SVI Librarians in Action

Jun 3

As you read this, somewhere in Ukraine, a library is burning.

Since the invasion of Crimea in 2014, Russian forces have deliberately targeted libraries as a strategic tactic. Not because it helps advance the front, but because it advances their goal - to erase a language, a history, and a people.

Books are more than paper - they are witnesses. Libraries are not buildings - they are communities.

The existence of Ukrainian libraries proves that Ukrainians themselves, exist. They are, therefore, a deliberate target.

Here in Canada however, Ukrainian libraries are also at risk, but for another reason. The once tightly knit and centralized Ukrainian community in Toronto has dispersed. Being close to community supports such as churches, financial institutions, and organizational buildings is no longer a draw. In the 1990s, Ukrainians began to move further away from traditionally Ukrainian neighbourhoods and readership in the city began to fall. Community based publishing followed suit and less books were published. Reinvestment into the community’s libraries was visibly absent. Predictably, this lack of interest and investment led most of our community libraries to suffer from irreversible neglect. Most have closed their doors for good.

Although many people bemoaned the closing of Toronto’s Ukrainian libraries, only a few brave souls decided to take one of them on to save.

Before she became SVI’s Librarian, Anastasia Baczynskyj and a small team of volunteers spent 5 years caring for a very important Ukrainian Canadian library collection. It was an immense project. They had decided to take on the safety and security of over 16,000 Ukrainian books. There was no budget to protect them and no interest in them locally. Time was running out as storing the 440 boxes on goodwill was becoming more and more difficult. The rich collection was at risk of becoming homeless — and soon.

Anastasia and the volunteers knew that they deserved a good home and knew that the fight for books in Ukraine was also at full tilt.

A solution was found, just in the nick of time.

In 2026, thanks to joint Canadian and Ukrainian efforts, a new library was created in Ukraine, saving this priceless collection in its entirety.

Iulia Tomchyshyn from UKRINFORM.UA reports on the opening, not closing, of a very important Ukrainian library in Ternopil.

READ THE UKRINFORM ARTICLE HERE