Collecting the Revolution: New Directions in Research

ABSTRACT

This essay reports on the latest efforts to assess the collections of materials relating to the Russian Revolution held in the Hoover Institution and the New York Public Library (NYPL). The first section reviews the presentations made by Bertrand Patenaude, Michael Herrick, and Robert Davis during the roundtable “Collecting the Revolution” at the annual meeting of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies in November 2017. The second presents additional information documenting the development of NYPL’s and Hoover’s collections located in The Wisconsin State Historical Society Archive and the Archive of the Russian State Library.     

Boris Bakhmeteff's Intellectual Legacy in American and Russian Collections

SUMMARY

This article is the first attempt to introduce Boris Aleksandrovich Bakhmeteff, the last Russian ambassador to the United States before the Bolsheviks' seizure of power and a many-sided Russian intellectual with a variety of interests, as a political thinker. Of particular interest to researchers are materials concerning two specific collections held at the Hoover Institution and Bakhmeteff Archive at Columbia University.     

Early Soviet Visual Antireligious Propaganda: The Display of Print Images in the Past,Present and Digital Future

ABSTRACT

This study examines information about the display of early Soviet visual anti-religious propaganda in the past in order to conceptualize its re-presentation in the digital future. Based on recent research conducted in the Hoover Institution Library and Archive and other American and Russian collections, it considers printed visual images of the 1920s–1930s, including posters. It also investigates the theory and practices that guided their display detailed in the specialized literature and disseminated in the anti-religious periodicals Bezbozhnik and Bezbozhnik u stanka. These materials make it possible to recover the structures and contents of historic propaganda displays and to replicate and re-exhibit them virtually with digital technologies.     

“War Through Children’s Eyes” in the Archiwum Wschodnie [Eastern Archive] Collection

In 1981, Hoover Institution Press published a collection of testimonies of Polish citizens and their children deported to the Soviet Union between 1939 and 1941. War Through Children’s Eyes contained English translations of compositions, interviews, and testimonies from the Polish Government Collection at the Hoover Institution Archives. In the 1980s efforts were underway in Poland to collect similar personal stories of survivors of Soviet deportations, including children’s testimonies. The result was the creation of the Archiwum Wschodnie [Eastern Archive] and the KARTA Center in Warsaw. The archive, legalized after the fall of Communism in 1990, is a major primary source collection dealing with the history of former Polish eastern territories. The paper discusses parts of the Archiwum Wschodnie collection focusing on the testimonies of children deported to the Soviet Union. The trauma of war and displacement is examined through personal stories and testimonies of deportees.     

Aspects of the 1905 Revolution in Latvia: Looking through the Library and Archival Collections of Stanford University

ABSTRACT

This paper offers a look at some facets of the 1905 Revolution in Latvia, at the time part of the Russian Empire, and their interpretation in historiography from 1905 to 2015. Using resources in the Stanford University Libraries and the Hoover Institution Library and Archives, the paper provides an overview of the causes and the character of the 1905 Revolution in Latvia while also discussing various debates among historians of 1905. The main focus is on collective violence and political activism. The article is written from the point of view of a librarian and historian. It has two parallel goals: to tell the history of the Baltic collections at Stanford and to acquaint the reader with current scholarship on the subject of 1905 in Latvia. Even though some papers have been written that examine Baltic collections in American libraries, few, if any, of these have concentrated on individual historical topics.     

Collecting the Revolution: The New York Public Library

ABSTRACT

The author examines some of the unique features of the New York Public Library’s Slavonic Division, including an “ecumenical” collecting ethos, urban location, émigré staff, and large, politically diverse clientele, which help explain the richness of its Russian revolutionary era holdings.     

Pre-Revolutionary Russian Photography at the New York Public Library: An Introduction

ABSTRACT

This article is an introduction to the New York Public Library’s pre-revolutionary Russian and Eastern European photographic albums. It also provides a checklist of these albums. The checklist is an especially rich source for Russian architecture, art, and science and provides documentation for a variety of places in the center and provinces of the Russian Empire. Some of the most significant albums are those once owned by the Romanovs and by George Kennan the elder, America’s first Russian expert.     

Behind the wall: service challenges at a prison library

Abstract

This article examines the challenges of providing library services to incarcerated men at the State Correctional Institution Benner Township in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. Most challenges stem from sustaining an inmate’s right of access to the courts, operating without the technology found in most public libraries, and dealing with censorship.     

Soviet Rock Collection and International Counterculture Archive at the Global Resources Center of the George Washington University Libraries

ABSTRACT

This memoir is my personal story about how I created and came to curate on the International Counterculture Archive collection, which is held in the Global Resources Center of the George Washington University’s (GWU) Gelman library. The first person narrative relates my first encounters with Soviet rock culture and describes how I turned my initial interest into a Ph.D. dissertation on the subculture of Soviet hippies and traditions of Soviet rock music, which subsequently led to my later work as a librarian and curator. I tell the story of my initial encounters with the members of Soviet/Russian rock music subculture and other countercultural personalities and activists during my first trip to Moscow in 1993 to collect samples of Soviet rock music recordings and rock music zines for the European Division of the Library of Congress. During this formative trip I met with a number of counterculture producers and collectors who were instrumental in helping me build the International Counterculture Archive. Upon leaving the Library of Congress, I continued collecting Soviet/Russian countercultural materials on behalf of the Global Resources Center of GWU’s Gelman Library. I talk about the process of creating the Archive at Gelman library, about bureaucratic and financial aspects of this work, and about my many acquisition trips to Moscow, former Soviet republics, and East Central Europe. Much of the narrative centers on my work with Russian collectors and content producers and describes the type of materials that are included in the collection. I also describe how I built the collection of historical Soviet/Russian rock music recordings, focusing on the phenomenon of Soviet/Russian rock music zines and the history of the unique zine collection within the International Counterculture Archive.     

