Visiting Professor Bringing Armenia Into Information Age

Zagayran (far right) meets with members of the School of Information Studies faculty.

MILWAUKEE - Tigran Zagayran, a visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, is helping bring Armenia into the electronic age. Zargaryan will share information about his work in a talk on Armenian culture and libraries Wednesday, June 13, at 6 p.m., Room 1157 Enderis Hall, 2400 E. Hartford Ave.

Zagaryan is head of the automation department of Yerevan State University Library and Republican Scientific Medical Library in Armenia. He is also head of the technical part of the "Creating Armenian Libraries Information Network" project. Armenia, formerly part of the Soviet Union, is just at the beginning of its transition to the electronic age, says Zargaryan, who is at UWM through June.

The work Zargaryan is doing involves three major phases, and numerous challenges.

Initial efforts are focused on transferring the information in Armenian libraries into digital form so scholars in Armenia and around the world can access it online, Zagaryan says. He also is involved in developing online distance education for elementary and junior-high-age students in Armenia. The first course being offered is civics. As the country makes the transition to democracy, its young citizens need learn about their civic responsibilities under a new form of government, says Zargaryan. He is coordinating an online civics class, in Armenian, from Milwaukee.

As more information becomes available online, and distance education expands, Armenia will be better able to move into the international e-commerce economy, says Zargaryan.

Armenian libraries and librarians face numerous challenges in helping their country move into the digital world, says Zagaryan. Like many of the former Soviet republics, Armenia is dealing with economic turmoil, and resources for updating library information systems are limited, says Zagaryan.

The country's geographic position in a politically troubled area discourages international companies from entering Armenia's market, limiting any business investment in digital information and e-commerce.

And many of the resource materials currently available were developed when the country was under Soviet control and are written in Russian. Armenian scholars and researchers like Zagaryan are in the process of translating materials, particularly those designed for students, into Armenian as they put the information in digital form. Scientific and other research materials are being translated into English, the language increasingly used in academic research. Libraries also are working to acquire more materials in English, says Zagaryan. Zagaryan is visiting UWM as part of an internship sponsored by IREX, the International Research and Exchanges Board, funded through the State Department. IREX is providing fellowships for professionals from the newly independent states of the former Soviet region. The visiting scholars are conducting research, delivering lectures and collaborating with U.S. colleagues. The goal, says Zagaryan, is to help scholars and professionals play an active role in helping their countries make the transition to democracy and free markets.

While he is at UWM's School of Information Studies, Zargaryan will conduct research on distance learning via public and university libraries, work on a book about digital libraries, audit classes in his areas of interest, and provide information about Armenian libraries. ###

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