Michael Neubert with staff of the Sverdlovsk Oblast Library and librarians from other libraries of the Urals region.
Picture two imaginary trains traveling across the vast expanse of Russia's steppes, one eastbound, the second heading west and that both these trains are transporting valuable cargo — books — at the behest of a Librarian of Congress. Then consider that the westbound train began its journey in central Siberia in 1907, while the books following the eastbound rails and nearing Siberia, embarked on their route in 1997.
Where might these two Russian locomotives, one originating in Asia, the other Europe, cross paths? Ekaterinburg, nestled in the southern Urals, is the answer; a place where east and west meet, and Russia's past, present and future are intertwined.
In 1903, Librarian of Congress Herbert G. Putnam first explored acquiring an 80,000-volume library belonging to Siberian merchant Gennadii Vasilevich Yudin. In 1907, the books were shipped from Krasnoyarsk to Washington, where they formed the foundation of LC's Russian collections — the greatest to be found outside Russia.
Ninety-four years later, the current Librarian, Dr. Billington, following meetings in Russia with Evgeny Kuzmin, head of the Department of Libraries in the Russian Ministry of Culture, proposed a "new way to organize book exchange" with Russia on a grand scale — with the potential to include not only great numbers of books, but also electronic data.
On Jan. 14, 1997, the immediate challenge to Russian specialists of the Librarian's Office, the European, and the Exchange and Gift Divisions, was to assess what the Library would expect to gain from and be able to offer Russian libraries under such an arrangement.
The Librarian delegated Harold Leich, a senior reference specialist in the European Division, to draw up a proposal. John Van Oudenaren, chief of the division, was appointed by Winston Tabb, associate librarian for Library Services, to coordinate the Library's effort to establish a new exchange structure with Russia. "At that initial stage," says Mr. Van Oudenaren, "we realized we were exploring a big, retrospective exchange that would go beyond the major centers of Russia."
Don Panzera, chief of the Exchange and Gift (E&G) Division, began to work with his staff. "We had to quickly determine," he recalls, "the staff, book supply and financial resources the project would require."
Meeting of staff of the Sverdlovsk Oblast Library. Marina Koptiaeva, head of the Innovations Department stands beside the Library's Michael Neubert. SOL Director Nadezhda Tsypina sits beside him.
E-mail flew across the Library as staff attempted to quantify and qualify the proposed exchange. Eric A. Johnson, a senior exchange specialist in E&G, came up with a name befitting the scope of the endeavor on Jan. 16. "There's physics," he explains, "and there is metaphysics, which goes beyond and transcends the usual concepts of the subject. Likewise, there is standard Russian book exchange, and this — meta-exchange — shipping books by the container rather than in small boxes."
The proposal describing the Library's position on the meta-exchange stressed LC's desire to strengthen its existing exchange partnerships and establish new ones. The Library would offer lending and reference materials, as available, in exchange for Russian monographs, newspapers, serials, periodicals and journals from the early 19th century to the present.
The Library has, of course, maintained exchange agreements with Russia for many years, even when there were no formal diplomatic relations between the two countries, such as in 1917-1933. "During the Soviet period," explains Mr. Johnson, "their system was so centralized that exchange partners in Moscow and Leningrad could supply material from the provinces. There were only about 100 libraries in all of the USSR that were allowed to exchange with the West."
Everything changed with the collapse of the Soviet system, however. "In 1991, we had 89 exchange partners in the entire USSR," Johnson continues. "Today, we have 155 in Russia alone. With the political meltdown came a decentralization of the Russian library system. This means we have to aggressively seek partners in the smaller centers."
In March 1997, Dr. Billington, Ms. Steckler and Mr. Van Oudenaren met with Mr. Kuzmin here in Washington, reaching further agreement and understanding of a large-scale exchange program.
Several important points concerning what LC could hope to receive from Russia were becoming more clear. Russian patrimony law generally bars the export of pre-Revolutionary materials. The possibility of microfilming such works required greater investigation, due to the expense and the lack of the needed equipment in the provinces. Attention now focussed on local and regional publications, which had been largely unavailable to the Library in the past, as well as important serials, such as the provincial vedemosti (legal gazettes). Mr. Van Oudenaren explains that another decision had been made by him and his LC colleagues. "We decided that we were prepared to launch a pilot project, a test case on a manageable scale, in order to work out the logistics involved in anything of this complexity," he says.
On June 11, 1998, Ms. Steckler again met with Mr. Kuzmin, this time in Sudak, Crimea, Ukraine. Also attending this meeting was Mikhail Levner, LC's bibliographic services representative in Moscow. Ms. Steckler recalls that "the three of us worked out a model of sending the books to a regional library center in the heart of Russia, for further distribution to members of the regional network by the main regional library."
