Dudutki Belarusian Authentic Village

July 3rd, 2009 by plum

On Sunday, abandoning the powerpoint, I went on a road trip.   Alexey Skalaban - Director of the Belarusian National Technical University Scientific Library, Andrea of Ebsco in Belarus, Piotr Lapo, and myself headed out to Dudutki Belarusian Authentic Village, located about 35km south of Minsk.   There were four large guys in a lada.

We arrived to find an original windmill for grinding grain, an open-air museum, and a working farm, recreating life in the 18th and 19th century.   We toured around the facilities, observing craftsmen making horseshoes, whistles, and other items.   I was given a horseshoe, made on demand, and gave a quick nod to Allen Smith, beloved, departed GSLIS faculty member and farrier.   A local drink is distilled on the premises, and we toasted good health to each other.   It made the vodka at lunch seem mild.   Lunch was excellent, both in food and in conversation.   Where else could you have a spirited conversation about the relative merits of eIFL v. Ebsco’s consortial pricing for VirLib, the consortium organized by the National Library of Belarus, while sitting in a lovely restaurant in a working farm in the country.   The Belarusian Library Association had set up BelLibNet, giving access to a number of university libraries to 7,500 ejournals in social, economic, humanities, natural, technical and medical sciences.   For organizational reasons, the consortium had been reconstituted as VirLib under the National Library of Belarus.   I am a strong supporter of eIFL and its competitor, INASP PERII, and was deeply engaged in this discussion.

We drove back to Minsk, leaving the resolution of consortial access for another day, although the conversation shifted to Russian, so the problem may have been solved without my knowledge.   I attended an interesting jazz performance that evening.  Evgeniy Vladimirov’s Jazz Club lies under the Palace of the Republic in Oktyabrskaya (formerly Central) Square on Nyezhavizhimosty (formerly Francyska Skoriny) Avenue.   Nyezhavizhimosty Avenue is a wonderful, wide street that apparently connects Brest to Moscow. During WWII (the Great Patriotic War) Minsk was occupied for 1,100 days by the Nazis.   Of the 825 major building on this street at the time of the German invasion, only some 80 survived when the Red Army came back through on the way to wreak vengeance on Germany to the west.   The city has been entirely rebuilt, and it is spectacular.   The streets are filled with people walking. Promenaders walk up and down, often hand in hand.  The custom is to dress well at all times, and the young look stylish.  I walked to the Jazz Club, followed the chic patrons to the unobvious door, and had a wonderful evening sitting with a Norwegian family; the mother was in Belarus teaching English.

I returned to the hotel.   It is a well-known fact among faculty, that given time and a little encouragement, powerpoint slides will self-organize into coherent lectures without intervention, even creating the missing transitions.   Counting on this phenomenon, similar to the process of the self-organizing molecules that created organic life, I went to bed, in anticipation of giving two brilliant lectures that I hadn’t yet seen.


Piotr, Andrea, Alexey, and the Dudutki guide, on a break.


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Arrival in Minsk, Belarus

July 3rd, 2009 by plum

On June 27 I went to Minsk, Belarus, to speak to the university and national Belarusian librarians in Minsk about library assessment. This opportunity came through the Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP) of the US Department of State and is part of the US Speaker Program. It was at the invitation of the Belarusian Library Association, the Belarusian State Fundamental University Library, and Piotr Lapo, director of the library.

The purpose of this program is for the professional development of senior Belarus library specialists and to enhance their knowledge of national and international standards and practices. The presentations cover evaluation and measurement of the academic libraries performance. The overall goal is to support more effective management and use of information technology in Belarus libraries to better serve patrons and enhance their access to diverse and independent sources of information. Seven separate presentations on assessment, evaluation, and performance measures are planned for IT specialists, library school faculty and students, the staff for the National Library of Belarus, the Belarusian Library Association Council, and university librarians.

