KYIV - On behalf of the ELibUkr (Electronic Library of Ukraine: Knowledge Centers for Ukraine), it is a pleasure to send you our greetings and share our accomplishments in this exciting nation-wide project.

The project was initiated in January 2009 by the Kyiv Mohyla Foundation of America with the support of USAID in Ukraine (United States Agency for International Development) to bring access to world academic and research digital information to

          [1] Ukraine’s academic and research communities,
          [2] to enable exchange of information between Ukraine’s academic community with their colleagues throughout the world, and to
          [3] enable collaboration between universities, researchers and other institutions through access to electronic information resources.

The project accomplished its first phase in March 2010.  The final report of our work and accomplishments is available on the project’s portal and can be
accessed as follows:  http://www.elibukr.org/uk/pro-proekt/zviti.html (in Ukrainian), and http://www.elibukr.org/en/pro-proekt/zviti.html (in
English).

PROJECT BEGAN WITH THREE UNIVERSITIES
Our project, which began with three universities – (National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy, Yuriy Fedovych Chernivtsi National University and Karazin Kharkiv National University), has already expanded to ten major universities of Ukraine.

In less than two years we expanded to the following additional universities: Donetsk National Technical University, Sumy National University, Ukrainian Academy of Banking, Volyn National University of Lesia Ukrainka, Taurida National V.I.Vernadsky University in Crimea, Sevastopil National Technical University, Ternopil Puluj National Technical University,  and V. Stefanyk Lviv National Academic Library (which services the library needs of Lviv’s universities). 

In December 2010 we also expect to include Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics and Odessa National I.I. Mechnikov University.

195,000 STUDENTS & 9,000 FACULTY MEMBERS
We are pleased to report that within one year of the project’s establishment 195,000 students and 9,000 faculty members were able to access 22 paid and 49 open source data bases through the ELibUkr central portal. 

The project also provided the academic and research community of member universities the opportunity to include its own publications in an organized ELibUkr archive of open resources – and also in the inter-university repository ELibUkr OA, where more than 600 research works have been published. 

The ELibUkr OA archive also includes documents from the unclassified archives of the SBU (Security Service of Ukraine), which Kyiv Mohyla Academy received in March 2010.

GOVERNMENT OF UKRAINE COMMITMENT
We are delighted to let you know that in September 2010 the government of Ukraine committed to support the ELibUkr project through an official letter to USAID, with an initial partial financial commitment for the year 2011. The objective is to use the funds provided by the government to provide access to EBSCO, Oxford Reference Online and Britannica Online to 85 universities of Ukraine.

We plan to continue the project’s expansion to include 75 universities into the current ELibUkr consortium of full members in the next two years.

More detailed information about the project, including information resources, news, and progress is available on the site www.elibukr.org.

We are grateful to all the members of the Board of Directors, the Management and Operations Board and the Board of Advisors, to all Project Coordinators, and to every individual from each member institution for your work, your support, your assistance, advice and goodwill throughout the challenging and exciting period of the project’s establishment and current expansion. 

We will be looking more actively toward engaging you in helping us determine our priorities for the future, in identifying sources of support and in expanding the project successfully throughout the entire country.

Respectfully and with sincere wishes for a healthy and happy Holiday Season and New Year,

Marta Farion
Chairperson of ELibUkr Board of Directors, President of Kyiv Mohyla Foundation of America, Chicago, Illinois

Tetiana Yaroshenko, PhD
Executive Director of ELibUkr Board of Management and Operations,
Vice-president of IT and Library Director of National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy, Kyiv, Ukraine

FOOTNOTE: The Kyiv Mohyla Foundation of America is a member of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC), Wash, D.C., www.USUBC.org.