In Memory of the Czar: A Review of the Memoirs of Witnesses and Contemporaries of Emperor Nicholas II

ABSTRACT

This article surveys the collection devoted to the memory of Emperor Nicholas II held at the Museum of Russian Culture in San Francisco. The author describes the cataloged materials of a unique collection of materials passed on to the Museum by Russian emigrants of the first and second waves, many of whom worked to preserve the memory of Russia’s last Sovereign and also made a significant contribution to the creation of the Museum and its archival collections.     

Curating the Library Exhibit “Russian Revolution: Actors and Witnesses” at Harvard University: A Collaborative Experience

ABSTRACT

Tasked with organizing and promoting an exhibit of Russian Revolution-related materials from Harvard University’s vast library holdings in a relatively small space, the curators faced both advantages and challenges. This article describes the curatorial choices and logistical solutions reached via a collaboration between staff at several units across the university: Houghton, Widener, and Fung Libraries, the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, and the Weissman Preservation Center.     

Deadline 2025: AIATSIS and the audiovisual archive

ABSTRACT

The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), Australia’s archival repository for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural heritage, is the nation’s peak body for collecting, recording, archiving and returning Indigenous-related knowledge and information. Since 1964 AIATSIS has amassed the world’s largest collection of print, audio and film materials on Australian First Nations peoples. This paper canvasses the Deadline 2025 campaign for audiovisual collections at risk and the complexities of preserving audiovisual archives. It argues that while the Plan’s institutional focus is essential, equally essential is institutional leadership in establishing integration with community-held archives, supported by appropriately resourced and skilled community-based partnerships.     

A Survey of RDA in Asia and a Vision for Future Development

Abstract

At the end of 2017, the National Library of China (NLC) was invited by the RDA Board to become the National Institution Representative for Asia. It is a good opportunity for the NLC to be more visible and to contribute to the international community. However, RDA promotion is a demanding task considering the economic and professional conditions in Asia. In this article, we (1) summarize RDA study and practice in China especially NLC’s advances, (2) analyze the survey of Asian libraries conducted by the NLC in 2018 with regard to RDA, and (3) discuss RDA promotion initiatives undertaken by the NLC.     

Batter Up: Classifying Pre-World War II Baseball Cards Using Dewey Decimal

Abstract

Within cataloging non-book items, literature on sports cards is limited and not rooted in academic research. Sports cards provide valuable statistical information and evidence of lineups. This article addresses the gap by examining Jefferson Burdick’s The American Card Catalog. Known as the Dewey Decimal system of trading cards, the Catalog is the preeminent resource for collecting pre-World War II cards. This article expands upon Burdick’s work and guides librarians through the building of a class number for individual sports cards. The result incorporates classification methods to support user search, and highlights the historical value of cards within library collections.     

Soviet Photography in America: An Introduction to the New York Public Library’s Revolutionary and Post-Revolutionary Slavic,East European,and Baltic Collection

ABSTRACT

This article is an introduction to the New York Public Library’s revolutionary and post-revolutionary Soviet and East European photography holdings. It outlines the materials available to researchers from both the large and smaller collections, particularly those that are useful for studies of Revolutionary Russia and the History or World War II in Russia and Eastern Europe. Of particular note is the NYPL’s wealth of images documenting Poland during the Second World War and the Bessie Beatty album The Russian Revolution: An Album of Photographs.     

Personal Papers of Russian Émigrés in the United States in the State Archive of the Russian Federation

SUMMARY

This article discusses the repatriation of émigré archives to the Russian Federation and the significance of this phenomenon in Russian cultural life. Particular attention is paid to six archival collections acquired by the State Archive of the Russian Federation in the 1990s.     

Big Five Personality Traits and Knowledge Sharing Intentions of Academic Librarians

PurposeKnowledge sharing among individuals is very crucial for greater creativity and enhancing performance in knowledge-based organizations. The present study investigates the association of Big Five personality traits and the knowledge sharing intentions of university librarians in Pakistan.MethodologyBased on quantitative design, this study employs survey research method. The Big Five personality inventory designed by John and Srivastava (1999) was adopted, while measurement items related to knowledge sharing intentions were developed with the help of the existing literature. The population of the study comprised library and information science professionals working in the university libraries of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK). A census sampling method was used for collecting data and 103 dully filled questionnaires were received.FindingsThe results indicated that agreeableness and openness to experience positively while neuroticism negatively influenced the university librarian’s knowledge sharing intentions. However, conscientiousness and extraversion personality traits were found to be insignificant predictors of the same.OriginalityThis study is first of its nature which highlights the significant personality features contributing towards KS intentions in academic libraries from a developing country’s perspective.