Slavic Reference Service

New Code of Conduct for Uzbek Students

2012-01-23T08:30:00.009-06:00

The Chronicle of Higher Education, in the "Global Ticker" section, posted a short piece on the new code of conduct proposed by the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Education of Uzbekistan. The article appeared in Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty [on Monday. January 23, 2012] under the following article title: "The Byzantine 'ethics' of Uzbek bathrooms breaks, handshakes, Youtube posts." Among the new rules listed, this one will lead to some discussion in North America: “categorically ban publishing, saving, or distribution via computers of different materials not related to a higher education institution"[as stated by Radio Free/Radio Liberty]. Researchers can view the full article here.

Searchable Database at UIUC --- The Russian Empire and Soviet Union: A Guide to Manuscripts and Archival Materials in the United States

2011-10-27T09:37:00.028-05:00

The Slavic Reference Service, in collaboration Dr. John H. Brown and Dr. Steven A. Grant, is hosting a searchable database version of The Russian Empire and Soviet Union: A Guide to Manuscripts and Archival Materials in the United States [Link note: researchers will be able to view UIUC print holdings, digitized text of the guide[the Library of Congress], and the searchable database-- all in one place]. This database will be updated and maintained by the Slavic Reference Service. Researchers can explore archival depositories and collection highlights in the continental United States, Hawaii, and Alaska. According to the compilers, the scope of this database includes: “… public and private institutions, including university libraries and archives, public libraries, museums, ethnic organizations, church and business archives, federal and state governmental archives, and both public and private historical societies. Some collections owned by private individuals are also noted.” Moreover, the materials listed in the database include: “… correspondence, reports, organizational records, account books, essays, literary manuscripts, diaries, journals, memoirs, autobiographies, photographs, films, tape recordings, and graphic material. With the exception of certain mimeographed materials and rare clippings, nearly all printed matter has been excluded. Those seeking published books, periodicals, theses, and the like should refer to appropriate catalogs of library collections. However, unpublished facsimiles, photo reproductions, and microfilms of originals (even of originals subsequently published) have been taken to be archival materials in this guide. “ In terms of geographic coverage, the compilers have tried to include “all nationalities and regions” within the former Soviet Union. In the addition to the link above, researchers can directly access this database here.

SRS part of new International Area Studies Library!

2011-07-26T07:31:00.004-05:00

As of August 22, 2011, the Slavic Reference Service will be one of the array of services offered in the new International Area Studies Unit (IAS). While the collection and staff are being moved, August 5-21, we will be closed for walk-in requests. However, we will try to address ILL, email and chat requests, as time permits.

The new unit will be locatd in room 321 Main Library, the third floor, on the south side of the building. For those familiar with the library it will be in the space formerly occupied by the English library and that of the Asian library.

Our service will continue to operate as before. We have been fortunate to secure funding for the coming year from the U.S. Department of State, Title VIII program and the library here at the University of Illinois.

The reference collections of the Slavic, Africana, Asian, Global Studies and Latin American units will all be housed in this space and the librarians of those units will be available for consultation. The Slavic Reference Service will also be available in this space.

The reference collections, periodicals and microform collections will be in Room 321. While we are in transit (August 5-21) our service could be delayed. We ask for your patience as we get settled into this new space. Barring any unforeseen delays, we should be back to normal by August 22.

Polish digital photo archive

2011-06-06T14:14:00.001-05:00

One of the types of materials frequently requested by patrons, but not always easy to locate, are photographs of particular historical persons, events or locations. Polish non-profit organization, Ośrodek Karta, which is dedicated to preserving historical materials. Among other initiatives, the organization is dedicated to digitizing its collection of over 160,000 photographs illustrating the social history of Poland and East-Central Europe in the 20th century. Although not the entire corpus has been made available online yet, the archive’s website it is well worth visiting. Some of the photographs in the collection have been donated by private persons, others are works of renowned Polish photojournalists. The range of the subjects covered is broad, from early 20th century pictures of the activities of the Warsaw Cycling Society, to portraits of the KOR and Solidarity leadership. The best represented, however are photographs showing everyday life in the Polish People’s Republic, Polish Armed Forces in the West and, perhaps most importantly ,the photographic evidence of the life of the Polish Gulag prisoners, as well as photos associated with the Katyn massacre. A separate, very interesting collection, are samizdat postcards produced during the explosion of the Solidarity movement and the martial law. One hopes that the cooperation of the archive with its sponsors continues and more of its unique collections become available electronically. To reach the archive use the URL: http://www.karta.org.pl/archiwa_i_bazy_danych/Archiwum_Fotografii/49

Polish full text works available online

2011-05-13T14:41:00.000-05:00

A page we visit often and wholeheartedly recommend is Polskie dzieła pełnotekstowe, http://www.bj.uj.edu.pl/zb/pelnotek1_pl.php which is published on the home page of the Jagiellonian Library in Kraków. It is a very extensive gateway to Polish digitization resources and projects. After providing the link to the massive Federacja Bibliotek Cyfrowych, it is divided into following sections: national projects [such as National Digital Library], regional projects [like for example the Silesian Digital Library], particular library projects [e.g. Digital Library of the Warsaw University]. That division is followed by various Polish encyclopedias and dictionaries on the web. There is a separate link to the library of ephemeral imprints from the 16^th-18^th centuries and the Library Science Digital Library. Of great interest are the links to digital versions of Polish journals online. Among them the most complete list of periodicals, arranged alphabetically:

http://www.bj.uj.edu.pl/zb/czc.pdf

The list closes with digital libraries devoted to particular disciplines: economics, philosophy/religion, history, literature, earth sciences, biology, math, engineering, pedagogy, law, and sociology.

