Libraries of Tomorrow -- Ukraine

Follow-Up Project: May 2010

2010-03-30T16:48:00.002-04:00

Thanks to Fulbright I'll be heading back to Ukraine this spring!

For two weeks in May, I'll conduct a follow-up project dividing my time equally between Kyiv and Crimea.

During my lectures in 2007-8, I found that almost without exception that although I had been invited to talk about technical issues, the audience also expressed strong curiosity about American libraries and in American librarianship in general.

Librarianship is going through drastic changes. It is no surprise that technology has changed the way that people access and organize information. It has also changed the role of the librarian in every imaginable work setting, whether it is an academic, public, corporate, or other. The nature of self-service information retrieval has led librarians and libraries to reevaluate their role in society.

It is for these reasons above that I am researching and writing about emerging trends including the changing role of the librarian.

Currently I am interviewing American librarians from a variety of settings. I encourage them to express in their own words how their jobs have changed and to identify trends. Conversely, I plan to interview and document the perspective of Ukrainian librarians. This research compliment my article recently published in, Slavic & Eastern European Information Resources.

Vernadsky National Scientific Library, Acquisitions Department

2008-06-28T14:11:00.000-04:00

On Friday June 27th, I gave my last presentation at Vernadsky National Scientific Library.

During my Fulbright grant period, I was lucky enough to be invited on a regular basis to present to the acquisitions department. These lectures mostly centered on new library technologies, but also included general lectures on library trends.

During this last visit, I spoke about Web 2.0. Over the last 10 months, we have gotten to know each other and I was sad to say good bye. Of course I will not miss the commute out to Vernadsky (see picture), but hopefully the city of Kyiv will soon doing something about the construction mess they have created at Moscow Square.

National Parliamentary Library, Rare Book Digitization

2008-06-28T13:34:00.000-04:00

On Thursday June 26th, I visited the National Parliamentary Library building in Podil /Podol (lower city), not to be confused with the main building which is located on European Square. With 7 floors, primarily this building is used for storage however there is also a small reading room. The building next door is under construction and will be the location of a new reading room.

For a while now I had been looking for a chance to meet with staff and tour after reading about their project digitizing rare books. Also I have been in contact on several occasions with Deputy Director Olga Barkova. We have met several times at seminars and I have been impressed with her presentations. Olga has been involved with other digitization efforts including an early project which took place at Vernadsky National Scientific Library.

We toured the rare books division, and took a look at some gems in the stacks area including historic Ukrainian language newspapers. During the 50 years of the library's existence, it has collected a large collection of early prints, rare and valuable books. Some high demand materials are quite fragile (crumbling acidic paper) and so handling is a very urgent concern. Staff showed me the one book scanner that they are using to digitize rare books. As of now, patrons can view a small selection of digitized books inside of the Parliamentary Library and hopefully this fall they will be accessible online.
The Parliamentary Library has rich collections, enthusiastic and knowledge staff, but unfortunately at this time is lacking funding for digitization on a larger scale. From what I understand this library receives funding (meager funding) for the Ministry of Culture.
A special thanks to Olga, Oksana and Lena (Баркова Ольга Валентинівна, Шолох Оксана Миколаївна, Лазарєва Олена Володимирівна)!

Міська спеціалізована молодіжна бібліотека «Молода гвардія»

2008-06-23T06:50:00.000-04:00

Riding the Kiev metro I have noticed advertisements for the city's children’s public library, «Молода гвардія». It has been my observation that this type of promotion is unusual for Ukrainian libraries and to my thinking it is progressive for a Ukrainian library. I was quite pleased when the director of this library introduced herself to me after I spoke at the conference in Sudak. I spoke about how libraries might build better websites. Now after visiting this library’s website, I have to say I think it might be the best Ukrainian library website that I have yet to see! As you first enter the site you see clear categories which give an indication of a well-developed information architecture. The navigation is clear and main navigation is for the most part global (available throughout the site). Their look and feel is consistent so that the user is not confused that he or she has left the library website. Content is all up to date, relevant, and concise. Materials and services are given priority over who’s who in the library staff, and most importantly the link to the online catalog is front and center. Bravo!!!

Fifteenth Jubilee International Conference “Crimea 2008”

2008-06-17T15:53:00.000-04:00

Title: Libraries and Information Resources in the Modern World of Science, Culture, Education, and Business
Location: Sudak, Feodosia, Koktebel, Novy Svet, Simferopol, Stary Krym -- Autonomous Republic of Crimea
Date: June 7-15, 2008
Wow and what a conference it was. I can honestly say that I have NEVER attended a conference like this one. The English version conference program can be viewed online.

Organized by Yakov Shrayberg, who should have perhaps considered pursuing a career as an actor in addition to librarianship, the International Conference was the liveliest and most event filled conference I have yet to attend. As well as sessions that were of interest to a wide audience, there were many sessions addressing current technologies.

Approximately 2,000 librarians, publishers, and other professionals attended the conference. Given the scale of this conference, it was extremely well planned and managed. Most attendees are Russian or Ukrainian but the conference also attracted participants from a number of countries including China, Jordan, Germany, USA and Turkey.

I gave a talk entitled Building Better Library Websites in which I discussed problems commonly found on library websites as well as advice for improving the quality of content, architectural infrastructure and navigation. In my section two Americans spoke about Google in relation to library activities. Google representative, Christian DiCarlo, discussed Google Scholar and how university libraries can better expose their electronic resources in Google searches. Brooklyn College Reference Librarian, Jill Cirasella spoke about uses and advantages of several different Google tools in reference interviews. Dr. Maurice Freedman, library consultant and former ALA president, moderated our session.

Festivities were plentiful and included fireworks, live theater, drinking and dancing in the ruins of a Genoese fortress.

"Ukrainian Libraries through the Eyes of an American Librarian"

2008-06-17T14:36:00.000-04:00

A short summary of my impressions of Ukrainian librarianship is available online in the June issue of International Leads, an American Libraries Association publication.

Crimea!!!

2008-06-17T13:34:00.001-04:00

Well the blog was quiet until now because I was traveling around Crimea to give talks and attend a conference. Crimea is a magical place. The landscape is outstanding -- mountains, cliffs along the Black Sea, ruins of Greek temples and fortresses, vineyards, prairie steppe areas, and Tatar mosques. It is an amazing region.

In Sevastopol, home to the Russian navy and much smaller Ukrainian fleet, I met with Natalia L. Rzhevtsevah head of the Sevastopol Technical University Library. Natalia graciously showed me around the city.

Later that week, in the library of the Crimean Institute of Archeology and Center for Information Technology in Simferopol, Galina Yadrova arranged a symposium on library web-related technologies. I spoke about planning and managing digitization projects. Other speakers also spoke about digitization efforts and especially interesting was a talk by Ludimilla Greenenko from Chersonese. This was fun because I was just recently at their site taking photographs (one pictured here taken at night). Ludimilla spoke about a digitization project that is taking place collaboratively with the Institute of Classical Archaeology of the University of Texas at Austin. There was also an interesting talk by the library director of the Center for Marine Biology located in Sevastopol. Galina the host of the seminar talked about their work in digitization and developing library websites.
Thank you to Galina (pictured here with Misha and archealogy student who showed me around Simferopol). Galina not only put together an interesting symposium but also arranged entertainment for me and was kind enough to let me stay with her in her apartment.

Харьковского национального университета радиоэлектроники

2008-05-29T08:01:00.000-04:00

Kharkiv is an interesting city in that it is largely a university city. Local librarians informed me there are more than 30 universities (both public and private) in Kharkiv. The streets are full of young people and I saw more foreigners in Kharkiv than in any other city which I have visited in Ukraine including the capital Kyiv. There are students from the former soviet republics as well as from various countries including but not limited to Turkey, India, Pakistan, China, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Ethiopia and others.
At the Kharkiv National University of Radio-electronics “Харьковского национального университета радиоэлектроники” I presented on creating library websites as well as planning and managing digitization projects. This photograph was taken during our coffee break.

During my stay I also had a chance to visit the library of the Karazin National University of Ukraine. I was impressed that unlike many libraries which I have visited in Ukraine, their online catalog is integrated with a circulation module and their user cards have machine readable barcodes, meaning that all patron records are in electronic form not paper.

Tamara Borisovna (Тамара Борисовна) the Library Director of Kharkiv National University of Radio-electronics was a warm and gracious hostess! I enjoyed our time together and look forward to meeting again at the Sudak conference in June.

Digitization in the News

2008-05-26T03:03:00.000-04:00

BIG NEWS IN DIGITIZATION....

Microsoft announced today that it would shut down its Live Search Books and Live Search Academic programs, which have digitized 750,000 books and indexed 80 million journal articles. For more information read the Chronical of Higher Education article, Microsoft Shuts Book Digitizing Project.

OCLC and Google will exchange data, link digitized books to WorldCat. On May 19th, they signed an agreement to exchange data which will facilitate the discovery of library collections through Google searches. Under terms of the agreement, OCLC member libraries participating in the Google Book Search program, which will make the full text of more than one million books searchable, may share their WorldCat-derived MARC records with Google to better facilitate discovery of library collections through Google. Google will link from Google Book Search to WorldCat.org, which will drive traffic to library OPACs and other library resources. Google will share data and links to digitized books with OCLC, which will make it possible for OCLC to represent the digitized collections of OCLC member libraries in WorldCat. More information can be found in the press release.

