‘TO KNOW WISDOM AND INSTRUCTION: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS’ EXHIBIT CELEBRATES 500TH ANNIVERSARY OF ARMENIAN PRINTING
By Aram Arkun
Mirror-Spectator Staff
Posted on May 1, 2012 by Editor
Levon Avdoyan at the opening reception for the exhibit
WASHINGTON – The 500th anniversary of Armenian printing this
year provides an opportunity to highlight the prominent early role
Armenians, who at that time already had lost statehood and had their
homeland come under foreign rule, played in the Near East in this
field. It also is an opportunity to present some of the fruits of
centuries of Armenian literary and cultural work. While the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
selected Yerevan as this year’s world capital book city, there are
exhibitions and conferences taking place throughout the world. In
the US, the Library of Congress, thanks to the efforts of curator Dr.
Levon Avdoyan and a team of staff members, inaugurated a beautifully
designed exhibit on April 19, titled “To Know Wisdom and Instruction:
The Armenian Literary Tradition at the Library of Congress.” It will
remain on display until September 26 of this year, Monday-Saturday from
8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. There is no charge for access to this exhibit.
The exhibit includes 76 items from as early as the 14th century,
and as late as 2010. The early manuscripts on display show that
Armenia had a long and illustrious literary tradition which quickly
was transformed by the adoption of printing. The exhibit includes
the first complete Armenian-language printed bible from Amsterdam
(1666), the first modern Armenian novel, the first transcription
of the Armenian liturgy with European musical notation in the 19th
century, an 18th-century phylactery or prayer scroll and various rare
19th-century publications. Maps, such as one of Yerevan in the early
20th century, sheet music and modern diasporan, Ottoman, Soviet and
post-Soviet Armenian books and periodicals show the vitality and
range of Armenian printing. Non-printed items such as manuscript
illuminations, elaborately embroidered fabrics, musical recordings
and photographs highlight the richness and range of the Library
of Congress collection. The exhibit is accompanied by a 100-page
illustrated catalogue compiled by Avdoyan, available at the library
gift shop or at amazon.com.
The exhibition is in a prominent area of the Library of Congress that
already is attracting tourists and passers-by. Avdoyan noted that all
kinds of people are visiting, and hopefully are being educated. One
woman asked, for example, whether Armenia was a country. Of course,
many groups of Armenians are also planning visits, and Avdoyan is
providing guided tours to those who make arrangements in advance.
The exhibition and catalog, like all others produced by the
Library of Congress, were sponsored by outside grants. In this case,
Armenian-American foundations were the sponsors, including the Dolores
Zohrab Liebmann Fund, the Dadian Fund of the Library of Congress, Roger
Strauch and Julie Kulhanjian Strauch, the Vartkess and Rita Balian
Family Foundation and the Sami and Annie Totah Family Foundation.
An evening pre-opening reception on April 18 with Dr. Vartan
Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, as
keynote speaker attracted approximately 160 people, while another 160
people, coincidentally, attended the next day’s lectures. Dr. Kevork
Bardakjian (Marie Manoogian Chair of Armenian Language and Literature
at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) delivered the 16th annual
Vardanants Day Lecture on the Armenian alphabet and literary identity,
on April 19, followed by curator Avdoyan’s discussion of the continuity
and change of Armenian identity in “the digital age.” A free concert
by Armenian cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan (tickets are required through
ticketmaster.com) will help celebrate the exhibition and the Armenian
cultural heritage on May 19 at 2 p.m.
The idea of the exhibit originated with Avdoyan, who submitted it
internally through an application process. The library welcomed the
idea. Avdoyan pointed out that “not every country has had an exhibit
at the Library of Congress. This is unusual and is an honor for the
Armenians.” Furthermore, this exhibit is the first in a new series
by the library in its yearlong Celebration of the Book.
Following the acceptance of the project by the library, Avdoyan
lay the matrix for the exhibition and selected items that would
illustrate the theme of the Armenian literary tradition, both from
the Near East Section’s collection of Armenian-language items and
other curatorial divisions such as the Geography and Maps Division
and the Music Division.
Avdoyan began working at the Library in 1977, and as the reference
specialist for Classics, Ancient History, and Byzantine and Mediaeval
Studies in 1982. After 10 years, he became the Armenian and Georgian
Area Specialist, a position he continues to hold today. He actually
is the first to hold this position in the Library, though there were
Armenian cataloguers before him, and during his tenure, the collection
grew from over 7,000 to 45,000 items (comprising 16,300 unique titles)
in the Armenian-language. These items are accessible to readers in the
African and Middle Eastern Reading Room, while non-Armenian language
items pertaining to Armenians are held in different divisions of
the library.
