College and Research Libraries New Directions in Soviet Planned Bibliography By T H O M A S J. W H I T B Y TH E C O M M U N I S T P A R T Y congresses have always been calls to action for the various segments of Soviet society. T h e special Twenty-First Congress early in 1959 was no exception. It gave em- phasis in its resolutions to the further development of education, science, and culture (a broad area including the the- ater, the cinema, the press, museums, and libraries). Implementation of the Congress' resolutions, apparently, is to be carried out with assistance from bib- liography, that basic activity which gives support to all fields of learning. Evidence for this comes from the re- ports in Sovetskaya Bibliografiya1 and Bibliotekar',2 Soviet journals devoted to bibliography and library science respec- tively, of the Moscow conference on bib- liography held February 9-12, 1959 un- der the joint auspices of the Lenin Library in Moscow, the Saltykov-Shche- drin State Public Library in Leningrad, and the Moscow State Library Institute. It is obvious from these reports that in the seven-year period 1959-1965 the West will witness an all-out effort in Soviet bibliography. T h e topics on the agenda of the conference indicate the compre- hensive view the Soviets are taking of bibliography as a support for national aspirations. T h e areas considered are current bibliography, retrospective bib- liography, selected bibliography, re- gional bibliography, bibliography of bib- liography, and bio-bibliography. A closer look at the salient points made at the conference under several of these broads traditional divisions of bibliogra- 1 Z. L. Fradkina, "Konferentsiya po voprosam biblio- grafii," Sovetskaya Bibliografiya, L I V (1959), 104-10. 2 Fradkina, "Konferentsiya po voprosam bibliografii," Bibliotekar', V (1959), 57-58. sir Mr. Whitby is Senior Subject Cataloger, Library of Congress. phy may reveal what the Russians hope to achieve. Current Bibliography. Insofar as na- tional bibliography as a division of cur- rent bibliography is concerned, the Knizhnaya Letopis' (Book Annals) and its sister organs devoted to the listing of periodical titles, maps, prints, music scores, etc., completely cover all current publishing. However, the Russians con- sider indexing as an integral part of their system of national bibliography, and here there is still room for improvement. For example, the Soviet index, Letopis' Zhurnal'nykh Statey (Annals of Periodi- cal Articles), indexes only a partial selec- tion of periodicals. At the conference the proposal was made to enlarge the scope of this index by including additional periodical material. T h i s weekly index is general and not cumulative; with its present coverage, it cannot stand com- parison with our own H. W . Wilson Company indexes. T h e gap in periodical coverage may be explained, on the one hand, by the Soviets' preference for printed cards for periodical articles, which they assemble in library catalogs, and, on the other hand, by the emerg- ence in recent years of high quality ab- stracting services. T h e gap, however, is now to be closed with a bigger, better periodical index. T h e State Public Science and Tech- nical Library of the USSR (Gosudarstven- naya Publichnaya Nauchno-tekhniches- kaya Biblioteka SSSR) was also asked to renew issuance of the Novosti Tekhni- cheskoy Literatury (Technical Literature News), an annotated bibliography for current Soviet technical literature that ceased publication in 1953. In view of the scope of the several series of Refera- tivnyi Zhurnal (Abstract Journal) of the All-Union Institute of Scientific and Technical Information, which abstracts on a current basis both foreign and do- mestic scientific and technical literature, it is not apparent why the proposal was made at this time. A possible explana- tion is that it is now expedient to ab- stract separately the foreign literature and the domestic literature. A revitalized Technical Literature News in the form of a series of abstracts would be in line with the long-standing Soviet practice of separating the foreign f r o m the domes- tic, so characteristic of the way their li- braries, bookstores, catalogs, and bibli- ographies are organized. Such a divorce in the Referativnyi Zhurnal would also provide the recently upgraded State Pub- lic Science and Technical Library with the opportunity to launch a first-rate publication of its own, thereby enhanc- ing its reputation in the eyes of Soviet librarians and bibliographers. A closely related matter is the conference resolu- tion asking the All-Union Institute of Scientific and Technical Information to publish catalog cards for the foreign arti- cles that it abstracts. Selected Bibliography. T h e Lenin State Library of the USSR and the Salty- kov-Shchedrin State Public Library in Leningrad have always been the leaders in the field of selected, or recommended, bibliography. For