The US Speaker Program of the IIP organizes American experts and citizens to meet directly with foreign publics to promote understanding of U.S. culture, institutions and policies through lectures, workshops and seminars. http://www.state.gov/r/iip/programs/index.htm
I have been on this speaker program before, as have several GSLIS faculty, and I find it very constructive. In my view, it is not political.

Onsite, the visit is coordinated by Marina Shubina, Information Resource Center Director, and her staff; Violetta Vutsans, Information Resource Center Assistant and Nadya Skorobogataya. As the website for the IRC states, the Information Resource Center (IRC) is the research and reference service of the U.S. Embassy in Belarus. It aims to support all programs of the U.S. Mission in Belarus by providing current and authoritative information on the United States and the issues of importance to U.S.-Belarus relations. http://minsk.usembassy.gov/irc.html. The IRC provides information support for all programs of the US Mission in Belarus. It also provides reference and research service to the Belarusian community.

I arrived in Minsk from Frankfurt on Saturday, July 27, was picked up and checked into the Hotel Minsk on Nyezhavizhimosty Avenue, the main street in Minsk, which has been renamed several times recently. In the evening, I am briefed by Piotr Lapo, which was extremely useful. I started re-doing my powerpoint.

Terry Plum

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Humboldt Universitaet

March 14th, 2009 by admin

Hi all,

On Tuesday afternoon, 10. March 2009, I visited with Herr Eigenbrodt at Humboldt University. Herr Eigenbrodt is the Building Consultant and Public Relations Officer of the Humboldt University Libraries. I was able to talk with him about many things, the most interesting of which is the construction of a new central library that is scheduled to open this coming summer.

In opening this new library, Humboldt will be consolidating its main collection with several of its branch libraries. I was lucky enough to see the exterior of the new structure as well as plans for the interior. The space has been planned very elegantly with group study rooms, computers, and more secluded areas for people looking for quiet.

I had been hearing about the increase in students bringing their own laptops to the library as opposed to using the provided computers. When asked about the amount of computers scheduled to be installed in the new library, Herr Eigenbrodt informed me that the libraries had been keeping close tabs on this situation. The original plans were to have 800 computers available for the students and public. They decided to drop this amount to approximately 600.

Because I had already found out that the FU Philology Library had not planned room for collection expansion, I asked what the plans were for the new Humboldt Library. They are planning for up to 10 years of expansion.

During this visit, I was also given a tour of one of Humboldt’s branch libraries. The Theological Library is located just across the Spree River. As we walked through the reference collection one book caught my eye. It was the German version of ‘Who is Who’.

I also asked about the possibility of job opportunities for Americans in German libraries. It seems that there are some jobs available, though it helps to have a niche that not many others are in. One in particular is contract negotiations between libraries and vendors.

All in all this was a fantastic trip. If you any questions for me, please feel free to email at:
jeremy.shawmunderback@simmons.edu

Thanks,

Jeremy

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Freie Universitaet Philologische Bibliothek

March 10th, 2009 by admin

Hallo everyone,

This morning I ventured back to the Freie Universitaet, this time to the Philology Library to speak with Frau Diecks. Because it is primarily a faculty library, there were slightly different topics discussed as compared to the Main Library.

The library building itself is fairly new and it is an amazing work of architecture. Because of the layout of the campus, when planning began, the architect was told that the library would have to fit into the courtyard. He came up with a dome shape with 5 levels, one below ground. Each floor comes near to the dome but never touches. The edges of each floor are lined by thin tables to maximize the number of students can use the space. The middle of each floor holds the stacks.

This may have you wondering…’What about group study spaces?’ Amazingly, there is only one group study room. It is located on the way out of the library through a basement tunnel. In the mid 90’s, when the library was being planned, group space was not as popular as it is in the present day.

This being said, the library is still one of the most used on campus. Many students prefer it to the main library. This led to some problems during the weeks prior to exams. Because all of the Philology students would be studying, there would not be enough room for others to come in. Although it caused some political challenges, the library decided to close the library to outsiders during these busy weeks in order to better serve their main user group.

