Book Review: Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know

Serhy Yekelchyk, Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020. ISBN: 9780197532119.

 

Genre: nonfiction, reference

Subgenre: Ukraine, history, politics

Format: hardcover

Source: Hutchins Library, Berea College

 

This book is part of Oxford's series "What Everyone Needs To Know" (by the way, they do have the trademark on that phrase). Our library recently bought this title for our collection, in part given the timely topic at this moment. I decided to go ahead and read it to learn more as well as to write this brief review. This is a second edition of the book. The author is a professor of History and Slavic Studies at the University of Victoria and writes on modern Ukraine and Russian-Ukraine relations. 

The book follows the typical format of the "What Everyone Needs to Know" series, which is a question and answer format. The book is arranged into seven chapters: 

• Why Ukraine?
• The Land and the People.
• The Making of Modern Ukraine.
• Ukraine After Communism.
• The Orange Revolution and the EuroMaidan.
• Russia's Annexation of the Crimea and the War in the Donbas.
• The War in Ukraine as an International Issue. 

Each chapter then has a series of basic questions with answers. Some sample questions the book answers are: 

• Why did Ukraine become a key reference point of American political struggles?
• Was Ukraine always part of Russia?
• When and why did Ukraine give up its nuclear arsenal? 
• What assistance has the United States provided Ukraine since 2014?

In addition, the book also includes a chronology, a map, a set of notes documenting facts, and a list for further reading. The book covers the country from its early days up until the first year or so of Zelensky's presidency.  As the author writes, he focuses mainly on "Ukraine's complex national and civic identity" (xv). He does address that and a bit more as he also looks at Ukraine's relations with Russia as well as Ukraine's interactions with the United States and the international community. 

The book is more an academic textbook, in other words I would not label it for pleasure reading (unless you are a policy wonk, history buff, or similar reader), but it should be of interest to general readers who want to learn more about the topic. While the text can be a bit dry at times, the book is still very accessible. The question and answer format is good to allow readers to read a bit at a time here or there. Some readers may want to read the book cover to cover. Other readers may want to just find topics of interest and focus on those. If you need a basic book that covers the topic well, this book will do the job. 

For academic libraries, this can be a good book to introduce the topic to students. For students who may be writing research papers on Ukraine and the war with Russia, this can be a good text to get them started. It can provide an overview of the issues, and the references from the notes and further reading can give students additional sources to read and explore. I would also say this can be a good selection for public libraries seeking to add a book on what is a topic right out of the news at this time. If a public library does not have much on Ukraine, this book can be a good start. 

Overall, at a little under 200 pages, not including notes and reading list, this is a book anyone can read and get a basic understanding of the country and the relevant issues. I really like it, and it would be one I would hand to students and other patrons wanting to learn more about the topic. Bottom line is this is a pretty good primer on the topic. 

4 out of 5 stars.

Article Note: Caring in First Year Library One-Shot Instruction

I picked this up to read in my quest to keep up with the literature in library instruction. Here are some takeaways and notes I want to remember from the article, with a bit of comment. 

• Author's main argument: "an academic librarian providing one-shot instruction sessions to first-year students is uniquely positioned to enact a feminist ethic of care in the classroom" (96). A key is to think of the session as the start on an open librarian and student relationship.
  
• The author further argues that the instruction session is a first impression for first year students and a way to inspire a relationship with the librarian and the library. This is a big reason why here in our library we promote our other services during instruction sessions, especially availability of appointments for research consultations with a librarian. 
• I'd give this article some bonus points for mentioning bell hooks and her work. To be honest, if you are writing about feminism and education, odds are good you have to bring up bell hooks.
• Author making reference to O'Keefe: "Studies have shown that a sense of connectedness and feeling cared for can have dramatic impact on student retention rates and ensuring that students perform to the best of their abilities; that sense of connectedness can come from a caring relationship with just one key person in the student's institution" (qtd. in 97). This is also why our librarians strive to demystify academia, make transparent assumptions that professors often take for granted and fail or neglect to explain to students. On a side note, I may need to check the literature for anything on this demystifying process; I am sure there is something out there, yet for us here seems like just something we do. 
  
