On Sunday, abandoning the powerpoint, I went on a road trip.?? Alexey Skalaban – Director of the Belarusian National Technical University Scientific Library, Andrea of Ebsco in Belarus, Piotr Lapo, and myself headed out to Dudutki Belarusian Authentic Village, located about 35km south of Minsk.?? There were four large guys in a lada.
We arrived to find an original windmill for grinding grain, an open-air museum, and a working farm, recreating life in the 18th and 19th century.?? We toured around the facilities, observing craftsmen making horseshoes, whistles, and other items.?? I was given a horseshoe, made on demand, and gave a quick nod to Allen Smith, beloved, departed GSLIS faculty member and farrier.?? A local drink is distilled on the premises, and we toasted good health to each other.?? It made the vodka at lunch seem mild.?? Lunch was excellent, both in food and in conversation.?? Where else could you have a spirited conversation about the relative merits of eIFL v. Ebsco?s consortial pricing for VirLib, the consortium organized by the National Library of Belarus, while sitting in a lovely restaurant in a working farm in the country.?? The Belarusian Library Association had set up BelLibNet, giving access to a number of university libraries to 7,500 ejournals in social, economic, humanities, natural, technical and medical sciences.?? For organizational reasons, the consortium had been reconstituted as VirLib under the National Library of Belarus.?? I am a strong supporter of eIFL and its competitor, INASP PERII, and was deeply engaged in this discussion.
We drove back to Minsk, leaving the resolution of consortial access for another day, although the conversation shifted to Russian, so the problem may have been solved without my knowledge.?? I attended an interesting jazz performance that evening.? Evgeniy Vladimirov?s Jazz Club lies under the Palace of the Republic in Oktyabrskaya (formerly Central) Square on Nyezhavizhimosty (formerly Francyska Skoriny) Avenue.?? Nyezhavizhimosty Avenue is a wonderful, wide street that apparently connects Brest to Moscow. During WWII (the Great Patriotic War) Minsk was occupied for 1,100 days by the Nazis.?? Of the 825 major building on this street at the time of the German invasion, only some 80 survived when the Red Army came back through on the way to wreak vengeance on Germany to the west.?? The city has been entirely rebuilt, and it is spectacular.?? The streets are filled with people walking. Promenaders walk up and down, often hand in hand.? The custom is to dress well at all times, and the young look stylish.? I walked to the Jazz Club, followed the chic patrons to the unobvious door, and had a wonderful evening sitting with a Norwegian family; the mother was in Belarus teaching English.
I returned to the hotel.?? It is a well-known fact among faculty, that given time and a little encouragement, powerpoint slides will self-organize into coherent lectures without intervention, even creating the missing transitions.?? Counting on this phenomenon, similar to the process of the self-organizing molecules that created organic life, I went to bed, in anticipation of giving two brilliant lectures that I hadn?t yet seen.
Terry
A discussion about libraries in which a bystander takes an interest.