Харьков / Харків

2008-05-23T08:32:00.000-04:00

Monday I will travel to Kharkiv (Харьков in Russian and Харків in Ukrainian), an industrial city in the east. Kharkiv, a former capital city, is the second largest city in Ukraine and is one of the main industrial, cultural and educational centers of Ukraine. Its industry specializes mostly in arms production and machinery. A well known landmark in Kharkiv is Freedom Square.

I will be presenting at the Kharkiv National University of Radioelectronics to an audience of regional librarians from a number of institutions and library school students from Kharkiv State Academy of Culture (known for having one of the better library school departments in Ukraine).

The first presentation менеджер веб-контенту та електронних зібрань Бруклінської публічної бібліотеки (м. Нью-Йорк) is an introduction to the work I had done while Manager of Web Content and Digital Collections at Brooklyn Public Library. The second presentation, Using Blogger to Create Library Blogs: Технологія ведення блогів, is an introduction to an online tool called Blogger owned by Google. Please note there is a Ukrainian version of this site (simply select the language). The third presentation Creating Library Websites Створення тауправління веб-сайтами бібліотек. And the fourth presentation is on Planning and Managing Digitizationprojects Планування та управління проектами з оцифровки.

Information Literacy

2008-05-15T16:18:00.000-04:00

Laura Kaspari Hohmann gave a presentation on Information Literacy to the English Speaking Librarians Club Wednesday, May 14th. It was especially fun to view the video entitled Library Mystery Tour. Created by Williams College Libraries, Library Mystery Tour is a game which serves to familiarize users with library services and to reinforce the idea that librarians are available to assist. Laura is an Information Specialist from the US State Department.

Ukrainian Catholic University

2008-05-12T06:41:00.001-04:00

Last week I visited Catholic University's library in the beautiful western Ukrainian city of Lviv near the border with Poland. During my visit we discussed best practices of creating library websites as well as planning and managing digitization projects.

They are looking towards a redesign of their website and have begun making steps towards digitization of rare church related materials. Their current website does not yet properly reflect the library’s resources because for the last year and a half this small staff has been working on implementing a new OPAC system (MarkSQL). In addition, they have started to digitize selected periodicals and rare books (prints from 17th c. and older). So far their activities have been limited to scanning and they have not yet decided what to do with the images produced. We discussed what it would take to make these items searchable and web accessible vs. simply burning these images as PDFs to a CD. Their collections are quite diverse ranging from theology and church history in Ukraine (including very interesting materials related to the underground activities during Soviet times) to Ukrainian studies publications (political and historical). They also have specialized reading rooms such as one for Byzantine studies.

Thank you to library director Taras Tymo (former Fulbright Fellow) and assistant director Andrew Koslar for interesting discussion as well as gracious hospitality! (Taras is pictured at his desk and Andrew is pictured at the circulation desk).

Центральна бібліотека імені М. Горького ЦБС міста Костянтинівка

2008-04-25T09:46:00.002-04:00

Wednesday I was swooped into a bus full of regional librarians (approximately 40) to travel approximately an hour from Donetsk to the Kostyanteenivka city library. We arrived to a very friendly welcome and a sit down lunch. The fact that library had no running water at the time did not deter the librarians from feeding us. In fact there was no running water throughout the entire two days and somehow they managed to feed us several times several meals including an elaborate dinner with live music and theater. If this had been an American library I think they would have canceled the conference. Not this lively group! They did not seem to be fazed in the slightest as this is a common occurrence. Not only were they not fazed but they were enthusiastic and proud of their library! Their energy was so positive and open that I immediately felt at home.

Donetsk Visit

2008-04-25T09:34:00.000-04:00

On Tuesday I toured the Donetsk Regional General Scientific Library and gave a presentation to a group of approximately 35 librarians. It is a beautiful building and they have interesting collections such as rare volumes of poems by Taras Shevchenko on display in their most elaborate reading room named after Shevchenko. Also fun to see was a statue of Lenin’s wife, Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya (sculpture pictured in photograph) who was also a librarian and was responsible for the foundation and many methods of Soviet librarianship. She is up on the top floor. And they too have a Window on America center with free access to the Internet. Although I have not been pleased by many of the US government’s initiatives over the last 7 years but I have to say that the IREX Windows on America project really seems to have positively impacted Ukrainian libraries. Photographs are available online.
Thank you to Olena Bashun, Deputy Director (in photograph to the left) for hosting the seminar and being a gracious hostess.

Donetsk Regional Scientific Library

2008-04-21T06:20:00.000-04:00

Tonight I will take a 14 hour train ride to Donetsk in order to give presentations to regional librarians over the next three days. Donetsk is an industrial city close to the Russian border. The picture posted here [Why we need Donetsk Basin] is image #416659 from New York Public Library 's digital collection Posters of Russian Civil War 1918-22.

Being Proactive

2008-04-20T05:05:00.000-04:00

Again and again Ukrainian librarians discuss the serious problem of lack of young people entering the profession of librarianship. Friday in a break-out session at the conference held at Parliamentary Library one man asked the Ukrainian Library Association what they are doing about this. This frustrated me. I see passivity among librarians in this area and do not hear any discussion of proactive recruitment. The role of the association is advocacy, which ULA is doing a great job of given the few number of staff (I think it is now 2 people and 1 part-time volunteer). So I stood up and made a few points that have been on my mind. It is our role as library professionals to encourage and mentor students. So far during my almost 8 months here speaking at conferences, universities and libraries, I have seen little or no proof of collaboration between libraries and library science departments. While attending conferences I noticed there are no students in the audience. I do not see library students working for school credit in libraries. I do not hear of encouraging paraprofessionals to study library science towards career advancement. Yes of course salaries are low and yes of course librarianship is not exactly prestigious but what are we doing as professionals to encourage young people to take interest in our profession?

The photograph above was taken at the Libraries and Books in the Context of Today conference, „Бібліотека і книга в контексті часу” held at the Parliamentary Library in Kyiv.

Бібліотека і книга в контексті часу

2008-04-16T08:22:00.001-04:00

Tomorrow is the start of a two-day conference, Libraries and Books in the Context of Today, „Бібліотека і книга в контексті часу” held at the Parliamentary Library in Kyiv. My presentation called is Building Better Library Websites. My abstract is as follows: Via the World Wide Web libraries are empowered to reach out to remote users. Libraries are responding by striving to provide innovative online services, but are we really meeting the needs of our users? It is not enough to simply create a web presence and provide access to an online catalog and electronic resources. An emphasis on creating and managing high quality content, providing clear navigation and efficient information architecture is needed.

Vernadsky National Scientific Library

2008-04-14T15:30:00.001-04:00

Friend and colleague, Maurita Baldock, Curator of Manuscripts of the New-York Historical Society, came to visit recently. During her stay she gave a talk at the Vernadsky National Scientific library about her home institution and work with manuscripts. The audience was comprised of Vernadsky acquisition department staff members. After her talk, we took a tour of the two Vernadsky buildings and viewed highlights of special collections.

Maurita was surprised that most of the audience’s questions were generally cultural in nature as opposed specifically library related. For example she needed to clarify the idea of volunteerism since there is not a tradition of this in Ukraine. Also she explained fundraising and why it is important to a private institution such as N-YHS.

During the tour of the library, Maurita noticed that Vernadsky has a large number of separate and distinct reading rooms. Some of the reading rooms were almost empty. Nadiya also mentioned that not many patrons frequent particular collection reading rooms. Also, patrons were not using laptops, but rather they transcribed their notes onto paper. There is card catalog area for staff and another card catalog area for patrons. Many patrons were using the card catalog, and every computer terminal with the electronic catalog was occupied.

There was also interesting conversation between Maurita, Nadiya and myself about librarianship in general. Nadiya mentioned that librarianship is currently not a popular profession in Ukraine due to low salaries, and it is difficult to recruit library school students. Maurita said that she wonders if as technology becomes more of an integral part of library services, young people will be drawn to the profession. She remarked that librarianship in the US has become more popular for this reason.

We want to thank Nadiya Strishenets for arranging the talk, being a gracious hostess, and taking time out of her hectic schedule to give us a guided tour. A small slideshow is available online.

English Conversation Group

2008-04-07T14:07:00.000-04:00

Last Friday, 14 people participated in the English conversation group meeting which I hosted at the American Library of National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Most were students and a few library members who work nearby or attend other universities. One American Fulbright Professor also participated. The topic was NATO. Most of the conversation group participants follow the news and have passionate opinions about Bush's recent visit and push for Ukraine to be considered in the planning stages NATO inclusion. It was a lively discussion because about half of the participants support the idea of Ukraine moving towards NATO membership and half are opposed. Near the end of the meeting we also discussed the upcoming US Elections. Interestingly, the majority of the group supports Hillary Clinton's candidacy (2 for McCain, 2 for Obama and 10 for Clinton).

Thoughts about Library Websites

2008-04-04T07:50:00.000-04:00

Recently I've been noticing poorly designed library websites. I am not talking about the appearance, but rather little thought about usability, lack of coherent structure, and sloppy content. A Website is a library’s public face. Plus it is a regional, national, and even international presence. We should not underestimate the importance of having a good quality website.

Some common mistakes and problems that I've noticed include the following:

1. Out-of-date content such as old announcements, links that do not work, schedules for events that happened in the past.

