Simmons GSLIS: Dispatches from the Field

Khatyn – National Memorial Complex

The next day we went to the National Memorial Complex at Khatyn.   This memorial is the sites of the formed village of Khatyn, razed to the ground in the spring 1943, and its inhabitants burned to death.   It is not to be confused with Katyn, the forest at which the bodies of 22,000 Polish offices and civilians, taken in the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, were shot and buried by the Soviet secret police, the NKVD.   The kh in Khatyn is pronounced as h in English, as my pronunciation was kindly corrected.  The confusion is understandable, and has been the source of much discussion.

The website for Khatyn is excellent, and in English, so I will not recount the story here.
http://khatyn.by/en/
Yet, here are a few facts.   In response to a partisan attack in which a well-known German officer was killed, the Germans encircled the village of Khatyn on March 22, 1943.  The inhabitants of the village were rounded up and herded in the barn.   The barn was burned to the ground with the villagers in it. Those who tried to run for safety were shot. The log homes in the village were then burned, leaving only the chimney to mark the sites.  149 people including 75 children died.   Amazingly, six people survived, including the blacksmith, Joseph Kaminsky.  After the Germans were gone, he looked for his son, who was still alive, but who then died in his arms.

Khatyn has become a symbol of all the 618 Belarusian burned villages and their inhabitants, and the 185 villages that were never rebuilt.   It is also a monument to all civilian deaths in all wars.  Perhaps some of my reference students could help me here, but it is my sense that civilian deaths were relatively low in WWI and have increased dramatically as a percentage of total casualties in WWII and subsequent wars.   As we achieve greater sophistication in our societal organization, build better weaponry, and have a better understanding of human rights, it seems we are also much more willing to take the lives of civilians to advance the cause.   What I took from Khatyn is that Khatyn is in all of us, and despite its warning, it will happen again.

The Belarusian State Museum of the Great Patriotic War

Friday, July 3, is Independence Day in Belarus.    We attempted to see the parade of tanks and other military vehicles and to hear Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus.   However, we were turned back at a security checkpoint because of my knapsack.   I realized that, while Belarus women carry small purses, the men rarely carry anything.

So we went to the Belarusian State Museum of the Great Patriotic War on Nyezhavizhimosty Avenue.  The Great Patriotic War is the Eastern front of WWII, and this calamitous event is still very much alive in the memory of Belarus people.   But first, a little background, borrowed in part from the excellent guidebook on Belarus, written by Nigel Roberts, published by Bradt.

Germany voided the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of Non-Aggression by invading the Soviet Union at the Polish-Belarus border among other places on June 22, 1941 under Operation Barbarossa.   The attack on Minsk comprised of aerial bombardment by blitzkrieg and the Second and Third Panzer tank groups.   Six days after the border was crossed, Minsk was taken.   Stalin’s policy was to buy time by falling back to the defence of Moscow, taking plant and machinery from factories, thousands of people from the civilian population, and museum and gallery artifacts, back to the east.

The Nazis regarded both Jews and Slavs as subhuman, which permitted them to be treated as animals. The local population was pressed into slave labor, and the public parks were the sites of mass hanging.   Jews had been the third largest ethnic group in Belarus.   The population of the largest Belarus cities at the time of the invasion was over 50% Jewish.   Some 800,000 Jews, 90% of the Jewish population in Belarus, were killed during the Holocaust.

Slavs were also subhuman in Nazi eyes, and starvation was a Nazi strategy. Generalplan Ost (east) was part of Hitler’s Lebensraum (living space) plan, and fulfilled the Drang nach Osten (Drive to the East) ideology.   Under Generalplan Ost, Belarus, Poland, Ukraine and other areas would be ethically cleansed, and the land opened up for German colonizers.   Pieces of this plan were implemented through death camps and enslavement.   At the same time Soviet and Belarus partisan resistance grew and harassed the occupying German army.   The response of the Nazis to partisan attack was often the burning of the local village with its inhabitants.    On July 3, 1944, having defeated Operation Barbarossa and then launched their own offensives, the Soviet Red Army arrived in Minsk.   The destruction of the city was almost total.   Most of the houses, factories, and administrative buildings had been flattened, while road, rail and bride infrastructure had been bombed.   A city of 300,000 civilians in 1939 now had 50,000 people.

