Tuesday April 28 - Chisinau

Tuesday, April 28. Moldova. We visit the National Library of Moldova. The official business proceeds smoothly--on the question of the role of the national library as parliamentary library, this is the one former republic where the answer is clear cut. Mr. Rau, the director, mentions that he was very impressed with a presentation by William Robinson at IFLA in August, 1991. The Moldovan National Library is using the French National Library as its primary model, but regards CRS as its model for a parliamentary information service. The existing CRS-like unit already has eight employees (for ready reference). An additional unit will be needed for more detailed analysis. He notes (similar to other national libraries visited) that there is no effective copyright law. This library is automating (with no cooperation with other libraries) slowly. Some technical services are already automated. They plan to used UNIMARC. They are collecting posters and will try to collect maps eventually. They note LC's interest in these materials as will as records. They claim to be successfully collecting materials from the Dneister region (in Russian) as well as Gagauz materials, and note LC interest in them.

The building the National Library occupies was intended to house 500,000 books, but instead contains over 3 million. As a result they are double-shelving. The National Library is paying for the renovation of a neighboring building which is then to be transferred to the National Library, however there is always the possibility that another government body will grab it before they do. Also, even that building will not satisfy their space needs (this all sounds familiar). In order to decrease demand for services, the National Library no longer serves undergraduates.

We are given an invitation to return to the National Library after our meeting with the University Library in order to attend the opening of an exhibit on books and religion that takes place.

At the University of Library, the first order of business is to agree to establish an exchange with LC, which is done quickly. I run through my standard packet. At this library there is a third approach to automation, here using the "MARC program" of Popov. They note that there is some talk of this library being absorbed by the Academy of Sciences library, but this library (not surprisingly) intends to resist that initiative. One aspect of this library that is common to several of the partners we visit is that its building was not intended as a library. As a result, none of the reading rooms or other library spaces appear very functional.

We return to the National Library, where we attend exhibit opening. Afterwards there is a reception in the director's office and we meet the minister of culture (whose son is studying at the University of Wisconsin-Madison).

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Some days, in this retelling, seem pretty much like work. Which I guess may have been true.