resources for the group of IREX scholars about to go to the USSR for extended study.

Glasnost in the Soviet Union, Poland, and Hungary brought numerous visitors from those countries. These included three newly elected delegates to the Supreme Soviet here to study the American Congress, Andrei Sakharov, Fedor Morgunov, Minister of Natural Resources on the Soviet Council of Ministers, Valerii Asatiani, Minister of Culture of the Georgian SSR, László Vass of the Hungarian Council of Ministers, and A. Sołtysiak, former Polish ambassador. Other distinguished visitors included ambassadors Richard Fein of the Netherlands, Ion Stoichici of Romania, Jakku Valtasaari of Finland, Vernon A. Walters, U.S. Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany, and Corneliu Bogdan, former Romanian Ambassador to the United States. Dominique Jamet, Jean-Michel Vicent, and Bernard Spitz represented the President of France in the planning of the new French national library, and Herman Liebaers represented the Royal Albert I Library of Belgium. The Division's visitors included many authors and representatives of the academic world, among them, Professor Peter Sydow, Academy of Sciences of the German Democratic Republic, Mavis Gallant, French-Canadian author, and Tatiana Tolstaia, novelist.

The Library's Archive of World Literature on Tape was enriched with readings by the following authors whose readings were sponsored by the European Division. Alexey Parshchikov (USSR), Ivan Dziuba, Raisa Ivanchenko, Ihor Rymar, and Mykola Zhulynsky (USSR, Ukraine), Hella Haasse (Netherlands), Wolfgang Hegewald (Federal Republic of Germany), Bohumil Hrabal (Czechoslovakia), Karl Lubomirski, Fritz Muliar, and Heinrich von Starhemberg (Austria).

V. BIBLIOGRAPHIES AND OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Six publications were issued this year with the division's imprint or credit: three specialized bibliographies pertaining to the German/Dutch speaking area of Europe, the American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies for 1987, Russia Looks at America. The View to 1917, a historical study based on the Library's holdings, and a brochure on the division and its activities.

A look at the works in progress and the other categories reported in Appendix B will give a fuller idea of the division's publishing activities. Represented there are bibliographic works pertaining to Czechoslovakia, Finland, France, Poland, Romania, the Soviet Union, and the Ukraine, as well as those reported above. In addition, the division contributed frequently to the Library of Congress Information Bulletin (21 items this year).

The division's publishing program meets needs expressed by staff and readers on aspects of the Library's holdings that should be made better known through publications, or through handouts, such as those on U.S.-Soviet joint ventures, East European newspapers received by the division, and key resources on the Soviet Union in the European Reading Room. Division specialists sometimes have a hand in works published by other units of the Library. For example, Specialist Krewson revised the German-language version of Services to the Nation and the Congressional Research Service's German-language brochure about its activities.

Division publications, containing entries in many languages, with numerous diacritical marks and other complications of spelling and placement, prepared on microcomputers with appropriate software, are produced by the division's able secretarial staff, Mrs. Janie M. Ricks and Mrs. Helen E. Saunders, to whom special thanks and expression of appreciation are extended by the Chief and the professional staff who compile these works.

Some experiments were made this year in the preparation of the annual American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies to try to cope with the technical problems of producing a sizable (5,200 main entries) bibliography with a complex classification structure (18 main headings and 300+ subheadings), using Reflex, Word Perfect, Tech, and a Compaq microcomputer, with a staff of two. A consultant was hired to determine whether Procite could handle the size and complexity of the bibliography, and a professional service was engaged to convert our disks to camera-ready copy. Preparation of camera-ready copy in-house had previously set the project back six to eight weeks each year. The experiment proved a complete success as far as page setting went and the bibliography was produced in a record ten months, with a mighty effort on the part of the small staff. The consultant reported that Procite was suitable and desired for use by the bibliography. However, use of Procite has been postponed until there is sufficient staff on the project to test it and incorporate it into the system. Meanwhile, the availability of Reflex 2.0 has alleviated the need for immediate application of Procite.

In addition to Library of Congress publications, staff members Armbruster, Kovtun, Krewson, and Leich had articles published in professional journals or books, and ABSEES editor Dash and the Chief had translations published by academic presses.

VI. SPECIAL EVENTS

The salient special event for the European Division was its joint sponsorship, with the Center for the Book, of the symposium "Publishing and Readership in Revolutionary France and America," and the accompanying evening public program, "The Study of the Book in France," featuring historian Roger Chartier of the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociale (Paris). Credit for the preparation of these events (which were held at the Library of Congress on May 2/3, 1989) from initial planning and selection of the speakers, to hosting or cohosting the sessions belongs to Specialist Armbruster. This symposium brought together French and American specialists in history, literature, journalism, law, librarianship, copyright, and publishing in a scholarly exchange of ideas.

The division and the Congressional Research Service cosponsored two events in which Soviet visitors addressed Library of Congress staff. On October 6, 1988, Iurii Afanas'ev, Rector of Moscow State Historical Archival Institute spoke on access to Soviet archives. On June 2, 1989, Vladimir Nikolayev, Deputy Editor of the periodical Ogonek, spoke on the accomplishments and status of glasnost and perestroika. Both speakers answered questions from the floor.

