SRC Library news (from SRC English News Letter)

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News from the Library (No.3 , December,1995)

1. Eesti Vabariigi Riigikogu protokollid [The Congressional Proceedings of the Republic of Estonia] Tallinn.

   This seventy-eight volume set contains the proceedings of the Estonian Congress during the interwar period. They cover the proceedings of the National Council from 1917 to 1919 (Maankogu protokollid. 1. Koosolekust 1. juulil 1917-78. Koosolekuni 6. veebruaril 1919), the proceedings of the Constituent Assembly at which the constitution was procleimed (the first session to the fifth session, 1919-1920)(Asutawa Kogu protokollid, 1919-1920), and the proceedings from the first State Assembly to the fifth State Assembly, 1921-1934 (I Riigikogu protokollid , V Riigikogu protokollid, 1921-1934).
   Included with the proceedings are supplementary laws and annual budgets from 1925 to 1934/35 (Eesti vabariigi kulude ja tulude eelarve 1925-1934/35. aastaks), the budgetary records concerning government enterprises and national industries, 1929-1931/32 (Riigi ettevoete ja riigi asutiste valitseda olevate eriotstarbeliste kapitalide 1929-1931/32. a. eelarved), the budgetary records concerning banks, government enterprises, and national industries, 1931/32-1934/35 (Eripoikirjade ja maaruste alusel teotsevate pankade ning katiste ja usikute riigiasutiste valitseda olevate eriotstarbeliste kapitalide 1931/32-1934/35. a. erieelarved), the budgetary records concerning land reform, 1930/31 (Asunduskapitali 1930/31. a. eelarve), and the basic customs laws (Tollipoitariifiede seadus).
   The Congressional proceedings contain materials fundamental for the study of the politics and history of Estonia before World War II.

2. The remainder of the 200 microfilm reels of the Boris Nicolaevsky Collection, about half of which was obtained in 1994, has been received. As a result, the library now has the entire Boris Nicolaevsky Collection on microfilm. A useful guidebook for this collection has been published under the title: Guide to the Boris I. Nicolaevsky Collection in the Hoover Institution Archives. 1989. (Hoover Press bibliography, 74).

News from the Library (No.4 , November,1996)

It is well-known that State Archival Service of Russia (Rossarkhiv) and Hoover Institute on War, Revolution and Peace are jointly publishing Microfilm collection of documents from 3 major archives in Moscow under the title: Archives of the Soviet Union and Soviet State. We want to report that most of its opis' (the list of documents) are among our new acquisitions this year. We are projecting to collect completely this very principal set of sources on Soviet history.

Besides this, the first installment of "Comintern Archive," published jointly by The Russian Centre for the Conservation and Study of Records of Modern History (RTsKhIDNI) and the IDC, was added to the collection of the SRC Library. This part covers documents from the first Congress (1919) to the fourth (1922).

News from the Library (No.5 , December 1997)

The acquisition of the microfilm collection of 3 major archives in Moscow under the title: Archives of the Soviet Union and Soviet State is on-going. In the last fiscal year, more than 650 reels were purchased and are now available for readers. We also continue to acquire "Comintern archives," a joint publication by the Russian Center for the Conservation and Study of Records of Modern History, and the Inter Documentation Company of the Netherlands.

The microfilm collection "Yugoslavia: peoples, states and society" was added recently to the SRC collection. It consists of 109 reels of microfilms, contains more than 2,000 pamphlets and short monographs, mainly in Serbo-Croatian languages. Original materials were in the UCLA Library.

The acquisition of G. Y. Shevelov Collection

This year, the SRC library began to purchase the personal library of Professor Geroge Y. Shevelov. Born in Lomza in 1908, he studied and taught in Khar'kov, emigrated to Germany, then to the US., where he served as a professor of Slavic philology at Columbia University from 1958 to 1977. He is a distinguished linguist, philologist and literary critic.

Last year professor Shevelov and the SRC made an agreement on the purchase of his library. Following the agreement, the SRC received part of his collection. His works will be kept in a special part of the SRC's library. We expect this acquisition will strongly enhance our collection on Slavic linguistics and the Ukraine, and contribute greatly to the development of these fields in Japan.

News from the Library (No.7 , December 1999)

The Hokkaido University Library System was upgraded in March 1999. One of the benefits of the new system is a quicker and more sophisticated version of the Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC). Prior to the upgrade, although equipped with an English interface, all locations were indicated in Japanese kanji and kana characters, therefore it was not much use for foreigners who were unfamiliar with Japanese. The new OPAC presents not only bibliographic but also other information in English, including the SRC's collection. Throughout the new system's development, the SRC's library staff cooperated closely with the University Library.

The new OPAC's URL is as follows: http://www.lib.hokudai.ac.jp/opac/

The Acquisition of the Library of Prof. James Gibson

The SRC recommended the purchase of the library of James R. Gibson, historical geographer and professor emeritus of York University, Ontario, Canada, for the University Library. The Ministry of Education, Science and Culture has accepted our proposal and has decided to finance the acquisition. The University Library acquired the collection in the beginning of 2000, and is now in the process of cataloging it.

