On March 15, for a second year in a row, Facebook was strewn with Den’s books during a flashmob about our library’s publications. This social website has now been enriched with the stories of Ukrainian heroes in the book Catastrophe and Triumph, Stepan Bandera’s political writing in the “Subversive Literature” collection, Serhii Krymsky’s philosophical observations in Extract +200, and many other things. The International Institute of Education, Culture, and Contacts with Diaspora (MIOK) at the National University “Lviv Polytechnic” supported the Den’s books reading day with a group photo and the caption: “We read Den’s Library books not only on March 15 and are calling on others to do so!”
We asked MIOK Director Iryna KLIUCHKOVSKA: is society aware of doing too little for its own development by failing to support intellectual initiatives?
“It is difficult to work with society in general and with ours in particular, for it has been ruined spiritually and mentally due to the ordeal we have gone through,” Ms. Kliuchkovska says. “We support Den’s initiatives for a number of reasons. As for the newspaper’s library itself, it is a big treasure for me. Den helps me fill the enormous gaps that I have as a result of our Soviet-era education. So it is priceless for me. It is also very important to my team because we very often consult this newspaper. And we are sure that this must be important to the whole society. Once, answering to one of my commentaries in social networking sites, Ms. Ivshyna said that ‘there must be a joint action.’ And I thought that, indeed, if there were more joint actions in our society for a certain goal and if these actions were productive, we could hope for success. But, for this purpose, it’s not enough that a newspaper should work. It’s necessary that the people who rally around it and are aware of its importance should also work for the general idea and spread this knowledge. For me, solidarity is always a dialog and an opportunity to listen and, what is more, to hear and to be heard, which is important to Den and Ms. Ivshyna as its editor-in-chief. To this end, Den holds dialogs in various contexts and milieus – with academics who very often maintain differing views, with students, and with the public at large. But they all pursue the same goal: a dialog between the newspaper and society must reveal the truth to people. And people must accept this. This is why we support Den’s initiatives in most diverse forms. This flashmob is an opportunity to draw public attention via social websites and say: ‘People, there’re books around! Take and read them!’ For The Power of the Soft Sign and Return to Tsarhorod are serious publications for a meaningful dialog. And an ‘extract’ from “Armor-Piercing Political Writing” and “Subversive Literature” can be taken as a ‘steppingstone’ to a more in-depth study. We have Den’s all books, and people even come to us to borrow and read some.”