The library was planned to only hold the current number of volumes. This, of course, means that when the school wants to develop the collection it must first weed it. There are actually some student volunteers that help the library weed the collection. They then hold a book sale, the profits of which are used to buy books that are of interest of the students. This is a change, because it is usually faculty who shape the direction of the collection development.

I found that the biggest downside to the library was that the shape of the dome accentuates noise levels. Therefore, if you talk on one side, you can be heard nearly everywhere. This makes the library a great place to read or work alone, but any type of collaboration is hard without being disruptive.

More to follow,

Jeremy

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Freie Universitaet Bibliothek

March 9th, 2009 by admin

Guten Tag von Berlin!

I just returned from a meeting with Frau Dr. Rothe and Herr Dr. van Capelleveen of the Main Library of the Free University (FU) of Berlin. We talked at length about the management of the library, intellectual freedom, classification, and more. Read on to see what I learned!

The first thing I questioned was the way intellectual freedom is handled. From prior knowledge, I knew that certain controversial works were given special treatment in the libraries. I asked about works, such as Mein Kampf, and was told that the FU library was on the liberal end of the spectrum here in Germany. At this library, these types of works are held in the rare books collection so that they are accessible to all, but they are not allowed out of the library. This is to prevent them from disappearing, either to people opposed to the work or the Neo-Nazi movement wanting to keep the copy. Not all of the books held in this fashion have to do with the Nazi movement. This treatment is of all controversial works, one example of a recent addition to the collection was about the Armenian Genocide.

The classification system of the library is somewhat different than the US. However, the Universities do use a standard similar to AACR2. Librarians here were considering a more international friendly system, but because AACR2 is already quite old, they have decided to wait until the next system is agreed upon.

The management of the library is very similar to the states. The Director reports to the President and the Chancellor of the University. The President is the person who looks at the political aspects of the system while the Chancellor manages the financial information. The department heads then report to the Director.

Of course the discussion turned also to politics, the economy, and the University system as a whole. Because attending University in Germany is virtually free (fees for students go toward insurance, public transit passes, etc. and usually are not more than 1000E per year), the majority of money the University receives is from taxes. There are also very few grants available, especially when compared to the US. Unfortunately, much like the US, the funding for the library has been continually declining. A joke shared between us was that the only numbers going up were those for Inter-Library Loan statistics.

Amazingly, Inter-Library Loan is quite wide (the University can borrow from any other in Germany) and is free. Because the University is funded by taxes, there is no charge for non-students either. This may change in the future, but the numbers discussed were less than 2E per request.

We also discussed electronic information (journals, databases, etc). The Main Library at FU has about 500 databases and has access to thousands of journals. They also have access to some E-Books, but there is less want for this because the majority are in English. Also, most of the faculty prefer journals for the speed in which they are published.

Anyway, that is all for now…I am off for a little bit of wandering!

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My experience in India

February 9th, 2009 by admin

This is the final post from Thana, an Iraqi colleague who has shared in several training programs run by Simmons. She was recently in Chennai (formerly called Madras), India on a six-week training program. She writes:

I want to say thanks to the NITTTR for holding this training program and also thanks to our coordinator Dr. Ravichandran.

I am lucky to have had this opportunity, and me and my colleagues got a lot from this training. I found the lectures and the training practical and visiting many libraries very useful. I also learned a lot from the teaching skills of our Indian teachers - they are excellent, and they are wise, modest people, easy to touch your brain and heart.

I appreciate that Indian ladies taught me to be more patient in life. I always said no woman worked hard like Iraqi women - for many years we hold big responsibility at home and at work…but now I am sure Indian women do more and more.

I loved to see a church and next to it there is a mosque then a temple, and all people live safely with each other without any fanaticism.

Another important thing is that my language became better because I kept speaking English for all 2 months, and I am so glad to have 26 friend from many countries - I loved them and they taught me also so many things.

Avelina from Philippines was the oldest age among us, but she was the youngest one in her spirit and heart. She woke up early morning at 4am to do her sport run round the institute, and each day she went to church and when back she woke us up with red flowers for each one. She is wonderful grandmother librarian.