To go to a particular site, click on the zobacz >> icon following the name of the resource.

BookFinder

2011-05-13T13:33:00.012-05:00

We have found this site, http://www.bookfi.org/ which claims to contain close to a million scanned Russian books, especially useful for Russian etexts. It also claims itself to be the largest electronic library of the Russian net. It is not possible for us to verify these claims, but preliminary searches have shown that one can find many digital versions of works on the site that are not available anywhere else. An example of such a work is Sovetskaia voennaia entsiklopediia. (One would assume that it would be impossible to find this work online for free due to copyright restrictions).

The site has a search engine, which allows for keyword or exact phrase searches. A quick browse of the results of a search using bibliografiia, shows that the site would be of great interest to serious researchers.

Below is an example of a sample hit in the database.

Please note the category, Russkoe zarubezh'e. Clicking on this subject heading leads one to other books in the category. The database also allows for separate searches by category and genre. Although we have not had the chance to work with this resource extensively, it seems to show great promise for Russian scholars searching for materials which are hard to find in digital format otherwise.

Federal'nyi Obrazovatel'nyi Portal: ESM

2010-10-20T15:46:00.001-05:00

Федеральный образовательный портал: ЭСМ

I periodically look at this site as most people do but as I was looking at it today I noticed the "Журнальныи зал" link and came across a really significant archive of social science materials. If you have not looked at this recently and have need of these publications you may find this very useful. The following titles were available there:

Общественные науки и современность

Университетское управление
Экономический журнал ВШЭ

Социологические исследования

Рубеж (альманах социальных исследований)

Журнал социологии и социальной антропологии

Экономический вестник Ростовского государственного университета

Директор школы

Экономическая наука современной России

THESIS: теория и история экономических и социальных институтов и систем

Среднее профессиональное образование

Социология: теория, методы, маркетинг

Российский журнал менеджмента

Вестник РУДН

Communitas / Сообщество

Гуманитарная мысль Юга России

Мир России

Вестник общественного мнения: Данные. Анализ. Дискуссии

Корпоративные финансы

Форсайт

Вопросы образования

Экономическая социология

Регион: экономика и социология

Журнал новой экономической ассоциации

Журнал исследований социальной политики

Вопросы государственного и муниципального управления

The archive for each title is significant, in some cases going back 20-30 years. The general search function will search the contents of all these titles as well as all the other documents on the site. These include dissertation abstracts and monographs.

Slavic Reference Service Moves to 200 Library

2010-09-10T13:06:00.006-05:00

The Slavic Reference, Serials, Newspaper and Film Collection begins the first stage of its move today from Room 225 Library to Room 200 Library. This is the first step in a move that will, ultimately place us in a new International Area Studies Unit in 2011.

If you have any difficulty finding anything please ask any of the Slavic Reference Service staff. While the first week or two may have some challenges, we hope to make the move as seamless for our users as possible. If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact us at srscite@library.illinois.edu, or on our im, "askslavic" or through facebook or call us at 217-333-1349.

Centralny Katalog Czasopism Polskich - kalendarze.

2010-08-19T09:37:00.004-05:00

Dear Colleagues, During a recent search for holdings of a truly obscure Polish newspaper (Zolnierz Wolnosci from 1943 published at the time in the USSR for the purposes of the newly-formed Polish Kosciuszko Division) I went to the Centralny Katalog Czasopism Polskich. In our work we do not use that database that often, and I at least often forget it can be very useful in tracking down holdings of periodicals (including newspapers) in Polish libraries. During the search I looked at the other databases listed under Katalogi Centralne: http://mak.bn.org.pl/w3.htm I noted a subdivision of the abovementioned catalog -- Centralny Katalog Czasopism Polskich - kalendarze. http://mak.bn.org.pl/cgi-bin/makwww.exe?BM=47 I thought I would bring this database to your attention, since calendars (those coming out serially) can be notoriously hard to track. Moreover, since Warsaw was in the Russian sector of the partition, many Russian Imperial calendars can be found on the list. As an example I could mention: ADRES KALENDAR ILI SPISOK GLAVNYCH VLASTEJ IMPERII I CINOVNIKOV CARSTVA. The holdings of the libraries listed as owning the items are not always complete, but nevertheless, this is a most useful database.

Digitized Indices at Vostochnaia Literatura (srednevekovye istoricheskie istochniki vostoka i zapada)