The Belarussian State Museum of the Great Patriotic War chronicles the terrible events of WWII, and documents the famous Belarusian partisan movement that undermined the occupation.   I discovered that one of  my colleagues at Simmons had been to this museum 20 years ago on a guided tour, and as the guide went through the museum, apparently for the first time, she wept.

My guide, Piotr Lapo, explained the differences in the weapons, and their effectiveness in stopping tanks.   I was struck by the somber faces in the black and white photographs of the fighters, partisans, and civilians, all of whom stared out of the exhibit walls with similar, penetrating gazes.

Library Assessment workshop – Belarusian State University Fundamental Library computer lab

Fortunately, limesurvey access returned the following morning. We set up 10 accounts, went the computer lab at the Belarusian State University Fundamental Library, and were ready to go. July 3 marks Independence Day in Belarus, the day that Soviet troops liberated Minsk from the Nazis some 65 years ago. The day is traditionally celebrated with a military parade, and is the beginning of a long weekend. There was considerable interest in ending the workshop early on Thursday, July 2, to take advantage of the long weekend. It seemed that many people have access to a dacha, a cottage in a rural area that has been in the family or in the spouse’s family, and leave Minsk for the weekend. This early closure meant dropping the exercises on SMART Goals and Balanced Scorecard, but these exercises may have been closer to management techniques than assessment techniques. During the week, I focused on evaluation and assessment, and while techniques for using the data to generate goals are certainly helpful, these management techniques are perhaps a separate program.

The limesurvey exercise worked very well, and should I do this workshop again, I will give this exercise much greater emphasis. The lack of formal instruction was no problem. I went through a sample question, and then the participants designed their own three question survey, clearly having understood everything that was expected. I would make this group assignment more ambitious, and have the participants come out of the workshop with a working survey in Russian for their library.

This workshop concluded the formal aspect of the program. There was a briefing with the IRC staff, but I was not very helpful with constructive criticism since in my view the logistics had been organized beautifully.

The next three days were spent seeing sites in Belarus.

Terry

Assessment of Electronic Information lecture and workshop

In the evening, Piotr Lapo and I attended ballet performances of Carmina Burana and a Carmen Suite at the National Academic Great Opera and Ballet Theatre.  The building has just been reconstructed, and it is red and gold inside, with excellent acoustics.    We had trouble reserving seats, and had to sit on the side, but the view was fine.   Minsk is known for its ballet, and the performances and choreography were excellent.

The next day, Wednesday, I had only one three-hour presentation, on “Assessment of Electronic Libraries:  Methods and Tools,” which focused on ARL e-metric standards, web surveys, transactional log analysis, COUNTER standards, and how to analyze the collected data.   This presentation was the first of a two-day workshop/presentation on library assessment.   The second day would be hands-on, and would take place at the computer lab of the Belarusian State University Fundamental Library.  The presentations and exercises for these two days benefited by being scheduled at the end of the week.   By now, I had a clearer sense of what was expected, and revised the lectures and exercises accordingly.   On Wednesday we would cover theory and techniques.

On Thursday we would do hands-on exercises, both in print and online. I intended to use limesurvey, an interesting web survey creation tool, which Linnea Johnson and I had used before.    Its primary advantage is its language packs, which although not complete, are good.   It was important to find a Russian language survey tool to use.   I had two reservations about using limesurvey.   Firstly, it was installed on the GSLIS server, and I was not sure about the network from Belarus to Boston.      However, we have used this tool previously with XAMPP as a local installation, obviating the need for the network, so we had a plan B.   Secondly, I was not confident that simply turning on the Russian language pack, showing a sequence of steps to write a question, and letting the participants design a survey would succeed as an instructional approach. The lecture on theory appeared to go well.

That afternoon I attended a July 4th reception of the US Charge d’Affaires.   The reception was held at the country house of the US embassy, about 35 km outside of Minsk.  The political situation with US-Belarus foreign relations is complex, and if someone wants an accurate representation of the US concerns, see: http://minsk.usembassy.gov/ From my point of view, it appears that there is much change and transition at this time.   The ambassador and most of the embassy staff had been asked to leave over one year ago.   There was only a small staff left, including the public affairs officer (PAO) and the Charge d’Affaires.   However, both people in these positions are being cycled out, and the new PAO and Charge d’Affaires were at the reception.

