Submitted by
Michael H. Haltzel, Chief
October 31, 1992

I. Milestones

Dr. Michael H. Haltzel assumed the duties of Chief of the European Division on June 1, 1992. Dr. Haltzel, a historian and political commentator with extensive administrative experience, brings new leadership to the division. He came to the Library from the Woodrow Wilson Center at the Smithsonian Institution, where he was Director of West European Studies.

In May 1992 the Senate requested that Assistant to the Chief Graham be detailed to its Select Committee on POWs and MIAs as chief investigator of reports that American servicemen had been or were being held against their will in the former Soviet Union. His service in Russia in that capacity will extend through November 1992.

II. Special Initiatives and Programs

A. Arrearages. The Division's ongoing program was augmented by the Cyrillic 4 arrearage project that was supported by a $50,000 grant from the Social Science Research Council as part of its national program for expanding the base of Russian and East European materials available to American researchers through automation. This one-year grant, implemented in June 1992, involves searching classes B, D, H, and P of the division's Cyrillic 4 arrearage and cataloging items of research value that are not in a national data base. For that purpose, contractors Mark Yoffe and Nina Zanegina were engaged as catalogers and Junior Fellow Holly Mills as searcher, with Librarian Pajic as technical supervisor. By the close of the fiscal year, 2,500 titles had been searched, 1,000 catalgoed, and 600 set aside for copy cataloging or as Library of Congress duplicates. The cataloging is being done in cooperation with the Arts and Sciences Cataloging Division (formerly known as the Shared Cataloging Division).

Both ongoing arrearage projects approached conclusion by the end of the fiscal year. All but five small classes of the Russian/Ukrainian brochure collection were collated and forwarded to the Preservation Microfilming Office and were entered in ProCite for record. This project engaged Contractor Natalya Zanegina, assisted by Secretary Ricks. Four-fifths of the titles in the Early Soviet Serials arrearage were cataloged or prepared for cataloging in cooperation with the Serial Record Division. This project employed Contractor Natalya Bekman and Librarian Neubert. All arrearage projects were conducted under the supervision of Assistant Chief Kraus.

B. Revelations from the Russian Archives. This exhibit, which presented previously secret documents of the Soviet state, was initiated by the Librarian's Office and drew heavily on the staff of the European Division. Specialist Leich was appointed to the curatorial team, which required a large portion of his time from March through July 1992. Specialist Bachman organized and headed the translation team and served as translator from May through July. All division staff members with a solid knowledge of Russian participated to varying extents in this program. It was to the particular credit of specialists Leich and Bachman that, despite their especially time-consuming work on the exhibit, they were able to carry out their basic duties as specialists.

C. Fund Raising. In addition to the grant from the Social Science Research Council, solicited by the Assistant Chief for clearance of European Division arrearages, mention is due Specialist Krewson's success in acquiring funds from various units of the German government for other divisions in the Library of Congress. These included $50,000 for the Music Division's exhibit "In Praise of Music" and $150,000 for the forthcoming Kohl exhibit by the Geography and Map Division. She also procured funding from German-American business sources for the Carl Schurz Memorial lecture by Professor Gordon A. Craig on German reunificiation.

Specialist Yasinsky procured $2,000 from the Association of Ukrainian American Professionals and $4,100 from the Ukrainian National Association in support of four Ukrainian bibliographic projects. The Chief donated $1,000 in honoraria to start a special fund for miscellaneous division activities.

III. THE COLLECTIONS

A. Acquisitions. This was a transition year for acquisitions, with the old, dependable sources in both East and West disappearing or in fragile condition, and with increased electronic publication in the West. To address both issues, Specialist Armbruster went to Paris in October 1991 to judge the ability of French blanket-order dealer Tuzot's successors to supply the Library's needs and to explore other possibilities. She advised the Library to stay with Tuzot for the immediate future with close monitoring of receipts. Armbruster went on to the Frankfurt Book Fair, particularly to view offerings in new publishing formats, and subsequently renewed her efforts to keep the Library up-to-date in this matter. Difficulties with the Belgian blanket-order dealer and the subsequent search for another dealer disrupted recommendations and receipts from that country.

Four other acquisition trips were made by division personnel. Librarian Neubert represented the Library in four republics of the former Soviet Union–Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, and Moldova–and conducted Library business in Moscow. He was accompanied on the republic visits by Mikhail Levner, who heads the Library's Moscow Office. They assessed the publishing and exchange situations in those countries and arranged for new exchanges. Chief Haltzel reactivated exchanges with the National and Parliamentary libraries of Latvia while participating in an international conference in Riga (Section V. B.) Specialist Krewson visited exchange partners in the Netherlands and Bremen, Germany, while on a private trip. Considerable material has been received as a result. On a separate occasion, she went to Germany with the Geography and Map Division chief to negotiate for the Waldseemueller map of 1507, the first to depict America.