2010-07-23T09:32:00.043-05:00

Vostochnaia Literatura (srednevekovye istoricheskie istochniki vostoka i zapada) = Oriental Literature (medieval historical sources of the East and West). Bibliograficheskie Ukazateli Starting from the main Vostochnaia Literatura website, researchers can explore the digitized content by selecting "Ukazateli"(left navigation bar, under "katalogi"). Using Djvu, "a digital document format," the content managers have posted the following indices (Note: this page does not contain full-text articles) : Ukazatel' izdanii Arkheograficheskoi komissii (1836-1918 gg); Vestnik Evropy (Ukazatel' za 1802-1830 gg); Vostochnyi sbornik, izdavaemyi bibliotekoi im. Saltykova-Shchedrina (vyp. 1-6); Drevniaia Rossiikaia bibliofika (Parts: 1-20); Zapiski Odesskogo obshchestva istorii i drevnostei (Tom I-XXX); Sbornik Imperatorskogo Russkogo Geograficheskogo Obshchestva za 1846-1916 gg; Sbornik Imperatorskogo Russkogo Istoricheskogo obshchestva za 1867-1916 gg; Spisok izdanii Imperatorskogo Moskovskogo arkheologicheskogo obshchestva 1865-1913 gg; Istorik-marksist za 1922-1941 gg; Istoricheskii arkhiv za 1919-2001 gg; Istoricheskie zapiski (No. 1-40; No. 1-110); Krasnyi arkhiv za 1922-1941 gg; Izdania Obshchestva Istorii i Drevnostei pri Moskovskom Universitete; Russkaia beseda za 1856-1860 gg; Russkaia starina za 1870-1884 gg; Russkii arkhiv (1863-1892 and 1863-1908 gg); Russkii vestnik za 1856-1864 gg; Russkii istoricheskii zhurnal za 1917-1922 gg; Russkoe proshloe (1991-1998); Slavianskii arkhiv (Slavianskoe istochnikovedenie) za 1958-1965 gg; Srednie veka (No. 1-50); Frantsuzskii ezhegodnik (1958-1988 gg); Khristianskoe chtenie (1821-1870 gg); Chteniia v Obshchestve Istorii i Drevnostei Rossiiskikh (1882-1887 and 188-1894 gg). In order to view these digitized indices, users will need to download the Djvu Browser Plug-in (Note: DjVu Browser Plug-ins are fee, see Downloads). Without the Djvu format reader, researchers will be unable to download digitized materials. An excellent tool for information professionals and researchers to verify and complete their citations. Please contact the Slavic Reference Service if you require further assistance.

Bibliographic guides by the National Library of Russia

2010-07-16T13:06:00.004-05:00

On the National Library of Russia website a place well-worth revisiting from time to time is the section Bibliograficheskie ukazateli i spiski

To arrive at the page start at the main page of the library, choose “Resursy” and then select “Bibliograficheskie ukazateli” . The page shows a list of printed guides authored by the bibliographers of the National Library. These are on the subjects of market economics (1986-), Places of Worship in St. Petersburg (1717-1917), and Literature on Petersburg (1989-).

Of perhaps greater interest are the online guides that follow. First we find a series of bibliographic guides to several broad disciplines: architecture, biology, pedagogy, religion, physical education & sport, and philosophy. The entries are not annotated but the contents are very painstakingly subdivided by subject.

What follows is a series of in-depth bibliographies on a variety of much more narrow subjects, ranging from the history of Russia’s literary salons, to the influence of cell phones on health. These guides are also not annotated, but again are subdivided by subject in inconsiderable detail. Although the themes vary widely, and it is hard to predict what one may find, it is worthwhile to browse the list. For the lucky researcher who is working on, say , theaters of St. Petersburg, stumbling on a bibliography of over 270 items can be a virtual goldmine.

It appears that the list of guides is growing and is well worth revisiting to check for new contributions.

CIS Statistics

2010-03-18T11:37:00.006-05:00

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

2010-03-02T14:55:00.011-06:00

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.

2010-02-09T11:52:00.001-06:00

The Jagiellonian University Library in Krakow is one of Poland’s two national libraries, and a major international resource for the study of Poland, Austria-Hungary, and Eastern Europe in general. In cooperation with the Centrum Zdalnego Nauczania (E-Learning Center) of the Jagiellonian University, the Library has created a multimedia guide titled, „Jagiellonian Library for beginners.” It is aimed to help in using the Jagiellonian Library by providing an introduction on becoming the Library’s patron, on searching for materials, and on the rules governing the use of the reading rooms. The text is accompanied by numerous photos made especially to illustrate the guide’s content. The guide is further enhanced by maps, screen captures, and a short film. The guide contains also interesting facts on the recent and past history of the Library. The guide is aimed mostly at patrons who have never used the Jagiellonian Library, although the creators hope that even experienced users will find something of interest within it. The guide has been prepared in two versions: one for Jagiellonian University students (holders of USOSWeb accounts), the other for otuside users. These two versions can be accessed from the Jagiellonian Library Homepage (http://www.bj.uj.edu.pl). After accessing the Jagiellonian page, go to the bottom of the menu posted on the left of the homepage, where you will find a green-on-white banner, „Biblioteka Jagiellonska dla poczatkujacych”. After clicking on the banner (unless you are a Jagiellonian student and a USOSWeb account holder) skip to the middle of the page and follow the directions under the blue PEGAZ logo. The instructions ask for typing in the email and a security code visible on the screen. The user is then mailed a URL which leads to the guide. The guide itself is easy to navigate, since it is divided into broader menu topics, which are later subdivided into more detailed menus leading to in-depth information, all richly illustrated. This new resource, so far available only in Polish, should prove a valuable asset for all scholars planning a visit to the Jagiellonian.

