Today was the first day of the librarians conference. Seminary librarians from many countries in Europe, especially Central and Eastern Europe have gathered to discuss topics of interest, to discuss problems and to explore the idea of developing co-operate interlibrary loan programs. There was general agreement that journal articles as they can be sent electronically by fax or by e-mail. Books are another matter as they have to be mailed and there are countries where the postal service is not only not reliable it is almost non-existant. One librarian said he tells his students if they take a book to their home town and it is due back in the library not to mail it as it will never be delivered. His request is they simply keep the book until they return to the school. He ... read more

Today was a sunny day with occasional clouds floating across the sky ... sunny but cold and windy. At breakfast we met Elke. Elke is the sole librarian at a seminary in Berlin, Germany. “I have 80,000 volumes,” she said, “and have about 30,000 entered on the computer. I really need a volunteer who understands German to help me.” Nancy suggested she get in touch with a Mennonite group as there are many Mennonites who understand German and could help her. Later at the reception center, as we were leaving to go downtown to sightsee, we met a woman, Eileen, who has just arrived to attend the librarians conference. Nancy introduced Elke to Eileen and told her of Elke’s problem. “She should get in touch with a Mennonite group” Eileen said. “There are many Mennonites that ... read more

Somewhere over the North Atlantic we passed from Tuesday to Wednesday. We landed at Heathrow International Airport a few minutes before nine. Our flight from London to Prague was not schedulce to leave until 2:25 giving us a five-hour layover. Deplaning out on the tarmack a bus drove us to Terminal no. 4 and we had to transfer 4 to Terminal 1, but this proved to be no problem as there are excellent signs pointing the passenger along the way to a shuttle bus that transports travelers from one terminal to the other. With the driver sitting on the right side I had an erie feeling of being in Japan. It has been a long time since I was in England. In fact, I have been in Japan several times since my last visit to Lodon. ... read more

A week or so ago I stopped at the post office and ask for a mail bag and an M mail label. M mail is a service of the post office whereby a person can send a number of books at a low rate to another country. I was told the minimum weight allowed was eleven pounds and the maximum weight was sixty-six pounds. I took the bag home and a few days later Nancy and I sorted through a collection of books selecting those we would ship to Prague. The winter evening will be long and as TV is not be of interest there should be lots of time for reading. I tied bundles of four or five books together and Nancy added a label on the first book giving our address in Prague. All ... read more

I must have looked through over 500 digitally stored pictures before I found one where the two of us are in the same photo. This photo was taken by our friend Dr. Bill Kinzer. Bill was at the concert, saw us and snapped our picture. Usually I, Bill, can never prove through pictures that I have been anywhere. Today is a rainy, cloudy day here as Bill and I are doing more preparation for our upcoming trip to the Czech Republic. Trip? More like sojourn since we will be there for six months. Six months doesn’t seem long when you start thinking about it but I know very well how long six months can be. Bill spent six months in China in 1995. Sun Hai and Wang Jing were living with me when he left. They ... read more