The collection consists of 2,544 items, comprised of 8 parts:

1. ) Russian America (337 items)
2. ) History of Siberia (652 items)
3. ) Russian anthropology and ethnography (127 items)
4. ) Russian history (452 items)
5. ) Historical geography of Russia (304 items)
6. ) Contemporary USSR/CIS/Russian geography (533 items)
7. ) Atlases of USSR/CIS/Russia (84 items)
8. ) Supplementary materials (55 items)

We chose a small sample of 70 items from the Russian America's part of the collection and checked holdings of these items in Japan. Using the electronic union catalog, which includes the holdings of most major academic libraries in Japan, we found that Hokkaido University had the richest collection in this field, even before the acquisition of the collection. Hokkaido University held 37 items out of the 70 sample items. Kyushu University, with 14 items out of 70 (20%), had the second largest number. In third place were Nagoya University and the University of Tokyo, each 10/70 items. We found that 24 items in the sample met no holdings in Japan.

The Gibson collection will much enhance library holdings in the subject areas mentioned above. Not only Hokkaido University, but the historical/geographical studies of Northern areas in Japan as a whole will benefit from this acquisition.

Acquisition of Rare Ukrainian Serial Publications

We purchased this microfilm set, produced and distributed by Norman Ross Publishing Inc. this year. It consists of 513 reels, contains runs of more than 200 title of newspapers and journals. Most of them were originally published in Galicia, Bukovina or Transcarpatia at the second half of 19th century or at the beginning of 20th century under Austro-Hungarian monarchy.

We hope that this collection will be used as a fundamental source of political, social and ethnical history of Western Ukraine, much help to understand this historically and ethnically very interesting region.

Acquisition of Several Rare Materials by the University Library

The University Library purchased a small collection of Russia-related materials, financed specially by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

The purchase was projected according to the recommendation of the SRC and we are sure that these materials will serve as an organic part of the Slavic collection at the University Library.

Library of Prof. G. Y. Shevelov

Prof. George Y. Shevelov died in April 12th in this year in New York. At the time of his passing, he was 93 years old and we would like to express our sincere grief over the sad news.

As we wrote earlier in this newsletter, his library is in the process of being transferred to the Library of the SRC. Now we would like to report that the final part of his library has already shipped to Japan. Dr. Theodore Kostiuk, the heir of the late professor and Prof. Miloslava Znayenko organized the last shipment. We are very grateful for their cooperation in accomplishing the agreement between the late professor and us. That part of his library is in the storehouse of our agent, and expected to be moved to the SRC Library in the next year.

The organization of Slavic Research Center Library has been significantly changed. From July 1st 2004, it has become a branch of the University Library. At the same time, a large portion of the work at the SRC library, such as acquisition, cataloging, and circulation have moved to the related sections in the University Library. Now the SRC Library is particularly engaged in selection and budget control, reference (the maintenance of the reference collection is included) and circulation of materials which did not move to the Central Library yet.

This was a result of long negotiation between the SRC and the University Library, which wanted to merge faculty libraries concerning humanities or social sciences, such as the Faculty of Law or Faculty of Economics, to enhance its personal resources and collection.

A large part of the materials collected by the SRC Library is concentrated in one place at the stack room of the University. Such an allocation system will be continued, at least for monographs and dissertations. At first, the SRC requested to organize a new section for Slavic materials in the university library, or reorganize the Northern Collection Room to extend its coverage to the Slavic materials, but such a proposal was not accepted. In the end, the University Library accepted to retain the SRC library, which will be kept as a service point of the University Library with no full-time administrative staff.

From this July, all newly acquired materials belong to the University Library, which is now responsible for storage and circulation of them, but they are temporarily located mainly in the SRC, because of the shortage of space at the University Library. We hope that our Slavic Collection will find a more suitable location in the University Library, serving more people, and that the new organization of the Library will help its development in the future.

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Our New Acquisitions

Here we would like to introduce some of our new library acquisitions.

Among microform collections of Russian archival materials, we collected the following items:

• Russo-japanese War, 1904-1905 (170 reels)
  
• The papers of White Army, 1918-1921 (71 reels)
  
• The papers of Red Army: Political and International Intelligence Reports, 1918-1938 (76 reels)
  

All of these materials are reproduction of documents kept in RGVA ( Российский государственный военный архив ), produced by Primary Source Microfilm.

Besides them, the Library purchased materials, also concerning military history of Russia, or the history of the Russian Civil War, for exampl:

• Военный сборник (1858-1917, Microfoche 4,201 sheets, IDC
  
• Anti-Soviet Newspapers (91 reels, IDC)
  

We hope that these newly acquired materials will be useful and help the progress of the study of Russia/Soviet History in Japan.

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Most of the Library of Late Professor George Shevelov Catalogued

This year, the university library applied for a program for retrospective conversion of catalogs for collections, which includes useful, but not yet included in the Union Catalog System (NACSIS-CAT) and written not in major Western languages to catalog the library of the late Professor George Shevelov, along with the request of the SRC Library. It was adopted by the NII (National Institute for Informatics), the cataloging began this May, and most of the collection was catalogued by this October.

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