Tuesday May 5 - Tbilisi

Tuesday, May 5. We have our last formal visit to an exchange partner today, the Georgian National Library. Tiemuraz, who spent much of yesterday escorting us, demonstrates the work that his programmers have accomplished. Although it is somewhat a shame that he has spent so much time reinventing the wheel (or "rediscovering America" as the Russians say) it is impressive nevertheless, given that his total resources include only three PCs. The system developed is already being used for some technical services, and the ability of the system to print cards from UNIMARC data seems good.

The meeting with the Director follows the general format of such meetings so far, with the difference that a rather large audience (apparently all the libarians working with foreign materials) are also invited. Many have questions before I begin the presentation, but as often was the case, once the presentation was completed there were very few questions. After the meetings, the director invited in more staff members and I talked briefly about librarianship, librarian education and other related matters (I had been warned to expect to give such a talk the day before) and answered questions about LC. This was followed by lunch and many toasts (but not too many). We eventually left, explaining that today was our last day in Tbilisi and that we were expected to see some of the sights. We spent the afternoon touring nearby churches with Dr. Lenver's friend, Guram. On the return route to the city we stopped for dinner at a roadside restaurant. The food was very good, especially given the somewhat dubious appearance of this place.

In one respect Tbilisi was the low point of the trip—we were so busy that we didn't even have time to walk around the city during the day! We didn't have time to visit a bookstore, for example. So this is one case where the hurry-up aspect of my trip seems to be somewhat overdone.