The Soviet Gulag: An Online Resource

2009-10-23T08:51:00.005-05:00

"Gulag: Many Days, Many Lives" @ http://gulaghistory.org/ Today’s digital technologies create strong imperatives for collaboration between academic historians and museums, libraries, and archives across the world. "Gulag: Many Days, Many Lives" is one example of such collaboration. The website located at http://gulaghistory.org/ is supported by the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University in Virginia in association with the Gulag Museum in Perm’, Russia and the International Memorial Society in Moscow, Russia. The project is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities; Title VIII, The U.S. Department of State; Kennan Institute; and Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. "Gulag: Many Days, Many Lives" presents an in-depth look at life in the Gulag through exhibits featuring original documentaries and prisoner voices. From the front page, one may navigate tothe Archive, Exhibits or the Resources page. The Archive page may be browsed and searched either by keywords or by tags. The page contains text documents as well as photographs and other graphic resources related to the history ofthe Gulag. All materials are supplied with short bibliographic descriptions in English. Scanned copies of original documents in Russian are provided in a PDF format. The Exhibits link takes visitors on a thematic exploration of Gulag life, including a virtual tour of the reconstructed camp and museum made possible by the Gulag Museum in Perm, known as the gateway to Siberia. Online Exhibitions are available in Russian as well as English. The Resources page provides a list of recommended readings and curricula materials for history teachers. An important asset of this online resource is contribution of Steve Barnes, a Professor of History at George Mason University who hosts “Episodes in Gulag History,” designed as a series of conversations with scholars about the history and legacy of the Soviet Gulag system. Due to the fact that the website is still very much work-in-progress, only Episode 1 is available from the Resources page at this time (http://gulaghistory.org/podcast/). Episode 1 features a conversation with Lynne Viola, a Professor of History at the University of Toronto. It is available for download via Windows Media Player. The website allows you not only to subscribe to the Episodes via RSS feeds, but also to engage in a scholarly discussion in the blog area provided. Although the website appears to be in the process of construction, and it is hard to pinpoint the time of the last update, we recommend it as a useful resource for scholars interested in the Gulag history. Its major strength lies in its connection to the Museum in Perm’ and International Memorial Society in Moscow allowing instant access to materials that would be otherwise hard to obtain.

Baza Biogramow Biblioteki Jagellonskiej

2009-07-16T13:09:00.003-05:00

Since the spring of this year there is a new biographical database available on the Jagiellonian Library homepage. It is titled _Baza Biogramów Biblioteki Jagellońskiej_. The URL is: http://www.bj.uj.edu.pl/biogramy/?c=html&a=index It promises to be a valuable tool for searching for biographical information on lesser-known persons of Polish origin. The database is constructed on the base of materials that had been gathered for many years by the Jagiellonian librarians. At this point the database includes over 32,000 records and is being continually updated.. Each person’s record may contain the following information, depending on its availability --first and last name --dates and places of birth and death --field of activity or profession --titles (scientific or otherwise) --bibliographic description of published biographies or biobibliographies devoted to the person The database includes information on Poles living in the 20th and 21st centuries, mostly those born after 1870. It is linked with _Baza Ikonografii Teatralnej_, which allows it to display theater-themed photographs and their descriptions. This is only one example of several interesting biographical databases posted on the continually expanded page of the Jagiellonian. The ever-growing list now includes several regionally-oriented databases, as well as listings of persons by profession, and numerous databases covering different periods of Polish history, from the Napoleonic wars to the times of the post WWII communist regime. The list of databases is available under the URL: http://www.bj.uj.edu.pl/var/bibl_biogr_bibl1_pl.php

Gazety Rossii (1703 - 1917) database

2009-06-17T14:32:00.002-05:00

There is a new database available from the site of the Russian National Library: Газеты России (1703 - 1917) The breadcrumbs look as follows: Главная > Ресурсы > Каталоги > Электронные каталоги > Каталоги периодических и продолжающихся изданий As of June 16, 2009 the database contained 6460 entries. The catalog is a result of cooperation between three major Russian libraries: The Russian National Library in St. Petersburg (РНБ), The Russian State Library (РГБ) [Moscow], and the State Public Historical Library (ГПИБ) [Moscow]. The extensive pre-revolutionary newspaper holdings of these libraries have heretofore been accessible only in part (and only through the use of Soviet-era catalogs in printed or microfilm form that are not widely held in Western libraries). The catalog is based on the holdings of the above libraries, as well as the holdings of the Research Library of Federal Archives (НБ ФА) [Moscow] and The Belinskii Sverdlovsk Regional Universal Research Library [Ekaterinburg] (СОУНБ). It contains bibliographic descriptions of all the newspapers published on the territory of the Russian Empire (within its 1913 borders) in the Russian language, from 1703-1917 inclusively. Additionally the catalog includes newspapers published in foreign cities containing large populations of the Russian diaspora: Lviv, Chernovtsy, and Kharbin. Included also are newspapers published by military units. The database allows for a title search which can be narrowed by specifying the place of publication. The search by year of publication is possible, for now, only for the first and last years of a newspaper’s run. The entries provide the following information: · Title of publication, following the title of the final issue. If a newspaper changed titles, these changes are reflected in the notes under "Загл.". · Information on the theme of the newspapers, its links to other publications, publishing bodies, editors or founders of the periodical. This information is based on the final edition of the paper. · The dates of the publication run and place of publication are also provided · Other information, such as the organization of the paper’s internal structure, changes in layout, possible breaks in publication, changes in language of the paper, etc. are included. If there were any indexes (ukazateli) and/or supplements to the paper, these are also reflected in the description. · For ease of ordering, call numbers assigned to the papers in РГБ and РНБ (or other holdings’ location information) are included. Holding institutions are marked by abbreviations: РНБ, РГБ, ГПИБ, НБ ФА, СОУНБ. This new online resource should save researchers a significant amount of time in identifying newspaper titles that may be useful for their research, and in identifying newspaper holdings in Russia, potentially superseding a number of older print sources. Since we haven’t had the chance to test the database extensively, we base the above on the description provided on the database website.

