DLIS Guest Speaker: Victor Zverevich

 On April 1^st, DLIS alum and current Fullbright fellow at Rutgers University presented to the department and library staff, faculty and students: Libraries & Librarianship in Present Russia: An Attempt of Comparative Analysis from the United States. Victor, originally from Russia, held 3 different library positions upon receiving his MLS degree at St. John’s in 1995. His current work in the field is entitled: Virtual Space at the US Academic and Public Libraries: Structure, Operation and Services.

In lieu of Dr. Olson’s introduction of our guest, Victor jokingly reminded his audience that Dr. Olson forgot to highlight that while in Russia, Victor was also in charge of setting up a library on the moon. This April Fool’s joke lightened the mood as Victor revealed it was, “a great pleasure to come back to St. John’s.”

The presentation began with an overview of Russian library systems. There are three national libraries, a number of para-national libraries and many more special collection libraries. Victor describes the Russian academic library is not understood as the academic library here in the United States. Russian academic libraries are not those situated in a university, but are rather part of professional scientific research facilities. However, much like the digital migration occurring here in the US, Russia too has an all-electronic library, the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library. A comparative library in the US would be the bookless library in San Antonio, Texas.

Russia also has library associations, separately operating entities: the Russian Library Association and the Russian School Library Associations. However, these groups do not offer individual membership. Victor said, “this is unfortunate because public librarians do not feel united in Russia, they do not feel like elaborate policy makers.” However, the RLA does hold annual conferences, although many have been held in and around Siberia and consist mostly of roundtables.

Victor’s presentation made clear the profound impact the Soviet era had on libraries and librarianship. While in what the US would call the academic library setting, Russian university catalogs of full-text grey literature is currently being made available through the Information Access System to Electronic Catalogs, a Russian open access initiative, the public library’s Centralized Library System is a Soviet developed closed system. There are disconnected online database systems in most Russian libraries. But, Russian academic libraries do strive for resource access and subscribe to international database giants like EBSCO and ProQuest for scholars. Russian public libraries, on the other hand, are simply not open enough to the community, Victor said, and the lack of professional units for librarians has stunted the librarian’s active role in the community.

Librarianship education in Russia is also drastically different from its US counterpart. A LIS education in Russia takes five years to complete, however the education is free or is of low cost to students. A library student in Russia chooses a concentration immediately and completes his or her education with the same group of students. Obtaining an LIS degree in the US, however does take significantly less time in school and students have much greater freedom in course selection and concentrations, however the costs of higher education is insurmountable. Interestingly, unlike in the US where many students pursuing an LIS degree can obtain skills necessary in the archival field, archives in Russia are a separate institution and requires a completely different education in archival programs.

When asked what skills or tools learned in the United States to bring back to Russia, Victor replied with the use of cut numbers in identification and the ability to sell library cards to people in different public library districts as a means to open the Russian public library system. Victor did not believe libraries in the United States could benefit from the practices of Russian libraries.

After completing the Fullbright program Victor will return to Russia. Unlike in the United States, upon entering such a program he was unable to keep his job until his return. Nevertheless, Victor is quite certain he will find a new job easily. Any questions for Victor can be sent via email to victorzverevich@gmail.com.