VII. ACTIVITIES IN PROFESSIONAL AND OFFICIAL ORGANIZATIONS

Several staff members participated in meetings of professional associations or committees. On May 8/9, 1989, the Chief attended a conference at the University of Illinois, Urbana, devoted to backlogs, conversion of retrospective records, and preservation. Representatives of large, medium-sized, and specialized libraries in the Slavic and East European field met to determine national strategies for approaching these problems and to seek support to cope with them. The Chief continued to serve on the Bibliography, Information Retrieval, and Documentation Subcommittee of the Committee on the Soviet Union of the American Council of Learned Societies and the Social Science Research Council. Specialists Armbruster, Krewson, and Leich attended the Midwinter Meeting of the American Library Association (ALA) in Washington (1/5-10/89), during which Armbruster organized a meeting at LC devoted to cooperative acquisition of West European materials. Krewson attended "The World of William and Mary, the Tercentenary of the Revolution of 1688," held at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Leich also attended the annual meeting of the American Library Association in Dallas in June, where he presented a paper on education for area studies librarianship and at both ALA meetings chaired the Continuing Education Committee, Slavic and East European Section, Association of College and Research Libraries. Specialist Leich attended the annual conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies in Honolulu, November 12-22, 1989, where he presented a paper on early Soviet bibliography. Specialist Kovtun participated in a conference, "Czechoslovakia: Seven Decades from Independence;" held October 28-30, 1988, in Toronto, where he presented a paper on Masaryk and the problems of a small nation. Specialist Krewson spoke on the history of the German collections of the Library of Congress before the Carl Schurz Society in Bremen, Germany, and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in Washington, D.C. Specialist Armbruster spoke on women in Italy at the Foreign Service Institute. Additionally the specialist staff attended many lectures and events at embassies and cultural institutions in their areas of responsibility. One such invitation was extended to Specialist Yasinsky by the White House to attend the Captive Nations Week ceremony in the Rose Garden.

The staff was also very active within the Library. Specialist Armbruster participated in the writing of the MAP committee statement on cooperative collection development., for which she received the commendation of the chairman. Specialists Armbruster and Leich, the Chief, and librarian Harris participated in Library modules associated with the reorganization. Specialist Leich was appointed a voting member of the Acquisitions Committee for 1989/90, and is one of the "BAN [Soviet Academy of Sciences] group," appointed by the Librarian to devise a fund-raising strategy for helping the Academy recover from its major fire loss. To date they have obtained a $135,000 grant from the Readers Digest Foundation for this purpose. Librarians Graham and Harris represented the division on the Reference Roundtable. Harris has continued to serve as Automation Liaison for the division which involves responsibility for acquiring needed equipment and for training division personnel. The Chief served on a selection panel and as a reply officer. For the Library of Congress Professional Organization, Specialist Armbruster hosted a talk by French National Librarian Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Mr. Graham spoke at the Russian Table on his experiences on the missile inspection team, and Specialist Krewson spoke at the German Table on the fortieth anniversary of the German constitution.

Specialists Armbruster and Krewson are consultants for the forthcoming (1992) Columbus 500 exhibit. Krewson is providing the Geography and Map Division assistance with the manuscripts of Johann Georg Kohl in preparation for an exhibit in Bremen, Germany in 1992 and at the Library of Congress in 1993. Armbruster is consultant for the forthcoming Vatican Library exhibit, the Italian-Americans in the American West Project, and Washington 200 -- L'Enfant plan.

VIII. ADMINISTRATION, STAFF, AND FISCAL MATTERS

Mr. Grant Harris served as Acting Head of the European Reading Room and Laura Souders as his assistant during the fiscal year until May 1, 1989, when Mr. Albert Graham returned from military duty with the On Site Inspection Agency. The experience all three staff members gained in these activities has proved extremely valuable to the division. For three weeks in July/August 1989, Graham returned to military duty to head a team of 20 Russian interpreters on a Navy port visit to Sevastopol, USSR.

Division staff were honored with a series of awards and commendations. The Chief and Specialist Armbruster received meritorious service awards. Specialist Leich received an outstanding rating with quality increase. Helen E. Saunders, Assistant Division Secretary, received a letter of appreciation from the Chairman of the Combined Federal Campaign for her services as a keyworker.

Bohdan Yasinsky joined the staff on 2/27/89 as Soviet specialist (Ukraine), see Section I. Kim Moran was promoted to Senior Processing Assistant on December 5, 1988. Dawn Hannahan resigned as Processing Assistant on March 28 and was replaced by John Michalski on April 4. A $6,000 supplement to the gift fund of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, to give graduate students an opportunity to work on an ongoing Slavic project, permitted hiring first Drew Proctor, University of Maryland (11/22/88 –7/10/89) then Ann Robertson, George Washington University (6/19/89 – ) as bibliographic assistants on the American Bibliography project. On September 5, 1989, the temporary appointment of David H. Kraus as Chief expired and he returned to the position of Acting Chief.

Two of the anchors of the division retired this year. Mr. Basil Nadraga, Senior Searcher, retired on December 30, 1988, after 26 years of service in the division, and Janina W. Hoskins, Area Specialist for Poland and Eastern Europe, retired on May 3, 1989, after 38 years of government service, most of which was in the European Division. Both are sorely missed. The division had two disappointments in its postings. Suitable candidates were not found for either the Scandinavian specialist position or the Automated Bibliographic Resources Librarian position. Interviews for the Polish specialist position have been held and a candidate recommended. We hope to fill the position this calendar year.

I am pleased to announce that Grant G. Harris received his Master of Library Science degree from Catholic University in May, 1989. Following this, he asked for a four-week part-time detail to the General Reading Room Division's Social Sciences Reading Room to broaden his reference experience. We would like this to be a model for future exchanges of personnel with the General Reading Rooms Division.

We were fortunate to have Intern Jennifer Marril choose this division for a six-week period, during which she worked in the European Reading Room where she assisted with reference services and helped compile a guide to resources on the Soviet Union in the European Reading Room. The division had four student volunteers, Ulf Balschun and Christine Welter, from the Federal Republic of Germany, Diane Hudson from Kalamazoo College, and Ingrid Baumanis from Lehigh University. These students worked under the direction of division specialists on projects related to their academic goals.