2. Too much emphasis on who is who instead of what materials are available in the library. I often see significant space of library websites given to photographs of staff or staff rosters (telephone numbers etc.) rather than space given to library materials and services. It is of course okay to have some information about the library staff, but should it take priority?

3. Confusing architecture. By architecture I mean the hierarchical structure of the site. It should not take several clicks into a site to find important information.

4. Confusing navigation. By navigation I mean how users find their way around the site.

5. Lack of consistency of look of web pages across an institution. I often see this when leaving a main web page to go to pages featuring collections or branch libraries. The user should not question whether he or she has left the website of an institution because the appearance of the website changed drastically.

6. And last but not least, where is the library catalog? Items which your users frequently go to should be up front and center. They should not have to click deep into a site, if what they are seeking is popular.

Has anyone else noticed common mistakes or problems with library websites?

Sevastopol Technical University

2008-03-31T08:41:00.000-04:00

85 librarians attended my workshop in Sevastopol. It was a mix of academic, special collections, and public librarians. The audience was quite receptive and asked thoughtful professional questions as well as some more personal questions such as do I have a family and what do they think of me coming to Ukraine for 10 months. Many librarians in the audience took notes and were especially curious about content management systems and building digital collections. As mentioned before, Greenstone has Russian interfaces and help instructions so I highlighted this open source software which is used to build and distribute digital collections. I also spoke a bit about Drupal, open source Content Management System, since there is also a Russian version available and there is the option to add a blog module. Two students, Natalia Luchenko and Natalia Pavlova, did an excellent job simultaneously translating my presentation. They are both in their 5th year studying translation at the university and will graduate in the next couple of months.

Photographs of the library and the workshop are available online.

A special thanks to Natalia L. Rzhevtsevah, Director (to the right in photograph). Ржевцева Наталия Леонидовна, директор библиотеки СевНТУ. Also a special thanks to Professor, English Translator and Editor of Перемена -- Thinking Classroom: International Forum on Education, Natasha Kaloshina for all her help and warm hospitality. Photographs of our visit to Chersonesos are available online.

библиотеки СевНТУ

2008-03-13T08:50:00.000-04:00

Okay twist my arm… next week I am traveling back to Crimea in order to lecture in Sevastopol to an audience of regional librarians (public and academic). My workshop is being hosted by the Sevastopol Technical University Library.

The first presntation, менеджер веб-контенту та електронних зібрань Бруклінської публічної бібліотеки (м. Нью-Йорк), is an introduction to digital collections and managing web content using examples or projects I had worked on in my former position of Manager of Web Content and Digital Collections at Brooklyn Public Library. This introduction will act as a springboard for the next three presentations. Because many of the libraries I visit have limited IT infrastructure, the second presentation will be Using Blogger to Create Library Blogs Технологія ведення блогів, which is an introduction to using Blogger for purposes of promoting libraries and offering interactive services. The third presentation, Creating Library Websites Створення та управління веб-сайтами бібліотек, is a sort of best practices presentation and more talk of Web 2.0 technologies. And the fourth presentation, Planning and Managing Digitization projects Планування та управління проектами з оцифровки, is more detailed than the other three presentations.

Correlation Between Use of Libraries, Museums and the Internet

2008-03-13T06:49:00.000-04:00

The IMLS National Study on the Use of Libraries, Museums and the Internet As the Internet is increasingly used as a source of information will it replace corresponding physical items and services in libraries and museums? Or will the Internet and related technologies and services enhance and increase museum and library use?

"Conclusion #1 Libraries and museums evoke consistent, extraordinary public trust among diverse adult users. Conclusion #2 Internet use is positively related to in-person visits to museums and libraries. Conclusion #3 Museums and public libraries in-person and online serve important and complementary roles in supporting a wide variety of information needs." View report.

LIS Education in the US

2008-03-12T10:18:00.000-04:00

On Friday March 14th at Vernadsky National Scientific Library, I will present on Library and Information Science education in the US. Of particular interest to Ukrainian librarians is the concept of ALA accreditation. This is not the practice in Ukraine and would certainly help to standardize and improve the quality of Ukrainian LIS education. Also I will discuss curriculum (comparison of 5 US LIS programs), electives as well as the practice of completing a semester internship or practicum for school credit.

English Conversation Group

2008-03-09T10:42:00.001-04:00

At least one Friday each month, I host a conversation group at the American Library of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. It is a mixture of university students and local professionals who come to practice their English conversational skills. This week we discussed the American and Ukrainian media with a special focus on news reporting. We discussed biased reporting versus factual reporting. It was interesting to hear from the Ukrainians which journals and newspapers they preferred to read and why. I was impressed when a couple of the students said that they read the Economist, which is my news journal of choice too.

Global Libraries -- IREX in Ukraine

2008-03-09T10:24:00.000-04:00

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has selected the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) to plan for a program to provide public access to computers and Internet in Ukraine’s public libraries. Project activities include conducting a needs assessment, convening a national vision forum to define a program mission and secure government involvement, establish a national steering committee made up of representatives from libraries, government, private sector as well as civil society and coordinate with the U.S. Embassy’s Library Electronic Access Project (LEAP) and the USAID funded Internet Access and Training Program (IATP). These activities will result in a documented strategy for a large-scale project that improves public access to the Internet in Ukraine. I met with IREX staff at the Kyiv office this Thursday to discuss how I might help this fantastic project.

Holodomor – Genocide 1932-33: Politics and Memory

2008-03-07T09:41:00.001-05:00

Wednesday evening I attended a seminar called Holodomor – Genocide 1932-33: Politics and Memory sponsored by Fulbright Ukraine, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, and the Kennan Institute. Speakers included Ivan Dziuba, writer, literary scholar, activist, member of Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Stanislav Kulchytskyj, historian, vice-director of the Institute of History of Ukraine of Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Vladyslav Hrynevych, historian, senior associate of the Institute of Ethnic and Political Studies of Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and Liudmyla Hrynevych, historian, senior associate of the Institute of History of Ukraine of Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

2008-03-05T09:58:00.000-05:00

After six months of working in Ukraine, my project is more than half way finished. It is time to evaluate what has been accomplished and what has yet to be done. Many aspects of daily life here I know I will really miss. I have grown accustomed to certain conveniences such as buying homemade sauces and pickled foods from the babushkas that sit right outside of my apartment building.

English Speaking Librarians Club of Kyiv

2008-03-04T07:05:00.001-05:00

Thanks to everyone who came to the meeting and stayed for the photography opening yesterday. We had a lively discussion related to the following topics: digital libraries, digitization and digital collections, electronic resources, federated searching and copyright restrictions. Photographs of the meeting and opening are available online.

Upcoming meeting and photography opening at NaUKMA

2008-02-29T08:19:00.002-05:00

The English Speaking Librarians Club of Kyiv will meet March 3rd at the American Library of National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy (NaUKMA) at 4:30pm to discuss electronic resources such as eJournals, eBooks, eVideo, and Federated Searching.

Following the meeting will be an opening for my photograph exhibit to take place also at the American Library. The exhibit will feature a selection of my photographs taken while in Ukraine as a Fulbrighter. The title of the exhibit is Ukraine through the eyes of an American Fulbrighter. "Україна очима американської фулбрайтерки". The photograph to the left is a close-up of the Babi Yar monument.

3 березня о 16.30 в Американській бібліотеці НаУКМА відбудеться чергове засідання Англомовного бібліотечного клубу, що вже понад 10 років збирає на фахові англомовні зустрічі бібліотекарів, інформаційних працівників М.Києва та України. Тема засідання: «Цифрові бібліотеки». Стипендіат Програми академічних обмінів ім.Фулбрайта п.Сьюзен Бенц, що перебуває в 2007-2008 н.р. в НаУКМА представить цифрову колекцію Бруклінської публічної бібліотеки. По закінченні засідання – орієнтовно о 18-00 запрошуємо на урочисте відкриття виставки фоторобіт Сьюзен Бенц. Представлені світлини, зроблені п. Сьюзен з її поїздок Україною.

Планування та управління проектами з оцифровки

2008-02-22T08:36:00.000-05:00

Today and yesterday I gave presentations on Planning and Managing Digitzation Projects (part 1 and part 2) as part of a 3 day digitization workshop held at the Ivan Fedorov Book Chamber of Ukraine, State Research Institution. Thank you to Galyna Gutsol for arranging the workshop and to Валерий Гостинщиков (Val) for translating simultaneously from English to Ukrainian. We had an interesting discussion and to my pleasure the audience of mainly librarians asked some very thoughtful and interesting questions including:

What is the best resolution at which to scan?

Is it okay to represent sponsors on your web site?

How does an instution who has digitized collections deal with every changing technology?

What is Dublin Core and how is it different from MARC?

Why produce TIFF files instead of just JPEGs or other compressed files?

How difficult is it to get Greenstone up and running (of special interest since it offers Russian and Ukrainian interfaces and help instructions)?

After the workshop at Book Chamber I came to the American Library to facilitate an English conversation group. This was a group of about 10 students, professors and local professionals who enjoy practicing their language skills. We started with the topic of gender roles but then went off on tagents about food and American culture in general. There were some amusing comments and questions. For example one man was convinced that we have very few soups in America (soup is a vital part of a typical Ukrainian meal). When I gave the example of clam chowder he thought it sounded like a strange concoction and was suspicious as to whether or not it is tasty. When talking about gender roles and feminism, one man spoke about the role of the woman in soviet society. The situation here during the 1970s was very different from America. It was also interesting to hear from the undergraduate women in the group. They said that they find their university peers to be a mix of tradionalists and non-traditionalists in relation to sex roles.

