The journey of a librarian in Armenia

I became a librarian and archivist purely out of circumstance. It was never an occupation I endeavored to pursue as a child, but varying circumstances led me down the rabbit hole of librarianship. From the beginning of my graduate studies, I knew I wanted to work with Armenian archival materials and literature and participate in translation efforts. Prior to the COVID pandemic, I took weekly language classes at the local church with the intent of traveling to Armenia and gaining full fluency. The pandemic derailed those plans but allowed me to pursue graduate studies in Library Science instead. Besides the obvious benefits of learning a second language, for me traveling to Armenia meant beginning to understand and participate in Armenian Studies and develop my skill as a librarian. The possibility of living in Armenia which only existed in my mind for my entire life was an attractive prospect.

Discovering my job site

Birthright Armenia was the vehicle that offered me the best possible path to living and working in Armenia. It was refreshing to learn that Birthright can offer as much support as needed to make such a move while simultaneously respecting the personal autonomy of participants. Through the Birthright staff, I contacted the Ashot Johannissyan Research Institute in the Humanities. I was drawn to the mission of the Johannisyan Institute since it aligned with my scholarly interests. The mission of the Institute includes, among other things, uncovering a lost and misrepresented intellectual history in Armenia and the Diaspora. The recovery of various strands of history and art criticism aren’t solely confined to the concerns of academics but everyone interested in the history and proliferation of Armenian intellectual, cultural, and artistic life. The Johannisyan Library exists to bolster that mission and provide vital resources for scholars and an atmosphere that encourages collaboration.

Ultimately, meeting the staff, researchers, artists, and wider community fostered by the Institute easily persuaded me to select Johannissyan as my job site. Our team of researchers, artists, and staff are extraordinary, hard-working, and wonderful people. The care and attention they bring to the Institute, their labor, and their relationships with each other are unlike any other place I have worked. The warm embrace I have received, and the seamless transition into The Johannissyan Library activities imbue me with a renewed desire to continue pursuing fluency and understanding of Armenian.

Libraries, the reflections of our current society?

Libraries worldwide face the effects of social, political, and economic strife unique to their location and interconnected global processes (such as the pandemic, the Russo-Ukrainian war, and climate change). The Johannissyan Library and other library institutions in Armenia are no different. They are reflections of the society in which they exist.

Nonetheless, librarians, scholars, and archivists around the world continue to produce, organize, preserve, and make accessible knowledge the public both desires and needs to inform themselves and to be critical. Knowledge and information travel like raging rivers across borders, nations, and Diaspora.

To consider myself lucky to be a droplet in such a river is an understatement.