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.