News
The Book Institute purchased 7,000 copies of books for children and young people from five Ukrainian publishers. It is one of the components of the project "Give a book to Ukrainian children", which the Book Institute runs together with the Foundation Metropolia Dzieci (Children's Metropolis Foundation). The first shipment with over two thousand books arrived in Krakow on Tuesday. They will be distributed to provincial public libraries, from where they will also be sent to smaller centres to enable young Ukrainians in Poland to enjoy them and escape the horrors of war.
During Saturday's attacks on Lviv, one of the Russian rockets fell 500 metres from the warehouse where all the purchased books had been collected. Fortunately, the first shipment, which left Lviv on Monday, arrived safely in Krakow. The Book Institute imports books from five friendly publishing houses: The Old Lion Publishing House, Apriori Publishing House, Urbino Publishing House, 21st Century Books Publishing House, and Astrolabe Publishing House. These titles are intended for children and young people, i.e. those who today are most in need of support and contact with native culture. Thanks to this, the offering of Polish public libraries will be supplemented with titles in Ukrainian, and Ukrainian children will be able to enjoy free access to publications in their native language.
The Book Institute and the Children's Metropolis Foundation undertook this action also to support Ukrainian publishers who, because of the war, found themselves in a very difficult material situation. The books will be distributed by the Book Institute to provincial public libraries and then to smaller centres - districts and municipalities - according to current information on the location of war refugees. The activities of the Children's Metropolis Foundation include fundraising, purchasing books, and distributing them to public libraries as well as other facilities offering shelter and support to refugees from Ukraine. Also, thanks to our cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science, we continuously analyse data on the stay of children in different regions of Poland.
Close cooperation with the network of provincial libraries is crucial for these activities. In the near future, we will be completing sets of books. Any local libraries interested in receiving the books are asked to contact their provincial libraries.
The books were purchased by the Book Institute with funds from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
The second shipment with 5,000 books in Ukrainian will arrive at the Book Institute's Krakow headquarters this Thursday.
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Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Book Institute has stood in solidarity with the Ukrainian people. The Institute also conducts support activities, as part of which it offers residence and scholarships to translators of Polish literature from Ukraine. We have already donated books in the Ukrainian language published as part of the ©Poland Translation Programme to provincial public libraries.
The Book Institute, in cooperation with its Ukrainian counterpart, the Ukrainian Book Institute, is also preparing the printing of free books in Ukrainian.
More information about the project "Give a book to Ukrainian children" can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/ukrainskieksiazkidladzieci
You can support the project by joining the fundraising: https://zrzutka.pl/z/podarujksiazkidzieciomzukrainy
The project is organised by the Book Institute and Fundacja Metropolia Dzieci (the Children's Metropolis Foundation).
The patrons of the project are Polskie Radio Program I, Polskie Radio Dzieciom (Polish Radio to Children), Polish Section of IBBY, the National Library, Lustro Biblioteki, and the Czas Dzieci Foundation.