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January 17, 2003
Strengthening
Connections with Librarians from Georgia
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Photo: Fred LeBlanc
Stephen
Jones, associate professor of Russian and Eurasian studies
and a preeminent authority on Georgia (left), chats with
Georgian librarians Nana Khvedeliani (middle) and Avtardil
Chkhenkeli during the librarians’ recent visit to Williston
Library.
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Charlotte Meryman
stood before her visitors, sixteen librarians from the Republic
of Georgia, trying to explain through a translator the role her
volunteer group has played in the ongoing expansion and renovation
of the Meekins Library in Williamsburg. Her group, the Friends
of the Libraries, “raised a lot of money,” Meryman told
the visitors. As translator Alexander Tetradze finished relaying
this information, Meryman smiled and added, by way of explanation,
“We baked a lot of cookies.” Her visitors responded
with nods and smiles; one offered a suggestion: “Maybe we
could make friends with you,” Tetradze translated.
Making friends and
strengthening connections is one of the goals of the program,
organized by the Institute for Training and Development in conjunction
with Mount Holyoke, that brought the Georgian librarians to Massachusetts
for three weeks in January. The intent of the program, funded
with a $150,000 grant from the State Department’s Bureau
of Education and Cultural Affairs, is to train the Georgians in
various aspects of library science and to show them how American
libraries play a role in the building of civil society.
The program is directed by Stephen Jones, associate professor
of Russian and Eurasian studies and a preeminent authority on
Georgia, who submitted the grant proposal in conjunction with
the Institute for Training and Development (ITD) of Amherst. Large,
medium, and small public libraries, as well as college and high
school libraries in the Pioneer Valley and Boston are participating
in the program, which began January 5 and continues through January
24. Among those conducting the training are MHC librarians Nancy
Birkrem and Sandy Ward, and Sheila Intner and Terry Plum of Simmons
College’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science,
which has a branch at Mount Holyoke.
Jones, who has studied Georgia for more than two decades and is
a frequent visitor to the former Soviet republic, sees the program
as an effort to help a poorly functioning democracy in a region
increasingly vital to the strategic interests of the United States.
Both the global war on terrorism — including the Georgian
army’s conflicts with Chechen “terrorists”—
and the threat of war with Iraq have magnified Georgia’s
importance, Jones says.
“The goal of the program is to give Georgian librarians training
about various aspects of library science, as well as the role
of libraries in the community,” Jones says. “We want
them to have some idea of how libraries work positively for democracy,
how important they are to democratic development, how important
they are to the development of civil society, and what their function
should be in the community.” In the seven decades Georgia
spent under Soviet rule, its libraries functioned largely as book
repositories, subject to communist censorship and control.
Jones and Julie Hooks Davis of ITD visited Georgia in October
to select the librarians who will take part in the program. Of
the sixteen chosen, only six are from the capital, Tbilisi, with
the remainder from the outlying provinces, where the need is greatest.
Jones suspects it was this aspect of the proposal that led him
and ITD to succeed over their rivals for the grant. The majority
of the participants cannot speak English, and translators have
been provided. For nearly every one of the participants, this
represents a first trip outside of Georgia; before Georgia won
its independence in 1991, Georgians were prevented from traveling
by the communist government, and since 1991, the country’s
poverty has meant that few have had the means to travel.
Participants are attending presentations on various aspects of
library science and the role libraries play in the American social
and political scene. They have also been visiting several libraries
in the Pioneer Valley and Boston, and will “shadow”
their counterparts at several sites. Also included in the itinerary
are trips to cultural sites in Boston and New York, and dinner
at the home of Jones and his wife, Marina, who is from Georgia.
There is very little money for libraries in the Georgian republic,
a problem too large to blunt with cookie sales. After their return
to Georgia, the participants will attend workshops on seeking
grants from international foundations that fund projects in that
nation. “We want
to help them help themselves, so part of the project is to try
and encourage them to think about what can be done for very little
money in provincial libraries,” Jones says. “We want
a practical result from this.” In fact, the librarians expressed
much curiosity about the public and private financing behind the
Meekins Library project. In the summer of 2003, a group of librarians
from the Pioneer Valley will travel to Georgia, following up on
the libraries’ funding requests and helping to further cement
connections with and among their Georgian counterparts.
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Professor
Stephen Jones is a frequent visitor to the former Soviet
republic.
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The program continues a connection Mount Holyoke established with
Georgian libraries in 1995, when the College helped organize the
first national library conference in that nation since its independence
in 1991. Mount Holyoke has also donated books to Georgian libraries,
which have no funds for buying materials.
Hooks Davis sees the program as a benefit not only to Georgians,
but to Americans as well. “In general, Americans are very
isolated from the rest of the world. This is largely due to geographical
reasons. The more contact Americans get with people from other
countries, and the more we come to know how other peoples think
and experience life, the better we will understand what it means
to be human beings,” she says.
“The opportunities we take to share our wealth of knowledge
and resources make our lives richer. In this case we can share
our concepts of individual involvement in the community and community
involvement in our democracy. We can also share our concept of
education as an open process, where the learner is not inhibited
or limited in the search for information.”
Jones’s efforts complement those of MHC anthropology professor
Andrew Lass, who has worked to improve technology and training
in libraries in eastern Europe.
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