{"id":2057,"date":"2024-04-28T13:41:43","date_gmt":"2024-04-28T20:41:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ischoolblogs.sjsu.edu\/community-engagement\/?p=2057"},"modified":"2025-08-03T21:28:41","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T04:28:41","slug":"sjsu-community-reflects-on-effects-of-war-in-ukraine-sjsu-news-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ischoolblogs.sjsu.edu\/community-engagement\/sjsu-community-reflects-on-effects-of-war-in-ukraine-sjsu-news-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"SJSU community reflects on effects of war in Ukraine, SJSU News, 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally published on <\/span>SJSU News<\/a>\u00a0on Mar 2, 2023 and written by Christine Tran.<\/span><\/p>\n

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SJSU community reflects on effects of war in Ukraine<\/h1>\n

Assistant professor works to preserve Ukrainian history and culture<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n
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Photo courtesy of Yaroslav Mudriy National Library of Ukraine<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Ulia Gosart, San Jose State School of Information assistant professor, has been trying to preserve Ukrainian books by creating digital copies that are set to be put in a digital library in the near future.<\/p>\n

She said she is trying to develop the Nation Digital Library of Ukraine, the first Ukrainian digital library.<\/p>\n

Gosart said she prioritized her childhood library in Cherkasy, Ukraine and wanted to recover their collection by digitizing copies, which would otherwise be lost forever.<\/p>\n

She also said she hopes her project would assist in cultural preservation in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cLibraries need books in all areas \u2013 children books, English language books \u2013 my colleagues and I hope to get books and money donations for Ukraine,\u201d Gosart said.<\/p>\n

On Feb. 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, causing thousands of lives lost and about $97 billion of damage, according to a Sept. 11, 2022\u00a0<\/span>New York Times<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>article.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust learning about the damage was really revealing, actually helped me personally to realize how significant libraries actually are for society,\u201d Gosart said. \u201cDuring wartime they might become targeted entities to be destroyed because of their role to support citizenry during the war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gosart said it is difficult for regions in Ukraine to get the resources and technology to create a digital library.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the future of the library field,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are also some really specific questions \u2013 the regional catalog and organizing information for a digital library . . . it has to be uniform and it\u2019s going to cost a lot to get everyone on the same page.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anthony Chow, professor and director of SJSU\u2019s School of Information, organized a GoFundMe page on behalf of Gosart.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy first priority as director is to ensure our tenure track faculty are flourishing and are successful,\u201d Chow said. \u201cThis means supporting projects that are important to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he is committed to fighting for the common good and honoring the privilege of his role.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel that the iSchool has the responsibility to lead and to [be a] role model for all of our students and future Library and Information Sciences professionals,\u201d Chow said. \u201cI felt personally and professionally motivated to do more to help.\u201d<\/p>\n

The money from the fundraiser has been used to purchase a scanner to help a library in Cherkasy.<\/p>\n

Librarians in Cherkasy have used the scanner to preserve some of their rarest books and to scan the records of displaced Ukranians, according to the\u00a0<\/span>GoFundMe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Susan Alman, school of Information faculty advisor,said she decided to help Gosart with the project after attending the\u00a0<\/span>SJSU iSchool-sponsored webinar on Ukrainian Libraries<\/a>, during the ongoing war.<\/p>\n

Alman said, as a college student, she visited the city of Kyiv, where she was charmed by the people and the rich cultural history.<\/p>\n

She said she wanted to support the Ukrainian community in the best way, by having a strong library and resources for children and adults.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot stand by when it is in our power to mobilize support for our Ukrainian colleagues,\u201d Alman said. \u201cSadly, this is a teachable moment that we must use to compel others to participate in this global crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chow said one of the primary roles of libraries is to preserve the history, rare books and the cultural artifacts of any community.<\/p>\n

He said libraries are the place to go for current and future generations to learn about their own history and culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cOriginal works that are not digitally preserved are likely gone forever,\u201d Chow said. \u201cThis is a huge issue for humankind but, first and foremost, it is a significant loss for the Ukrainian communities and people that libraries serve \u2013 regardless of whether it is a small village or a large, urban city.\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0<\/span>GoFundMe<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>has raised $6,678 of their $25,000 goal, as of Wednesday night .<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been incredibly wonderful to see the support of the SJSU colleagues and students,\u201d Gosart said. \u201cIt\u2019s been heartwarming to see that people care \u2013 people want to support \u2013 and it was also wonderful to see other people join the initiative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chow said the best type of leadership is to be the first follower \u2013 that supporting someone else’s vision, in this case, Gosart\u2013 accomplishes something important for her and all of us.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will always remember that if I feel strongly enough about something that I, in fact, will try to help no matter how small that may be,\u201d Chow said. \u201cOften, this just means supporting and helping others do good in our world.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published on SJSU News\u00a0on Mar 2, 2023 and written by Christine Tran. SJSU community reflects on effects of war in Ukraine Assistant professor works to preserve Ukrainian history and culture Ulia Gosart, San Jose State School of Information assistant professor, has been trying to preserve Ukrainian books by creating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2058,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media-coverage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ischoolblogs.sjsu.edu\/community-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ischoolblogs.sjsu.edu\/community-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ischoolblogs.sjsu.edu\/community-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ischoolblogs.sjsu.edu\/community-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ischoolblogs.sjsu.edu\/community-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2057"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ischoolblogs.sjsu.edu\/community-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2227,"href":"https:\/\/ischoolblogs.sjsu.edu\/community-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2057\/revisions\/2227"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ischoolblogs.sjsu.edu\/community-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ischoolblogs.sjsu.edu\/community-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ischoolblogs.sjsu.edu\/community-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ischoolblogs.sjsu.edu\/community-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}