CEJSH -- THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

2009-04-03T10:37:00.001-05:00

CEJSH -- THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES The journal, founded in 2004 publishes English abstracts of articles and reviews, which appeared mostly in the national languages in the Czech, Hungarian, Polish and Slovak scientific journals devoted to social sciences and humanities. It is being sponsored by the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences and Slovak Academy of Sciences. The service is hosted by the Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modeling, Warsaw University (ICM UW) within the Virtual Library of Science (BWN). The journal is frequently updated and at this point contains some 11 557 abstracts from 209 scientific journals. The CEJSH covers the following disciplines: ANTHROPOLOGY ARCHAEOLOGY ARTS & ARCHITECTURE ECONOMICS (Business & Management) ETHNOLOGY EDUCATION HISTORY LAW & ADMINISTRATION LIBRARY & INFORMATION SCIENCE MEDIA & COMMUNICATION PHILOLOGY & LINGUISTICS PHILOSOPHY POLITICAL SCIENCES PSYCHOLOGY SOCIOLOGY SCIENCE OF SCIENCE THEOLOGY OTHER SOCIAL SCIENCES To seach, click on find publication or find editor source You can also search the Digital Library of the ASCR, contains full-text articles published by some of the journals of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

Database Nauka Polska

2009-04-03T10:21:00.001-05:00

Database Nauka Polska http://nauka-polska.pl/index.shtml This is an internet portal which showcases the database maintained by Ośrodek Przetwarzania Informacji since 1991. It is the most complete database of this type in Poland and is available free of charge. The previous version of the portal can be viewed under http://nauka.opi.org.pl The databases constituting the portal contain over 121, 000 records. The data are grouped in several sections: --information on Polish scholars (holders of PhD degrees, professors, etc.), living in Poland and abroad --information on Polish scholarly institutions of all types --information on scholarly research works, such as dissertations or post doctoral research articles. The contents, numbering over 100,000 records and backdated to 1999 and parallel the database SYNABA. --information on scholarly conferences, exhibitions, etc. --information on ongoing research projects To search a database, click on Szukaj which can be found in the upper right corner of the particular page. There is also a help section found under Pomoc. The database is continually updated.

Russian memoir sources digitized

2009-02-02T09:02:00.002-06:00

I would like to recomment a website titled Universitas Personarum, which is maintained by the Moscow State University. The URL is: http://www.srcc.msu.su/uni-persona/ The site is dedicated to Russian memoir literature. Under the heading of Dnevniki i zapisnye knizhki, we find a series of full-text memoirs of several prominent Russian figures, mostly literary and cultural luminaries. More importantly, though, the heading Issledovaniia dnevnikovoi prozy leads to the digitized and searchable version of P.A. Zaionchkovskii's Istoriia dorevoliutsionnoi Rossii v dnevnikakh i vospominaniiakh. Unfortunately only the first three volumes have been scanned so far. (The website does not provide a reason for this, nor is it clear whether the remainder of the work will be put in digital format) The same link leads also to works by Mikhail Mikheev on the Soviet memoir literature of the 1930s and, Russian memoirists of the turn of the century, and others. The cite appears to be under construction and not all of the material is of equal weight and interest, but the digitized version of Zaionchkovskii, albeit incomplete, makes it worthwhile to visit.

Bulgarian Newspapers & Journals at the Library of Congress

2008-12-04T09:08:00.007-06:00

The Library of Congress' European Reading Room has recently added two valuable lists of serial publications from Bulgaria to their impressive array of digital resources, Bulgarian Newspapers at the Library of Congress and Bulgarian Journals at the Library of Congress. Both lists were compiled by the Bulgarian specialist at LC, Angela Cannon. These are not just lists of titles held. Each entry includes publication information, title changes, LC holdings and links to any online issues.

For those interested in the region, planning research in this country or abroad this is an extremely useful site.

Both the journal and newspaper pages include introductions with bibliographic guides to the topic. The entry information also indicates the format of the material, i.e., film or print, that is available.

SCIndex: Serbian citation index

2008-11-14T10:12:00.002-06:00

SCIndex: Serbian citation index ( http://scindex.nb.rs/) contains over 21500 articles from 357 different Serbian journals from 2000. on, and in social sciences from 1991 on. It is useful for verification purposes, as long as one remembers to also check with National Library of Serbia's catalogs and databases when the citation you are looking for is not found on SCIndex.

Slovenian Library Online

2008-11-14T10:04:00.006-06:00

Slovenian Library Online (Digitalna knjiznica Slovenije) is a portal with collection of key scientific and scholarly journals. The portal offers the full searchable text and also provides a search by bibliographic data. Availability of specific journal issues depends on publishers. http://www.dlib.si/vsebina_eng.asp?id=zbirke Articles are available as PDF documents and also as a html preview.

Polish medical journals in full text

2008-11-14T09:07:00.016-06:00

Termedia Publishing House http://www.termedia.pl/ publishes medical journals which might be of interest to those interested in international science publications. One can chose between an abstract or full text articles. Every article is in a PDF form, and available for free, one time registration is necessary. Journals are in English or in Polish language. Polish language journals are shown in parenthesis (PL).

