Monday April 27 - Chisinau

Monday, April 27. After breakfast, we cross the street to the Academy of Sciences of Moldova Library. Dr. Levner and I express our great appreciation that they would receive us on a holiday. Again the Academy of Sciences connection helps us, in that Dr. Levner personally knows both the director and the head of acquisitions. The business-portion of the meeting proceeds successfully on the basis of the packet and handouts. The director mentions several interesting items. It is possible that the Academy of Sciences library will absorb the University library in the relatively near future. Also, she points out that although they have lost their entire hard currency budget for acquisitions, their ruble budget is basically stable. The Academy of Sciences library is the leader in automation in Moldova, with a mainframe of their own--but unfortunately not using a MARC-based format. They do have automated serials management in place. She notes that although it is well understood that Russian is more of an "international" language, that there will be more Romanian used in Moldovan scientific writings (not to mention Moldovan publishing in general). She notes that connection with Romania are strong, and that the Romanians are sending many books (especially textbooks) as assistance.

After the official business, a wide variety of homemade food is brought forth, including delicious cheese (from sheep), and wine--both homemade and "factory-made." We are told to partake especially of the Cabernet, which is supposed to cure radiation poisoning, since we just arrived from Minsk. We talk at length about librarianship in the US as well as about LC. At one point the director gets quite hot under the collar on the subject of repression by the Russians after World War II, but Levner calms the situation by pointing out that the role of librarians is to provide information and work together even in difficult times, etc.

We are taken on a tour by car of the city by the director, Ms. Gutu, and the head of acquisitions. We visit the Moldovan VDNKh (exhibit of the accomplishments of the national economy). Oddly the statue of Lenin that used to be in the center of town is stored there (you never know ... ), Because it is a holiday, there are many people here enjoying the excellent weather and the man-made lake. Dr. Levner and I appreciate the local conditions-in Minsk there were snow flurries, but here there is "genuine spring."

After our tour, we are dropped off near a theater, where there is a program in connection with Easter. We buy tickets and attend. Since the entire thing is in Romanian, we are not too clear on what is going on, but at one point the American ambassador appears on stage and delivers a speech (in Romanian) which is well received.

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Again, the librarians we visited went to some trouble to receive us and celebrate (if you will) our visit. Pretty cool then, pretty cool looking back.

In 1992, I did not have a laptop computer with me - such things didn't exist at the time. I had a bag progressively less full of packets of handouts - I don't recall taking along anything to read. Anyway, in a later version of reality one might venture back to the hotel to access the Internet via wifi, but at the time there was nothing to do at a hotel other than watch TV, so we were apparently more motivated to seek out entertainment (which was probably very cheap).