Acceptance of social marketing concepts by selected Romanian librarians: Culture and context

Supporting the expatriate social scientist: Faculty research and information access in post-Soviet Kazakhstan

“…And perhaps, this omission reflects the shadowy figure of the post-Soviet librarian. As in other post-Soviet countries, Kazakhstan lives in the lingering shadow of Soviet information controls, given the USSR's distortion of information (Knutson, 2009), Soviet controls on dissemination of information (Bone, 1999), and Soviet training of librarians to actively limit access to resources (Anghelescu et al, 2009). Although Soviet librarians were to be "well versed in [social science] knowledge and have specialized information facilities" (Goldberg 1971: 276), the role of the librarian was not respected under the Soviet system, nor is it well respected and well paid today (Benz, 2009: 238).…”

“I Fell into Librarianship”: Experiences of Post-Soviet Librarians at the National Academic Library in Astana, Kazakhstan

“…5 Across communist and socialist countries, librarians were expected to support political ends, 6 even providing advice to nearby socialist countries such as China on the practice of socialist librarianship, 7 or working to create a "socialist type of human being" in Hungary. 8 While librarians understood themselves as preserving and promoting culture, the public at times perceived libraries as political dissemination centers, 9 where the promotion of party solidarity (partiinost') led to distortion of information towards Soviet ends. 10 Mass libraries (public libraries) aimed to "support working-class communist education and promote scientific and technical progress."…”