The changing political situation in Eastern Europe adversely affected acquisitions from that region. Poland and Yugoslavia were particularly hard hit, with receipts in both cases dropping sharply. The specialists for those countries aggressively pursued acquisition sources, with Specialist Bachman recommended 4,000 titles from Poland and Librarian Pajic, 2,000 from the former Yugoslavia. In the case of Yugoslavia, a new blanket order was let for Croatia, and negotiations begun for blanket orders for Slovenia and Macedonia. Czechoslovakia and Hungary also presented problems. The national bibliography of Hungary ceased publication, a development that required Librarian Nyirady to find new sources of information on publishing in Hungary. Specialist Kovtun recommended turning to a dealer in England for Czech and Slovak newspapers. Romania proved a pleasant surprise. Two large shipments in FY 1992 showed a broad spectrum of publishers and places of publication, indicating that publishers were sending their deposit copies to the national library, our blanket-order dealer. This compliance is in sharp contrast to the other newly democratic countries of eastern Europe where up to 40% of book production does not find its way to the national deposit library. In the former Soviet Union the arrangement with blanket order dealer Victor Kamkin for books and the Moscow Office for unofficial and ephemeral materials, has proved successful so far.

Individual acquisitions of importance that were acquired through the efforts of division specialists were the library of the Embassy of the Netherlands in Washington, several hundred Czechoslovak samizdat serials and monographs, CLIO: Catalogo dei libri italiani dell'Ottocento (1801-1900) in 15 volumes, 21 Hungarian samizdat periodicals in microfilm, daily faxed reports (donosy) from Polish Language Services in Warsaw, a complete set of Documenti diplomatici italiani, and 400 large-scale topographic maps produced by the former German Democratic Republic.

B. Bibliographic Control and Automation. Entry of the European Reading Room collection into GenBib was completed, together with a guide to its use. Improvement of the control and quality of the collections was the object of the Library's committees that reviewed the materials sent by the bibliographic services contractors for Italy (G. Bottali; division reviewer C. Armbruster), Greece (R. Panourgia; division reviewer D. Kraus), and Moscow (M. Levner, division reviewers H. Leich and M. Neubert). The division played a key role in the Bottali and Levner visits to the Library that were designed to improve knowledge of each other's operations and requirements. As a result of these discussions, the European Division advised that the Bottali contract continue to include Naples and Palermo, as well as Rome. Service to readers was improved by assigning Processing Assistant Payton to collate and record the mass of Russian newspapers that had accumulated during the division's preoccupation with the Russian archives exhibit (Section II.B.)

Six microcomputers were added to the division's automation arsenal (Appendix D), greatly facilitating acquisition, reference, and bibliographic activities.

C. Reader and Reference Services. The physical dispersion of the division's reference resources (Section V.A.), namely, the separation of the reading room collection from the librarian at the European Reference Desk and the resulting prevention of the librarian from easy contact with the reader (the reader must use the Main Reading Room), as well as the security restrictions on reader access to the reading room and current serials collections presented service challenges and inevitable delays. The dedication of the staff of the reference desk and current serials deck, however, kept these delays to a minimum. Another positive factor was the cooperation of the National Reference Service, which received telephone calls directed to the European Reference Desk and rerouted those properly answered elsewhere. Several guides to the collections helped reader service, including the guide to using GenBib (by Librarian Harris), and a guide to French newspaper and periodical indexes (by Specialist Armbruster). Lack of space precludes listing even one example of the many reference requests for each of the languages and countries of the division's responsibility. Suffice it to say that all countries, languages, and most subjects in the social sciences and humanities were represented. Our principal client was the Librarian's Office in both Western and Eastern European matters. Other institutions represented included the White House, the Supreme Court, Congress, the Helsinki Commission, the National Gallery of Art, the Patent Office, and the Smithsonian Institution, to name a few. Individual reference requests came from all parts of the United States and numerous foreign countries.

IV. THE LIBRARY, THE NATION, AND THE WORLD

A. Public Programs and Outreach. Chief Haltzel obtained commitments from speakers for a monthy European Division Lunchtime Lecture series, to begin in October 1992 and designed to attract both public and staff. The Division continued to participate in the Library's Archive of World Literature on Tape, this year recording Austrian author Reinhard Gruber, Bulgarian poet Boris Khristov, and Hungarian poet András Sütő. Specialist Kovun was interviewed by the Czech newspaper Mladá Fronta Dnes on the Library and his role as specialist, The Assistant Chief and Specialist Yasinsky gave similar interviews to Ukrainian TV, Specialist Krewson to German National TV, and Specialist Leich to Jones Cable TV. Librarian Pajic was a popular panelist, appearing three times on public programs on Yugoslavia. Specialist Bachman delivered a lecture at Georgetown University on the Polish economic and political transition. Specialist Leich lectured on Soviet librarianship at Catholic University and at the Library of Congress gave a detailed orientation on Russian archives to a group of IREX (International Research & Exchanges Board) scholars about to begin their studies in Russia. In October 1991, Acting Chief Kraus and Specialist Kovtun were invited to the presentation at the Capitol of Tomas Masaryk's handwritten draft of the Czechoslovak Declaration of Independence to president Václav Havel. The document had been held by the Library. The idea of the presentation had been proposed two years earlier by Specialist Kovtun.

