CANADIAN FRIENDS OF UKRAINE КАНАДСЬКЕ ТОВАРИСТВО ПРИЯТЕЛІВ УКРАЇНИ AMIS CANADIENS DE L'UKRAINE Home | About CFU | Canada-Ukraine Relations | International Statesmen Dinner | Profile in Courage Dinner | Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Centre | Crimea Project | Canada-Ukraine Library Centres | Teachers Awards Project | Election Projects | Meet our Board Members | Our Honorary Patrons | Famine Genocide Awareness Projects | Famine Genocide Lecture 2006 | Coming Events | Recent Newsletters | Press Releases | Contact CFU | Support CFU

In 1993, Canadian Friends of Ukraine opened the first Canadian library centre in the city of Luhansk on the site of the Luhansk State Pedagogical University of Shevchenko.

Since then, thirteen such centres have opened in various state library institutions located in eastern and southern Ukraine, where the absence of Western publications had created a vacuum amid reading materials available to library users.

Having shipped over 300,000 books and periodicals overseas, Canadian Friends of Ukraine sponsored the establishment of 14 Canada-Ukraine Library Centres in leading state library institutions in the cities of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Simferopil, Sevastopil, Odesa, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Mariupil, Poltava, Cherkasy, Sumy, and Kherson.

In 2006, Canadian Friends of Ukraine opened its most recent Canadian-sponsored library centre in the city of Zaporizha at the Zaporizha Regional General Research Library named after O. M. Gorky.
To view a Ukrainian-language article about the opening, published in the local press in Zaporizha, click here.

The collection of materials sent to Ukraine are primarily Western publications printed in Ukrainian and English focusing on books and journals on Ukrainian history, culture, literature and the fine arts. The Centres also offer English-language publications on law, international relations, economics, literature, as well as encyclopaedias. The collections are utilized by high school, university, and graduate students, many of whom have defended Master's and PhD dissertations on Ukrainian history, literature and fine arts based on the information resources provided by this program. The Library Centres also host a series of conferences on Ukrainian subjects relevant to the collections housed in the given library institution.

Canadian book collectors wishing to donate good-quality reading materials for this project are encouraged to call Canadian Friends of Ukraine at (416) 964-6644 to make arrangements for your book donations.

For more information on the activities of this project, click here.