Оцифровування історичних газет

2008-02-20T11:03:00.000-05:00

Today I gave a presentation on Historic Newspaper Digitization (Оцифровування історичних газет) to an audience of about 25 librarians. This was part of a 3 day workshop held at the Ivan Fedorov Book Chamber of Ukraine, State Research Institution. Thank you to Валерий Гостинщиков (Val) for translating simultaneously from English to Ukrainian.

The presentation was broken down into the following topics:
-- Imaging -- Створення зображення
-- Scanning from microfilm vs. paper -- Сканування з мікрофільмів та/або з паперу- за і проти
-- Scanners -- Сканери
-- Image files formats -- Формати файлів
-- OCR Optical Character Recognition and Re-keying -- OCR(оптичне розпізнавання тексту) та набір (друкування)
-- Zoning and Segmentation -- Поділ на зони та сегментування
-- Metadata and Search-ability -- Метадані та пошукова зручність
-- Web presentation -- Веб презентація
-- Examples -- Приклади

Librarian is one of the best careers of 2008!

2008-02-14T08:24:00.000-05:00

U.S. News & World Report says: “Librarians these days must be high-tech information sleuths, helping researchers plumb the oceans of information available in books and digital records. It’s an underrated career...On top of it all, librarians' work hours are reasonable.”

The Importance of Mentoring Library and Information Science Students

2008-02-14T08:15:00.000-05:00

I've been thinking about the importance of mentoring Library and Information Science students so I've written an article for Ukrainian audiences which I hope to have published in one of the library journals here. Below is a small taste of what I have on my mind.

Mentoring is an important part of American librarianship. Librarians with years of experience are sharing knowledge with Library and Information Science (LIS) students and thereby enriching their education. Students by working closely with these mentors are in turn gaining real world experience which makes them more valuable and employable upon graduation. In order to match protégés with their mentors a close collaboration between library educators and librarians is necessary. This collaboration can help ensure that LIS education meets the needs of the profession.

It is no secret that the field of Library and Information Science has been significantly impacted by ever changing technologies and service trends. With this in mind a major question is how do students keep up with these new developments? Students need to be exposed to real life applications of what is being discussed in their classrooms. And conversely how can library educators stay in touch with new developments in the field? Faculty can gain from practitioner experiences since faculty members need to refresh their curricula in order to remain relevant.

In fact, learning through experience is a top priority set forward by current American Library Association (ALA) president Dr. Loriene Roy. Dr. Roy is an accomplished educator and is currently a professor of Library & Information Science at The University of Texas at Austin. She has set up a number of ALA task forces including the Supporting Library &Information Science Education through Practice Task Force.

Librarians must be proactive and seek such opportunities if they do not present themselves naturally. It might be necessary to contact library educators and ask to be involved. LIS educators and administrators should be proactive by forging close relations with leaders in the professional community and seeking guest lecturers and internship placements for students. All parties involved stand to benefit.

Upcoming workshop!

2008-02-12T04:32:00.001-05:00

Next week I will be teaching a 3 day workshop to be held at the Ivan Fedorov Book Chamber of Ukraine, State Research Institution.

Translation services will be provided.

The schedule is:
February 20th from 10am-1pm digitizing historic newspaper
February 21st from 10am-1pm planning and managing digitization projects
February 22nd from 10am –1pm planning and managing digitization projects continued

The workshop is open to librarians and archivists interested in digitization.

On the mend...

2008-02-11T07:40:00.000-05:00

I've been quiet the last couple of days because I’ve been sick with bronchitis. Here’s what my doctor has prescribed for me. Have you ever seen such a pile of meds? I should be back working in the American Library soon.

English Speaking Librarians Club

2008-02-04T12:45:00.000-05:00

I want to say thank you to everyone that came out tonight to the English Speaking Librarians Club. It was also a pleasure to have a few non-librarians join us as well since their perspective is important. We had a very interesting discussion about challenges facing libraries in Ukraine today. Among the chief concerns discussed this evening were the following:

The ever increasing price of materials and especially foreign language materials
Lack of budget/funding (for materials, for training, etc.)
Poor facilities (buildings and surrounding areas)
Copyright – unclear and restrictive in the area of what can be placed online, for example rare illustrated children’s books from the 1920s
Training for librarians especially in the area of technology
Library education and the lack of students entering this discipline
Limited patron access to the Internet
Lack of government support

We also talked about the American Library Association’s Advocacy website and printed articles that suggested hints for arguing for larger budgets.

It was a constructive conversation and opened up further discussion among colleagues about how their own situations were similar or differed from each other.

Digital Library Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired

2008-01-31T06:52:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I attended a presentation at Kiev Central Special Library for the Blind, which was sponsored by the Ukrainian Library Association and the Goethe Institut, Ukraine. The presentation „Serviceleistungen in Bibliotheken für Blinde und Sehbehinderte in Deutschland“ -- Services in Libraries for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Germany.

Elke Dittmar is the Director of the Stiftung Centralbibliothek für Blinde - Norddeutsche Blindenhörbücherei e.V. (Central Library for the Blind and the North German Audio-books for the Blind.) in Hamburg, Gemany.

Her presentation focused on the challenges and recent innovations in the area of services to the blind. She spoke about an interesting project called DAISY (Digital Accessible Information SYstem). From their website, “Our vision is that all published information at time of release to the general population be available in an accessible highly functional, feature rich format and at no greater cost to persons with print disabilities.” The DAISY Standard for Digital Talking Books aims to revolutionize the reading experience for people who have reading disabilities. Within the digital recording the document structure is apparent and allows easy navigation by the user. The DAISY Consortium is made up of talking book libraries and was formed in 1996 with the goal of leading the worldwide transition of audio books from analog to digital. In addition to DAISY, Ms. Dittmar spoke about the work of IFLA’s Libraries for the Blind Section and a German collective for blind and visually impaired media, Medibus (Mediengemeinschaft für blinde und sehbehinderte Menschen e.V.).

An interview with Ms. Dittmar is available online (in German).

Thank you for the excellent presentation!

English Speaking Librarians Club of Kyiv

2008-01-28T15:10:00.000-05:00

The next English Speaking Librarians Club meeting will take place on Monday February 4th at the NaUKMA American Library at 4pm. We will discuss challenges facing libraries today.

All librarians or library & information students in the Kyiv area with some knowledge of the English Language are welcome to attend. Meeting information is posted online.

Pig lard humor

2008-01-28T10:18:00.001-05:00

Joke told at the NaUKMA American Library today:

At customs in the Moscow airport, the agents stopped a Ukrainian man carrying a piece of salo measuring 3 meters long.

Guard says, "Sir, we will let you go through if you explain how it is possible that this salo is so long."

Man says, "Well it is simple really. I put a young pig’s feet in concrete and everyday I moved his food trough just a little bit further away from him."

Планування та управління проектами з оцифровки

2008-01-20T09:33:00.000-05:00

One Friday in the library of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, I delivered a one-day workshop on planning and managing digitization projects to about 45 Kyiv librarians. Presentations are available online: part 1 and part 2.

Visit to Lviv / Львів

2008-01-15T09:18:00.000-05:00

Over the weekend I visited the fascinating city of Lviv (also known in Polish as Lwów, in German as Lemberg and in Russian as Львов/Lvov).

Located close to the polish border in western Ukraine, it takes about 9 to 11 hours to reach Lviv from Kyiv. Lviv's historic churches, buildings and sculptures date from the 13th century and the city was spared major damage in WWII. Its historic center was selected by UNESCO as a World Heritage site. The architecture reflects various European styles and periods such as Jugendstil (Art Nouveau) & Vienna Secession, Renaissance, Baroque, and Gothic however upon leaving the historic center you immediately start seeing the typical Soviet-era high rise buildings. Since time was limited I barely scratched the surface of this unique city. A slide show of photographs is posted online.

After the holidays...

2008-01-10T07:14:00.000-05:00

As the holiday season winds down it is time to get back to work. Students are again taking over the library, and the university canteen is serving its usual selection of borscht, "salad" (vegetables in mayonnaise) and pork coated in fried egg over kasha.

I am preparing to give a one day workshop on January 18th at the Kyiv Polytechnic University Library. The workshop will introduce digitization to librarians. The event has been coordinated by the the Information Resource Center which is administered by the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy.

The next meeting of the English Speaking Librarian Club of Kyiv has been scheduled. Meeting information is posted.

American Library of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy

2007-12-21T07:29:00.000-05:00

The university is very quiet today. Oksana is on the desk although most students are either finishing their exams or have already left for winter break.

English Speaking Librarians Club of Kyiv

2007-12-18T05:20:00.000-05:00

Thursday December 20th will be the next meeting of the English Speaking Librarians Club. I will give a short presentation on the three public library systems in New York City (New York Public Library, Queens Library and Brooklyn Public Library). All librarians or library & information students in the Kyiv area with some knowledge of the English Language are welcome to attend. Meeting information is available online.

Digitizing Historic Newspaper -- Book Chamber of Ukraine

2007-12-13T05:53:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I presented to staff of the Ivan Fedorov Book Chamber of Ukraine, State Research Institution. They receive deposit copies of all books published in Ukraine. During Soviet times, they also received deposit copies of books published in other soviet countries and thus have a rich and large collection. In addition, they have a full-run of an historic newspaper in the Ukrainian language that they’d like to digitize and are working towards the planning stage. Ever since I managed the Brooklyn Daily Eagle Online project, I’ve been fascinated by historic newspaper digitization projects and so I am happy to assist this institution.

