The Kilgour Collection of Russian Literature at Harvard College Library

As an undergraduate at Harvard University, Bayard L. Kilgour (’27) developed a life-long interest in Russia. Kilgour made numerous trips to Soviet Russia where he placed special emphasis on acquiring books, paintings, and other decorative artwork. His passion for Russia is witnessed through his philanthropic endeavors both to the Harvard University Libraries and to the Cincinnati Art Museum. In addition to donations of books and other artifacts, Mr. Kilgour provided endowments for the continued acquisition of Slavic materials to ensure that the collections he established continue to develop and grow.     

Fish and Oceanographers,Scholars and Librarians: Researching Nineteenth-Century Russian Women Writers

This article discusses librarianship and literary scholarship as operating under separate paradigms, or ways of looking at the world, and considers the relationship between them. Each of these paradigms, it is suggested, generates distinctive research tools that combined can expand our ability to help Slavic and other Humanities literary researchers.     

Typology of Electronic Libraries

After talking briefly about the history of digital libraries in Russia, the author compares them to traditional libraries. She then proposes the foll owing typology based on their purpose: national, scholarly, public, educational, specialized, and international. Each type is illustrated by Russian examples.     

Globalizing Librarianship: A Study-Abroad Class in Russia

This article reports on a study-abroad class to St. Petersburg, Russia, for students in library and information sciences, which took place in May–June 2012. The development of this class has led to other partnership opportunities between the University of Maryland Libraries and libraries and institutions in St. Petersburg.     

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.     

Russian Publishing, 2000-2001

Abstract

The Russian government is exerting increasing control over the country's media, although the media are resisting. This government-media conflict is relevant to Western academics and libraries, because the variety and quality of Russian periodicals is at stake. In addition, if the media are constrained, publishers of books are likely to experience restrictions, too. The difficulties the government is having in controlling the media, however, are a measure of how much Russia has changed. At the same time this conflict is occurring, book publishing is thriving. Official statistics show the number of titles published surpassed even the previous record set in 1977. Planning is in progress to restructure the state book industry sector, including publishing, printing and distribution. Book prices have increased more rapidly than inflation, and postage costs have also increased. Russian Press Service is doing its best to keep its prices to Western libraries down.     

Holdings of Books Related to Russia and Eastern Europe Among Japanese Academic Libraries: An Analysis Based on the NII Union Catalog

ABSTRACT

Using numerical methods and list-checking on the national electronic union catalog, the author surveys the Russian, Czech, Polish, Serbo-Croatian and Hungarian book collections in Japanese academic libraries.     

Introduction

SUMMARY

Overview of major institutions housing Russian émigré collections, primarily in the United States.     

The Jewish Archival Survey: Tracing Jewish Records in the Former Soviet Archives

SUMMARY

As the rigors of the Soviet-era prohibitions in the post-Soviet archives were eased in the early 1990s, students of Russian-Jewish history in the former Soviet Union, as well as from abroad, have been using this opportunity to search for records of the Russian-Jewish past. The Jewish Archival Survey, a joint program of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, and the Russian State University for the Humanities has been among the earliest initiatives in this field.