Saturday May 2 - Yerevan

Saturday, May 2. The partners here agreed among themselves how to structure our visit--and they decided that one partner per day is enough, thus today we visit the University Library. The director, Mr. Aslanian, meets us at our hotel and takes us to his library. A new building for the library is being built directly behind the existing one. He notes that the university itself is starting to charge tuition--the idea seems to be that tuition should cover operating costs while capital costs will be paid for by the government. All publications from the University are now in Armenian except for those of the Russian literature and language department. This meeting was somewhat unusual because the exchange department representative insisted on my speaking English--however I had done the presentation so many times in Russian that this was actually more difficult.

At this meeting, as at many of the preceding, I again observe that the exchange specialists at these libraries are often very concerned with balancing the exchange. Oddly, however, there is no penalty for them if the exchange is not in balance. Here the exchange specialist admits that she has occasionally sent materials from other publishers (which we should get from other sources) in order to balance the exchange. I point out that E&G is aware of the difficult times that Armenia is having and that LC is not overly concerned in the short run about an imbalance in the exchange.

After this meeting, we have a brief pause around the table for food and drink (with toasts) and then we are off for a tour of the sites near Yerevan in the University Library's van. On the return to the city we are dropped of at Nerses' home, where we have been invited for dinner. Nerses' house has been built in the last two years. It is on the outskirts of the city, and in fact Nerses has farmland as well (the land in Armenia has been privatized). Nerses tells us that his income as the third ranking official at the National Library is 1,000 rubles a month-but it is obvious that his income from his land (planted in grapes) is his real wealth. There is also a substantial area behind the house which is entirely involved in agricultural production, including chickens and makes vodka out of grapes that we sample. The food is excellent, such as dolma (stuffed grape leaves).