Our First Day!

     So we've survived our first full day in Saint Petersburg! We've technically been here since yesterday, but after all of our flights (one of us travelled from LA, I don't even want to imagine that trip) we were pretty jet lagged. Although we were lucky enough to eat at what is probably St. Petersburg's best Armenian restaurant. They had a full banquet waiting for us on multiple tables when we arrived, and it was a more than welcome sight for our jetlagged selves! They actually supplied so much food that we ended up boxing it and taking it for dinner tonight. I don't know how, but it managed to be even more incredible than last night.

But as amazing as that food was, the crash course in St. Petersburg city libraries and culture was even better! We started off with a visit to the Mayakovskaya library, named for the Russian Futurist poet Vladimir Mayakovsky. The library functions as a central library in many ways, and was similar to the Enoch Pratt Free Library back in Baltimore. We got to tour the building of the foreign language department. The library provides a slew of resources for people who want to learn foreign languages, including texts, films, computer language labs, and audio material. Irina, one of the foreign language librarians, showed us around. Aside from the foreign language department, the building also houses business and legal resources. The librarian from this section explained to us that the bulk of the patrons who use the legal resources are elderly residents of the city. Often they have legal troubles regarding their apartment leases or pensions, and unsure of where to get assistance, they go to the Mayakovskaya library for their resources. The library also offers a ton of programming, including computer literacy courses, language clubs, writers events, and they even participate in Night at the Museum, which is an event where cultural institutions all around the city stay open through the night for guests.

Jessica and I at the back entrance of the Mayakovskaya Library.

Reading room for the foreign languages department.

First floor of the circulating collection.

After that, we saw a more general purpose building of the library that housed the circulating collection for users. This part of the library had an insteresting structure: the first floor was open stacks, but all of the others were closed. So, a patron can check out things from floors other than the first one, but a librarian or staff person would have to retrieve them. We got to see other parts of the library as well, including the periodicals collection, the local history room, and (my favorite), the rare books rooms! The thing that really surprised us as American librarians-in-training was that the books in the rare books room could actually be handled by patrons, and without gloves! We saw a ton of great books, but the collection of Leon Bakst's sketches, including costumes for the Ballet Russes, was one of the most breathtaking in the collection. The contents were amazing, of course, but even the book itself and its box were beautiful! You can see in the picture the silver detailing on the cover- very, very impressive.

Leon Bakst in the rare book room.

We were cutting it close for our next appointment, unfortunately, but we didn't want to be late to meet some of the library's users and library school students. In a reading room in the foreign languages library, we discussed the differences in libraries between the our two countries, outlooks on the profession, motivations for going into librarianship, and why people went to libraries. It was comforting to know that depsite all of the differences our respective cultures have, we both share a love for libraries and the emotions that being surrounded by these places of knowledge can inspire. We'll get a chance to speak more with our library school colleagues tomorrow, when we give presentations at their university. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what their department is like.
In the afternoon, we went on a bus tour of the city. We had a great tour guide, and she was able to navigate us so well that it'd be difficult to include all of the places she brought us to. Perhaps the most remarkable was the Peter and Paul Fortress. Inside the fortress is the cathedral which houses the tombs of the imperial Romanov family. From Peter the Great on, you can see the tombs of the Romanov Tsars and their families, including Tsarina Catherine the Great (Catherine II). In a small room off the main part of the Cathedral is a tomb for the last Romanov Tsar, Nicolas II, and his family. Many of us are familiar with the story of their execution, and it was only in 1998, after the dissolution of the USSR, that Nicolas II, his wife, and their four children (including the Grand Duchess Anastasia), were able to be buried in their family tomb.

The Cathedral at the Peter & Paul Fortress (right)

We get to finish the evening, and this post, on a high note, though, with a late night trip to see the bridges on the Neva open! St. Petersburg is a city literally built on rivers and canals. Boats travel throughout the city, and at night, the draw bridges open up to let tall ships through. It's regarded as an event during the White Nights season, which is starting up now. In White Nights, the sun sets only for a few hours, and at the solstice, it never gets completely dark. So off we went, at midnight, to go see the bridges! One of the things adding to the splendor of it is that the beautiful old mansions along the Neva are lit up at night, so the backdrop for the bridge opening is gorgeous. Many say that it's romantic thing to go see these bridges, so none of us were surprised when we saw many adoring couples lining up to watch. It might not have been completely romantic with our big group, but it was without a doubt a cool thing to see!

One of the bridges opening for ships on the Neva River.