Vinnytisa Institute of Trade and Economics

2007-12-10T06:28:00.000-05:00

Friday the presentations at the Vinnytsia Institute of Trade and Economics went very well. The audience (about 50 or more people) was clearly engaged and they asked thoughtful and interesting questions. Some of the librarians were interested in how they might use blogs as a tool for promotion of their library events and collections. I was interviewed by the local access television station (Вінницьке державне телебачення - ВДТ) about my impressions of Ukraine and why I chose to come to Vinnytisa. I discovered that it is fun to be a televsion star even if it is just a few minutes in spotlight. After the presentations there was a lovely lunch at a local restaurant with a bottle of Muscat (sweet wine) for myself, the head of the library, the professor who served as a translator and the assistant director of the institute. A special thank you to Anjelika Kalinichenko for arranging my visit and to Oleksandr Nedbalyuk for simultaneously translating my presentations.

Digital Library presentations at the Crimean University for Humanities in Yalta

2007-12-03T05:20:00.000-05:00

Yalta in the off-season although somewhat slushy is still fascinating with its palm trees, snow capped mountains, the Black Sea, the imposing and sometimes crumbling soviet architecture and the mix of different ethnicities (Russians, Greeks, Tatars etc). Over four days I delivered four presentations and follow up discussions at the Crimean University for Humanities and they in turn put me up in university housing and showed me around the area – fantastic excursions to Livadia Palace, Massandra Winery and Alupka Palace.

Slideshow featuring the librarians.

The first presentation was a basic introduction to my previous work in web content management and digitization projects. The second presentation focused on creating library websites. Some of the material I covered also is mentioned in a book that I gave to the university library director as a gift. This was my longest and most detailed presentation which included time for discussion and critique of example university websites. Fortunately this group was not shy and in fact quite eager to share their impressions and pose questions. The third presentations was on library blogs – why and how they are created and how libraries can use tools such as Blogger that are free of cost to publicize their library events, collections etc. The fourth presentation was focused on international organizations which support and promote libraries. The librarians expressed frustration with the lack of funding possibilities available in Ukraine due to the instability of the government.

Presentations were open to university library staff and other local professional librarians (local museums mostly). After each presentation the librarians had a chance to pose questions and to make comments. To my pleasure there was quite a bit of discussion. Attendees included: Ludmila Kovalerist, Lilia Kovalenko, Jeanne Domjo, Tatiana Smerechinskaya, Aliona Burklaka, Victoria Kolomijez, Nadejda Anooshkina, Alexandra Yeschenko, Alekandr Bodnar, Larisa Tchebotariova, Larisa Tchech, Galina Savinskaya, Helena Schelemetieva, Tatyana Prilpko and others. Presentations translated simultaneously from English to Russian by a talented student who is studying to become a translator.

My gracious host Ludmila Kovalerist, Library Director, Crimean University for Humanities also provided us the opportunity to chat over tea & cookies following the presentations. The opportunity to chat informally was incredibly valuable! There was much talk about the differences and similarities of librarianship and institutions in Ukraine as compared to the US. The librarians were also quite curious about average salaries and the cost of living in the US. When I said that in NYC a public librarian starting salary might be in the low 30s, some of the librarians looked quite impressed. They said this is a lot of money. I then explained that it is barely enough to cover living costs in NYC and I then pointed to a map of the US and explained that the cost of living in say Montana or other middle states is much lower than on many cities on the coasts. This topic of comparing the cost of living comes up over and over again during my stay in Ukraine.

They also asked me questions about my impressions of Ukrainian librarians. We had a good laugh when talking about the typical librarian stereotype. It seems this stereotype knows no international borders – the mousy librarian indeed!

A special thank you to Anjelika Polovinkina, vice-head of the Centre of International Cooperation for arranging my visit to the university and the excursions.

After my stay in Yalta I traveled by Marshrutka (mini-bus) to Sevastopol to stay with my fellow Fulbright Scholar Nancy Lenihan. Nancy, a professor of English using American films, is teaching at the Sevastopol National Technical University. We had quite an adventure the following day when we explored Balaclava. As we climbed up the hill to view the ruins of the Greek fortress we were accompanied by a pack of friendly stray dogs. Balaclava is known as the location of a soviet submarine factory. A slideshow of photographs of our adventures.

Крымского гуманитарного университета

2007-11-23T05:22:00.000-05:00

On Sunday I will travel overnight by train to Yalta. I don’t expect that the weather will be as lovely as when I was there in early October. At that time people were still able to swim in the ocean. But as Kyiv is still under ice and snow, I am hoping for milder weather down south on the Black Sea.

Monday through Thursday I will be giving lectures and meeting with library staff from the Crimean State Humanitarian University. My first presentation will be an introduction to my work at Brooklyn Public (digital collections and web content), my second will focus on creating and managing library websites and my third will introduce library blogs and how to create one using Blogger. I will also talk briefly about international library organizations and seeking funding. I will speak in English and will be a translator there to translate directly to Russian. Last week I sent presentation notes to the staff there in Ukrainian and in Russian. In Crimea it is important to note that most of the population speaks Russian as opposed to Ukrainian. This is due to political factors as well as the fact that the majority population in this region is Russian.

In addition to my lectures, the university has organized tours to a famous winery and to a castle. Unfortunately my camera has mysteriously and suddenly stopped working.

ALA accreditation

2007-11-19T15:32:00.001-05:00

Yes Kyiv is covered in snow & ice. The photograph to the left is the Golden Gate -- part of Kyiv's fortifications under Yaroslav the Wise. It was originally built in 1037, largely destroyed by Mongols in 1240 and what you see here is the reconstruction from 1982. I think the green is astro-turf...

Today we gave the presentation (mentioned below) at University of Culture & Art in regards to Library and Information Science education in the US and in Ukraine. The students enjoyed it and I'm hoping to be invited back to talk about digital library projects in the US. The concept of accreditation was of great interest to the audience. In the US the American Library Association puts forward standards describe the essential features of programs of education that prepare library and information professionals. For example an important accreditation standard stipulates that LIS curriculum is continually reviewed and receptive to innovation. The evaluation of curriculum is used for ongoing appraisal, to make improvements, and to plan for the future. This is extremely important in regards to keeping up with new technologies. They do not have this system in the Ukraine and from what I understand it is sorely needed.

Мережеві послуги та електронні колекції бібліотек

2007-11-15T10:17:00.000-05:00

Just finished an article based on my presentation given during the plenary session of the Intranet/Extranet of Scientific Libraries conference held at Vernadsky National Library in October. The goal of the presentation was to share some experiences using examples of recent projects with which I was involved in Brooklyn. This article will be translated into Ukrainian and published in the library journal supported by the National Library. And maybe even just as exciting I found good Thai food in Kyiv.

Upcoming presentation

2007-11-13T06:40:00.000-05:00

“A Comparative Discussion of Library & Information Science Education in the Ukraine and US”

Speakers: Susan Benz, 2007-08 Fulbright Scholar in Ukraine and Nadiya Strishenets, Fulbright Alumna; Head, Acquisition Center, V. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine

Date and time: November 19, Monday, 14:00
Location: University of Culture & Art 36 Schorsa St., Kyiv Tel.: + 38 044 524-4597

This presentation is part of International Education Week. For more information please contact Fulbright Ukraine.

Workshop in Germany

2007-11-06T08:31:00.000-05:00

Friday I will attend a workshop sponsored by NESTOR (Network of Expertise in Long-Term Storage of Digital Resources). The workshop is entitled, "Trustworthiness and Interoperability of Persistent Identifiers and Resolvers." The workshop will take place at the Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen, Germany.

English Speaking Librarians Club

2007-11-02T08:38:00.001-04:00

Monday will be an English Speaking Librarians club meeting. Meeting information is posted. It is open to all librarians interested in practicing English. I will give a presentation on creating library related blogs.

Ukraine's Future Librarians? A Talk at NaUKMA. And Halloween!

2007-10-31T03:59:00.001-04:00

On Monday I met with Nadiya Strishenets who is Head of the Acquisition Center of V.Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine (exterior photograph to the left).

In celebration of International Education Week, Nadiya and I will give a comparative talk on library education in the US and Ukraine. The discussion will most likely take place in mid-November at the University of Culture & Arts library school department.

Librarians in Ukraine tell me the number one problem is recruiting young talented professionals. Young people simply do not want to become librarians since the salaries are so low. Sounds familiar… well yes but it is even more extreme in Ukraine. I’ve been told that a few years ago the graduating class from the University of Culture & Arts was less than 10 students. That’s shocking. I know there is much talk in the US of the graying of the profession, but in Brooklyn I knew of many intelligent and newly graduated librarians who were struggling to find decent positions.

This afternoon I will give a presentation to library staff here Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (NaUKMA) on the topic of library web services and digital collections. In this talk I give an introduction to the types of projects we worked on at Brooklyn Public while I was there and then I talk about digitization, content management, federated searching, EBooks, EVideo and EMusic. I am eager to find out what questions or comments people may have.

And on a completely unrelated topic, Happy Halloween from Verka Serduchka and friends!