Meanwhile, a collection of books had arrived in E&G, transferred from the closed Griffiss Air Force base in New York. "The Federal Transfer Program," Mr. Johnson explains, "encourages federal agencies to transfer unwanted material to the Library of Congress. Anything they send us that we do not add to our own collections is then available for exchange."
"All of us, from the Librarian on down, appreciate the conversion of ‘swords into ploughshares' aspect of the book source for this meta-exchange program being primarily closed U.S. military base libraries," says Mr. Van Oudenaren. "The present downsizing of our military is in no small part due to the end of the Cold War, so it seems quite appropriate that these books now be used to strengthen our relationship with the new Russia."
"We were very fortunate that we had a Russian librarian, Galina Lecsheva, interning with us during that period," said Mr. Panzera. She not only analyzed the status of LC's Russian exchanges during her tenure here, but "she also proved instrumental in selecting material Russian libraries would find both interesting and useful."
Ms. Lecsheva based her selections on two criteria, the first being their physical condition. "I selected books that were in good shape and could be shipped without damage or loss," she says. Aside from their travel-readiness, Lecsheva explains that she had specific subject matter in mind. "I wanted recent reference materials — encyclopedias and directories — as well as works of American fiction, history and culture." Such books, she notes, "Are of interest to Russians, are not published within the country, and are expensive to purchase from abroad."
Left, Valentina Terekhovich, head of the Department of Foreign Literature, stands in front of boxes of books that will be sent to other libraries in the region; right, Ms. Terekhovich and two of her staff stand in front of LC materials which await processing.
Mr. Johnson joined Ms. Lecsheva in selecting books for the pilot project and says, "Russians are avid readers. For many years they had little access to American popular literature. Provincial libraries were not even permitted to collect it. That, of course, has all changed. Russian librarians would prefer greater access to reference and business works now, but they know their public craves fiction."
Ms. Lecsheva once told Johnson a story that illustrates not only the lack of American literature in Soviet-era Russian libraries, but also the value of the Federal Transfer Program. "Before Galina became a librarian at Voronezh State University," Mr. Johnson recalls, "she was was a student there. One of her courses was on American literature. She soon discovered that a good portion of the university library's collection of English-language American literature came from former U.S. military base libraries, received on exchange from LC."
There is another point to be made here, however, as Mr. Johnson is quick to explain. "The Griffiss AFB collection was typical of its kind," he says. "We ended up selecting 3,728 titles from it for the meta-exchange pilot project. Eighty percent of these were works of fiction, history and the arts. Reference works we could choose from were few in number and badly outdated; computer books, for example, are sought after in Russia, but virtually useless if they are more than two to three years old. The Griffiss library was typical of the book supply sources we presently have for large-scale exchange offerings — a little over 10 percent of which is useful on exchange," Mr. Johnson concludes.
Enter the Sabre Foundation, of Cambridge, Mass. In spring 1997, Mr. Johnson had consulted with Sabre's Rebecca Schneider on the costs and logistics of bulk book shipment to the Russian provinces. By September, Mr. Van Oudenaren had formalized an agreement with them.
"There is a natural convergence of interests between the Library and Sabre," Mr.Van Oudenaren explains. "They have books and container shipping expertise, but do not get involved in distribution. We have books, but lack experience shipping on this scale. We do, however, have a well-eveloped network of contacts in Russia with whom we can work out regional distribution."
The Sabre Foundation was established in 1986 by Josiah Lee Auspitz, and its first shipment was to Poland. Sabre receives books donated by more than 200 American and European publishers specializing in educational texts. Although Sabre's recipients began with Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, it has since spread its endeavor to Africa and Asia.
"The Library of Congress shipment is a good example of how we work in collaboration with other organizations to send books overseas," explains John Emery who, with Tania Vivitsky, was the Library's prime contact at Sabre. "Typically," he continues, "we supply most of the books, but we recently sent English as-a-Second-Language materials to Ukraine using the partner's inventory. In the case of LC, it was more of a 50-50 split."
Mr. Van Oudenaren explains that an adjustment had to be made in the concept of the project to accommodate the rules of the joint suppliers and to allow as many books as possible to be sent. "Sabre deals only in the donation of books," he says. "The Library of Congress, on the other hand, cannot, by law, donate books. So it was apparent that this shipment would, in fact, be both an exchange [LC's titles] and a gift [Sabre's contribution], complete with separate packing slips and everything."
Curiously enough, Herbert Putnam found himself in a similar situation in 1907. Stung by criticism from some that he was spending money on "books from a country no one is interested in, written in a language no one can read," he described the acquisition of the huge Russian Yudin library on its arrival here as, "more of a gift, really, than a purchase."
