NEWS AND VIEWS: An insight into librarianship in Ukraine (02/24/02)

NEWS AND VIEWS: An insight into librarianship in Ukraine

by Dr. Christine Sochocky

The large public library of the Lviv Oblast was located in the city center, adjacent to the Halytskyi Rynok. The 18th century mansion was charming, but it was obvious to this visitor in February of 2000, that it was crumbling. Inside, the electric wiring looked particularly dangerous. On a subsequent visit, I saw all the books in bundles, tied with rope, ready to be moved. Where would they be going? I was told that it was up to the city and the oblast administrations to decide. Upon my third visit, in April 2002, I found the gate to the building grounds locked.

The collection now has a new home, and its story may serve to illustrate that libraries in Ukraine are among the worst victims of economic stagnation. One has to wonder how they operate on the totally inadequate government support and how librarians survive on meager salaries, if and when they are paid at all. I would tell my students that it was not our duty to cultivate plants in the library, as I would try to instill the concepts of professionalism, yet in my heart I was grateful for all the greenery in the library. When collections cannot be replenished with new materials and economic constraints impede productive development, that greenery is important.

In Soviet times libraries were officially held in esteem, sharing the same general reverence a Soviet citizen professed for culture in general. Although Soviet claims regarding the complete eradication of illiteracy and UNESCO statistics indicating that Soviet citizens read more than anyone in the world were exaggerated, it is true that books were cheap and that Soviet citizens did read a lot. Since then, the prevalence of television and the unsubsidized price tags attached to books have undermined the well-being of libraries. It is paradoxical that today, given the new realities and possibilities of our information age, Ukrainians read less than before. (Laws that prohibitively tax Ukrainian publishing and favor imports of Russian publications constitute another key factor with which libraries and readers have to contend, but this matter warrants separate consideration.)

A very positive development in librarianship in Ukraine is the enhancement of professional education. Whereas librarianship formerly was relegated to the institutes of culture, the field is now usually offered as a university program. In Rivne, for example, the former institute of culture since 1988 has been a part of the Rivne Liberal Arts University (Rivenskyi Humanitarnyi Universytet) and the four-year program has some 90 matriculated students. In 1999 the Ivan Franko National University in Lviv set up a library science section within the department of philology. In Kharkiv, the traditional center of education for librarianship and of professional publication, Dr. Natalia Kushnarenko heads the department of librarianship and information at the State Academy of Culture, and is a recognized authority in the field.

Although there still are programs offered by certain establishments "to prepare village and school librarians," the level of library education in Ukraine is rising and the profession will gain in quality and prestige as a result.

The Ukrainian Library Association was established in March 1998 and is headed by Valentyna Pashkova. The most authoritative journal, the Bibliotechnyi Visnyk (The Library Herald) places emphasis on the improvement of services and marketing. The latter constitutes a new concept for libraries, which, like other cultural institutions, were previously fully funded by the government and thus their existence was fully assured, regardless of the degree of public patronage.

Today government support is insufficient. Possibilities of charging fees for certain services are being discussed. While everyone believes that library technologies will revitalize libraries, these remain a dream for most libraries. However, it should be noted that a U.S. special grant of $400,000 was recently designated for the computerization of libraries in Ukraine and this should help considerably.

Reorganization would also solve some problems. Lviv, for example, has many libraries of all types and some amalgamation would be an efficient, cost-cutting measure. However, given that the libraries function under various, often competitive, governing bodies, most library directors would likely be reluctant to join forces with anyone. Nevertheless, there are some libraries that, in the near future, will probably form consortia and share materials as cooperatively as modern technology allows.

Two very active and growing libraries in Lviv are the venerable Stefanyk Research Library of the Academy of Sciences and the newly created library of the Lviv Theological Academy. Both have very dedicated directors and both have received considerable financial help from the diaspora. Such is the case also with the library of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Kyiv. It is relatively well-endowed, technologically sophisticated and optimally used. The renowned Vernadsky Library of the Academy of Sciences and the Library of the Parliament of Ukraine enjoy visible government support.

The recent amalgamation of the Pedagogical Institute Library in Kyiv and the Central Library of the Ministry of Education into the State Scientific Pedagogical Library, under the directorship of Paula Rohova, should prove to be most effective. These institutions will be the first to enjoy the sharing and enrichment that new technologies facilitate.

About half of Ukraine's 45,000 libraries are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, and public libraries are administered by the Ministry of Culture. The network of libraries that belong to the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine form a category unto themselves and enjoy the highest prestige. The humblest and poorest are the school libraries, and they are the ones in need of the most radical changes. As teaching in schools will change from the single textbook basis, school libraries will need to provide materials to support the curriculum, and school librarians will become directly involved with the programs.

Although the Spetskhrany (special collections) have opened, access to materials and forthcoming service to patrons do not come spontaneously to librarians who only recently were instruments of state ideology and guarded, rather than dispersed, information. Furthermore, there is the belief that scholarly bibliographers represent the highest echelons of the profession and that the functions of librarianship as a service profession were lowly and modest.

Today libraries will have to study the communities they serve, market their services and change into more active, outward-oriented institutions. Eventually, the traditional centralization and government control will weaken, giving way to more diversity and creativity. The profession is slowly rising to the challenge and, as it does, so will its prestige.

Many aspects of librarianship in Ukraine are problematic. Libraries are not a high priority of the government, and they are too weak to be independent of government support. This state of affairs is most ironic in our information age.

The Ukrainian Library Association (Ukrainska Bibliotechna Asotsiatsia) is a member of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), and Ukrainian librarians occasionally participate in international conferences, as well as go abroad for periods of study. The general profile of the profession, however, is lowly and self-effacing.

In the last decade, Ukraine, or more specifically Crimea, has regularly hosted a series of international conferences that have gained importance in international librarianship. These, however, do not actually represent a measure of achievement of Ukrainian librarianship as the conferences are organized on the initiative of the Russian Library Association, which also reaps the resulting professional and financial profits. Ukrainian librarians play only a minor, if any, role in these conferences.

As difficult as the overall situation is, the enthusiasm and vision of some of the individuals in the profession bodes well for a promising future. In Rivne I had the opportunity to give a kind of "how we do it in America" speech to a large audience at the oblast library. The atmosphere was collegial and many questions were asked. Yet I admit that I was at a loss to answer one particular question for, indeed, I do not know how many American librarians would continue to work if they had not been paid for months.

I still feel the energy and good will of that audience, and I know that they will do great things when given half a chance.

Dr. Christine Sochocky taught library science at the Ivan Franko National University in Lviv and at the Liberal Arts University in Rivne as a Fulbright scholar in 1999-2000.

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