National Parliamentary Library

2007-10-30T11:40:00.000-04:00

Today I visited the National Parliamentary Library because they have a Library Science collection and reading room. I am looking for information related to the experiences of Ukrainian librarians in the 1990s after the Soviet Union dissolved. This was a time of great instability… in some institutions (and to varying degrees) salaries went unpaid, staff members were let go, acquisitions stopped, librarians left the profession for higher paying jobs and training which had previously been offered was stopped.

Librarians, Irina Honchar and Olena Pogrebna were incredibly helpful. I expressed interest in collecting literature and hearing about their experiences. They found several articles and conference proceedings in Ukrainian discussing the problems facing libraries in the 90s. Also Inna Tsurina and Olena Pogrebna spoke to me about their own experiences during this rough period. I've posted photos of my visit.

Digital Divide

2007-10-29T15:13:00.000-04:00

Today a colleague sent me this interesting announcement from the Gates Foundation and ALA which came out this September and relates to my last posting. Public Libraries are Sole Source of Online Employment and Education Information for Millions of Americans: Internet use at public libraries flourishes but technical, financial support lags.

Current "Trends" -- American Libraries

2007-10-28T16:24:00.000-04:00

I’ve been asked by colleagues here in Ukraine to give presentations on current library trends in the US. I don’t know if I should use the word “trends” since it may give the impression that our efforts are fashionable whims. By all means, this is not my intention. Anyways I’ve been giving this some thought and would love other American librarians to weigh in on the conversation. Please let me know of initiatives at your institutions that you feel reflect the national perspective.

I think a good place to start is to look at the vision set forward by our new ALA president Dr. Loriene Roy. It is important to note that Dr. Roy is an accomplished educator. She is a professor of Library & Information Science at The University of Texas at Austin. She is also a Native American and proudly pays tribute to her heritage.

She has set up a number of task forces including: Literacy Task Force; the Supporting Library &Information Science Education Through Practice Task Force; and the Workplace Wellness Task Force. As a keynote speaker, Dr Roy paper delivered her paper entitled, Indigenous Libraries and Innovative Multicultural Services at the IFLA conference in South Africa this past August.

I believe that discussion on the topic of multiculturalism could be helpful and interesting to my Ukrainian colleagues. Many Americans are surprised to find out that Ukraine like America is made up of different groups of people with various heritages. Present day Ukraine includes ethnic Ukrainians, Russians, Poles, Belarusians, Crimean Tatars, Romanians, Hungarians, Armenians, and others. In certain parts of the country the Ukrainian language is more prevalent and in other parts of the country the Russian language is more prevalent. There is tension in regards to language and this tension reflects larger political issues.

I also thought I’d talk about the following:

Web 2.0
Building and maintaining digital libraries and services (of course!)
Information literacy
Library as cultural meeting place
Emphasis on services in addition to collections

Does anyone have other suggestions for capturing the pulse of American libraries? Naturally I’m flipping through my copies of American Libraries and LJ… and reading the OCLC Environmental Scan from 2003.

Escaping Lenin’s library: Library and Information Science education in independent Ukraine

2007-10-25T04:09:00.000-04:00

Anyone interested in Ukrainian libraries and library education should read Escaping Lenin’s library: Library and Information Science education in independent Ukraine by Maria Haigh.

Dr. Haigh provides an historical overview of library services and library education under the Soviet Union and then goes on to examine library trends that developed after Independence and then more recently after the Orange Revolution.

I just want to pull out a few quotes, which I found compelling:

“LIS education has now reached a turning point, as reformers grapple with limited resources, power of inertia and remnants of Soviet culture in their efforts to meet current challenges and prepare a new generation of information professionals”

“In libraries as in the other institutions of Ukrainian society, attempts at bold reform and a decisive break with the Soviet past have struggled against the prevalent culture of passivity and corruption inherited from the Brezhnev era.”

“In the longer term, appropriate education for Ukraine’s librarians will depend on the young nation’s conception of what a library is for. That in turn, must both reflect and shape the efforts of its people to forge a consensus as to what Ukraine will finally be: a liberal European democracy, a loyal satellite, province of an increasingly authoritarian and resurgent Russia, or something different and perhaps unique.”

Thank you Maria Haigh for permitting me to link to your article.

Street Musicians

2007-10-21T16:23:00.000-04:00

One of the great things about Kyiv on the weekends is the number of street musicians.

I’ve forgotten the name of this musical instrument. Kate Reynolds (Fulbright Scholar at Kharkiv Polytechnical Institute) knows… This man was seated outside of St. Sophia.

And these colorful ladies and gentleman were in Podil a very popular area with tourists.

10th Annual Fulbright Alumni Conference, The Ukrainian Project in the 21st Century

2007-10-21T16:13:00.000-04:00

Thursday was Fulbright orientation for scholars and students in Ukraine. It was great to catch up with people and hear about their projects and their experiences. Most people arrived about a month or two ago and a few people just arrived.

On Friday we attended the 10th Annual Fulbright Alumni Conference, The Ukrainian Project in the 21st Century held at Taras Shevchenko National University. Among several notable speakers, the impressive line up included:

William B. Taylor, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine
Myron Stanchiw, Director of the Fulbright Program in Ukraine
Martha Bohachevsky-Chomiak, Director Emerita of the Fulbright Program in Ukraine
Myroslava Antonovych, President of the Ukrainian Fulbright Association

A presentation called, Scholarship in Ukraine: A Perspective with No Future? was depressing but quite interesting. The speaker talked of the corruption in academia and in particular in the sciences and within the National Academy of Science. He held up an advertisement of dissertations for sale and he spoke of people purchasing their credentials and their places within the society. He also illustrated the bleak situation by comparing the state of scientific research in Ukraine to that taking place in Poland or France.

After the conference all attendees were invited to a reception held at the residence of the William B. Taylor the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine. It was naturally an impressive house. It is located in historic Podil not far from Kyiv-Mohyla Academy where I have my office in the American Library. This was a great opportunity to chat with U.S. Embassy staff and Ukrainian former Fulbright scholars while enjoying appetizers and drinks.

Survey of Digitization Projects

2007-10-16T09:00:00.000-04:00

I just came across this Survey of Digitization - Fall 2007 blog which appears to be a class project. It's a survey with a short project description. This will be a helpful in introducing digitization concepts to audiences here in Ukraine.

Mykolaiv Centralized library system for adults

2007-10-16T06:05:00.000-04:00

An interesting program is taking place at the main library of the Mykolaiv Centralized library system for adults in Nikolaeva Ukraine. They are offering services aimed at disabled patrons. They have set up computer stations with software designed for the blind and hearing-impaired In addition they offer a variety of programming and services. This is a progressive program for Ukraine and serves a model. I am curious to learn more.

The program team includes Lubov Varuhina, Svetlana Kubarovskaja, and Elena Nekipelova (pictured in photos with Hanna and myself in the center) . I send a big thank you to Lubov Varuhina the Deputy Director who was kind enough to send me these photos and answer several of my questions.

Why I Like Being a Librarian...

2007-10-11T15:09:00.001-04:00

By the way here's one of the reasons I enjoy my profession. Most librarians have a good sense of humor. Here are a few enjoying themselves at the Alushta Conference banquet dinner.

"Інтранет/Екстранет-ресурси в наукових бібліотеках"

2007-10-11T14:16:00.001-04:00

Tuesday was the plenary session of the Intranet/Extranet of Scientific Libraries conference held Vernadsky National Library. I gave a brief presentation on managing web content in large institutions and creating digital collections. Nadiya Strishenets, Head of the Acquisitions Center at Vernadsky translated for me. It was a large audience, maybe 200 people. I believe the presentation went well because all talking stopped and people appeared to be engaged. This was not the case during most presentations. One cultural difference I have noticed is that here it is common to take a phone call or talk to your neighbor during conference presentations. People are not loud or disruptive, however their attention is clearly otherwise occupied. The conference was videotaped and there were many people taking photographs. I was sorry to have not brought my camera as the lecture hall was quite striking. An ESBCO representative gave a presentation (the same rep who attended the Alushta conference last week -- very impressive she is Polish and speaks Russian, German, English and perhaps other foreign languages), as did a few other foreign guests from Belarus and Russia.

After the plenary session, there was a press conference held in an exhibition area. The Russian government is donating a good number of contemporary books on an ongoing basis to Vernadsky and overtime a significant collection of Russian literature, encyclopedias and scientific writings, will be developed. This is quite remarkable because as I mentioned in past postings, with the end of the Soviet Union there was a disruption in the national library book supply. The Russian Ambassador to Ukraine spoke Ukrainian and was enthusiastic about the new agreement. The books recently donated were on display. A bank (didn’t catch the name) is also supporting this project and the representative also said a few words. Vernadsky also houses an Iranian collection and an Austrian collection. Both of these collections are found in their own reading rooms. Nadiya and I visited the Austrian reading room and I was impressed by the breadth of the collection and the very articulate and hospitable German speaking librarian at the reference desk. The collection is supported by the Austrian government. The reading room was empty. He informed me that many of his readers are students or professors in German studies or they are diplomats. It seems that most patrons of this collection simply check books out, but do not linger. Unfortunately we ran out of time and I did not have a chance to visit the Iranian reading room (supported by the Iranian government).

Vernadsky also generously hosted a reception for library directors and foreign guests later that afternoon. It was quite enjoyable, but after two hours of toasting I probably drank too much red wine because I got lost on my way back to the subway. The neighborhood is torn up by road construction and not easy to navigate.

