Notes from Slavic Cataloging, Pt. 3

[I was writing these notes out for a week or two before I got around to posting them, which I only mention because this one is dated.]

In the aftermath of the grammies? Oscars? I’m so out of touch I’m not sure which awards ceremony just happened, but now the media librarians are discussing which films are in the collection so they can add the appropriate tags for the winners. Wait, there’s the conversational cue — the Academy Awards. Did I mention I am out of touch with popular culture? My weekend included Javanese shadow puppetry, a concert in a catholic cathedral, and the fiftieth birthday of my martial arts teacher. Plus schoolwork and kitten time, of course.

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One Latvian publisher, Dienas Grāmata, has their books marked as printed on paper from mixed sources, as certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

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I hear my supervisor and the other slavic cataloguer talking. “…and she’ll ask, if she has any questions.” Next thing I know, I’m looking for copy on a stack of books from the other cataloguer’s shelves — a stack of books mostly in German. And a few in English, like “Love Me Turkmenistan”, a brightly colored photobook illustrating the personality cult built around the former Turkmenistan dictator, Saparmurat Niyazov, who proclaimed himself Turkmenbashi — father of the Turkmen — and, among other things, renamed months after himself and his family members. Of the first eight books, there’s only one with copy I think we can use, but it is a large series, and the screen is filled with a palimpsest of isbn numbers for the individual volumes, then a confusing bit of contents field. Pretty sure, though, that the individual title of this volume is “Texte der deutschen Tischgesellschaft”. Text of the german something. I know that “bruderschaft” means brotherhood. Tischgesell-hood. I use an online dictionary to check Russian words I don’t know, and it says Tischgesellschaft means общество [компания] за обеденным столом, which is to say society (company) at the dinner table. The social interactions during meals. That group of friends you always sit with in the cafeteria.

Notes from Slavic Cataloging, Pt. 2

this morning starts with polish. actually, it starts in the sub-basement, filling up the cart with new books to check through. We’re up to last August, only seven months backlog to work through! Last time I went to the sub-basement there was a crumbling newspaper on a table near the stacks of slavic orders. It was a Seattle publication from 1904 or so, and had a front page story decrying the fact that the price of vegetables increased far more than the cost of transport between eastern Washington and Seattle. How could they possibly charge so much more, when it certainly costs less than a cent, per item, to bring them from Yakima?

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The first polish book I find copy for has the author’s face inside the back cover, right where I need to put the barcode. She has crooked teeth, and is drinking a cup of tea, so I carefully place the barcode over her forehead, just above her eyebrows.

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From a string of Bulgarian books:
–Book printed in Blagojevgrad — probably where a certain former governor’s forebears came from. Insert your own Bulgarian/gipsy joke here.
–Title: Diplomatic records on the ruination of Bulgarians from Macedonia and the region of Edirne in the times of reforms 1904-08

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Here’s a great name: Ладыженская [Ladyzhenskaya]. For those of you unfamiliar with slavic languages, “zhenskaya” also means lady.
Also, Безносикова [Beznosikov] — no socks.

[Ed. –The native speaker in my life helpfully reminds me that носки [noski] is socks, but носик [nosik] is a diminutive of нос [nos], or nose. These are the kinds of non-native mistakes that are easy, and silly to make. TNSPIML once commented on someone’s sedimentary lifestyle (meaning sedentary), and my mother once explained in Russian that my younger sister was seven o’clock (семь часов) instead of seven years (семь лет). Anyhoo, it’s more unfortunate that way – I’d rather be without socks than without a nose.]

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Russian-Chinese Customs Dictionary — customs, as in border-crossing customs.