CIS Statistics

 

http://www.cisstat.com/eng/frame_nacserv.htm

This is a rich and complex site with a wealth of statistical information available. For those interested in the region it is an extremely useful overview of comparative statistical information with posts of the most current statistical data available. It includes links to all of the statistical offices for the individual republics. There are pages with the macroeconomic indicators for each republic, economic forecasts for the region and the individual republics, a database of the compiled CIS statistics. links to news updates on the economic situation of the area, and many other features. What is pictured above is the English language interface. There is also a Russian interface available.

Among the various resources available are links to pdf copy of the full text of many of the regional statistical sources, excel-format statistical data from Kazakhstan and Moldova.

Virtual Roma exhibit at The European Library

Among its many other valuable features (i.e., its searchable union catalog of the collections of European national libraries), The European Library has recently mounted a virtual online exhibit of materials relating to the Roma (perhaps more commonly known in the U.S. and U.K. as "Gypsies"), who are an important (though often neglected) part of many societies covered by the Slavic Reference Service. Libraries contributing to the exhibit include the national libraries of Denmark, Moldova and Georgia, and the Phonogrammarchiv of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, but the leading role is played by the National Library of Serbia's excellent Department for Digitization and the private collection of the exhibit's curator, Dr. Dragoljub Acković. While the means of navigating among the Roma-related full-text books, documents, photographs, postcards, and audio and video recordings in each part of the exhibit is visually appealing, on occasion it does not (in the experience of this contributor) function as it should. Visitors can choose whether to navigate in Romani, English or Serbian, and an overview of the virtual exhibit by the curator is provided.