the future the con- gress passed a resolution that these two large libraries adopt a unified plan for the issuance of bibliographies according to user interest in the fields of self-educa- tion, improvement of j o b qualifications, and the popularization of science. T h e State Public Science and Techni- cal Library of the USSR was urged to coordinate the work of its network of technical libraries in the creation of se- lected bibliographies for workers in the various trades (professiy). T h i s special branch of bibliography, which incidentally is a de-emphasized activity in the United States, is the So- viet way of bringing bibliography to the attention of the average citizen. Imagine putting tailor-made bibliographies into the hands of the skilled and semi-skilled workmen and farmers, as well as the en- gineers and other professional groups. T h e Soviets expect a degree of literacy on the part of the workingman of such a calibre that he will be interested in read- ing the literature in his own special field. Therefore, any system of informing the workman about the relevant literature is highly regarded by the Soviets. T h e im- pact of this approach on the dissemina- tion of knowledge is difficult to evaluate, but the Soviets are convinced that it is an effective factor in their plans for fur- ther industrialization. Regional Bibliography. It is in this area that the most telling growth will take place in the seven-year plan for bib- liography. T h e resolution of the confer- ence speaks eloquently for the intensive development to be expected in this area. It reads as follows: "In the field of re- gional bibliography it is deemed nec- essary: to prepare plans in each oblast, kray, and republic for the development of regional bibliography; to provide in each oblast, kray, and republic for the regular issuance of a bulletin of current regional bibliography; to compile and publish regional retrospective bibliogra- phies in economics, natural conditions and resources, as well as topical bibliog- raphies on current problems relating to the tasks set forth at the 21st Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union; to unite the efforts of libraries in the compilation of regional bibliogra- phies by geographic region (the Urals, the North, Siberia, etc.); to involve the All-Union Geographical Society and other societies and institutions in the 10 C O L L E G E A N D R E S E A R C H L I B R A R I E S compilation of regional bibliographies; to ask the Ministry of Culture of the RSFSR and the ministries of culture of the union republics to work on the prob- lem of the staff duties of a regional bib- liographer in each republic, oblast, and kray library, and also to hasten the solu- tion of the problem of the creation of zonal libraries; to ask the Ministry of Culture of the USSR to reach quickly a solution to the problem of local legal de- posit; to organize a special section for the coordination and technical guidance of the work on the creation of a regional bibliography within the department of library science and bibliography of the Lenin State Library of the U S S R . " 3 T h e program outlined above in the field of regional bibliography is the most comprehensive and far-reaching plan for the exploitation of current and past lit- erature that has been announced by the Soviets in recent years. It means that each geographic area and each political- administrative division through the re- gional (oblast) level will probably have its own bibliography. A program on a comparable basis in the United States would have to specify a bibliography for New England, one for the state of Maine, and one for Androscoggin County. Such bibliographies, listing all works, regardless of form, that pertain to given geographic units, will undoubt- edly exert an important influence on fu- ture research undertaken locally. It is well known that many facets of Soviet life are organized on a geographic basis, so that the development of bibliography along geographic lines has real meaning. It is possible that there is a direct rela- tionship between the organization of the state and that of bibliography. T h e feasibility of such a program in the Soviet Union can be readily seen if one recalls that the Soviets have a com- plete and current national bibliography and a system of legal deposit that has en- 3 Fradkina, "Konferentsiya po voprosam bibliografii," Sovetskaya Bibliografiya, 108-109. riched numerous large research libraries throughout the country. For many years now the Ail-Union Book Chamber has been receiving, listing, and distributing the entire published product of the So- viet Union. In the union republics simi- lar systems have been in use for almost as long. T h e beneficiaries of the system of distribution have been the large re- search libraries of the country. W i t h such a highly developed bibliographic organ- ization it requires no