Troubles with transliteration

2008-10-17T14:48:00.098-05:00

In theory, it is a straightforward process to transliterate words (i.e., book titles) from a language that uses a non-Latin script (e.g., Russian, Serbian, Yiddish, Tajik, etc.) into Latin letters so that they can be searched and alphabetized properly in Western library catalogs. In practice, several competing systems of transliteration are in use, and they are not always consistently applied. This means that a library user must know which system(s) of transliteration are being used in a particular library catalog (or union catalog, database, search engine, portal, etc.) and repeat, vary, or truncate their searches accordingly.

Researchers may be familiar with examples such as

and

, but consider the title of the following newspaper, published in Moscow by the Russian Orthodox Church from 1880-1917:

1. Московскія церковныя вѣдомости

(pre-1918 & émigré Russian orthography, as it actually appeared)

2. Московские церковные ведомости

(post-1918 Russian orthography, commonly found in footnotes)

3. Moskovskīi︠a︡ t︠s︡erkovnyi︠a︡ vi︠e︡domosti

(ALA-Library of Congress transliteration of #1)

4. Moskovskie t︠s︡erkovnye vedomosti

(ALA-Library of Congress transliteration of #2)

5. Moskovskija cerkovnyja vjedomosti

(DIN transliteration of #1--this system is commonly used in Germany)

6. Moskovskie cerkovnye vedomosti

(DIN transliteration of #2)

7. Moskovskìâ cerkovnyâ vědomosti

(ISO transliteration of #1--this system is commonly used in E. Europe)

8. Moskovskie cerkovnye vedomosti

(ISO transliteration of #2)

(Note: if the diacritical marks in the above examples are not displaying correctly, it may be because your web browser does not recognize the characters. For more on this problem, see below; for a more accurate view of the diacritics, try viewing this page in Firefox rather than Internet Explorer.)

From 1869 to 1879, this newspaper was published under the title Московскія епархиальныя вѣдомости. The second word of this title provides another good example of the variation that must be taken into account when searching North American and European library catalogs. (The orthographies/transliterations appear in the same order as in the previous example.)

1. епархиальныя

2. епархиальные

3. eparkhialʹnyi︠a︡

4. eparkhialʹnye

5. eparchialʹnyja

6. eparchialʹnye

7. eparhialʹnyâ

8. eparhialʹnye

In order to perform a comprehensive online search (encompassing, for example, WorldCat, Karlsruhe KVK, The European Library, and RIBK), all of these permutations must be used. Leibniz Universität Hannover has posted a table of the major transliteration systems at http://www.unics.uni-hannover.de/ntr/russisch/umschrifttabelle.html which is useful for the post-1918 Russian alphabet, but unfortunately does not include pre-1918/émigré letters such as

PDF files containing transliteration systems, brief explanatory notes, and references for dozens of languages are available at http://transliteration.eki.ee/, although the compiler stresses that his work is not meant to be taken as authoritative.

In recent years, some library catalogs in Western Europe and North America have developed the ability to display non-Latin titles and other bibliographic information in the original script (usually accompanied by a transliterated version). Thus it is possible in a very limited number of cases to dispense with transliteration systems altogether, and conduct searches directly in Cyrillic, Arabic, Chinese, etc. At the present time, however, only a tiny fraction of Western library catalog records include this information, so users will continue to need to transliterate their search terms for the foreseeable future.

Two other facts should also be noted: 1) In general, the diacritical marks that accompany some transliterated letters (i.e., ĭ, ž, i︠a︡ , etc.) can be ignored when searching. For example, "okti︠a︡ brʹskiĭ" (the ALA-LC version of "октябрьский") may simply be entered as "oktiabrskii", and "âŝik" (the ISO version of "ящик") can be searched as "asik". 2) The interaction between various encoding systems often causes diacritical marks to display incorrectly when printed, e-mailed, or otherwise viewed by any means other than that by which they were entered (even the diacritics in this post may not display correctly on all computers, and several of them had to be converted into image files just to enable this post to be published). For example, "Kievskai︠a︡" might appear as "Kievskai?a?", "Kievskaikila", "Kievskain+áan+í", "", "Kievskaiï¸ aï¸¡",

"Kievskai&# 65056;a&# 65057;",

, or other unhelpful combinations. This is also true of languages (German, French, Czech, etc.) that are written in the Latin script but include phonetically-significant diacritics such as

which may appear as strange symbols, Greek letters, or shapes when cut and pasted into Word documents, e-mail messages, etc.

Looking for information on current Russian serials?

2008-10-15T07:25:00.004-05:00

Serial publications can be difficult to track if you don't have a large library nearby. One site that can help is Media Guide. While this is not a comprehensive list, there is information on over 2600 titles. What is available here is a bit unpredictable. For example, there is an extensive entry on Uchitel'skaia Gazeta but nothing for Knizhnoe Obozrenie. The entries include statistical data on web usage, publication history, tirazh, contact information and much more. Much of the information here is meant for advertisers but certainly has other applications.

The search interface allows you to search by a variety of features including type of publication, cost, periodicity, place of publication, title, etc.

Entries supply links to the main page for the publication and contact information for the editors.

Have you looked at feb-web.ru lately?

