Library stocks being filled at charity’s expense

Ukrainians are gradually losing the status of a reading nation. This is the result of a survey which shows that only 20 percent of Ukrainians actively read books. The situation is not very encouraging among the young people because reading is not exactly their craze. Incidentally, 60 percent of them mostly read Russian-language modern fiction and popular-science literature. There are lots of factors that cause this: from the banal impossibility for many Ukrainian families to get hold of a book to the fact that books are being ousted by modern-day computer technologies and the internet.

National publishing houses are in dire straits, with the production of Ukrainian-language books having halved in due to the crisis. According to the Book Chamber of Ukraine, 22,500 books were published in 2009, including 40 for young people, whereas in the neighboring countries publication of books is one of the strategic sectors and is supported by the state.

In view of the current situation, Vlada Prokaieva’s charitable foundation Gifted Children Are the Future of Ukraine launched the campaign “With a Book in Heart” on April 8. Its pivotal point is to fill national library stocks with modern-day Ukrainian-language books for young people, with emphasis being put on encyclopedic, educational and reference literature. To draw up a list of about 500 names of books, Ukrainian libraries’ requirements have been examined and, as result, reading rooms will not acquire “extra” books. The first set of literature was handed over to the State Library of Ukraine for Young People, and the foundation is planning to donate 500 copies of books every month to 23 national libraries on the list. This is supposed to result in satisfying the primary needs of state-run libraries in literature because their stocks have not been topped up in the past five years or so. According to Ms. Prokaieva, the project’s ultimate goal is to raise the overall cultural and educational level of young Ukrainians by encouraging them to actively read useful literature.