B. Publications and Exhibits. The division completed compilation of the American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies for 1989, comprising more than 5,000 main entries and 1,000 reviews. Edited by David H. Kraus with the assistance of George J. Kovtun and Zbigniew Kantorosinski, it was the final volume to be compiled at the Library after a twenty year tenure. The division cooperated fully with the new host, the University of Illinois, by transferring materials and information to smooth the transition. Appendix B indicates the range and variety of the Division's publications and requires not further explanation, except for Hidden Research Resources in the German Collections of the Library of Congress, which cites minimum-level cataloging items that the German specialist felt would otherwise escape the attention of researchers. Division staff published outside the division program as well: three of Specialist Kovtun's books were reprinted in Czechoslovakia under the new regime. Specialist Armbruster's "English-language Access to Western Europe," appeared in Euro-Librarianship: Shared Resources Shared Responsibilities, (New York, 1992) and her "France's New Library: What This Means to American Researchers" in Bibliographical Foundations of French Historical Studies (New York: 1992); Librarian Nyirady's "Evolution of Komi Grammar Writing in the 19th Century," appeared in Études Finno-Ougriennes (Paris/Budapest, 1992). Specialist Bachman and Librarian Nyirady contributed chapters to the Federal Research Division's The Soviet Union: A Country Study (1991) and Bachman edited and contributed to its Romania: A Country Study (1991). Chief Haltzel wrote an article for the Opinion Section of the Los Angeles Times entitled "The New German Question."

In addition to "Revelations from the Russian Archives" treated in Section II.B., division staff members participated in eight exhibits. Specialist Leich and Librarian Neubert were curators of the "Press for Freedom" exhibit (Dec. 1991/May 1992) demonstrating the Soviet independent press. Acting Chief Kraus participated in the planning of the "Bearers of the Word" exhibit (May/Sept. 1992), which featured the literary expression of Finnish immigrants in the United States. Specialist Krewson assisted with "1492: A Continuing Voyage" (Sept-) and with the Music Division's "In Praise of Music" (May-). All these exhibits were shown in the Madison Building. Krewson was also involved in preparing the Kohl exhibit scheduled for 1993 by the Geography and map Division (Section II.C.) and the Freud Exhibit by the Manuscript Division (1994). Librarian Kantorosinski identified posters and translated biographies of their artists for the forthcoming exhibit of the Prints and Photographs Division's "Polish Posters" (1993). Specialist Armbruster is a member of the planning group for the Bibliothèque Nationale exhibit scheduled for 1995.

C. International Activity. In June 1992, Chief Haltzel participated in a conference held in Potsdam, Germany on East European security and in a conference in Riga, Latvia on the new Baltic democracies. In that same month, Specialist Kovtun attended the conference "Czechoslovakia, Europe, and the World: Arts and Sciences in the International Context" in Prague, at which he gave a paper and chaired a panel. This was the first international conference with full participation by Czechs and Slovaks and Western specialists since before the communists took control of that country in 1948.

The division's interest in attracting foreign interns was satisfied this year with week-long stays by Lindita Bubsi, National Library of Albania, and Snejana Ianeva, University of Sofia Library. Both were interns sponsored by the Mortenson program in International Librarianship at the University of Illinois. The division arranged their program at the Library of Congress and benefitted from their insight into publishing and librarianship in their countries. Assistant Chief Kraus, Specialist Leich, and Librarians Neubert and Nyirady served on the committee that selected the 14 East European librarians sponsored by the Soros Foundation for a three-month internship at the Library of Congress. The division staff members named are mentors of these interns and the division a host. The division hosted and planned the programs of IREX scholar Mircea Regneala, Deputy Director of the University of Bucharest Library, and Milada Polisenska of the Czechoslovak Institute of International Relations.

The division's international activities included briefing prominent visitors–political figures, authors, scholars, government officials, publishers–from all the countries in the division's area of responsibility on the division's role in the Library's activities.

The division is the focal point for information on librarians and library specialists, worldwide, who specialize in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. This information, in machine-readable form, is continually updated and made available to the profession. During the fiscal year the division joined the INTERNET, which has given it a rapid means of international professional communication.