Alushta Conference, Crimea -- "Інформатіо-Консорціум"

2007-10-10T08:25:00.000-04:00

Crimea is a fascinating area! It is well known for castles, cliffs, the Black Sea, and wine. The population for the most part is Russian speaking. I saw many t-shirts, novelties and restaurants/clubs featuring Soviet themes, more so than I’ve noticed in Kyiv.

I presented at a conference held in Alushta and it seemed to go well. A number of people approached me afterwards and expressed interest in following up later. For example, I had an interesting conversation with the library director of Rivne. She would like me to visit and advise them on their digitization project (rare books). Hanna Voskresenska (pictured to my left) graciously translated to Ukrainian for me. Most presentations were given in Russian.

A number of vendors gave presentations the first day such as Springer Verlag, EBSCO and Elsevier.

I also had a chance to chat informally with several Ukrainian colleagues. Lately I’ve been more and more intrigued by what the librarians tell me about their work following the demise of the Soviet Union. Imagine suddenly, the funding stops and there is no or very little money for salaries. The Ukrainian government did step in, but from what I understand they were only able to offer about up to half (if your institution was lucky) of what was provided under USSR. Suddenly acquisitions that were coming from other Soviet countries were stopped or now had to be paid for with Ukrainian government funds and training programs were halted. I’d like to know more about this so I’m putting together a short list of questions to send to contacts that I’ve made. I’m hoping my contacts are willing to share their stories with me.

The director of Kyiv’s public library system asked me how people living in Brooklyn get a library card and I had responded that an ID plus proof of residence in Brooklyn such as a piece of mail like a bill. She was curious how we collect fines since this is a real problem for her system. She said many people do not return materials and then they move.

It seems there are two library schools in Kyiv. In one of the recent year of classes there were only a total of five students! The person who told me this asked who wants to become a librarian when the average pay is only about 100-150 dollars a month even in the capital. Yikes!

Alushta is a resort town which has its charm, but is rough around the edges. The conference hotel was more of a hostel with very basic amenities and no hot water the last two days that we stayed. There was a canteen in which breakfast, lunch and dinner was offered and included in the price of board. This was quite convenient, but after a few days of their cafeteria cooking e.g. mystery meat, I was ready to sample the local restaurants. One of the more interesting meals was one in a Tatar café. It was not indoors, but rather under an overhang of grapes and some type of siding. Their specialty was a deep fried pie with either cheese, meat or a combination of the two with tomatoes. It was much taster than it sounds. They also made great soup. This was not a trip for vegetarians, sorry.

Hanna and I made a trip to Yalta on Saturday. We had a chance to spend some time on the beach. She swam and I got sunburn. And we had a great lunch of shashlik (shish kebab) with sweet red onions (specialty in Crimea). Yalta and its surrounding area is gorgeous with cliffs, vineyards, and the Black Sea. It is also upscale and draws an international crowd. Hanna and I ended our visit with a boat trip up the Black Sea to Alushta. The view was amazing and so naturally my camera stopped working.

I hope to post a slideshow of photographs from this trip early next week.

Today is Election Day!

2007-09-30T05:21:00.000-04:00

Yes today is election day in Ukraine!

Over the past few weeks, I’ve seen some pretty interesting scenes such as basketball courts set up on one of the main avenues (Kreshatik) promoting Prime Minister Yanukovich’s’s party, the Party of Regions and folk dancing promoting Yulia Tymoshenko's party.

Ukrayinska Pravda is a good source for information on Ukrainian politics and it is available in English.

2007-09-30T04:35:00.000-04:00

The photograph is of the entrance to the building that houses the American Library of NaUKMA -- the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (location I've been working from). The building is currently under repair. The courtyard is usually filled with students as the many of the classrooms are located in this area as is the cafeteria.

Unfortunately this week I was hit with a nasty sinus infection that quickly turned into a worse case of bronchitis. Because of this I missed a presentation on Web 2.0 technologies and their use in American libraries given by Laura Kaspari Hohmann (US Embassy, International Affairs: Warsaw, Poland). I also missed the opportunity to give my planned presentation on managing web content and digital collections for the NaUKMA library staff. This presentation will be rescheduled.

In the meantime, I have been working on an example blog for the English Speaking Librarians Club of Kyiv. Before coming here, I searched for information about this group on the web and found outdated information. I think this group could really benefit by using a blog to post upcoming events and meetings as well as share ideas and information resources. I plan to provide instruction on how to use Blogger. This is an easy tool and the interface is available in Ukrainian.

Tomorrow I will take a 19 hour train ride and arrive Tuesday morning in Simferopol, the capital of Crimea. Here I will catch a bus to Alushta. According to Bradt’s Travel Guide,
'Alushta is Yalta’s biggest competition and offers the same seaside amusements with less bawdiness, lower prices, and more green." Sound pretty nice.

The conference in Alushta "Інформатіо-Консорціум" translates to "Electronic Information Resources Design, Use and Access." I will have the opportunity to give a short presentation. A special thanks to Георгий Тихий (George) and Hanna Voskresenka for translating my slide notes from English into Ukrainian.

Vernadsky National Library

2007-09-20T03:20:00.000-04:00

On Monday I made my first visit to V. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine and met with Nadiya Strishenets the Head of the Acquisitions Center.

A former Fulbrighter as well, Nadiya speaks fluent English and was quite generous with her time, despite her obviously demanding schedule and large responsibility. Her staff is approximately 45 persons who process and distribute an enormous number of books throughout Ukraine. On our tour, she took me to a room where books are piled everywhere. There are 5 people sitting at desks in this small space next to the books and their job is to input records for each book coming in from publishers. I can’t imagine that they will ever get to the bottom of that pile since every day they receive more! Ukrainian publishers by law are to send two copies of all that is published to Vernadsky as well as other national libraries. If I understand correctly, Ukraine has 3 national libraries. As a result, Nadiya said that sometimes two copies are received, sometimes one, and quite often none. I asked her if she had compared the scenario with the Library of Congress and she said yes and that LC has an efficient solution. By situating the copyright office within the national library, publishers are forced to send copies to the LC in order to obtain copyright. Also in the US there is one national library system, the Library of Congress. From what I am hearing from librarians here, the separation of these various national libraries leads to various problems of access and inconsistency. Another point of interest is that there has not yet been retrospective conversion of the card catalog. One very large room houses the staff card catalogs. The public card catalogs are found in the reading rooms. Electronic records are produced now of course for materials presently coming into the library.

In early October, I am invited to speak in at two conferences. One will take place in Alushta (Алушта) in Crimea and a few days later one will take place at Vernadsky. The Crimean conference "Інформатіо-Консорціум" is translated as "Electronic Information Resources Design, Use and Access." The Vernadsky conference is called "Інтранет/Екстранет-ресурси в наукових бібліотеках" and centers around "Intranet/Extranet" library web technologies in the aid of scientific research. Ms. Strishenets who extended the invitation to speak at Vernadsky said she is particularly interested in hearing about my experiences related to digitization. Unfortunately I will only have approximately 15 minutes to do this and we will have to discuss further what will be of interest to the audience which I can cover in the amounted time and leaving time for translation. The same is true for the conference in Crimea. I am presently working on my slides -- "Мережеві послуги Бібліотек та електронні зібрання."

In addition Ms. Strishenets has asked me to coordinate meetings for the English Speaking Librarians Club. I plan to get the ball rolling in November with a meeting held at the American Library. This will offer opportunity for them to practice their English language skills and opportunity for me to gather information from colleagues about changes in workflow, budgets, staffing etc since the dissolving of the Soviet Union as well as the impact of the Orange Revolution on libraries. Bits and pieces of conversations that I’ve had in the few last days have piqued my interest and curiosity.

It was an adventure to even to reach Vernadsky. I took the subway out to Lubyiskaya and then looked for either a trolley or bus to take me there but outside of the subway was complete chaos. People were pushing past me and there was a mass of buses and trolleys none even close to the numbers I was seeking. I noticed a couple of tough-looking older men smoking cigarettes and talking trash next to taxis. I approached them with my meager Russian language skills. For 25 UAH or the equivalent of $5 (a price for an obvious foreigner) I enjoyed quite a ride. Traffic wasn’t moving and the road was torn up from construction, so my driver drove up onto the sidewalk and to hell with pedestrians. As he pulled into the driveway to Vernadsky he said something jokingly to me and pointed the torn up, unpaved front walkway that leads up to stairs and a monumental plaza. Getting past the staff in order to meet with Nadiya was also not easy. The information person sitting behind Plexiglas would not assist me in calling Ms. Strishenets to announce my arrival even after I explained in Russian that we were scheduled to meet. Instead she insisted that I fill out a form for a reader’s card, which I was unable to fully decipher. Luckily I was able to reach someone in Ms. Strishenets’ department on my cell phone and ask for assistance.

September 12th Kyiv Ukraine

2007-09-12T03:56:00.001-04:00

As of yesterday it has been two weeks since my arrival into Borispol airport. It is hard to believe that it has only been two weeks as it seems like I’m already entrenched in my work and getting to know my colleagues.

August 30th, forty-eight hours after landing, I headed over to the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy (NaUKMA). Tetiana Yaroshenko the University Librarian greeted me and gave me the grand tour. They recently renovated the main library building. The beautiful new building has two very nicely outfitted reading rooms complete with open stacks, computer terminals for OPAC and internet access as well as an art exhibit. She introduced me to a number of people including the head of development and a colleague in the international affairs office.

