I had my first real day ever in the archive of the Institute of Fine Arts Research. In previous years my advisor has always brought me books and other reading material. The head archivist seemed to take to me, asking about my earrings and if I knew of anywhere here in Tashkent that they use piercing guns.
Anyway, for those librarians and future librarians who read my journal I thought I’d mention a little bit about their library system. It really made me realize how spoiled we are in the US with our computerized catalogues and barcode systems. When I started leafing through their all hand-written card catalogue I realized that I hadn’t used a card catalogue since the 4th or 5th grade. It felt slow and I was amazed how little information there is on the card besides author title and “call number.” There is no library of congress system here, though they have something close. They keep all dissertations in one place with its set of numbers and a corresponding drawer in the card catalogue, they keep dissertation summaries or “avtoreferatlar” in another place with its set of numbers and corresponding drawer. Then they also list collections of papers and manuscripts in large categories – Music, Theater, and Art and Architecture, which are then listed by author and subject. The author list for music holdings was 2 drawers full.
After looking at a few sets of papers and manuscripts which were kept in cardboard folders with little ties, I went to the avtoreferat drawer and picked a volume that I wanted to take home and read (I. Rajabov’s work on Maqom). I asked the archivist if I could take this with me and she asked me if I was a “stajor” here, which I am and she said that she needed to make me a notebook and asked if I had one with me. I said I didn’t, so she found an old one, tore out the used pages and pasted a paper on top with my name, the fact that I’m a “stajor” and my home address and telephone. This is their check out system – every person with checkout privileges from the archive (students and professors at the institute, I believe) has a little composition notebook with their name on it that they keep in a file alphabetically. Inside is a pocket to hold the little slips of paper which are inside all of the books that they place in your notebook if you check it out. Then they write down the book and have you sign below it to show that you are accepting responsibility for the book. I can’t imagine the amount of paperwork and stubborn organization the archivist must have to do because of the system, but at the end of the day, it seems to work pretty well for such a small archive. I can’t imagine what system the larger archives here are using – if it is similar to this one it would be impossible to manage.
Incidentally, it was very cute – I had been speaking Russian with the archivist because we had been introduced to each other in Russian and I was reading Russian language material. As she was filling out my information for my checkout notebook she asked my telephone number and I gave it to her with the caveat that my husband only speaks Uzbek, not Russian. She got googly eyed and said “Well then, we must speak Uzbek!” and proceeded to prattle on at me in Uzbek in a much more enthusiastic manner than the one we had been speaking Russian in.
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