2008-07-03T13:28:00.007-05:00

Have you looked at feb-web.ru lately? This is a cite where frequent checks really are useful. Recently the full text of Masanov's pseudonym dictionary as well as the best reference sources for periodicals have all been added. The image to the left shows some of the sources/categories of sources available. Highlighted are the links to Masanov's dictionary and the periodical resources. The complete text, fully searchable, is available for these sources.

The pseudonym dictionary is more than just a list of author's and their pseudonyms as it includes in many cases the publications and dates when a particular pseudonym was used.

The periodical bibliographies included here are:

Русская периодическая печать, 1702—1894. — 1959 Русская периодическая печать, 1895 — октябрь 1917. — 1957 Лисовский. Библиография русской периодической печати, 1703—1900 гг.: Материалы для истории русской журналистики: В 2 кн. Библиография периодических изданий России, 1901—1916 Сводный каталог сериальных изданий России, 1801—1825.

If you are seeking information on periodical publications from the pre-revolutionary period this will be the best site to consult. The nature of the information in each of these sources, and its organization varies quite alot. So while Lisovskii's bibliography is probably the most comprehensive list of titles, Русская периодическая печать includes the most detailed descriptions of the type of material included in each publication. Библиография периодических изданий России Rossii is the most comprehensive list of titles for the late imperial period and has the added advantage of an index volume with a subject list. Also, each of its entries include the issues that were published for each year and their volume/issue numbers.

The final title in this list has yet to be scanned for the project.

The Russian National Library scanned the card catalog of its Armenian-language holdings

2008-06-19T12:08:00.012-05:00

The Russian National Library scanned the card catalog of its Armenian-language holdings (over 64,000 items) and made it available online some time ago. They recently added part of their Georgian card catalog (from ა through დუმბაძე) as well, which will contain records for over 100,000 items when fully mounted. While many of the cards include Russian versions of the titles and authors' names, these cannot serve as access points since the full text of the cards is not searchable (unlike the State Public Scientific- Technical Library's scanned card catalog, where this kind of thing can be done). This means that search terms must be entered in Armenian or Georgian script, respectively. It also means that search capabilities are limited to browsing the portion of the Armenian or Georgian alphabetical order where the search term (i.e., an author's surname or the first word of a title or institution) may appear as the first word on the card (i.e., as the main entry), just as if one was standing in front of an actual card catalog and flipping through the cards one by one. Nevertheless, this is a major resource for scholars of the south Caucasus, as it provides access to the National Library's monographic holdings in these languages dating from the early 17th century to the present. General records for serials (without holdings information) are also included, and the Georgian catalog also includes records for avtoreferaty of dissertations.

Records for individual articles in the Kazakh and Georgian National Libraries

2008-01-31T11:46:00.002-06:00

Records for individual articles in the Kazakh and Georgian National Library's online catalogs The National Library of Kazakhstan (http://www.nlrk.kz/) only has records for a fraction of its holdings online, but among those it does have are tens and tens of thousands of records for individual newspaper articles, journal articles, and individual papers from published conference proceedings, dating back to at least 1949. It is not clear how comprehensive the coverage is, especially for earlier years, but the value of having these records online is obvious, both for researchers and for librarians seeking to verify citations. Russian-language and Kazakh-language materials must be searched separately, the former in "Казахстан: прошлое и настоящее (рус)", and the latter in "Казахстан: прошлое и настоящее (каз)". These databases can be selected at http://212.13.133.56/. The keyword search does not appear to function properly, and some of the other search capabilities may not work as well as they might, but this is nevertheless a huge benefit to scholars and librarians. The National Parliamentary Library of Georgia also has a large number of records for individual articles online, including records for over 30,000 Georgian-language newspaper articles dating from 1852 to 1912 (http://www.nplg.gov.ge/ec/search.php?lang=en&db=pera). Several other article databases are listed at http://www.nplg.gov.ge/ec/changedb.php?lang=en&refurl=%2Fec%2Fsearch.php. Other national libraries in the region have recently begun to do some cataloging at the article level, as certain Eastern European libraries began to do several years ago. This is a welcome trend.

Retrospective resources at Knizhnaia Palata

2007-10-18T10:40:00.002-05:00

Knizhnaia Palata www.bookchamber.ru The Russian Book Chamber has been a source of bibliographic information in print and electronic form for many years. They have now added some new retrospective resources to their current online searches that could be of interest to scholars. They have recently added several databases that provide online, free access to the books formerly only listed in print in Knizhnaia Letopis or electronically via the scanned catalog at the Russian National Library. There are two databases in particular that will be of interest to those seeking Russian language materials of the early Soviet period: the national bibliography for 1917-1930 and the national bibliography for 1939-45.

Internet Usage World Statistics

2007-10-18T09:49:00.003-05:00

Internet Usage World Statistics http://www.internetworldstats.com/ The current interest in Internet usage makes this a very useful site, at least for comparative purposes. The statistics here largely come from the United Nations. When compared with many of the stats coming out of ISI Emerging Markets. It is a fairly thorough listing of statistics for most countries of the region. There are also links for numerous supporting sites here.

Russian Union catalog

2007-09-12T13:59:00.003-05:00

Union Catalogs are always changing. One of the Russian sites that is really useful is the RIBK (Russian Library Information Consortium). The search mechanism sends queries to the Russian State Library, the National Library, Moscow University Library, the Rudomino Foreign Language Library and the Parliamentary Library. Many of the individual databases of these libraries are available via the interface as well.

