Slavic Quick Cat redux
Back in 2009, I spent some time working for the University of Washington library system, helping to catalog new acquisitions for the Slavic collection. I kept notes on the curious things which crossed my desk & posted ‘Notes from Slavic Quick Cataloging’ in parts 1-20. Part 1 is here.
I just found a draft email that includes more info from that time, so here it is.
Some books have disturbing covers.
Some books have peculiar titles.Как жену учить, как себя лечить, как судьбу узнать : ǂb из книг Древней Руси / ǂc состевление, переводы и примечания В.В. Колесова.How to teach your wife, how to medicate yourself, how to learn your fate : from books of Ancient Rus : collection, translation & commentary by V.V. Kolesov
Pretty darn amazing Slovak photography I just saw a book of– there’s not enough info for me to catalog it, but I’ve asked Lijana to put it on top of her pile 🙂 Photographer’s work: http://www.andrejban.com/
Lech Aleksander Kaczyński, the president of Poland 2005-2010, had an identical twin brother, who (after being appointed by his brother, natch) served as the country’s prime minister for 18 months. If that wasn’t odd enough, the two were child movie stars in a film called ‘The Two Who Stole the Moon’.
In case you’ve been look for a good spa in Hungary, I’m here to let you know that, yes, there is an Almanac of Hungarian Spas, published by the National Spas Association, and it will soon be on a library shelf near you!
Here’s some sort of 10th anniversary publication from the Duma of the Khanty-Manskii Autonomous Okrug – Yugra. The first section is speeches from various Duma reps, all starting with variations on ‘Respected colleagues.”– Respected deputies!-Respected colleagues!-Respected colleague-deputies of the Duma of Khanty-Manskii Autonomous Okrug – Yugra!-Respected colleagues, dear friends!-Respected friends and colleagues!-Respected deputies of the parliament of Yugra!So now you know, when addressing a parliamentary body in Russia, it is the accepted custom to address them as respected something or others.
As I get tired and jaded with all these books, it’s rare that I get excited about a book now, but I just did. There’s been a long string of donated books on the subject of folk dance, mainly in Hungary, but also scattered throughout Eastern Europe. All are at least 30 years old; the oldest book (On Czech dances) is from 1895. Anyway, the exciting one: “Their Weapon Is a Song: Soviet Army Ensemble Directed by ALEXANDROV’. I love it so much. I can’t tell if it is just a play on it being the army ensemble, or if it really means that their songs function as communist propoganda, but probably it is both, which makes it so wonderful. I went to show it off to my supervisor, who said there was a film which used the same title to highlight the Baltic music festivals as a way to resist Soviet integration. The pictures of the acrobatic dancers are amazing. This book is as good as the 1001 Facts About Soviet Estonia. Thank goodness there is copy on it so it will go out into the stacks for the edification of the world, and not back to the sub-basement.
Also in the email: a list of the languages I encountered during my tenure in Slavic Quick Cataloging.
Abkhaz, Armenian, Avar, Bashkir, Belorussian, Bulgarian, Croatian, English, Estonian, Finnish, Friulan, Georgian, German, Hungarian, Italian, Kalmyk, Kazakh, Khakas, Komi, Latgalian, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Mari, Mongolian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Serbian (in both Cyrillic and Latin alphabet formats), Slovak, and Slovenian.
I could not, of course, read much of the non-Slavic ones. Georgian, for instance, has an entirely unique alphabet which made Georgian records the only ones I was allowed to copy in with blind faith that they were correct.
Rereading this makes me want to go back to the UW and visit the stacks to check on the books. Maybe that will be an upcoming field trip in January.