Online Guides to Resources About the Crisis in Ukraine

By Ernest Zitser, Librarian for Slavic, Eurasian, and Eastern European Studies, Duke University

In response to the unprecedented amount of interest in Ukraine, prompted at least in part by the current geo-political crisis, Slavic librarians from around the world (including members of the ASEEES Committee on Library and Information Resources) have compiled and published a number of useful guides to resources about the region.  Here's just a sampling of the material currently available online:

Ukraine Conflict (Internet Archive)

Internet Archive's "Archive-It" service has been preserving online material related to the Ukraine crisis since February 2014. "This collection seeks to document conflict in the Ukraine as it progresses. Contributions to this collection were made by the Archive-It team and subject matter experts in the fields of Investigative Journalism, Russian, and Eurasian studies, and include news outlets, social media, blogs, and government websites. Sites are written in English, Russian, Ukrainian, and other languages." 

Ukrainian Crisis 2014 (UCL SEES Library)

The staff of the SSEES Library, "in consultation with academic staff in the School," has been collecting and disseminating links about the current situation in Ukraine since February 2014.  Unlike the Internet Archive, this collection also includes information about Ukraine, not just content from it. Currently, the UCL SEEES website includes: 1) Day by day updates; 2) Key documents; 3) General coverage; 4) Academic/analytical coverage; 5) Background information; 6) Media Resources on Ukraine and Russia; 7) Specialist Databases. For latest updates, subscribers can follow UCL SSEES Library on Twitter: @UCLSSEESLibrary.

Ukraine LibGuide (Duke University)

This online library guide includes links to both major (New York Times, Washington Post) and alternative news outlets (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Transitions Online, YouTube), streaming video content from Russian and Ukrainian TV, as well as blogs such as Ukraine Scholars of North America, In Custodia Legis: Law Librarians of Congress blog, and Historia Vivens, which provides a list of Euromaidan recommended web resources in English.  This guide also includes a page devoted to Slavic language study, compiled from the resources collected by Duke's Slavic and East European Language Resource Center.  The pedagogical goal of the guide's creators is threefold: 1) to answer basic questions about the current crisis; 2) to help students locate additional background information about Ukraine; and 3) to identify ways to get more involved.

This list of selected resources was compiled with input from Lesley Pitman, Librarian and Director of Information Services (University College London, School of Slavonic & East European Studies); Karen A. Rondestvedt, Curator for Slavic & East European Collections International & Area Studies Group (Stanford University); Ksenya Kiebuzinski, Head, Petro Jacyk Central and East European Resource Centre, and Slavic Resources Coordinator (University of Toronto Libraries); Hugh Truslow, Librarian for the Davis Center Collection, Fung Library (Harvard University);  Gordon B. Anderson, Librarian for Scandinavian and Slavic Area Studies (University of Minnesota); Danette Pachtner, Librarian for Film, Video, & Digital Media and Women's Studies (Duke University); and the members of slavlib: Slavic Librarian Forum, the listserv of the international community of Slavic librarians.  To find your local Slavic librarian, consult the most recent edition of the online International Directory of Librarians and Library Specialists in the Slavic and East European Study Field, ed. Jacqueline J. Byrd, Head, Area Studies Cataloging Section (Indiana University) and George Andrew Spencer, Slavic, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies Bibliogapher (University of Wisconsin-Madison).