February 3, 1997

Contact: Guy Lamolinara (202) 707-9217

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Library To Host Fifth Class of Visiting Fellows from Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia

The Library of Congress will host the fifth class of librarians and information specialists from Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia sponsored by the Regional Library Program of the Open Society Institute in Budapest, Hungary. The 1997 Library of Congress-Soros Foundations Visiting Fellow Program is a three-month program designed to introduce foreign librarians to libraries and librarianship in America. At the Library of Congress the fellows will receive general orientation to the Library and participate in a managament skills institute. They will also receive intensive Internet training. An additional week of orientation and training will be held at the Mortenson Center for International Library Programs at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Philanthropist George Soros is the founder of the Soros Foundations.

Each fellow will then spend eight weeks at one of several host institutions in the Washington metropolitan area. These institutions will provide training, work experience and Internet access. The fellows will observe how national, university, public, research and special libraries in a democratic society operate and serve their constituencies. The class will return to the Library for the final week of the program.

Prospective candidates submitted their applications to their local Soros Foundation offices in September. The 20 participating offices administered TOEFL (Teachers of English as a Foreign Language) examinations to test the applicants' knowledge of English and conducted interviews with them. Eighty-eight of the applications were forwarded to the Library of Congress for final selection. A 14-member committee of area and language specialists at the Library selected the group of 12 librarians scheduled to arrive in Washington on March 1. The selection was based on the applicant's professional merits, essay content and recommendation from his or her library director.

The 1997 Library of Congress-Soros Foundations Visiting Fellows are: Libuse Hanakova, Bedrich Benes Buchlovan Library, Uherske Hradiste, Czech Republic (host library: District of Columbia Public Library); Tamara Kashina, Altai Regional Universal Scientific Library, Barnaul, Russia (host library: American University Library); Maria Kollarova, Slovak National Library, Martin, Slovakia (host library: University of Maryland, McKeldin Library); Marta Krasznai, National Library of Foreign Literature, Budapest, Hungary (host library: Georgetown University, Lauinger Library); Tamara Matveenko, Grodno State University Library, Grodno, Belarus (host library: Catholic University, Mullen Library); Mirela Mikic, Institute of Public Finance, Zagreb, Croatia (host library: Joint Bank Fund Library (International Finance Corp.)); Daina Puntuka, Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, Latvia (host library: Library of Congress, Business Reference Services); Birute Railiene, Lithuanian Academy of Sciences Library, Vilnius, Lithuania (host library: National Institute of Standards and Technology); Marcela Visan, Polytechnic University Central Library, Timisoara, Romania (host library: Smithsonian Institution Libraries); Ana-Maria Yankova, Agency for Economic Coordination and Development, Sofia, Bulgaria (host library: Joint Bank Fund Library); Natalia Zhirova, National Parliamentary Library of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine (host library: Library of Congress, Law Library); Olga Zienkiewicz, Jewish Historical Research Institute, Warsaw, Poland (host library: Library of Congress, Hebraic Section).

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PR 97-17
2/3/97
ISSN 0731-3527