On this day I also had the pleasure of meeting the two professional librarians of the American Library of NaUKMA. It is here in this particular library, that I have office space. The director, Hanna Voskresenska speaks fluent English and has a very good understanding of American library systems and current trends. In addition she has completed several professional training courses held at the Library of Congress. Her assistant, Oksana Shariy, is also an impressive person and quite frank about her opinions. I appreciate this quality. She is a former school teacher. The American Library hosts a Friday movie evening program which is supported by the American Embassy. Last week I attended to watch Napoleon Dynamite. The students were intrigued as Ryan Koch, Deputy Press Attaché from the Public Affairs Section, explained and offered tater tots.

Also on August 30th I attended part of the last day of a conference held at the National Library of Medicine. The conference centered on documenting national policy and procedures to be adopted by Ukrainian libraries, archives and museums in relation to preservation and conservation of collections. Myron O. Stachiw, the head of Fulbright Ukraine, introduced me to the audience and I gave a small introduction to my project. Directly following the discussion of policy and procedures, two opera singers gave incredible performances. I was in the very first row and only a few feet away as they belted out Ukrainian love songs followed by Italian arias. This was a most creative end to a conference! And then just when I thought it could not get better, they announced that the reception was in the next room. There was white and red wine from Crimea as well as bread & cold cuts, salmon and olives. I circulated and met several colleagues from libraries throughout Ukraine. Several library directors enthusiastically invited me to visit and to spend time with their staff. Unfortunately there was a language barrier as my Ukrainian language skills are practically null and my Russian language skills are basic. I do plan to travel to several of these libraries to give presentations on digital libraries and will clearly need translation services.

Tetiana Yaroshenko graciously invited me to the celebration of the new semester, which took place August 31st. This celebration had great meaning since the University President stepped down and the new one was greeted. There was a ceremony in the square with dancing and a parade of students. Afterwards there was a smaller reception for the university elite. Here Tetiana introduced me to many interesting people including the head of the computer center, the web master, heads of departments and professors, the vice president of the university, the former president and the new university president. It was an impressive spread of food, wine and vodka. A very nice way to meet everyone!

Now with an Internet connection at NaUMKA, I have been working on my presentation to all library staff scheduled for September 28th. It will be an hour introduction to web content management and digitization. It is barely enough time to scratch the surface so I will just talk about projects and the approaches that were taken at Brooklyn Public Library. Today I went over my slides with Hanna. Her questions were insightful and only affirmed my suspicion that I will need to prepare further presentations to go into more detail as time goes on. I will let the librarians guide me as to which areas they’d like to explore in more depth.

If all goes as planned a student will prepare a translation of my notes into Ukrainian and Hanna will edit this translation. It will be quite interesting to hash out the translation of jargon related to digitization and Internet technologies.

Сьюзен Бенз

Photographs of Kyiv

2007-09-11T05:08:00.000-04:00

Here are some photos of Podil, Kyiv-Mohyla, St. Sophia etc.

Helpful Librarians

2007-08-24T22:57:00.000-04:00

In the past few weeks I have met with some interesting and helpful Slavic librarians in New York: Diana Greene, Librarian for Slavic Studies New York University; Lyudmila Shpilevaya Cataloger, New York Public Library and Volunteer Librarian for the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in the United States; and Edward Kasenic, Chief of the Slavic and Baltic Division New York Public Library.

These specialists were extremely generous with their time and advice. I am impressed with their knowledge and experience. I realize how much I have to learn about Ukraine and Ukrainian librarianship and I thank these folks for taking the time to talk to me.

I also spoke on the phone with Gentry Holbert, former Fulbrighter who in 2001 had spent 10 months working alongside librarians at Vernadsky National Library. Her background was also web related and she helped the Verdnasky librarians with electronic resources. She gave this plenary speech at the International Scientific Conference in Library-Information Service at V. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine on October 9, 2001. Gentry was extremely helpful and was also able to send me suggestions for organizations which I should join (like the English Speaking Librarians Group that I was wondering about).

Selecting and Managing Electronic Resources

2007-08-03T14:55:00.000-04:00

I'm skimming through the first chapter of Selecting and Managing Electronic Resources by Vicki L. Gregory and Ardis Hanson.

Notes on Collection Development Policies are as follows:

Starts out by making the point that traditional collection managment policies also appy to electroonic resources -- describe users, criteria & guidelines, identify selection tools and guidelines for use for that particular library, define process for wedding, cancellation, storage and replacement of materials; establish who is responsible for what, guidelines for dealing with gifts; guidelines for dealing with complaints, framework for decisions concerning access, space allocations, budgeting and fundraising priorities; identify strengths of the collection etc.

However additional and unique concerns include:
cancellation or retention of print resources when electronic versions become available; limitations on remote access to certain electronic resources, justification of new costs; possible duplication of certain e-journals and databases due to vendor bundles; negotiation of licenses; preservation/long-term access; meeting technical requirments/library infrastructure; cancellations; performance questions; training of staff and users; cooperative collect dev issues such as interlibrary loan.

English-Speaking Librarians' Club of the Ukrainian Library Association

2007-07-02T13:38:00.000-04:00

I found a citation for an article from 2002 about an English-speaking librarian club that appears to have met at the Lesya Ukrainka Public Library in Kyiv. Unfortunately I seem unable to get to the full-text of this article, but I am very curious.

Barrett, G. J., et. al., The English-Speaking Librarians' Club of the Ukrainian Library Association [computer file]. E-JASL: The Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship v. 3 no. 1/2 (Winter 2002) p. 1

NPNP

2007-06-08T14:45:00.000-04:00

Today I was fooling around with Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers (BETA). I have to say that the user interface it at first a bit daunting, but after awhile I find that I do enjoy certain features such as the "Thumbnail View" of items retrieved which looks to me much more like medium size delivery images view. They are also utilizing highlighting on word hits but have picked out a strange pinkish orange. I like the use of bread crumbs. It says that searches are saved but I don't see where you can view previous searches...
I need to keep playing with this. But this is indeed a project to watch.

Why am I going to Kyiv?

2007-06-07T11:47:00.000-04:00

I have been awarded a ten-month Fulbright grant from September 1, 2007 through June 2008. I will divide my time between the National Library (Vernadsky Library) and the National University (Kyiv Mohyla Academy).

The scope of my proposal is lecturing on digital libraries and investigating Ukrainian initiatives. I have been invited to work on their E-Library Project, which involves managing electronic resources.

This was a competitive process for which I submitted an application and proposal in fall 2006.

Libraries of Tomorrow -- Ukraine

Follow-Up Project: May 2010

Vernadsky National Scientific Library, Acquisitions Department

National Parliamentary Library, Rare Book Digitization

Міська спеціалізована молодіжна бібліотека «Молода гвардія»

Fifteenth Jubilee International Conference “Crimea 2008”

"Ukrainian Libraries through the Eyes of an American Librarian"

Crimea!!!

Харьковского национального университета радиоэлектроники

Digitization in the News

Харьков / Харків

Information Literacy

Ukrainian Catholic University

Центральна бібліотека імені М. Горького ЦБС міста Костянтинівка

Donetsk Visit

Donetsk Regional Scientific Library

Being Proactive

Бібліотека і книга в контексті часу

Vernadsky National Scientific Library

English Conversation Group

Thoughts about Library Websites

Sevastopol Technical University

библиотеки СевНТУ

Correlation Between Use of Libraries, Museums and the Internet

LIS Education in the US

English Conversation Group

Global Libraries -- IREX in Ukraine

Holodomor – Genocide 1932-33: Politics and Memory

English Speaking Librarians Club of Kyiv

Upcoming meeting and photography opening at NaUKMA

Планування та управління проектами з оцифровки

Оцифровування історичних газет

Librarian is one of the best careers of 2008!

The Importance of Mentoring Library and Information Science Students

Upcoming workshop!

On the mend...

English Speaking Librarians Club

Digital Library Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired

English Speaking Librarians Club of Kyiv

Pig lard humor

Планування та управління проектами з оцифровки

Visit to Lviv / Львів

After the holidays...

American Library of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy

English Speaking Librarians Club of Kyiv

Digitizing Historic Newspaper -- Book Chamber of Ukraine

Vinnytisa Institute of Trade and Economics

More presentations...

Digital Library presentations at the Crimean University for Humanities in Yalta

Крымского гуманитарного университета

ALA accreditation

Мережеві послуги та електронні колекції бібліотек

Upcoming presentation

Workshop in Germany

English Speaking Librarians Club

Ukraine's Future Librarians? A Talk at NaUKMA. And Halloween!

National Parliamentary Library

Digital Divide

Current "Trends" -- American Libraries

Escaping Lenin’s library: Library and Information Science education in independent Ukraine

Street Musicians

10th Annual Fulbright Alumni Conference, The Ukrainian Project in the 21st Century

Survey of Digitization Projects

Mykolaiv Centralized library system for adults

Why I Like Being a Librarian...

"Інтранет/Екстранет-ресурси в наукових бібліотеках"

Alushta Conference, Crimea -- "Інформатіо-Консорціум"

Today is Election Day!

Vernadsky National Library

September 12th Kyiv Ukraine

Photographs of Kyiv

Helpful Librarians

Selecting and Managing Electronic Resources

English-Speaking Librarians' Club of the Ukrainian Library Association

NPNP

Why am I going to Kyiv?