Academic libraries, apart from their main function, which is to provide information services to academic communities, may also perform a number of social roles in the broad meaning of the term. Accordingly, they now tend to serve as the third place offering inclusion and animation activities to academic as well as local communities (including…

Examines the exchange of publications, professional goals, and techniques between Russian and United States libraries and librarians following World War I. Discusses Russian and U.S. initiatives, U.S. librarian attitudes toward the Soviet experiment and Soviet librarianship, and Soviet librarian attitudes toward the U.S. and its library practices.…

Describes the changes that have taken place in librarianship in the former Soviet Union. The discussion covers the advantages and disadvantages of centralized planning, the reorganization of library systems in Russia and the Ukraine, the effects of democratization on organization and librarian attitudes, and the remnants of Russification in…