On September 14–16 2012, staff from the Ukrainian Historical and Educational Center participated in the 2nd Annual Conference of Ukrainian Museums, Archives, and Libraries hosted by the Ukrainian Museum and Library of Stamford, CT. Present were representatives of the museums in Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and New York, the archives and libraries at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, the Shevchenko Scientific Society, the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in the US, and Rochester, and other interested individuals.
The meeting was quite productive and covered a wide range of topics, from fund raising to software. UkrHEC archivist and webmaster Michael Andrec presented two talks: an hour-long introduction to modern web design techniques, and a half-hour tutorial on the use of the Archivists’ Toolkit software package.
The meeting concluded with the establishment of an informal Ukrainian gallery, library, archive, and museum (GLAM) association, named “The Ukrainian Heritage Consortium of North America”, that includes all of the institutions present at the meeting, but which is open to any Ukrainian cultural heritage institution or interested GLAM professionals in the US and Canada who wish to join. The UHCNA's immediate goal will be the sharing of information and expertise among consortium members via a web site (www.uhcna.org), email, and Skype conference calls. The UkrHEC’s Michael Andrec was nominated to manage the UHCNA web site.
Thank you to Stamford for organizing and hosting the event, and to all of our colleagues for a great talks and discussions!