The ELibUkr project has being established in Ukraine with the support the Kyiv Mohyla Foundation of America and with the initial financial support of USAID.

The ELibUkr is a nation-wide linked Electronic Library/Knowledge Centres network. It will provide scholars, professors and students with enhanced access to the world’s digitized network of academic and research information thus promoting the active use of local, regional, and global information resources. The project will upgrade the intellectual holdings of Ukrainian libraries and integrate them into the worldwide digitized information system. Besides the access to data bases, the project also includes critically important Knowledge Centres, which will be at the heart of the system’s effective use by providing training programs for librarians and users and will promote the evolution of a linked industry-academic-research community. This is a key element for economic progress and stability absent in Ukraine for now.

In spite of Ukraine’s high development of computer technology, science and research, and having some of the world’s finest universities and research centres, Ukrainian scholars and academics still do not have access to the world’s electronic information similar to North America and Western Europe. This is a serious shortcoming which this project will overcome.

ELibUkr project support is an investment in Ukraine’s future. It  enhances international standards and infrastructure. At its first stage it included National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy, Chernivtsi Y. Fedkovych National University , Kharkiv V. Karazin  National University and Donetsk National Technical University has been an ELibUkr project participants since 2009. Volyn National University , Sumy State University and Ukrainian Academy of Banking has been an ELibUkr project participant since January, 2010. The project is aimed at  strategic implementation and participation of Ukrainian universities.

This initiative will  influence the development of civil society and the democratic process by making available a wider amount of information resources to a maximum amount of users. The Electronic Library/Knowledge Centres will increase the use of technology, strengthen the university system and build prospects for economic growth.  The purpose of the project is to raise the level of Ukrainian libraries to the highest international standards, bring the world’s electronically distributed materials to the universities of Ukraine, integrate the intellectual holdings of Ukrainian libraries into the world’s data bases and promote the formation of a linked industry-academic-research partnership and community.