For The Almanac

writer@thealmanac.net

A group of Ukrainian librarians who toured the Mt. Lebanon Public Library recently were impressed with the resources available to library patrons.

Choch was one of five librarians from the Ukraine who spent a week in the Pittsburgh area learning how American libraries function.

The visit was sponsored through the Ukrainian Cultural and Humanitarian Institute and by Open World, a federal government program that brings professionals from other countries to the United States to exchange ideas with their counterparts in this country.

While in Pittsburgh, the librarians visited several libraries, including the Carnegie libraries in Carnegie and Homestead, and had a meeting with officials from the Allegheny County Library Association, explained Taras Strutynsky, an interpreter with the group.

"They're here to explore how American libraries function," Strutynsky explained.

Among the items of particular interest to the visiting librarians were electronic data bases and fund-raising, he said.

The cross-cultural exchange included " universal issues confronting libraries, such as the library as the center of the community and trying to get enough funding to support the activities of a library," said Cynthia Richey, director of the Mt. Lebanon Public Library.

The librarians also discussed issues such as the universal problems of unreturned books.