The country house is beautiful, sitting on a lake.  The reception was very pleasant, and I met publishers, other librarians, the new embassy staff, the person in charge of IATP – a networking initiative, and others to whom the solicitous IRC librarians introduce me.  I stayed to the end of the party.

A minor adventure occurred that evening as it appeared that the GSLIS installation of limesurvey was down.   I sent out a flurry of emails, and waited for morning.

Terry

National Library of Belarus and the Belarusian Library Association

On Tuesday, June 30, there were two presentations. The first was at the National Library of the Republic of Belarus on “Library Assessment in the US: Methods and Tools,” and the audience was the staff of the National Library. The National Library was founded on September 15, 1922, originally as the Belarusian State and University Library. It is the legal deposit library for all publications issued in the USSR and Belarus.

It is a new building, shaped like a diamond, completed in 2005. There are pictures at the English website, http://www.nlb.by/portal/page/portal/index?lang=en
It is a radical design for a building, and even more unusual for a library. The diamond is perched on a point, and its light displays can be seen for miles at night. The book depository is not in the basement, as is typical of many large Russian and former Soviet Union libraries. It is on the fifth floor. Although I didn’t see it, there is even compact shelving.

The inside of the library is even more spectacular, with hundreds of computers, four exhibition areas for art, a open, impressive, entrance lobby, a circulation desk that makes one want to go up to it just to be seen in the vicinity of such a design, and a metal and glass architecture, necessitated by the diamond shape, which is also beautiful. There are many curves inside the library, usually not a good design for square books, but it all seems to work. A librarian gave an excellent presentation of the many online Russian and English databases and digital information resources available to the over 100,000 patrons of the library.

The book delivery system, sending the books from the shelves to the numerous (15?) readings rooms is a marvel. The books are placed in a container on wheels and then whisked away on tracks to the reading rooms on other floors. The book carts are returned empty and upside-down on another track. It is a very efficient system, apparently made in Germany.

In the afternoon, the second presentation was on “Association of Research Libraries (ARL): activity, mission, goals, and results,” at the Minsk Regional Public Library, named after A Pushkin. Since I am not an employee of ARL, I relied on slides provided by Martha Kyrillidou of ARL for the presentation. The audience was the Belarusian Library Association Council. The BLA was founded in 1992, and it seeks to help in the development of the library systems in Belarus and to help solve problems common to Belarusian libraries, among other goals. The purpose of the presentation, I think, was to learn about ARL to see if any of its initiatives and areas of responsibilities are suitable for the BLA. There are approximately 9,500 libraries in Belarus, and the BLA has approximately 1200 individual members from different types of libraries.

The Minsk Regional Public Library named after A Pushkin is one of 12 libraries in Belarus with American Corners.   American Corners are partnerships between the Public Affairs sections of U.S. Embassies and host institutions. They provide access to current and reliable information about the U.S. via book collections, the Internet, and through local programming to the general public.  Unfortunately with the departure of American embassy staff, the American Corners program in Belarus has stopped.   This American Corner is still functioning, but is frozen in time, with no new materials added.

Lectures for IT managers and Library school students and faculty

The next day, thanks to the powerpoint slides provided by Martha Kyrillidou, Director of ARL Statistics and Service Quality Programs, and Raynna Bowlby, my colleague at GSLIS West who gives workshops on library assessment, I am ready.

The first lecture was at the Belarusian Scientific and Technical University Scientific Library, and the audience was managers of IT.   The topic is “New trends and developments in information technology in U.S. libraries.”  I specifically asked for this session, and the IRC generously translated a survey on IT resources to this group.   I was interested in the current situation in IT in university libraries in Belarus.   Based on the results of the surveys I received, translated by Piotr Lapo, the technology is good.   The servers seem Windows based, not running open source, and the workstations are contemporary.   There are fewer workstations and servers than one would find in US university libraries, but the skills, infrastructure, and enthusiasm are there.

On Monday afternoon, I spoke to the library science faculty and students at the Belarusian University of Culture and Arts, on the topic “Assessment of library information technology and library systems in U.S. libraries: Methods and Tools.”
This lecture discussed LibQUAL+, MINES for Libraries, COUNTER data, and other assessment issues involving electronic data and library systems (ILS).  The audience asked very good questions, and we had a productive discussion.   After the lecture, we had a very useful conversation with Nikolai Yatsevich, the Dean of Information-Documental Communications Faculty.

