| In spite of the large amount of book and
journal donations which has been sent to Eastern
Europe since the revolutions of 1989, most
countries still need Western support. The
transition to market economies has caused funding
for library purchases of books and journals to
dwindle.
The countries with the greatest
needs are found in the former Soviet Union,
where, with the exception of Estonia, the ability
of libraries to purchase Western books and
journals has declined substantially. Ukraine in
particular suffers from continuing economic
crisis.
Romania and Bulgaria also
require substantial assistance. The former
appears to have received a large amount of
donations, particularly in the medical field, but
has sometimes proven incapable of effectively
absorbing them. Albania has received considerable
assistance during the last two years, but like
Romania suffers from instances of underdeveloped
library skills and corruption. Donation
organizations would find it advisable to assess
cataloguing procedures and accessibility before
committing large volumes of donations to
libraries in these countries. While several
libraries are run by well trained professionals,
others would benefit more from training than from
a new influx of materials.
The Visegrad countries present a
different picture. The libraries of the Czech
Republic, with its expanding market economy, have
a growing capacity to purchase books and
journals, although deficiencies exist in more
advanced academic fields. Those libraries would
benefit from forms of assistance other than mass
donations of books and journals, such as
discounts and support for CD-ROM databases.
Hungary has received
considerable support since 1991 from the World
Bank and Western NGOs and has thereby developed a
stronger library infrastructure than the other
countries of the region, with the possible
exception of the Czech Republic. Hungarian
librarians are nearly as likely to request
scanners and CD-ROM databases as books, although
many libraries are still dependent upon donations
for the acquisition of Western books and
journals, especially outside of Budapest.
The Slovak Republic has greater
needs than Hungary or Poland. Although the volume
of assistance which the Slovak Republic receives
has grown since its split with the Czech
Republic, and many libraries have managed to
increase their purchases of Western books and
other materials, a considerable number of Slovak
libraries have seen their purchasing power
decline, and the Slovak Republic suffers from a
generally weaker library infrastructure than the
Czech Republic and Hungary.
Poland is probably the worst off
of the Visegrad countries. Because of its size,
its large number of research institutes and
universities, and its strained economy, Poland
has experienced considerable difficulty in
purchasing Western books and journals. Polish
librarians remain pessimistic about the future.
Improvement of donation projects
requires greater effort in three areas:
verification, information and interaction.
Donors, suppliers and partner
organizations have been lax about verifying that
recipient libraries use donations in the intended
manner. The cases of donated books and journals
disappearing from libraries or ending up in
faculty members' offices and homes and in
libraries inaccessible to a large portion of the
reading public are too great to ignore. Searches
of recipients would be most effective if they
were coupled with attempts to identify the
frequency with which donations are used and a
forum for librarians to provide more feedback
about their needs and difficulties.
Information should be
accumulated in a variety of fields. Donors,
suppliers and partner organizations need to
establish consistent means to measure whether,
and how often, donated materials are being used.
They need more input from end-users in the
selection process. They also should attempt to
identify institutions where lecturers are most
likely to integrate donations into their courses.
Donors, suppliers and partner organizations
require more feedback from recipient librarians
in order both to prevent overlap and to branch
out into areas which are presently ignored.
Donors, suppliers and partner
organizations must use information which they
have accumulated more effectively. The databases
which many organizations possess are of little
value unless the information gathered in them is
put to use. That information should be employed
to help verify that donations are properly used,
shared with other donors to prevent overlap and
used to advertise donations to potential library
users.
Closer interaction is needed
both horizontally and vertically. Horizontally,
donor organizations should cooperate with each
other in order to avoid overlap, establish
effective means of distribution and identify
worthy recipients. Donor organizations could also
seek assistance from other Western organizations
in the region, particularly those involved in
education, in identifying needs and assessing the
efficacy of donation programs.
Vertically, donors and suppliers
need to cooperate more effectively with partner
organizations and provide them with as much
information as possible about deliveries,
preferably on disk. Donors and suppliers should
also encourage cooperation among partner
organizations and inform them of successful
solutions to common problems.
Above all, organizations which
operate donation programs should focus their
activities on integrating donations into the
educational and research environment of recipient
countries and recipient institutions. Many of the
librarians, scholars and researchers in Eastern
Europe are well aware of their needs and are
prepared to offer concrete suggestions.
The success of donation projects
depends upon the clarity of their goals and the
means by which they pursue those goals. All too
often, donors, suppliers and partner
organizations do not fully articulate their goals
and concomitantly fail to draw out the
implications of goals for strategies and
procedures. The goals of donation programs
determine recipients, types of donations, sources
of input in the selection of donations and the
distribution process. They also help to determine
whether there are any logical alternatives to the
standard donation processes.
As far as assistance for Eastern
Europe and the former Soviet Union is concerned,
one size does not fit all. Donation programs must
be flexible so as to employ resources most
effectively in the region and to adjust to varied
and changing needs. If they do this, donation
programs can make a vital contribution towards
the revitalization of higher education and
research in the region.
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