The executive director of the "Library Country" foundation, Liusiena Shum, became the guest at the "Libraries Connected Annual Seminar 2023 - Connecting Communities".
This is an event where every year librarians from all over Great Britain gather, there are representatives of various state institutions as well. Here, the library community shares experiences and best practices. Liusiena told her British colleagues about the challenges and problems faced by Ukrainian libraries during the full-scale invasion and about the repeated facts of the destruction of Ukrainian books by the occupiers. "I told about the general situation in our country so that British colleagues were in the context of all events," - says Liusiena Shum. She also shared success stories and told what contribution the country's libraries are making to the approach of victory: they support the military and internally displaced Ukrainians, organize volunteer headquarters, collect humanitarian aid for the affected regions, etc. In addition, librarians are not behind in cultural diplomacy. They actively speak at conferences, communicate with colleagues, and fight against Russian propaganda inside and outside the country. "Russia is currently destroying everything Ukrainian in the occupied territories - books, schools, culture in general. It strikes not only at the objects of critical but also cultural infrastructure".
British colleagues are ready to help the libraries of Ukraine with books in English and are ready to hand over mobile library buses for the affected regions. We are extremely grateful to our British colleagues for their help and invitation to become members of the conference!
Libraries Connected is a charity that brings together the UK's public libraries to champion the power of libraries, demonstrate their importance to individuals and communities and support library leaders. http://www.librariesconnected.org.uk/page/about-us