Alexey Shalaban is blogging some of these lectures on his library’s blog.
See:  http://inf.by/library

Terry

Dudutki Belarusian Authentic Village

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.

Terry

Arrival in Minsk, Belarus

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

A library in a primary school in the south of Iraq

This is the story of establishing a library in a primary school south of Iraq in a village named Alumayahh. It started when I met my cousin, she works as a teacher before 9 months in a primary school.

I asked  her  if the school contained a library for children, and she said “oh, my, you want a library for them while we haven’t even a good place for to teach them. The school is only 7 rooms, one for the head and all teachers and another 6 is for classes from 1^st class till 6^th class.”

I asked her if it’s okay to visit the school and establish a library for them? She said why not – it will be wonderful to do. I will tell the school head and you can come.

In our department, I told all our students about this plan and also my colleagues. All of them were eager to help, so we started to collect the collection for this library. Many students contributed story and drawing books and also color pens.   I give the school the date for my visit, which was at 20^th April. My student & colleagues were hoping to go with me, but there is no hotel for them to stay because  the school is in a small distant village. Maysan is a city in the south of Iraq, 4 hours from Baghdad by car. Ali Al-Gharbi is a province(constituency) next to Maysan ….the village name is Alumayahh, and the school name is Al Batthaa. I needed 3 hours drive to reach Ali Al-Gharbi, where I spent my night in my uncle’s home.

I woke up early at 20^th with my cousin to start our way to the village. A car comes to pick up teachers so I was with them, then after 15 minutes drive we reached a place close to Tigris river.  We left the car and started to cross the river by canoe – there was 2 canoes and we crossed the river with 4 in each canoe. Our  canoe was heavy because it held the story books as well as us. When we reached the the next bank, we walked about 10 minutes to reach the school. It was amazing to see all the children waiting and wanting to see the new visitor from Baghdad. They come running to say good morning for the teachers and for me. They were so cute children with simple wear. Usually, in Baghdad, all students wear same formal wear in school, but this seemed hard to do in this small village where families who live there are farmers and fishermen - usually they have sheep & cows also chickens …life is different for them, and nice from those  families to send children to school because they almost need them to help at work.

I entered the classes and I talked to them about a library and how much it is important to read something more than school teach us. Books is a new world help us discover the world around us. The surprise was, almost all of them didn’t have any book story in life, so they were very happy and excited to see all these books . I read a story for 1^st class – they were happy and me, too.  I also heard from them some stories they know from grandmothers. They started out shy but then we became friends . When I entered the 3^rd class, the children there are 8 years old. They were having an English lesson, and they welcomed me in English words.  I found them so good and active with their teacher. I asked them some questions and they were understanding and answered in English.

While there is no room for this library, we decided to put it in the head’s room and allow them to borrow it.  A new school will be finished in 6 months. The farmers contributed the area from their farm to build a new school and the ministry will pay for building. I give a gift to each one who had a good degree in lessons (it was colors and coloring book also a storybook) to help them improve and be better.  Almost of them walk 2 kilometers to reach school, and he /she when back at home must help at home with chores – a farmers life is not easy. When I entered the 4^th class, the lesson was about the important of a clean body and how much it’s important for health. We loaned  all of them a story to read and to bring it back the next day to get another one. At the rest time, teachers played football with 6^th class students - it was so nice to see them give time to play with them to be closer .

At the end of school time, when I said bye to children, they asked me to come again next day. I said yes will do…so I stayed one more day with them. On the next day, 21 April, I asked them about what they read?  I felt the happiness in their eyes that made my heart glow with  love for them. When the 2nd day ended, I said bye to the children and promised to come back next year when the new school is finished and will hold so many storybooks and I will bring with me many gifts for those make his/her degree more better. I am proud of those children and appreciate what their teachers  do for them.  Teaching is a message to touch the heart – then you can touch the brain easy….. as I think they do. My hope is to some day see a library in all primary schools in Iraq. Thanks to my colleagues & my students in helping me to establish this small library.

Till next blog….good luck for everybody

-Thana

Humboldt Universitaet

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