• Citation for the reference: O'Keefe, P. (2013). "A sense of belonging: Improving student retention." College Student Journal, 47 (4): 605-613.
• Defining feminist pedagogy, from Crabtree, et.al.: "Feminist pedagogy is marked by a desire to break down the classroom hierarchy that traditionally puts the teacher in a position of power over the students, favoring instead an egalitarian community of learners who respect individuals and differences" (97).
•  Citation for the reference: Crabtree, R.D., Sapp, D.A., and Licona, A.C. (eds.). (2009). Feminist pedagogy: Looking back to move forward. The Johns Hopkins Press. 
• Though the author argues that our classrooms may be places of radical possibilities, I do have to question that. Just how much "freedom" do we really have given certain faculty demands and other restrictions? 
• The author highlights that the one-on-one reference consultation is a good fit for a caring relationship to develop. We often find here that we are better able to care for and help our students in consultations. In addition, the feedback from post consultation surveys we do as part of our assessment process tend to be positive. 
• A tip: "It is important to show availability outside the classroom for a future encounter" (100). We certainly do this. I even keep late hours for consultations. 
• The author probably needs to work on limits and boundaries given that she "gives students her email address and cell number and asks them to email/call/text anytime" (100). I give my students my email address, but that is it. They do not get my cell, and I do not think a librarian should be giving out their personal cell number. Heck, in previous workplaces some of the female librarians had to be concerned about stalking to the point they did not even want their full names on name tags. So no, not giving out my cell. Besides, as much as my current employer loves the idea of 24/7 availability, reality is workers including me do have lives outside of work that do not include our students. Healthy boundaries need to be enforced. Besides, there is no reference question that would require an emergency call at 3am for instance. 
• A big part of the reason I choose to work in a small college: "What if our first-year students came to the library for the first time and discovered there a librarian who knew their names, was interested in their research assignment and its relation to their lives, reflected carefully and responded to their expressed needs, was knowledgeable and credible, indicated wide availability outside of the library session, and sought further and deeper relationships with them as individuals?" (101-102). That is basically a lot of what my colleagues and I do here. The small college setting does make it a bit easier. 
• To be honest, a lot of this material is not so much "feminist" caring. It is just plain caring, making an effort to know the students. The article could have left out the feminist theory at the start of the article, and this would still work. 

 

Citation for the article: Leah Morin, "The First-Year Library Instruction One-Shot: A Place for Caring." Communications in Information Literacy 15.1 (2021): 95-103. 

Some additional items from the references list I may want to look at: 

Accardi, M.T. (2013). Feminist Pedagogy for Library Instruction. Library Juice Press. 

Kumbier, A., Drabinkski, and M.T. Accardi, (2010). Critical Library Instruction: Theories and Methods. Library Juice Press.  

I already read and reviewed bell hooks book Teaching to Transgress (link to review and reading notes part one and part two).

 

 

 

 

Article Note: On trendspotting and the future in post-pandemic academic libraries

This editorial piece looks at spotting trends for academic libraries in the post-pandemic world. Personally, I do not think we are in a post-pandemic world, but as I often say, I am not a pundit nor do I play one on TV. Anyhow, the last two years have been challenging for us in academic libraries, large or small. We had to improvise, adapt, and overcome in order to serve our students. In our case, we did do quite a bit of work in order to respond and adapt our services to more online settings. Our library did have some structure in place to accomplish this. The college overall had to work at it a bit more mainly because we are a residential campus, but the college did adapt as well. The article's author suggests that these new experiences will continue to shape academia in the post-pandemic world. Do keep in mind that for the most part, as usual in many LIS articles, this one focuses more on larger institutions like ACRL members and its UK counterpart. I am more interested to see if anything can be useful to us here in our more modest and smaller setting.

 

Some key quotes, with my comments. 

 

"The pandemic has heightened the importance and significance of being able to operate in a hybrid manner and how libraries deliver services in online environments" (2). 

 

By now, an increase in online learning is a given, and it is more significant in the COVID times. COVID and online learning are here to stay, which should not surprise anyone. 

 

"Brine and Knight (2021) actually discuss the continued increasing cost of digital content, and the impact that the pandemic has had on this issue" (2). 

 

This has been and continues to be a constant, the increasing costs. As I often say these days, this is one of the things I do not need cartomancy for. 

 

On another note, as the article mentions, open access has expanded. However, the work is barely starting. It is nowhere near where it could be or should be. 

 

"By 2020, the ACRL trends around students have become more about 'student wellbeing and mental health,' illustrating that whilst the focus may have changed, the importance of understanding and supporting students has never diminished" (3).

The 2020 report would look at data before the pandemic, Even then wellbeing and mental health were emerging as issues. If anything, the pandemic has made issues of wellness and mental health worse given the higher stress students, along with faculty and staff, face during these Hard Times. As for how higher education has handled it, well, based on observation I'd say inconsistently. 