At the very time a partnership was worked out with Sabre to provide books to Russia on a split exchange and gift arrangement, the Exchange and Gift Division at LC was going out of business, as was the Order Division. As part of a major reorganization of the Acquisitions Directorate, exchange, gift and purchase responsibilities were merged into new geographically based divisions.
Mr. Panzera became Chief of the European & Latin-American (ELA) Acquisitions Division. Likewise, Eric Johnson became a Baltic/Russian acquisitions specialist in the new Central & Eastern European Acquisitions Section (CEEAS) of ELA. Simultaneously Michael Neubert, a senior reference specialist in the European Division, was setting up shop in Ekaterinburg, in the southern Urals region of Russia, where he planned on spending the academic year teaching workshops in librarianship as an American Library Association Library Fellow.
Mr. Panzera summed up this confluence of events by saying, "I think it's a wonderful credit to our inventive and hard-working staff, especially Eric Johnson and Mike Neubert, who managed to put together this very important exchange while participating in a major reorganization, in Eric's case, and moving to a challenging overseas post, on Mike's part. The meta-exchange pilot project would not have happened without their commendable commitment and problem solving skills."
In 1906-1907, Herbert Putnam could call on Alexis Babine to investigate and, eventually, negotiate the acquisition of the Yudin Collection. Babine, born in Russia, fluent in the language, and thoroughly knowledgeable about the Russian book trade as well as the Russian character, was an integral component to the plan Putnam implemented to obtain the collection for the Library of Congress.
In 1997-1998, Michael Neubert became the on-site facilitator in Russia. Having barely had a chance to settle in and describe his busy schedule to Johnson, Neubert soon learned his schedule was about to become much more hectic. Johnson casually informed him that he might want to start thinking about preparing a landing site for, say, 10,000 books expected to arrive in his neighborhood soon!
The Yudin purchase was conducted over great distance by letter; by telegraph, when time was crucial to success. When documents needed to be sent quickly, Neubert would supply fax numbers for machines all over Ekaterinburg, in the hope that at least one legible copy would get through. The photographs for this article were taken by Neubert in Ekaterinburg. He then scanned them on to Web sites, and they were downloaded at LC from the Internet.
One of the first things Mr. Neubert and Mr. Johnson worked out was the network of recipient libraries. The books would be shipped to Ekater-
inburg Oblast Library, which would then distribute them to four other oblast libraries: Perm, Cheliabinsk, Kurgan, and Tiumen. Tiumen, in turn, would transship material to two smaller libraries, in Khanty-Mansiisk and Iamalo-Nenets.
According to Mr. Johnson, "The books we had already selected at LC, divided evenly among the seven recipient libraries, would give each of them 530 works of fiction, history and the arts. Sabre was providing 14 copies of each of its 450 titles, so that each recipient library would get two copies of each Sabre book. So, in theory anyway, each recipient library would receive at least 1,430 books."
In November 1997, Mikhail Levner, LC's Moscow bibliographic services representative, met with representatives of the recipient libraries to explain the project to them, as well as what LC expected in return.
On Dec. 24, 1997, the books were on their way to Port Elizabeth, N.J., where they were laded onto Atlantic Lines Sealand vessel 254 — destination Rotterdam — then transferred to railway cars. In 1907, the Yudin library was transferred from Krasnoyarsk to Hamburg by rail, then by shis across the Atlantic to New York, and then by rail to Washington. The shipping costs for 80,000 books in 1907 was, almost to the dollar, the equal of transporting 8,000 books in 1997.
Mr. Neubert continually stressed to his LC colleagues the need for documentation, "the more detailed, the better," he advised them. He consulted with U.S. consulate officials in Ekaterinburg, as well as the local customs officials, to ensure minimal delay in the shipment clearing customs.
Finally, on Feb. 4, 1998, Mr. Neubert e-mailed Johnson, "The meta container is indeed here!" And that is when his troubleshooting skills became most important. "There was a need to have a letter with a particular wording," Mr. Neubert recalls, "so I e-mailed the text to Eric, and the official letter was faxed from LC to here by the next business day." Neubert was now enjoying himself. "They found the letter a useful and acceptable addition to the pile of papers they already had," he informed Johnson.
On Feb. 18, 1998, Mr. Neubert e-mails the good news that, "I have seen with my own eyes the books." Now, the onus shifted to the staff of the Ekaterinburg Oblast Library, who would have to store, unpack, sort and distribute the books throughout the region.
"I really would like to give proper credit to the oblast library staff who worked hard on this project," Mr. Neubert wrote. "Nadezhda Tsypina is the director of the oblast library, as well as the head of the local Russian Library Association filial. She agreed to have her library take the leading role in this project. Unfortunately, she fell ill, so much of the work fell to her principal deputy director, Liudmila Tugolukova. Nadezhda Tsypina has, thankfully, since returned to work. The person who managed to free the books from customs was another deputy, Leonid Zolotukhin. I am still not clear on how he did this; it seems almost miraculous to me. Finally, all the unpacking and sorting of the books was done by the six women of the Foreign Literature Department, led by their supervisor, Valentina Terekhovich. Now they get to catalog it all!"