Moe Min Than from Myanmar is a nice young lady. She had a hard time to speak English but she tried to learn more and more and we loved always when she said “no good” when she meant not good. She loved dancing and she brought the joy and happiness to the training group. Really, all the Myanmar group’s 6 trainers are wonderful people - I didn’t know anything about this country and now I have 6 friends from it. I miss them a lot.

Some of my colleagues in training are members in IFLA and they encourage me to be a member. I am sure it is necessary for me to be …so I will be.

Finally, I want to say bye my wonderful friends and I hope to meet you again - good luck for everybody andhope that 2009 will bring all joy and good future for all the training group!

Thanks to my friends Annam, Ibrahim, Yugni, Bahia, Reem, Joseph, Nasta, Mory, Avelina, Aung Naing, Moe, Bavunndorj, Dev i, Gholam, Khtoibu, Kebaenesh, Kennedy, Khin win, Moise, Mabakuena, Mildred, Moe Min Than, Mohammed, Muborak, Nilifar, Thida, Thuzar.

Thanks for reading my blog… I hope you enjoyed it.

Regards,
Thana

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The Last week in Chennai (Madras)

February 9th, 2009 by admin

We spent 2 days vacation, the 6th Saturday & 7th Sunday very busy between working hard to finish our projects and trying to finish shopping for family.

Also, while we feel this is the last week for us to be together, we spent a lot of time working in computer room and downloading our photos and exchanging them … sometime we kept chatting and drinking tea & coffee till 3 or 4 am.

At Monday 8th we went to class as usual and at 9:30 we found books in lib & info sci for us to buy. The institute give us 1000 Rupies to buy books. They also gave another 1 thousand Rupies to print and bind our project and to also buy a removable disk.

Then Dr. Ravi checked our projects before printing and gave us some notes to do - some of us was have problems in English language so we helped them in their projects.

8th Dec. was the 1st day feast (Eid) for Muslims. We called our family for congratulations, then we kept busy.

Tuesday 9th Dec. it was vacation in India for Muslim Eid, so we used it to go outside for lunch, then shopping and then print our projects.

Wednesday 10th Dec. we took a photo of all the group with the coordinator close to the name of institute INTTTR, then went to class for project presentations.

Thursday 11th Dec. it was the last day for us, and we went to get our certificates.

It was a wonderful day. At this time I felt happy & sad at the same time, happy that we will be back home soon and we get certificate from (INTTTR), and sad that we leave nice people we know in India and our new friends from many countries.

The head of the institute and our coordinator give a speech first, then they allowed us to say what we want to say about this training program. 1st we nominate Joseph from Uganda to speak specially his English language is excellent. Then Yugni from Fiji Island talked briefly, then I did my speech. I thanked the institute & our coordinator and said that I found this training program very interesting for me as a teacher also as specialist in library & information science.

We next went for special good food for this day, and the insitiute head & our teachers shared lunch with us, and we kept take photos for remembering these days.

At evening, some of us start arranging our luggage to travel the next day…. Friday 12th Dec. it was so nice day and I used each minute in this day. I woke early, went for shopping and then to the beach (I do love going to the beach). Me & Anamn and Bahia from Palestine spent nice time there. Then we back to say bye for Joseph & Nasta, as they are the first to leave, going back home Uganda (they left at 2:30 pm). When the car came to take them to the airport, everybody was sad and crying to say bye for them … it was a hard moment.

Later, I went back for more shopping. I bought gifts so that we will celebrate Yugni (from Fiji) & DV (from Mauritius) & Mobarak (form Uzbakistan) birthdays. We also collected money from all to buy gifts (shirts & t-shirts, and chicken for food)) for all the men that work in the guest house - they did their best for us and they deserve more but it is simple thing to say thank you! We did a wonderful celebration everybody dance - I loved how the Indian men danced. After 10.30 pm, another group must leave .. our best friend Bahia & Reem from Palestine - it was so sad moment - we do know how hard it is to meet again. When the car came to take them the tears become more & more, so while the car try to go I asked the driver if I can go with them to airport then back with u .. he said yes.. So I jumped into the car as did my friend Anaam and young men works in the kitchen to help in holding bags. When we came back after midnight we were tired & sad but we started to arrange our luggage to be ready for leaving tomorrow night Saturday 13th December.