"Academic librarians will need to manage and curate data more and more, and consequently will need to become more 'data literate'" (5). 

We continue to use data and evidence to guide our decisions, but the point here is that there are and will be more additional data sources to consider. 

 

"Academic libraries continue to lead the way in decolonization and liberation work and initiatives within their institutions, but much still needs to be done to address the unbalanced nature of the academic library workforce and how this reflects on the support and services provided for the users of those libraries" (5). 

Naturally, something had to be said to diversity and inclusion. Given the climate in the U.S. as of this post, I am a bit skeptical about claiming that academic libraries lead the way in the liberation work. Some might, but others are failing at it. Even here I know we do what we can, but there is still work to do.

Citation for the article: Leo Appleton, "Trendspotting-- Looking to the Future in a Post-Pandemic Academic Library Environment." New Review of Academic Leadership, 28.1 (2022): 1-6.

 

 

Book Review: Stalin's Library

 

Geoffrey Roberts, Stalin's Library: a Dictator and His Books. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2022.  ISBN:  9780300179040.

 

Genre: libraries, biography, politics

Subgenre: history, Russian, Soviet Union

Format: hardcover

Source: Via Interlibrary Loan through Hutchins Library, Berea College. The book came from Alcuin Library, St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota.  

 

If memory serves me right, I saw this book mentioned somewhere on social media. I like reading about books and libraries, so this book seemed to fit the bill. The book has an introduction, seven chapters, a conclusion, notes, and a further reading list. 

To be honest, this book is really a political biography of Stalin with a bit of a literacy narrative. We learn that Stalin was an avid and attentive reader. He read extensively, and he read books within his ideologies as well as books by his rivals and enemies. Stalin also read some works from other countries in Russian translation. 

We know a lot about Stalin as a reader from the remnants of his personal library. I say remnants because Stalin's personal library was dispersed after his death. Stalin was an active reader, and he made a lot of notes in his books as he read. This marginalia gives us insight into Stalin's thoughts on various topics and issues. In addition, Stalin was an active editor of documents, his and other people's documents, and scholars have studied these documents too. 

The most interesting part of the book is the look at Stalin's library, the kinds of books he collected and read. The part about how Stalin arranged his books, or rather had a librarian do it for him, is also interesting. 

The rest of the book is mostly a political biography, and it is not always interesting. At times, this biography goes a bit much into minutiae. This can make the text a bit dense to read at times. Some readers may choose to skim through some of this material. 

I would say that much of this book feels more like an academic article or two on Stalin as a reader. At some point, someone decided to pitch a book, and the additional biographical material, which often is not connected to Stalin as a reader, feels like filler at times. The result is that the interesting topic of Stalin as a reader and his books gets lost in the rest of the text. 

For public libraries, this may be a book to skip. For academic libraries, large academic libraries with strong collections on the Soviet Union, Russia, Eastern Europe, and Asia might find this to be an optional selection. It may also be an optional selection for LIS/library school libraries. 

In the end, this was just OK. This is not really a book that can be read for pleasure.

2 out of 5 stars. 

* * * * * 

 

Additional reading notes: 

 

 What the book aims to do: 

"This book explores the intellectual life and biography of one of history's bloodiest dictators: Joseph Stalin. Uniquely, it does so through the prism of his personal library. A dedicated reader and self-improver, Stalin's accumulation of books was a lifelong passion" (1).

Part of me thinks that the line we often hear about how reading makes people better is not really true, at least not in all cases. In this case, just look at Stalin. 

 

How the book views Stalin, according to the author: 

"This book views Stalin through a different lens-- as a dedicated idealist and as an activist intellectual who valued ideas as much as power, who was ceaseless in his own efforts at self-education, a restless mind, reading for the revolution to the very end of his life" (6). 

Books are the best way to know Stalin's inner life: 

"Apart from private photographs and some hastily written and perfunctory letters to family members, Stalin's library books are among the best means we have of accessing the dictator's inner life" (15). 

Stalin seeing himself as an intellectual: 

"Stalin saw himself as neither a worker nor a peasant, but as, in effect, an intellectual whose task it was to spread enlightenment and socialist consciousness. It was this fundamental choice of an intellectual identity that motivated his fanatical, life-long commitment to reading and self-improvement" (48). 

Yet in a way Stalin read like many of us read: 

"Stalin read books in diverse ways-- selectively or comprehensively, cursorily or with avid attention. Some he read cover to cover, others he merely skimmed. Sometimes he would begin reading a book, lose interest after a few pages and jump from the introduction to the conclusion. Some books he read in a single sitting, others he dipped in and out of" (97). 

