Much of the time, we are able to use catalogue records put together in other major libraries for books that are new to Cambridge, but sometimes we need to do the full cataloguing work ourselves, as has been the case with two recent Ukrainian arrivals.

Both books are 2022 publications from the L’viv Ivan Franko National University, an excellent publisher whose books we frequently buy.  Both books are about language – but on very different subjects.

Books about the terrible Holodomor standardly draw on personal accounts of eyewitnesses. Our new book, Linhvonaratyvni aspekty rozpovideĭ ochevydt︠s︡iv pro Holodomor v Ukraïni 1932-1933 rokiv (Linguistic-narrative aspects of witness stories about the Holodomor in Ukraine in 1932) by Floriĭ Bat︠s︡evych, looks specifically at the language of these witness accounts.  This is a new direction in Holodomor studies, and a welcome addition to our Holodomor holdings.

The substantial Verbalʹna mova suspilʹnoï heohrafiï (The verbal language of human geography) by Myroslava Vlakh studies Ukrainian terminology for geography.  In one chapter, for example, the author focuses on the terms starting with меж- (mez︠h︡-; in the middle of, between).  [Outside the book, a famous example of a real geographical name with this happens to be the controversial dacha that Ukrainian Prime Minister and then President Viktor Yanukovych had outside Kyïv – Межигір’я (Mez︠h︡yhir’i︠a︡; reflecting the location’s position amongst mountains/hills).]  We collect lots of books about the Ukrainian language, whether it is discussed in the literary context or – as here – in relation to another discipline, so are glad to have been able to buy this.

While it is super that Cambridge can so often benefit from cataloguing work already undertaken in institutions elsewhere, it is important in terms of cooperation that we take our own part in contributing metadata for the international library community through the creation of records for material that other institutions have yet to handle – and, of course, vital for our own readers that they can see as quickly as possible good records for new books in the Cambridge catalogue.

The iDiscover catalogue reflects changes made to bibliographic records only once a day, so the fuller records will appear in the late morning of the 23rd.

Mel Bach