Avdoyan pointed out during this interview that the library’s Armenian
collection is of fairly recent origin. It only possessed some 200 items
before a committee of Armenian Americans chaired by Arthur Dadian
and including noted scholar Sirarpie Der Nersessian was created in
1948 to assist the Armenian language collections at the Library of
Congress. Libraries in other countries have much older collections,
yet the Library of Congress has now turned into a major resource
for Armenian studies. This exhibition serves to call the attention
of scholars worldwide to this resource, in addition to informing a
broader public. Avdoyan is very proud that the Library “is a very
democratic institution. Anyone over the age of 16 can use it, whether
American or not, and without the need for documentation, letters or
recommendation, or similar items. One photo ID and 10 minutes later
you have a user card.”
Avdoyan’s job as area specialist, he explained, includes “anything
associated with the preservation, acquisition or service of the
Armenian collections, general reference and anything involving special
events.” For example, he created the Vardanants Lecture Series in 1994,
and represents the Library at important conferences. He gives briefings
about the collection, and seminars on Armenia for the government. He
also recommends items in non-Armenian languages for other Library
of Congress reading rooms. He helps provide reference information to
visitors and responds to long-distance requests for help.
Avdoyan purchases books for the library from Armenia, Europe and the
Middle East through various vendors around the world, and also engages
in exchange programs. He said, “We do work very closely with partner
libraries in Armenia, especially in book exchanges. We now have 14
exchange partners.” The American embassy in Armenia will transport
books exchanged from Armenia to the United States. Avdoyan feels that
though Armenian-language printing declined initially after Armenian
independence, it has increased again (though it is not as prolific
as in the Soviet period). The cost of new Armenian-language books
has gone up, while their print runs have generally decreased.
Avdoyan is constantly trying to fill in the gaps in the library’s
collections. He said, “We always welcome gifts. Last fall we received
two manuscripts, fabrics and silver objects from American-Armenians
whose ancestors brought these items after the Armenian Genocide. Three
are in the present exhibit.” The library preserves and maintains such
rare items. Although there is a limited budget for purchase of older
items, Avdoyan feels it has been ample for what he has found.
The Library of Congress is not a lending library, so Armenian items
will always be accessible to visitors. However, as the collection
increases in size, more items will be placed in off-site storage
because of space shortages in the library. It generally takes one
day for an item to be brought to the reading room from storage, so
readers have to order such items ahead of time. Avdoyan is allowed
to decide which items are suitable for transferal to storage.
Digitalization may eventually be a partial solution, but at the
moment, it must be largely paid for by outside funds. Avdoyan said that
arranging for it to take place is a matter of workflow in the Library
of Congress. Furthermore, the technology itself is still immature and
being perfected. There is not, for instance, an acceptably reliable
optical character recognition software for the Armenian language,
according to Avdoyan.
from other institutions as well as all sorts of other cooperative
programs. The Library of Congress has also already bought every
microfilm item commercially available on Armenian topics.
Avdoyan became interested in Armenian studies and history from an
early age. His grandparents on both sides of the family were from
Kharpert and Bitlis. He spoke Armenian while a very young child
in his birthplace of Providence, but he and his sister stopped
speaking after their family moved to Florida. He said, “I’ve always
been interested in history. Even in grade school, I loved history,
especially ancient history.”
Avdoyan went to the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn. as an
undergraduate to study history, and a visit to Dr. Nina Garsoïan of
Columbia University to inquire about how to learn Armenian led to an
invitation to study there. His doctoral dissertation, later published
as a book in 1993, was a translation and analysis of the medieval
Armenian work, The History of Taron. He spent many years learning
languages such as Classical and Modern Armenian and Greek, French,
Georgian, German, Italian, Latin and Russian.
Avdoyan became Columbia Prof. Morton Smith’s research assistant
for several years, which provided an opportunity to learn research
methodology in ancient history. He said that the switch to working in
a library was not that hard. One of his first positions in the Library
of Congress was as a library examiner in its Copyright Office. When he
became a reference specialist, he said, “I came in knowing the sources
and research methodology for my subjects of expertise. It was not all
that hard to transfer that knowledge. It took about a year to learn
general reference in the main reading room. That was one of the best
general learning experiences that I have ever had. You learn so much
while fielding questions about everything.”
Avdoyan has published a number of opinion pieces on Armenian Studies
in the past, and today is troubled by a general shift in education
in the US. He says, “I feel we have in many ways lost our way.” He
would like to see greater support for and strengthening of existing
chairs and programs in the field, and is concerned about the poor
job market for the new doctorates being produced.
“I must say, however, that I spent many years bemoaning the fact that I
was not teaching in academia, until I realized what a truly rewarding
career I had at the Library of Congress. Not only was I allowed
to build an important research collection, but I have also been on
doctoral committees, in essence guided others in the preparation of
their dissertations, and have aided others in their research. With
a little creativity and initiative, and the enlightenment of our
community, I would hope that our gifted young scholars could do the
same rather than being forced to leave the field. It really has been
an honor to serve in this capacity.”
The fate of his own position at the Library of Congress is uncertain
after he retires, as it is unclear what the financial and logistic
situation will be then. He is not sure how long he will continue, as
there is no formal retirement age, but after the exhibition concludes,
Avdoyan plans to rest and think about new library projects and his
own future. He would like to get back to his personal Armenological
research eventually.
From: A. Papazian