Andrew Gregorovich

A delegation of ten librarians from Ukraine visited Toronto on October 1st. They traveled from Buffalo, N.Y. where for two weeks they were guests of the World Connect organization and Program Director Olga Tutarinova. Barbara and Eugene Makuch were the translator and guides for the group. The Ukrainian librarians started their Toronto visit at the St. Vladimir Institute in the Ukrainian Canadian Research & Documentation Centre where Andrew Gregorovich, President of the Ukrainian Librarians Association of Canada welcomed them and gave a talk on Ukrainians in Canada and Toronto. They visited the St. Vladimir Library and then enjoyed traditional Ukrainian hospitality as guests of St. Vladimir Institute for luncheon.

The delegation of ten librarians included several senior librarians and three children’s librarians: Olha Kolosovska is the chief of the Rare Books Dept. of the Stefanyk Library of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Lviv which has 7 million books; Lyubov Kolomiyets is the head of the library management Section of the Lviv City Council; Larysa Luhova is Deputy Director of the Lviv State Children’s Library; Elvira Mordovenko is at the Central Children’s Library in Lviv; Olha Myronovych is the Chief Librarian of a Lviv Children’s Library; Lesya Basnyk is the Director of 90 libraries in the Zhydachiv Central Library system; Larysa Mandziak is the Deputy Director of the Stryi Library system; Halyna Mykhaylak is head of a department in Drohobych Central Library; Nadiya Pokotylo is the Director of the Chervonohrad Centralized Library System and Mariya Prytash is Head of the Boryslav City Central Library.

They then visited the Lillian H. Smith Library on College Street Canada’s largest children’s library, and were given a tour. The third library they visited was the Yorkville Branch of the Toronto Public Library where librarian Anna Romanyshyn gave an interesting description of the library’s operations. Leaving the library they passed by the home of Charles Horecky, the first Ukrainian in Toronto, built 1890 at 88 Bedford Road and then they stopped for shopping at Honest Ed’s.

Heading west, the group visited the Lesya Ukrainka Monument in High Park, passed by the Ukrainian Canadian Art Foundation and the Consulate of Ukraine to Bloor West Village. Here they first visited West Arka Ukrainian bookstore and then walked along Bloor Street west where they encountered people speaking Ukrainian. They said they felt at home in Toronto and admired the beautiful city of Toronto which is a twinned city of Ukraine’s capital Kiev. They will visit the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.