UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA
The Present State of Ukrainian Bibliography and Its Critical Tasks
Description:
CIUS Seminar Audio Part 1 and 2.
On December 6, Edward Kasinec, librarian at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute , gave a seminar entitled, "The Present State of Ukrainian Bibliography and Its Critical Tasks."
Mr. Kasinec began his seminar with a frank evaluation of the failure of Ukrainians in North America to develop Ukrainian bibliography as a form of professional scholarship. Despite the physical destruction of Ukrainian librarians and libraries in the 1930s, during the war, and even recently with the burning of the library of the Academy of Science of the Ukrainian S.S.R., Ukrainian librarians in North America have failed to systematically structure and make easily available Ukrainian collections and bibliographies, leaving scholars with major gaps in their research.
In recent years the climate for Ukrainian bibliographic work has changed: the National Archives in Ottawa, the Kennan Institute of the Smithsonian complex, and the Library of Congress in Washington are all now involved in surveying and preserving Ukrainian materials. Consequently a series of important projects now need to be undertaken. There is a need to begin to teach courses on the history of Ukrainian bibliography, and on works by regional, pre-revolutionary and post-revolutionary bibliographers. There is a need to develop research guides and indices for material from Ukraine and for materials that were produced by the Ukrainians in immigration. Indices for newspapers are particularly important. There is a need to establish who the best dealers are in Ukrainian materials, to develop better systems of classification and to upgrade the size of Ukrainian collections (relative to Russian collections) held at North American libraries. Mr. Kasinec suggested six priorities: a comprehensive bibliographical research guide to serve as an introduction to specific disciplines, a survey of the elements of the total book production on Ukrainian territory, reprinting classics in hard copies, developing a multiple genre approach to historical research, circulating information on low run Soviet publications available in the West (i.e., indices to serial publications), and locating and collecting unique materials held in private collections.
Found in CIUS Newsletter Vol 3 Issue 1 (Winter 1978)
On December 6, Edward Kasinec, librarian at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute , gave a seminar entitled, "The Present State of Ukrainian Bibliography and Its Critical Tasks."
Mr. Kasinec began his seminar with a frank evaluation of the failure of Ukrainians in North America to develop Ukrainian bibliography as a form of professional scholarship. Despite the physical destruction of Ukrainian librarians and libraries in the 1930s, during the war, and even recently with the burning of the library of the Academy of Science of the Ukrainian S.S.R., Ukrainian librarians in North America have failed to systematically structure and make easily available Ukrainian collections and bibliographies, leaving scholars with major gaps in their research.
In recent years the climate for Ukrainian bibliographic work has changed: the National Archives in Ottawa, the Kennan Institute of the Smithsonian complex, and the Library of Congress in Washington are all now involved in surveying and preserving Ukrainian materials. Consequently a series of important projects now need to be undertaken. There is a need to begin to teach courses on the history of Ukrainian bibliography, and on works by regional, pre-revolutionary and post-revolutionary bibliographers. There is a need to develop research guides and indices for material from Ukraine and for materials that were produced by the Ukrainians in immigration. Indices for newspapers are particularly important. There is a need to establish who the best dealers are in Ukrainian materials, to develop better systems of classification and to upgrade the size of Ukrainian collections (relative to Russian collections) held at North American libraries. Mr. Kasinec suggested six priorities: a comprehensive bibliographical research guide to serve as an introduction to specific disciplines, a survey of the elements of the total book production on Ukrainian territory, reprinting classics in hard copies, developing a multiple genre approach to historical research, circulating information on low run Soviet publications available in the West (i.e., indices to serial publications), and locating and collecting unique materials held in private collections.
Found in CIUS Newsletter Vol 3 Issue 1 (Winter 1978)
Author:
CIUS
Publisher:
CIUS
Date:
December 6, 1978
Contributor:
Edward Kasinec
Language:
English, Ukrainian
Original Format:
Magnetic tape, audio cassette
Files
Collection
Citation
CIUS, “The Present State of Ukrainian Bibliography and Its Critical Tasks,” CIUS-Archives, accessed April 18, 2024, https://cius-archives.ca/items/show/1979.