V. Administration, Space, and Personnel

A. The Physical Environment. The move of the division from the North Curtain, Second Floor, Thomas Jefferson Building (TJB) to three levels off the Main Reading Room (MRR) was completed in November 1991, with the establishment of the European Reference Desk in Alcove 7A, MRR, and the transfer of the European Reading Room collections to Deck 16, TJB. A rapid delivery system from Deck 16 and Deck 13 (current serials) was activated immediately. Some minor shifts of staff were made in the division's space in Gallery 2, MRR, to accommodate the new chief. Library-wide security measures, beginning June 15, 1992, closed Decks 13 and 16 to the public.

B. Staff Activities. Division staff engaged in both Library and outside professional activities. Chief Haltzel, Specialist Krewson, and Processing Assistant Collins took the Library's "Vision" course; Messrs. Graham, Haris, Kraus, and Pajic the nine-day management course offered by HR Solutions and George Ellis and Associates; Assistant Chief Kraus and Secretary Ricks the Labor-Management course; Kraus the Dispute Resolution course; and Librarian Pajic the course on Federal Labor Regulations Administration. Librarian Nyirady served on the Preservation Microfilm Committee, the Serials Check-In Committee, and the Spiegel Committee, Specialist Leich and Librarian Neubert on the Moscow Office Team, Librarians Graham and Harris on the Reference Round Table, and Chief Haltzel on the Central Asia/Caucasus Team. Secretary Ricks was keyworker for the Savings Bond Drive and the Combined Federal Campaign. Specialists Armbruster and Leich attended the national conference of the American Library Association (ALA), Leich served as the editor of the Newsletter of the Slavic and East European Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries, and Armbruster was an active participant in the West European Studies Section. Leich and Neubert were active in the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, attending its meetings with presentation of papers. Leich also attended the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Baltic [sic; read Slavic] Studies. All the specialists belong to the appropriate organizations of their specialty and attend meetings or lectures accordingly. A sampling of those organizations includes, in addition to those mentioned, the American Historical Association, American-Austrian Society, Bulgarian Studies Group, Council on Foreign Relations, Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in America, Democracy International, Dutch-American Heritage Association, French Historical Studies, German Language Society, Modern Greek Studies Association, Modern Language Association, North American Society for Serbian Studies, Romanian Studies Association, and the Ukrainian Librarians of America.

C. Personnel Matters. There were many changes in staff or their status in FY 1992. In January, Albert Graham, Head, European Reference, was temporarily appointed Assistant to the Chief, then in May detailed to the Senate Select Committee on POWs and MIAs (Section I). In February, Grant Harris was temporarily appointed Head, European Reference, to substitute for Albert Graham. On April 6, Lisa Hisel was selected as West European Searcher, filling a much needed vacancy. In April, the contracts for Natalya Bekman and Natalya Zanegina were renewed so that work could continue on the arrearages (Setion II. A). In May, Zbigniew Kantorosinski was detailed part-time to the Order Division to assist with East European orders until the vacancy for the position could be filled. He filled that position in August, leaving the European Division. Douglas Payton renewed his duties as Processing Assistant (part-time) in May as well. On June 1, Michael Haltzel reported as Chief of the division, and David Kraus resumed his position as Assistant Chief. On that same day, Mark Yoffe and Nina Zanegina, and Junior Fellow Holly Mills began work on the Cyrillic 4 arrearage (Section II.A.)

Promotions this fiscal year included Processing Assistant Kali Collins and John Michalski, from GS-6 to GS-7. Librarian Neubert from GS-9 to GS-11, and Librarians Nyirady and Pajic from GS-11 to GS-12.

Honors. Specialist Krewson was awarded Knighthood in the Order of the Crown, Belgium, for her contribution to Belgian scholarship and Belgian [Flemish]-American understanding. She was also given a Special Achievement Award by the Library in recognition of her fund-raising contributions (Section II.C). Specialist Kovtun received a Meritorious Service Award from the Library for his extraordinary contribution to the compilation of the 1989 volume of the American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies. Librarian Kantorosinski received an outstanding award for his role in producing the final volume of the American Bibliography (Section III.B). Specialist Leich was given a quality increase in recognition of the continued excellent performance of his duties while assigned extensive additional duties on the Russian Archives project (Section II.B).

Interns. The Division played host to University of Virginia interns Michele Gladieux and Grace Lillevig, who worked under the direction of Specialist Armbruster; to Petra Niedling, librarian in the German Chamber of Commerce, who worked under the direction of Specialist Kovtun; and to Halyna Tedorovych, of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, who worked under the direction of Specialist Yasinsky. These interns were engaged in bibliographic projects designed to give them maximum exposure to the Library's resources and facilities.