MOSCOW — November 12, 2007. It is 11:30 pm here in Moscow and we just returned to the hotel from a performance of Tchaikovsky's opera "Eugene Onegin" at the Bolshoi.

Today was our delegation's first meeting arranged by the People to People Ambassador Program. We visited the Moscow State University of Culture and Arts. This institution was founded in 1930 as a school for training librarians. The founding director, H.K. Derman, was born in Latvia and obtained her library degree at Simmons College in Massachusetts. She worked in the Harvard library system as well as at the Library of Congress before returning to Russia and designing the curriculum at what was then the Moscow Library Institute. The institution went through several names over the years to reflect the addition of many new programs. Today the university continues to be one of the leading producers of school and academic librarians while offering 37 specialties, or majors. There are more than 11,000 students from all regions of Russia as well as 35 countries.

Our delegation of 14 academic librarians met with almost 20 library faculty members and personnel from the university's library. They were particularly keen to know more about how we educate librarians. Unlike our model, the Russians do not expect future librarians to complete a bachelor's degree before beginning the study of librarianship at the master's level. Instead, students are given a broad general education followed by a specialization in library studies, rather like an undergraduate major. The program is quite rigorous and appears to emphasize theory to an even greater degree than American library schools.

The majority of our conversation focused on information technology. One of our delegates, Chandrika Shantaram, library director of Baker College in Grand Blanc, Michigan, gave a presentation on electronic library resources, especially designed for serving distance education students. Our Russian counterparts proved to be very sophisticated with regard to electronic library resources and services, such as those offered by Baker, Georgia Southern, and many other American colleges and universities, but limited funding prevents such technologies from being widespread in Russia. One story shared with us involved a librarian at a small school in one of the most remote areas of Siberia. A graduate of the Moscow State University of Culture and Arts' library program, he also has a degree in English. His small community recently installed a satellite dish, and he e-mailed his former professors that he can now bring to his students the full range of both Russian and English Internet resources.

The conversation was congenial and informative, but it takes some time to get used to going through a translator. Ours did an outstanding job, but being so good she made it easy for speakers to go on greater length than is reasonable before pausing to allow her to translate. The entire visit lasted about 3 hours, but that included a tour of their classrooms, library, and museum, and a gracious greeting by the University Rector. We exchanged several gifts, and their library is now the proud owner (this is not meant ironically) of a copy of Georgia Southern University's centennial history, "The Southern Century: 1906-2006."

One the many high points was our arrival: as we entered their building and shook off the fresh sleet, we were greeted by three young ladies in traditional folk dress who were singing a traditional song of greeting and carrying brown bread and vodka. Honoring the tradition, one of our delegates tore off a piece of bread to eat while our delegation leader, Camila Alire (dean emerita of the University of New Mexico), knocked back a shot of vodka at 9 in the morning. Everywhere we went we were followed by students in their photography program who were documenting our visit for their web site. Made us feel like real celebrities.

On Tuesday we will visit the Russian State University for Humanities Library, and will then depart for St. Petersburg. I hope to send another update upon arrival in St. Petersburg.

Bede Mitchell, LAMA President
Dean of the Library, Georgia Southern University
(Please pardo any typos - typing on a Blackberry is difficult after sampling Russian vodka.)

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