Exploring COBISS.net

Are you working on a research project that involves the Balkans?

Don't forget to take a look at COBISS.net, which provides access to the national and regional library catalogs from Slovenia, Serbia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Bulgaria and Albania.

As you can see, there are hundreds of libraries that participate in this project for sharing information across the region. Croatia is currently not a part of the project, although organizers have offered an official invitation to participate. Libraries in Kosovo will be included eventually, as they are still preparing to join. The libraries that participate range from the National Libraries of each country, to University libraries to even small local libraries. Each union catalog offers an efficient way to search for materials to borrow, or just to verify bibliographic information.

Here is a list of goals the COBISS project has for its development:

• To enhance the automation and inclusion of libraries of already participating countries in the national library information systems and in the COBISS.Net network.
• To attract the interest of libraries in Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia and Kosovo to the opportunity to evolve more rapidly by becoming part of the COBISS.Net network.
• To harmonise cataloguing rules with international recommendations and standards.
• To set up compatible research information systems (SICRIS/E-CRIS) in the participating countries (databases on researchers, research organisations and research projects).
• To encourage the competent ministries and universities of the participating countries to accept the concept of managing researchers' bibliographies within the national library systems and ensure the transparency of the research results.
• To increase the use of research results for the purpose of stimulating innovation processes and economic and social development in the region. (Source)

Resources of the National Parliamentary Library of Georgia

Scholars looking for information about Georgia should include the National Parliamentary Library in their search repertoire. This institution offers incredible access to the information it holds and organizes. Georgian is a beautiful language, but don't fret if you have no clue how to read it, or are just starting to learn it, because the website it available in English. This helps tremendously with navigation. Here http://www.nplg.gov.ge/ec/en/changedb.html is a complete list of online databases the library has compiled. Feel free to explore all the options.

For the most part, records from the National Parliamentary Library of Georgia will help verify bibliographic information for different types of resources, such as a book's publication information or an article's author, title, and page numbers. The Digital Library offers materials online and in full-text, specifically

1. The Greenstone Project of UNESCO – a digital collection of Georgian literature, including all famous authors’ works of Georgian classical literature and the authors’ short biographies. There are also complete texts on civil education.
2. A digital collection of printed archive and dissertations – complete texts of the books and theses. There are also scanned versions of printed publications in PDF format. 
3. Digital Library “Iverieli”- offers the users digitalized copies of journals, newspapers, photos and rare editions from the collections of the National Parliamentary Library of Georgia. (information directly from website)

A note about searching:
There are several options when searching on this site- English, Georgian script, Georgian transliteration, and Russian. The searcher will probably not find as much information by searching in just English. The majority of bibliographic records will either be in Russian or Georgian script. There are some resources that can help in transliteration which may, in turn, help in a search.

ALA-Library of Congress transliteration table-- http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/georgian.pdf 
Automated transliteration: http://ge.translit.cc/

SRS part of new International Area Studies Library!

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.

BookFinder

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.

Guide to Jagiellonian Library

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.

Russian Union catalog

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.