great imaginative effort on the part of the Soviets today to be able to exploit this legacy on a local and regional basis. Bibliography of Bibliography. T o keep track of published bibliographies in their own land the Soviets have relied principally upon the Bibliografiya Sovet- skoy Bibliografii (Bibliography of Soviet Bibliography), published annually by the All-Union Book Chamber. T h e con- ference requested that this field be strengthened by giving more attention to the bibliography of foreign bibliography and to the work on the bibliography of bibliography in the union republics. One final resolution of the conference pertained to the establishment of a pro- fessional association of librarians and bibliographers for the entire USSR. Cer- tainly the importance of the bibliogra- pher, already a much respected member of the scholarly community in the USSR, will be enhanced by the biblio- graphic seven-year plan just getting un- der way. T h e formation of a profes- sional association of librarians and bib- liographers in the Soviet Union appears, to the outsider at least, to be a rather necessary step in a situation where here- tofore there has been no official body that could speak for all librarians, much less for all bibliographers. T h e newly formed Council on Library Problems (Sovet po voprosam bibliotechnoy ra- boty) is working out the details for the proposed society. In a land where the li- brarian and bibliographer until now could expect no more than membership J A N U A R Y 1 9 6 0 11 in a cultural trade union, the formation of a professional society undoubtedly comes as a welcome development. T h e Council on Library Problems was established early in 1959 within the framework of the Ministry of Culture of the USSR. It held its first meeting in March. From published accounts it is ap- parent that the Council is to function as a coordinating and planning body for all Soviet libraries and bibliographic in- stitutions. At the first meeting it formed sections for public libraries, research li- braries, children's libraries, and techni- cal libraries. It also established commis- sions on library buildings and equip- ment, international relations, bibliogra- phy, and organization. One of its current undertakings, as indicated above, con- sists in getting a professional library as- sociation constituted. Another is the working out in detail of a seven-year plan for the large research libraries, the b o o k chambers, and the library insti- tutes. It is no exaggeration to say that the Council will act as a catalyst, appre- ciably accelerating the development of library and bibliographic work in the Soviet Union. It is apparent that the bibliographic program summarily described here sig- nifies a broad attack on the major areas of bibliography as they relate to the seven-year plan for economic, cultural, and ideological development in the So- viet Union. From the scope of the pro- gram it is also apparent that the Soviets have no misgivings or doubts about the value of various types of bibliography or the uses to which they may be put. T h e y fully believe that bibliography can help them in the attainment of national goals. T h e y know what they want from bibliography and they are taking the most direct steps to developed programs to get it. Guaranteeing the Continuity—the Library T h e celebrated definition of a college by Mark Hopkins lacked one basic ele- ment—the library. In many institutions it is very low on the totem pole—below the student union, athletic field, gymnasium, and other accepted facilities. Colleges and universities will invest great sums in expensive scientific and technological equip- ment, all of which may be necessary, but will not meet satisfactorily the needs of that branch of the institution which is extremely close to its reason for existence and which is perhaps the best single means of guaranteeing the continuity between classroom and postcollegiate culture. . . . T h e "bad b o y " of contemporary criticism, Prof. John Ciardi of Rutgers Uni- versity, banged his fist squarely on the problem in his recent address at Miami Uni- versity. " A t the heart of every college is one essential and indispensable building— the library," he stated. "If our students c o i d d use the library without supervision, you'd need only one man to run a college—a janitor to keep the place swept up." A first-rate library and the implantation of inspiration in students to use it to its fullest extent will surely help solve some of the persistent problems in American higher education. T h e triple combination of teacher, student, and library is an essential element in the fulfillment of the function of the university. Most of the others are peripheral, irrelevant, and even deleterious.—William W. Brickrnan in "The Library and Higher Education;' School and Society, LXXXVII (1959), 348. 1 2 C O L L E G E A N D R E S E A R C H L I B R A R I E S