27.8.05

My Experiences with the Microfilm? Totally Sucked.

I finally stopped thinking about those creepy CPC ads and went downstairs to play with the microfilm readers. My university library kind of sucks when it comes to journals and newspapers in my field, which I can sort of understand but not really because my MA institution rocked for that. I was over the moon yesterday when I typed "Leningradskaia pravda" into the title field of the search screen, hit enter, and received a positive result. Yes, the university library has Leningradskaia pravda on microfilm from 1924 on. What the record didn't say is that between 1939 and 1944 the collection is incomplete. Yes, I know, World War II, blah blah blah, but the Soviet Union wasn't really sucked into that until 1941. I'm not going to get into the divying up Poland, although of course that's a factor as is the Finnish War...oh heck, it makes perfect sense that the collection is incomplete because with Europe at war, people had other things to think about than making sure that copies of the paper made it to the magical place where everything is put on microfilm, which, I believe, is Ann Arbor, Michigan. So, the issue of the paper I needed, isn't available. It's churlish for me to be upset that the 11 July 1941 issue of this paper is missing but I really wanted to read Eikhenbaum's article on Lermontov, "Poet-Warrior." I suppose that I'll go bug ILL now. Bah. It costs five bucks per photocopied article and I just orded a bunch of other articles because there are, as I've mentioned, major holes in the periodical collection in my field here. If Ptichka weren't locked out and classes weren't starting in two weeks, I'd view this as a sign to go home already and see my family, because of course a trip home means quality time spent at the UW library, which I heart in a big way.

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