Official actions
Russian librarians host idea exchange in Vologda
25.03.2008 15:11
American Libraries/ Sep 1996/ by James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress
In the turmoil that has followed the 1991 demise of the Soviet Union, Russian librarians have gained unprecedented freedom and have been beset by daunting financial and organizational crises as well. These realities were repeatedly cited during a June 18-22 conference on "Libraries and Reading in Times of Cultural Change" in picturesque Vologda, an overnight train ride north from Moscow. This meeting gave a group of American, Russian, British, and French librarians, scholars, and administrators a chance to exchange ideas and some interesting research results.
Several phenomena that seldom make it into U.S. media coverage of Russia made strong impressions:
- How the Russian people in this "time of troubles" are rediscovering both their previously censored literary classics and the religious roots of their culture. Ekaterina Genieva, the energetic second vice-chair of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), contributed an important paper describing the interest of young people in the new reading room for religious literature of all sorts that she has established in the Library of Foreign Literature in Moscow.
- The vital role that libraries and active librarians in Russia have played since 1991 in supporting the development of democracy and the spirit of openness. In no small measure, this is a direct result of the innovative leadership of Evgeny Kuzmin, director of libraries in the Russian Ministry of Culture, who observed that "if democratic Russia survives, we shall have excellent libraries... The future of Russian libraries and their progress depends on the future stability of the Russian nation."
How strong the Russians are in field research about tastes in reading. For example, Valeria Stelmakh, of the Russian State Library, reported that since the Soviet era Russians have nearly abandoned the old mass ideological literature, such as heroic novels about the working class and collective farmers. A small but significant demand has grown for useful books - business, law, foreign languages - as well as an even larger demand for once-forbidden books on religion and philosophy, including the Eastern religions.
During the Soviet period, Stelmakh noted, serious literature acted as practically the only bearer of true information and moral commandments, and reading ranked first in cultural prestige. Now, she said, reading is no longer "a token of high culture"; it has become an "optional" activity, along with TV viewing and gardening. There is now a strong demand for "light" fare - crime novels, romance, science fiction, historical novels - titles published in all these genres have multiplied by factors of 15 to 25% since 1985. Such titles constitute a majority of the requests for books by patrons of Russian public libraries. The new Russian Center for Public Opinion Research is helping librarians measure such trends through polling.
- Opportunities for continuing international cooperation. It was encouraging, for example, to see how many joint efforts had occurred since an October 1991 conference held in Moscow by the Library of Congress and the Russian State Library. Plans are being made by conference organizers to sustain the momentum through more personal exchanges and possibly a follow-up conference in the U.S.
Librarians in both countries share many of the same professional values and concerns. Our local host was the dynamic director of the Vologda Public Library, Nelli Belova. She has been a Soros fellow in the Library of Congress and also spent time working with Marianna Taxholdin at the University of Illinois / Urbana Champaign Library. More exchanges of this kind are clearly needed in the future. On a personal level I was pleased to have the opportunity to discuss ways of increasing cooperation between the Library of Congress and ALA with ALA immediate past president Betty Turock, who also journeyed to Vologda for the conference. I was also glad to see again our old friend Vladimir Zaitsev, director of the Russian National Library and president of the newly reorganized Russian Library Association. It was no less gratifying to find that conversations begun in Vologda among the three of us could continue easily at the ALA Annual Conference in New York three weeks later.
In the end, I left Vologda filled with hope and admiration, inspired by the enthusiasm of our Russian colleagues and by a choir that sang "We Shall Overcome" (in English) at a concert staged by our hosts in a beautiful newly restored monastic church.
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