The Biblioteca

After a few months based at my university in Lugansk this year, I finally felt comfortable enough to go through with the necessary snooping (or what I like to call "investigating") of the countless closed bookshelves within our multiple English departments.  I mean, everyone knows that closed cabinets, especially of the medicinal kind, exist solely for these kind of explorations.  And it's a good thing too, because look what they contained:

That's only a portion of the over 1,000 English novels and literary books that have been collecting more dust than readers over the years!  Mixed with the tons of resources and materials we receive from the American Embassy in Kiev, that equals an amazing amount of goodies!  The books have not only been stored in different rooms on different floors in different departments, but some of them were stored two or three deep, making it virtually impossible for anyone but  the damned and the determined to get to them!

Instant thought:  We need a language library, baby!

One of the best parts of the English Language Fellows Program is that we get an educational activities allowance which we can use to fund certain projects and/or necessary equipment while at our post.  All I needed to make this idea spring to life was approval from the big guys, a little (lot of) persuasion of the department chairs, one big, ugly classroom....

...someone who knows a thing or two about carpentry:

...a few extra hands to help with the exhumation and transplant of the aforementioned books :

And, presto!  We have what can only be described as one bad-ass Room O' English Learning Fun:

While it's far from finished, we had the grand opening on my last full day in Lugansk (incidentally, it wasn't until my last week in Lugansk that the thing even started to be built, but that's a whole other stressful story!).  I'm giving my baby up for adoption and only hope that the departments will come together to nurture and continue to help it grow into a full center of learning, English reading, and American culture.

Throughout this whole endeavor, I did feel a bit bad about removing all of the framed informational posters on the United Kingdom and replacing them with a few American flags instead, but to make up for it, I made sure to add a "British Culture" shelf front and center.  Talk about diplomacy!


But in all honesty, it makes me feel good that I, as a representative of the United States, the Department of State (hey, Hillary!), and Georgetown, can leave something seemingly low-tech that has such potential for use and growth at the university.  The books we have already completely filled the new shelves, so I know that the future of this room looks good!  My only regret is that I won't be here in the fall to see the students' reactions and interactions, but sometimes that's what comes with the planting of seeds.


Thanks to everyone who supported and/or financed this project!