Mobile station will help restore library collections damaged by hostilities

28 January 13:28

The National Library of Ukraine named after Yaroslav the Wise hosted a presentation of the first mobile station for the rescue and conservation of library collections ARCHA1. This was reported by the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine, Komersant ukrainskyi reports.

According to the Ministry, more than 770 libraries in Ukraine have been damaged or completely destroyed.

“This means that the access of Ukrainian citizens to reading, books and rare documents is currently limited. However, we must preserve these collections and documents, which are evidence of our people, our European history and common European heritage,” said Halyna Hryhorenko, First Deputy Minister of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian side managed to implement this project thanks to cooperation with the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, the National Library of the Czech Republic, the Czech Committee of the International Association of Museums and Museum Professionals, the Karel Komarek Family Foundation, and numerous donors.

Oleh Serbin, Director General of the Yaroslav Mudryi National Library of Ukraine, emphasized that hundreds of thousands of books and documents were damaged by the fighting and that the station will help restore the library’s collections.

The ARCHA1 mobile station is equipped with modern technologies for rescuing, cleaning, disinfecting, drying and restoring documents damaged by fire, flooding or improper storage conditions. It allows for operation without connection to external energy sources. In the coming days, Czech experts will conduct a training for Ukrainian librarians.

International partners are already working on the creation of a second ARCHA2 mobile station, which will be used to digitize library collections in Ukraine.

What is known about libraries that were damaged by the fighting

The Kherson Regional Universal Scientific Library tried to collect and systematize information from various sources about libraries destroyed and damaged as a result of hostilities. At the same time, experts realize that this information is incomplete. But what has been collected makes it possible to imagine the extent of the destruction.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops, 26 libraries in Chernihiv region have suffered at the hands of the occupiers. Libraries in 12 communities have been destroyed or damaged. Three libraries were completely destroyed, six were partially destroyed. 21 premises have suffered minor damage (broken windows, doors, roof and facade repairs). 11 institutions were moved to other buildings, and eight lost their collections. The damage amounts to almost 42 million hryvnias, with the loss of books estimated at almost 682 thousand hryvnias.

In August 2023, the Russian army shelled the building of the Oles Honchar Kherson Regional Universal Scientific Library twice. In the Beryslav territorial community of the Kherson region, the Urozhainia library was completely destroyed. The Bilozerska library named after Petro Hryhorenko was destroyed. In the Velyko Oleksandrivska territorial community, 2 libraries burned down, and 11 libraries had their roofs, ceilings, windows, walls, and doors damaged. In the Vysokopil territorial community, the Novopetrivske village library burned down completely. In the Stanislavska territorial community, 4 out of 5 libraries were destroyed, and the Oleksandrivska library was completely destroyed. Two libraries were destroyed in the Chornobaivska territorial community. Libraries in the liberated part of the Kherson region were almost all looted.

In the Kharkiv region, the library in the town of Barvinkove burned down – it was the main library of the community. In the first days of the war, the city library in Izyum was destroyed by shelling. Libraries in the suburbs of Kharkiv, in particular, in the Vilkhivska community, were damaged. Among those destroyed were several buildings of the library of Karazin University in Kharkiv, which housed more than 3 million volumes, including many old prints and manuscripts, as well as important Ukrainian archival collections.

In Mykolaiv region, 58 libraries have been damaged by Russian troops since the start of the full-scale invasion. Eight of them have been completely destroyed. In particular, the occupiers organized their headquarters in the building of the Snihuriv Central Library, which housed libraries for adults and children. The occupants burned books, damaged furniture and stole equipment.

In the Severska community in Donetsk region , as a result of artillery shelling by the Russian military, library buildings were severely damaged, so the books were almost out in the open. Soldiers took five tons of books from the libraries destroyed by Russian troops. The books were taken to Kramatorsk, in particular, from the city’s central library and lyceum. Later, the books were sent to Dnipro.

How many cultural infrastructure facilities have been damaged in Ukraine

As of October 25, 2024, according to the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications, a total of 2,109 cultural infrastructure facilities were damaged, and this does not include cultural heritage sites. Of these, 368 were destroyed (17.45%).

Total losses of state-owned cultural institutions: 37 units (14%); municipally owned: 2072 (6%).

In general, the greatest losses and damage to cultural infrastructure occurred in Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Luhansk regions. The largest group of cultural infrastructure facilities that were damaged or destroyed are clubs (48.3% of the total number of cultural facilities that were damaged).

In total, the following were affected:

  • clubs – 1018;
  • libraries – 750;
  • art education institutions – 163;
  • museums and galleries – 120;
  • theaters, cinemas and philharmonic societies – 38;
  • nature reserves – 7;
  • parks, zoos – 9;
  • circuses – 4.

Clubs, libraries, museums, and theaters were destroyed in 297 territorial communities (20.2% of the total number of ATCs) in Vinnytsia (3.2%), Dnipro (20%), Donetsk (87%), Zhytomyr (17%), Zakarpattia (2%), Zaporizhzhia (40,3%), Kirovohrad (2%), Kyiv (27.1%), Luhansk (46.2%), Lviv (5.5%), Mykolaiv (44.2%), Odesa (9.9%), Poltava (4%), Sumy (62.7%), Kharkiv (58.9%), Kherson (43%), Khmelnytskyi (17%), Cherkasy (6.1%), Chernihiv (49%) regions and the city of Kyiv. Kyiv.

Василевич Сергій
Editor