What Stalin's library reveals: 

"In truth, no smoking guns are to be found anywhere in the remnants of Stalin's library. His pometki reveal preoccupations not secrets, and the way he engaged with ideas, arguments, and facts" (101). 

A reason Stalin read a lot: 

"Admittedly, complexity, depth, and subtlety were not strengths of Stalin's nor was he an original thinker. His lifelong practice was to utilise other people's ideas, formulations and information-- that was why he read such a lot. His intellectual hallmark was that of a brilliant simplifier, clarifier, and populariser" (153). 

Additional Notes from US Book Show 2022: Session on "Tik Tok and Books"

Another session I listened to after the conference. This is my last set of notes for the conference this year.

 

This panel featured a BookTok influencer (just one by the way) and rest were book publisher marketing representatives. Part of the reason I listened to this panel was curiosity. A couple of people have suggested to me that I should give Tik Tok a try. I remain skeptical. I recently launched a YouTube channel, bare bones as it is, and to add another bit of work filming content, even if it is very short, sounds like more of a work burden and perhaps too high a price for whatever little additional exposure I may get as reviewer, writer, and cartomancer. But, in part to be aware, I listened to what they had to say.

• As of 2022, Tik Tok has experienced large growth and has become the 3rd most popular social media platform with 1 billion active users as of this year. They are 3rd behind Facebook and Twitter. (Publishers are basically tripping themselves with interest in TikTok, or BookTok, as the niche community of book talkers and reviewers is known, due to the platform's very high engagement numbers. Not too shabby for a channel that features videos of 1 to 3 minutes in length.)
• The short form video is appealing to TikTok users. They also mention that finding content on TikTok is easier versus finding content on YouTube. Overall, this is still about the algorithms both platforms use. 
• They cite the "authenticity" in TikTok, that videos there are less staged than in other platforms. (Given some TikTok videos I have seen, they can be just as staged as any other platform.) In theory at least, there is less need to edit, and users say that is appealing. 
• Diversity of voices is cited as a good element in TikTok (so far in the panel, everyone is just gushing about the service like it's the 2nd Coming). 
• The main demographic is 18-34 years old, and it is mainly women (women predominance is consistent in social media overall). Males may or not exist in BookTok it seems, or if they are there, it is in very niche communities, so not as visible. 
• Common BookTok genres that "work well" include romance, romantic comedy, and fantasy. Also some literary fiction. 
• (In a way, the publishers here sound a lot like many librarians back in the Library 2.0 days, as in wanting to be in spaces where they may or not be wanted.) 
• The panel's lone BookToker argues there are niche areas for some genres, depending on interests. The platform has progressed a bit according to them. 
• They may find new books to read from follower suggestions. Finding other BookTokers they like and trust. 
• Sponsored content does not do well on TikTok. Like other reviewers, publishers and authors, especially indie authors, need to tailor their communications to potential reviewers on BookTok. Mass e-mails get mostly ignored (and as a reviewer, I can agree with that. Mass e-mails asking for a random review are e-mails I delete). It is better for authors and publishers to do their own research, find fans of whatever genre they write in or market, and go from there. 
• On publishers reaching into TikTok. (And by the way, let me say again they needed more than one BookTok influencer on this panel.)
• Pay attention to what people are interested in. Making contacts and networking are important. Keep in mind a BookToker may not be interested in your specific book, but they are likely to know someone who does, and if you have a good relationship with the influencer they may be willing to pass the book suggestion on down their network. 
• Overall, BookTok cannot be forced. It needs to be organic. 
• A question I wish they had answered but left "for a later panel" was how to find time for TikTok. (I would have liked the answer now. Managing social media for me to share my blogging and writing takes a chunk of time as it is.) 
• Is TikTok a flash in the pan? The influencer thinks it will stay. (Personally, I am skeptical.) 
• Currently, TikTok is growing, especially BookTok. BookTok is a reviewers' platform mostly. Not all book authors need to be on TikTok, or if they are, they need to do authentic things other than peddling their books; authors already have made that mistake on other platforms like Facebook and Twitter, and they need to learn from that mistake. An author "messing up" is basically a "death sentence" on BookTok (i.e. being racist, homophobic, etc.) as BookTokers will just ignore and block them. Also, an author bitching about a bad review is a big mistake, again, one that will earn an author getting ignored and blocked. 
• Transparency for everyone is essential on BookTok.