Group on tour of U.S.
BY ERIK RADVON ERADVON@HOLDENLANDMARK.COM
Romanian visitor Anamaria Catanoiu (left) and tour guide Bruno Blumenfeld talk shop with head librarian Kerry Remington. Brittany Durgin photo
The Rutland Library was transformed into a miniature United Nations last week when it hosted five librarians from Romania. The group is in the U.S. as part of a State Department-sponsored trip. While in town, the visitors toured the library's facilities, took copious photographs, and talked shop with head librarian Kerry Remington.
"We are rebels," Remington told the group. "We librarians are often the rebels in society. If there isn't something on our shelves that offends somebody, we are not doing our job properly," to which her guests nodded knowingly.
The specter of thought policing that keeps American librarians like Remington constantly vigilant was a hard-lived reality for the Romanian people. The country was occupied by the Soviet Union during World War II and ruled by a harsh Communist regime from 1947-1989. During those years, many books were censored or banned by a government that feared an educated populace.
"We have thousands of volumes that were censored by the government or kept separate from the general public. Certain books were for certain eyes only. Today, we are archiving those books, because maybe 20 years from now scholars will want to study them to get a picture of what the era was really like," said one of the librarians, Anamaria Catanoiu.
The visitors said that in the nearly 20 years since the collapse of the Soviet Empire, Romania has done much to embrace Western culture. English is studied and spoken by a large amount of the population. "American Corners" have sprung up in libraries around the country, hosting English-language discussion groups to foster fluency in what the visitors called the "language of the world."
The "American Corners" also offer books by John Grisham and Stephen King that are thumbed through with the same voracity as they are here in the States.
"Not only are American books read, but they are widely read. We had a waiting list for 'The Divinci Code,'" Catanoiu said.
The Romanians represented a wide swath of their country, with some from large urban libraries and others representing rural or suburban areas similar to Rutland.
As Remington and the group discussed their jobs, they seemed to find more commonalties than differences. Their conversation highlighted that people apparently steal books from libraries regardless of longitudinal location. One difference, though, was the Rutland library's use of volunteer staffers. The Romanians said that volunteerism is virtually nonexistent at their libraries and they are keen to start a program similar to Rutland's.
The aspect of the Rutland library that most impressed the group was the sheer number of donated books. The library's basement room, where town residents can routinely fill a bag with used books for $5, left the Romanians wide-eyed.
Upon walking into the room, one of the visitors immediately said, "I would like to buy a bag."
Remington refused to take the Romanian's money, insisting they take some books as a token of goodwill. The group then discussed the idea of making the Rutland library a "twin" library with a Romanian counterpart.
After leaving Rutland, the Romanian visitors headed off to view libraries in Austin, Texas and Seattle, Washington before returning to Europe.
The Rutland Library was transformed into a miniature United Nations last week when it hosted five librarians from Romania. The group is in the U.S. as part of a State Department-sponsored trip. While in town, the visitors toured the library's facilities, took copious photographs, and talked shop with head librarian Kerry Remington.
"We are rebels," Remington told the group. "We librarians are often the rebels in society. If there isn't something on our shelves that offends somebody, we are not doing our job properly," to which her guests nodded knowingly.
The specter of thought policing that keeps American librarians like Remington constantly vigilant was a hard-lived reality for the Romanian people. The country was occupied by the Soviet Union during World War II and ruled by a harsh Communist regime from 1947-1989. During those years, many books were censored or banned by a government that feared an educated populace.
"We have thousands of volumes that were censored by the government or kept separate from the general public. Certain books were for certain eyes only. Today, we are archiving those books, because maybe 20 years from now scholars will want to study them to get a picture of what the era was really like," said one of the librarians, Anamaria Catanoiu.
The visitors said that in the nearly 20 years since the collapse of the Soviet Empire, Romania has done much to embrace Western culture. English is studied and spoken by a large amount of the population. "American Corners" have sprung up in libraries around the country, hosting English-language discussion groups to foster fluency in what the visitors called the "language of the world."
The "American Corners" also offer books by John Grisham and Stephen King that are thumbed through with the same voracity as they are here in the States.
"Not only are American books read, but they are widely read. We had a waiting list for 'The Divinci Code,'" Catanoiu said.
The Romanians represented a wide swath of their country, with some from large urban libraries and others representing rural or suburban areas similar to Rutland.
As Remington and the group discussed their jobs, they seemed to find more commonalties than differences. Their conversation highlighted that people apparently steal books from libraries regardless of longitudinal location. One difference, though, was the Rutland library's use of volunteer staffers. The Romanians said that volunteerism is virtually nonexistent at their libraries and they are keen to start a program similar to Rutland's.
The aspect of the Rutland library that most impressed the group was the sheer number of donated books. The library's basement room, where town residents can routinely fill a bag with used books for $5, left the Romanians wide-eyed.
Upon walking into the room, one of the visitors immediately said, "I would like to buy a bag."
Remington refused to take the Romanian's money, insisting they take some books as a token of goodwill. The group then discussed the idea of making the Rutland library a "twin" library with a Romanian counterpart.
After leaving Rutland, the Romanian visitors headed off to view libraries in Austin, Texas and Seattle, Washington before returning to Europe.
