Editorial

Abstract

Welcome to Slavic & East European Information Resources’ (SEEIR) first issue for 2021. Volume 22, Issue 1 (2021) is a regular issue with a diverse collection of research articles, column pieces, and book reviews. I would like to thank all of the contributors who found a way to continue working on their manuscripts amid the difficult circumstances of 2020 caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. I would also like to thank all of the section editors who likewise found a way to meet all deadlines while adjusting to new conditions at their respective institutions. I would like to express special thanks to Janet Crayne for her many years of service as the journal's Memoirs Editor. Janet’s vast subject expertise, institutional memory, sensible judgment, and careful editing have contributed to a meaningful and lasting body of memoirs over the years. Janet will be succeeded by Angela Cannon, from the Library of Congress, who will begin serving as the journal's new Memoirs Editor on January 1, 2021. The present volume features two research articles, the first being a historical analysis of the Library of Congress Classification subclass DJK, and the latter being a case study about alternative Slavic, East European, and Eurasian (SEEE) punk collections. Column pieces include the description of a fascinating digital collection preserved in Switzerland, which appears under the In Our Libraries column; two contributions to The Internet section, which highlight the development of open access (OA) in Estonia and Western Asia respectively; and a memorial tribute to the late June Pachuta Farris, who passed away unexpectedly in 2018. The issue concludes with four book reviews. The Research Articles section consists of two articles and opens with a piece by Regina Carra entitled, “DJK: (Re)Inventing Eastern Europe in the Library of Congress Classification.” In this meticulously documented “life of a call number,” Carra traces the evolution of classification for Eastern Europe and the subclass DJK. The author makes a point of reminding readers that classification schemes are not static systems. As the author notes, “the concept of a region is not natural or objective, but rather an intellectual invention or artifact of a particular historical context.” Classification schemes, like other intellectual constructs, reflect the weltanschauung (worldview) of their architects, their time, and their place; and they evolve as the world evolves (or as their arbiter’s worldview evolves). Carra’s piece offers insight into the imperfections of the Library of Congress classification (LCC), or any classification, and the complexities of making adjustments to the system as the present advances into the future and retreats into the past. In the case of the LCC of SLAVIC & EAST EUROPEAN INFORMATION RESOURCES 2021, VOL. 22, NO. 1, 1–5 https://doi.org/10.1080/15228886.2021.1874288