Bibliographic Management Tools

2007-08-17T12:34:00.002-05:00

We are sometimes asked by our patrons about the various bibliographic management tools available on the market, such as RefWorks, Endnote, etc. I pulled together a few links that give a good background regarding the subject of bibliographic software. The pages I link to range from very in-depth ones, some of which are continuously updated, to quick overviews, some in easy to read table form.

Here is a Berkeley site with nice tutorials, in depth descriptions of each program, FAQs and more. Discussed are EndNote, RefWorks, QUOSA, and Reference Manager.

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/PUBL/endnote.html

There is also this detailed side by side comparison of several programs including RefWorks, Biblioscape, Bookends, Library Master, ProCite, EndNote, Reference Manager, and Papyrus:

http://www.burioni.it/forum/ors-bfs/text/6e12400-42.html

Tufts also has a nice page comparing Endnote, RefWorks, and Reference Manager.

http://www.library.tufts.edu/hsl/education/endnote_refworks.html

For an overview at a glance here is everything about the main features of the programs put together in one big table (from a University of Washington page). Compared are: RefWorks, Endnote, Procite, and Reference Manager.

http://healthlinks.washington.edu/howto/citation_tools_comparison.pdf

Czech publications on history post 1990

2007-07-17T13:26:00.003-05:00

http://biblio.hiu.cas.cz/english.html

The database BIBLIO is a working database of the Bibliographical department of the Library of the Historical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. It contains monographs and articles in periodicals and collections of historical orientation published after the year 1990, with the bohemian character (Czech author, Czech topic, published in the Czech Republic). The database serves as a groundwork for the publishing of the yearbook Bibliography of the History of the Czech Lands.

The archaeological records and records with Slovak topic are included only selectively, because they are processed in the Library of Archaeological Institute in Prague and in the Bibliographical Department of Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava.

The meaning of the abbreviations of the excerpted periodicals and collections you can find at the bottom of pages with the found records. Complete list is here.

Number of records in database: 110 979 Date of the last update: 23. 4. 2007

Lexinfosys-Great source for Central Asian legal information

2007-06-28T08:48:00.001-05:00

Another useful legal source Lexinfosys. This one is focused on Central Asia. URL:

http://www.cis-legal-reform.org/indexdb.asp?langi=eng

Each of the numbers here represents a subject category. You can get a list of the categories by clicking Show. Lots of translation, Russian and vernacular language materials.

World Law Guide for post-Soviet legislation

2007-06-28T08:37:00.001-05:00

World Law Guide http://www.lexadin.nl/wlg/legis/nofr/legis.php Really nice source for legislation from the post-Soviet period. Quite a bit in translation and a section on each page of legal sources

Estonian National Library

2004-12-16T13:25:00.001-06:00

Estonian National Library URL: http://www.nlib.ee/ The library catalog here allows access to citations for: Items (books, periodicals, sheet music, maps, sound recordings) acquired by the Tallinn libraries of the ELNET consortium JOURNAL ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN ESTONIA BOOKS PUBLISHED IN ESTONIA regardless of the language of publication. PERIODICALS PUBLISHED IN ESTONIA (regardless of the language). FOREIGN BOOKS issued after 1992 and (data on books published in Cyrillic is missing) - information comes from the union catalogue of foreign books. FOREIGN BOOKS published before 1992 and obtained by the National Library from (regardless of the language).

2004-12-16T13:01:00.000-06:00

National Bibliography and National Libray acces as Subject Bibliography?

If you have ever struggled with research to compile a comprehensive list of publications on a topic it might be worth your time to reexamine the national bibliographies of Eastern Europe in their electronic manifestations. In the East European nations in particular, some of these sources are really remarkable!

2004-02-20T15:36:00.000-06:00

MAK w WWW Polish National Bibliography Online Searchable by author, title, subject, series title, and keyword. The online bibliography includes records from 1976-

2004-02-20T15:27:00.000-06:00

LIBIS Lithuanian National Library Catalog While not truly the bibliography it is an excellent source for current publications and does contain brief records for very recent materials that are on order. There is also an article search available from this interface.

2004-02-20T15:17:00.000-06:00

Latvian National Bibliography - Aleph main menu National Bibliography of Latvia Online The National Bibliography online includes the monograph and periodical sections and has a very comprehensive search structure. Collections will often have their contents listed

2004-02-20T15:11:00.000-06:00

Magyar Nemzeti Bibliogr�fia - K�nyvek Bibliogr�fi�ja Hungarian National Bibliography This site includes the last 4-5 issues of the Hungarian National Bibliography. There is a general subject guide that reflects the organizaiton of the printed bibliography.

2004-02-20T15:01:00.000-06:00

Bulgarian National Library Bulgarian National Library with a variety of sources available including the following: Машинен каталог на български и чуждестранни книги Своден каталог на чуждестранните периодични издания в България (1984 - ) Своден каталог на чуждестранните книги (1995 - Статии от българските списания, вестници и сборници

2004-02-20T14:55:00.000-06:00

NKC Online katalog a bibliograficka baze Narodni knihovny CR Czech National Bibliography The bibliography online includes records from the cd version of the bibliography. Like the cd, the web version is divided into databases for articles, books, "Foreign Bohemica", dissertations, periodicals, authority records and "Special Materials".

2004-02-20T14:45:00.000-06:00

NSK - National Bibliography Croatian National Bibliography online. The series on mongraphs, periodicals and articles are all available at this site. There is retrospective depth to at least 1999 for all materials.