Dr. Ravi gave up his weekend so he came and spent the day with us and our other friends that had not traveled yet. At evening he said bye with all kind feeling he have.

Then me & Aram went for city center (big mall) to say bye for my Indian friends Ajas & Laura - they have bazaar (alla al din bazaar) that sells silver, so I did the last silver shopping from them.

When back at our guset house, me & Annam did the last prepare for luggage and drank tea - we felt we could not eat dinner because we were sad & worried as we will leave in the next 2 hours.

I knocked on all my friends doors to say bye for my them and I gave them small things for remembering and they did the same..

Tears say more than words can say, when car come to take me & Anaam everybody was ready to come with us to airport. It was a wonderful sad & happy moment in my life as I felt their love … also men working in the kitchen came too. I didn’t forget to take photos in this moment - it was the last photo.

The time was slow at the airport, and when the plane took off I said inside “bye Chennai, bye nice Indian people, thanks for wonderful time and sharing sad with happy feeling.”

I will write more about this wonderful experience in my next last blog about India.

Thanks for reading my blog….

Thana

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Book Mobile

February 6th, 2009 by admin

Day 5, January 8th

Most of the GSLIS girls and boys were up early to head out by 8:15 on our first book mobile trip out to the campo (countryside). We had a tasty breakfast made and served by Roxana, the hotel’s mistress of all things breakfast, sister to Edwin, and mother to Luis Carlos. After the feeding frenzy and a delectable cup of the SJDS Biblioteca coffee farm coffee (you too can enjoy this tasty coffee for just $10 a bag, and have the double satisfaction of knowing that you are supporting the library. Contact me, or any of the trip participants, and we’ll hook you up.), we headed to the library, which is literally a stones throw from the hotel. Jane gave us a tour, and we piled into the back of our sweet ride. It has leopard print seats! As has been covered before, the best way to get around Nicaragua is in the back of a truck. While I was initially apprehensive, the leopard print seats combined with the wrought iron people-cage and fresh breeze convinced me to give it a whirl. And whirl we did, hair blowing in the wind as we bounced joyously down the road to our first visit.

Biblioteca Movil

Biblioteca Movil + GSLIS = Riding in style, photo by Lauren

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Groovin’ from Granada to San Juan del Sur

February 5th, 2009 by admin

Day 4, Part 2

Gringobus!

Gringobus!

On our way to SJDS, we stopped in Granada for a delish lunch and jaunt around the town. I lived life on the edge and tried two Nicaraguan specialities for lunch. I had the coyolito, a drink that is certainly “muy sabroso.” It is made from a berry of (I think) a cactus fruit, and is a bit spicy and almost gingery, but is still sweet and refreshing. Two thumbs way up! I also tried the guapote, a fresh water fish that lives in Lake Nicaragua/Cocibolca. It too was muy sabroso, especially accompanied by the live folk music performance with which we were serenaded. For desert, we had a dance performance by Erikka and Edwin, Nicaragua’s Lord of the Dance.

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Tip top Tipitapa

January 22nd, 2009 by admin

Day 4, January 7th

We spent the night in Managua again on our way south, which meant that we were able to get in a site visit to Tipitapa, a community on the outskirts of Managua and another Wisconsin-Nicaragua partner library. I have to say, this was probably my favorite site visit of the trip, for a number of reasons. We were warmly welcomed by Dona Rosa, the librarian whose house is also home to the library, her young assistants, Karen and Carla, and a bunch of children who were at the library. Through the volunteer staff’s hard work, persistence, and dedication, the site has prospered and has been really valued by the community.

Tipitapa

Dona Rosa welcomes us to Tipitapa

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