Virtual Slavica: Digital Libraries, Digital Archives

Citation

Myhill, M. (2006), "Virtual Slavica: Digital Libraries, Digital Archives", Program: electronic library and information systems, Vol. 40 No. 4, pp. 392-393. https://doi.org/10.1108/00330330610707971

This is the latest book in a series on Slavic resources to be published by the Haworth Press. The simultaneous publication as Slavic & East European Information Resources (Vol. 6 Nos. 2/3) gives away its true provenance and, I suspect, is more successful in periodical format. As a monograph, the subject coverage is so diverse that there is almost no common thread (beyond “virtual Slavica”) which holds the work together. At the same time, there are a number of seminal contributions especially those relating to digital reference in Slavic and East European Studies, relevant copyright law and a FAQ on Cyrillic multilingual computing.

In 1994, on the first of many academic visits to the former Soviet Union, I learned that things we already took for granted in the West, were regarded as “in the future” by our Russian counterparts. At that time in the UK, we were probably as much as four years ahead of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS – formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union) in terms of internet connectivity and use of (comparatively undeveloped) online resources. However, the Russian psyche is one of ingenuity in the face of adversity and it comes as no surprise to read chapters describing major collaborative projects such as the Comintern Archives Online and database, the FEB‐web project (Fundamental Digital Library on Russian Literature and Folklore) and the Central Eurasian Interactive Atlas project which have all been initiated in the interim and are extremely successful.

Less useful contributions cover user attitudes to the (very specific) Meeting of Frontiers project, setting up a Cyrillic OPAC (ultimately, this depends on the library management system in use) and adding value to Slavic electronic texts (which, surely, must have an intrinsic value of their own anyway). A further chapter outlines difficulties running grant‐funded projects in Russia, but that only confirms another facet of post‐Soviet life – circumstances change quickly in a fast‐moving political environment – take nothing for granted especially if it involves money.

The most serious weakness of this work, however, is that it is almost entirely US‐centric. There is almost no reference to the huge amount of work that goes on in individual institutions across the Russian Federation and other CIS states in creating very significant but “local” electronic resources, nor even those between other global sectors such as the European Union. The wealth of recent online information developments in the CIS alone makes this work akin to a Russian counterpart, describing the effects of a handful of major, joint US‐Russian information initiatives such as “Virtual America”. It is just as well that the final chapter, relating to digital reference in Slavic and East European Studies, so superbly demonstrates the vast extent of the potential information sources to be considered, their ongoing proliferation and the pure serendipity and experience that uncovers them. Thank goodness for Reference Librarians!