"I must add," Mr. Neubert continues, "that the oblast library was quite generous with the books it received. As well as distributing to all the other recipient libraries, they gave away their second copies of Sabre titles to various area libraries, according to the subject matter."
The time had come at LC for the staff to evaluate the success of the pilot shipment, and anticipate what the Library could expect to receive in return.
Ms. Steckler says, "I think this project is another great example of the successful team work of Russian specialists here at LC."
By March 1998, Mr. Johnson is e-mailing the recipient libraries, giving them further details on what LC is interested in receiving in exchange: local vede-mosti legal gazettes, and serials and monographs devoted to the political, cultural, economic and social life of the city and region, and eliciting feedback from them. He soon begins to see results.
On April 3, Mr. Neubert supplies his colleagues with an update. Kurgan is the only recipient library that has yet to pick up its books. The oblast library in Ekaterinburg will supply LC with a number of serials, among them, ecological and legal periodicals. "A number of interesting and rather expensive books have been published locally," he reports, "and copies are being sent to LC as part of the exchange."
Echoing Mr. Johnson, who hopes the meta-exchange will strengthen existing exchange partnerships, Neubert says "The increased sense of obligation as a result of this exchange means that the Russian libraries feel a greater duty to be responsive."
By April 20, Mr. Leich has received and made recommendations on an offer list of monograph and serial titles from Cheliabinsk Oblast Library. Perm Oblast Library, too, sends offer lists, and inquires whether LC could assist in microfilming retrospective titles on-site at their library. Marina Kropotina, of the Perm Oblast Library, writes Johnson that "The books you sent us increase our English language collections considerably. They afford us the opportunity to expand access to local readers of English."
The cities of Krasnoyarsk and Ekaterinburg themselves bracket the politics and history of Russia's 20th century.
When Yudin built his home and library on the bank of the Enisei river, Krasnoyarsk was a town of 26,000, many of its inhabitants exiles of the tsarist prison system. Today, it is a city of over 600,000 and the capital of the vast Krasnoyarsk Krai, or territory. On May 15, 1998, Aleksandr Lebed, hero of Russia's war in Afghanistan and broker of an uneasy peace in Chechnya, won a run-off election for the governorship of the krai, a stepping-stone, he is quick to admit, to his running for the presidency of Russia in 2000 — "As goes Krasnoyarsk, so shall go Russia," vowed one of his campaign slogans.
Ekaterinburg is today the capital of Sverdlovsk Oblast; two names which evoke feelings of hope and despair. Ekaterinburg, founded by Peter the Great, and named for his wife, is where Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, family and attendants were brutally executed in July 17, 1918, (after being moved from Tobolsk, where Yudin grew up). The decree which dispatched the 300-year Romanov dynasty to its bloody end was signed by Yakov Sverdlov, president of the All-Russia Central Executive Committee. Following Sverdlov's death in 1919, Ekaterinburg was renamed for him. In 1992, the city shed this name, but the oblast did not. July 17, 1998, 80 years later, the Romanovs were finally officially buried in St. Petersburg.
The Library of Congress staff involved in the Russian meta-exchange pilot project must attempt to anticipate the future. Eric Johnson has given much thought to an exchange arrangement with Russian libraries involving books, electronics and people.
"We have the Federal Transfer Program as our primary book source for meta-exchanges at present," he says. "We sent no electronic material, and few reference works on this initial shipment. We had Mike Neubert on-site to anticipate and solve problems this time. All three of these areas need to and can be further developed in future exchanges."
"Ideally," Mr. Johnson continues, "we would establish a network of eight or nine distribution centers in Russia, and each would be sent material every two years — four meta-shipments a year from us.
"Now, what the libraries of Russia really want and need is reference materials and, more specifically, reference works in CD-ROM format. When I worked in LC's Congressional Research Service, we undertook a special project to help 13 former Soviet and East European parliamentary libraries obtain CD-ROMs. If we want to maximize our assistance to Russian libraries, we should provide them with CD-ROM towers, and build from that. We could create American information centers in each oblast library in this way, and open up cultural exchanges of people studying Russian and American issues."
In 1907, Gennadii Vasilevich Yudin wrote Herbert G. Putnam that his greatest hope in selling his collection to the Library of Congress was, "To encourage improved and strengthened relations and understanding between our two nations." Today, Dr. Billington envisions the same goal, with the meta-exchange pilot project being a major step in that direction.
Further meta-exchanges are already well into the planning stage. The front runner for the next shipment: Vladivostok.
