Ukrainian Book Institute debuts interactive map of bookshops to boost reading and visibility of Ukrainian books

The Ukrainian Book Institute has unveiled a new initiative this month to help support and create new bookstores, Rubryka reports.

What's the problem?

During the war, Ukrainians' willingness to self-identify intensified, and their interest in their own culture, particularly literature, increased. Ukrainians need places where they can access the latest books and hear the voices of various authors in Ukrainian.

There's another side to the coin — Ukrainian books need visibility, and the Ukrainian book market needs support and reader attention to thrive.

What's the solution?

The Ukrainian Book Institute presented an interactive map of Ukraine's book system. The project aims to promote reading and bring books closer to Ukrainian readers.

The interactive map was created using Google Maps tools by Kateryna Plevako, a student from the Educational and Scientific Institute of Philology at Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University. The project's concept and implementation were supervised by the leading expert of the Ukrainian Book Institute's reading promotion department, Vira Karasiova.

How does it work?

Making Ukrainian books more visible

"The idea of ​​creating the map came up from the obvious need to visualize the information collected and processed by the Ukrainian Book Institute. We wanted it to be accessible to everyone, not just analysts working with data," says Vira Karasiova. "The project's main goal is to create a tool that can be used anywhere in Ukraine to find out where the nearest bookstores are located. All the data was collected with the help of concerned citizens, our active readers, and we visualized it on the map."

The expert notes that the Ukrainian Book Institute had previously published a list of all bookstores in the form of a table, which was not the most convenient form for users.

"When we published the map, I saw comments that proved the importance of the initiative: 'Oh, it turns out there is a bookstore in my area! Getting dressed!' So, the first thing the map will do is make Ukrainian books even more visible: not only in the most well-known locations in the capital but also in any populated area of Ukraine," says Karasiova.

In her opinion, the interactive map can stimulate the work of existing bookstores, contribute to the opening of new ones, and be useful to publishers. At the very least, they can see which bookstores besides well-known chains can call and offer their books.

The map is available via the link and has over 450 bookstores marked. The authors say this is just the first step. In the near future, developers will expand the map's capabilities by adding information about literary museums and book festivals.

"Due to the ban on Russian books and society's attitude toward them, we are currently witnessing a wave of new bookstore openings. However, this does not mean that the trend is the same everywhere. For example, Kyiv has over a hundred bookstores, and new ones are opening and becoming successful, while Dnipro, despite being the fourth-largest city in Ukraine by population as of January 2022, has only nine bookstores. I constantly see comments that regional centers, where the population can be hundreds of thousands, have no bookstores at all. We wanted to highlight at least those bookstores that already exist and cannot afford advertising budgets that would make them as visible as possible to readers," says Karasiova.

Even more helpful solutions!

Understanding that Ukraine's book ecosystem, like any other, is constantly changing, the Ukrainian Book Institute team asks Ukrainians to join the project, help update the map, and collect information.

How to do it? 

1. To begin with, open the map and explore your area.
2. Write to vira.karasjova@ubi.org.ua if something needs to be edited or added to the existing bookstore that is currently absent from the map.
3. Write what could make the map even more convenient and useful.
4. Visit the nearest bookstore you can get to and greet them for being on this map so that they too can find out that they can use this tool for their own promotion.
5. And be sure to buy a book.

"Since the map was published, we have already received more than 50 letters from people who either clarified our data or added to it. As a result, we added 37 new bookstores to the map," shares Karasiova. "For me, this is evidence of interest — people are ready not only to open the map  — although tens of thousands of views per week is also an indicator — but also to make efforts to make this tool more accurate."

In related news, the German Goethe-Institut announced the launch of a project for libraries.

It was also reported that the Kyiv region welcomed a project distributing books to libraries free of charge.

In Kyiv, the Darnytskyi district became a home for an accessible library hub. This is a new location of the Heorhii Kvitka-Osnovianenko Central Library, founded back in 1947.