King Charles III to inaugurate twinning of libraries in Britain’s Liverpool and Ukraine’s Odesa

On Wednesday, April 26, King Charles III will officially certify the twinning of the Liverpool library with the Odesa scientific library named after M. Hrushevskyi.

The "Bibliotechna Kraina" charitable fund announced that on Facebook.

"On Wednesday, April 26, King Charles III and Camilla, the Queen Consort will visit the Central Library of Liverpool to officially mark its twinning with the Odesa Regional Universal Scientific Library named after M. Hrushevskyi," the message reads.

The memorandum's conclusion is the initiative of Ukrainian Veronika Yasynska, who joined the Liverpool community after leaving her native Kyiv last year because of the war.

"The central library of Liverpool has become a place to which we wanted to invite as many Ukrainians as possible. So that everyone has the opportunity to get a new experience, get to know and feel the modern concept of the library as an open space for everyone and, of course, to find a book in their native language," Yasynska explained.

The charitable fund noted that the twinning of the libraries of Ukraine and Great Britain is an unprecedented event in the library community of both countries, which will testify to the support of Ukraine in difficult times, will contribute to the development of the library business and draw attention to the importance of supporting book reading.

One of the parties to the memorandum of cooperation is the "Bibliotechna Kraina" [Library Country in Ukrainian – ed.] charitable fund. Its executive director, Luciana Shum, will attend the memorandum signing ceremony in Liverpool on April 26.

"We see many opportunities for cultural exchanges and joint initiatives between our countries, so we strive to form close partnerships between the libraries of Ukraine and Great Britain. Therefore, our charitable foundation sees its task as establishing international cooperation to develop the library business. We are sincerely grateful to Great Britain for the huge support and help," Shum said.

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It is noted that as of February-March 2023, as a result of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, 528 libraries were damaged or completely destroyed, more than 300 libraries in educational institutions were destroyed, and at least 20 university libraries were damaged. The book collections of 42 libraries were utterly destroyed.

Ukrainian children's literature appeared in the libraries of the German cities of Villingen-Schweningen and Freiburg as part of the campaign "To Ukrainian children – a Ukrainian book." Now Ukrainians forced to live here will be able to read books in their native language.