KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Linda Hall Library, an independent science research library in Kansas City, Missouri, is changing the lives of Ukrainian scholars.
The library is joining more than 165 British and Western European universities to help provide much-needed educational resources for Ukrainian students, scholars and teachers.
Lisa Browar, president of the Linda Hall Library, said the Society of College, National, and University Libraries of the UK (SCONUL) will facilitate access to the Linda Hall Library resources digitally and free of charge.
"At the most basic level, it's a humanitarian gesture," Browar said. "That's our reason to be, we are here to meet people's information needs regardless of where they are, and I saw that we could play a very real role in a terrible time in a country's life."
The library — devoted to science, engineering and technology — is digitizing documents, articles or even full books to send to Ukrainian researchers, students or staff either in Ukraine or displaced.
The Russian War is causing many universities to pack up their libraries, leaving scholars without resources while still on the clock to finish their work.
"They can try to maintain that schedule, and with the hope that when the war is over, they are not going to have to go back and redo three or four years of their lives," Browar said.
Browar said she learned about the effort through colleagues at the University of Liverpool and wanted to join in.
For Ukrainians fleeing the war, any help is welcome.
Kansas City native Marsha Ramsey is currently volunteering at the Ukraine-Poland border and said Ukrainians fear they've been forgotten.
"I just want everybody to not forget there's a really ugly war going on here, it's senseless, and these people are so kind," Ramsey said.
Browar said Linda Hall's resources will be available even after the war to help the country rebuild.
While it is the first library of higher education in the U.S. to do this, more are expected to join in the coming weeks.
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