OEG Voices Episode 51: Tetiana Kolesnykova on the Open Resilience of Librarians === Alan Levine: Welcome to a most special episode of OEG Voices, a podcast from Open Education Global. Mira Buist-Zhuk: [Ukrainian Translation] Alan Levine: I am your humble host, Alan Levine, here on the midpoint of Open Education Week.. Mira Buist-Zhuk: [Ukrainian Translation] Alan Levine: And this episode is most special because during this week we open our recording studio to guests to listen and be part of the conversation. Mira Buist-Zhuk: [Ukrainian Translation] Alan Levine: But this is even more special because here with us today on International Women's Day is someone who personifies resilience in Open Education. Mira Buist-Zhuk: [Ukrainian Translation] Alan Levine: As notice we are speaking with the translation help into Ukrainian with the help of librarian Mira Buist-Zhuk. Mira Buist-Zhuk: [Ukrainian Translation] Alan Levine: I wish to say hello -- pryvit to Tetiana Kolesnykova the director of the Scientific Library at the Ukraine State University of Science and Technologies in Dnipro. Mira Buist-Zhuk: [Ukrainian Translation] Alan Levine: " Pryvit" Tetiana...., tetiana! Not more than a year ago, Tetiana's day, life, work and everything was upturned by the Russian invasion, an act of war on her country. Mira Buist-Zhuk: [Ukrainian Translation] Alan Levine: We will talk later with our colleagues Paola Corti and Mira about the way they established a connection with Tetiana to assist during the war. But first, we wanna hear from Tetiana herself. Mira Buist-Zhuk: [Ukrainian Translation] Alan Levine: And Mira, please tell me to slow down as I am very excited to be speaking with Tetiana.. Mira Buist-Zhuk: No totally fine, good tempo, good tempo Alan Levine: Okay, Tetiana before February 22nd last year, what did a normal day look for you as Director of the Library of Science? Mira Buist-Zhuk: [Ukrainian Translation] Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: Thinking about it now, reminiscing about it now, a year on is a little bit easier than it was just a year ago. Because by now Ukrainian librarian, in particular have come to terms with the new reality. It was the new reality of living under constant threat of air raid attacks, air raid alarms, hiding in bomb shelters and so on. They have adjusted in their own way. But she can think back and she can go back in her thoughts to those more peaceful times.. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: Yes, mere six month ago, six, seven, months ago, when we would raise this topic and talk about anything related to the topic, Tetiana would get quite emotional. When she was cooperating with Paola and myself, she would yeah, she would be very often in very dire circumstances, hidden in a bomb shelter or somewhere far away from windows, not to be affected by explosions. Now, nowadays the situation is a bit calmer and she can speak with a bit calmer heart and less emotionally at least. And when we go back in time to February, 2022, just before the full scale invasion happened. So that was just business as usual. Before that, of course, they were busy as any other university library in the world. Busy preparing a report for the previous year for 2021. They were busy talking about future opportunities, development possibilities for the library and for the staff. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: And they were just busy assessing the potential topic for the university based conference, an international conference that their university hosts. It's an annual event, happens in September, October of each year. And for some reason, they were thinking of dedicating the central theme of the conference to yeah the crisis times. Education, researching in times of crisis. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: And of course back then they what they had in mind by education and research in times of crisis was mainly crisis affected by COVID by the Global Pandemic and by yeah, remote teaching and learning. So they had to rethink some of the services they were providing to to the faculty, to staff, to students. They had to repurpose and reimagine some ways of working. They had some self-assessment to do. So that was the context, and it had nothing to do with the thoughts of the imminent war back at that time. And I would like to add, it's important for her that this is also said that most of the services and products they've been developing in the last 10 years have had something to do with the topic of openness. Openness and Open was in the center of everything they've been developing and working on. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: Yeah. To sum up the day before the war started, so on the 23rd of February, just the day before it started, they of course felt some tension and anxiety around. Everybody felt it, of course. But Tetiana and her colleagues are so much involved into what they're doing. They find it so meaningful and so important to actually keep the trust and will serve the community that trusts them, the community of teachers, students, researchers that they were more engrossed into work and into the ongoing library business back at that time... Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: That's the answer to the question. What was before the before picture that Tetiana painted. She just, everyone else was fully involved in her work, in private life, in the kids, in grandchildren, just like everyone else. Alan Levine: Can you describe or help us, understand what the university actually looks like and .... Is it's in a city, it's in Dnipro. And how many students do you support there? Give us a picture of the university campus. Mira Buist-Zhuk: Tetiana's University is located in Dnipro. It's a large Ukrainian city located in the central eastern part of Ukraine, space capital of Ukraine, so space technology, capital of Ukraine. It's quite a large city indeed. There are lots of people engaged in the construction, engineering, but also arts, also transportation. It's a large transportation hub namely, and yeah, it's quite a large place where people can find something for them. Each of the, each of professions could find something for themselves. The university as we know it, the Ukraine State University of Science and Technologies was actually created or recreated in 2021 as a merger of two other larger universities. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: One of them was the National University of Railroad Transportation was the largest in Ukraine. And not coincidentally, was located in Dnipro, a large hub. The other university was also unique for Ukraine. It was a large metal processing university. So also quite industry related, engineering related. So the two of them merged into what is now known to all of us as the Ukrainian State University of Science and Technologies. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: So at the beginning of where they were in a very united state, but also in the process of still merging and trying to find a way to, to coexist further, to collaborate further. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [ Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: Both universities already had a lot in common. They were located quite close to each other in one district, in one city district, and even sharing the same quite long street in the city of Dnipro. So they already had a lot going for them to actually merge together into this institution. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [ Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: Both universities actually take roots in 1930s. Almost a hundred years ago during the Soviet Times, there was a big need for this kind of industrial specialist engineering specialists metallurgy specialists. Both of them were contributing to the industrialization of the country back in the days. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: So the student community is quite diverse. At the moment they serve around 10,000 students. And the students represent all kinds of levels of education, college level bachelor, master, PhD programs, but the university also unites a few institutes, a few specific branches. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [ Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: and they're also hosting the only place in the region, the only center in the region that is providing education to people with disabilities . Yeah. So that's that's about it. That's the picture. Alan Levine: Before, before the invasion Tetiana already described projects and advancements in open educational resources and open science. Can you talk about what the interest and level of activity at her university was before? Mira Buist-Zhuk: [ Ukrainian Translation] Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: So the answer to this question goes back to 2009 when Tetiana and colleagues talked, to to the university management and some university researchers into hosting an institutional repository, which was a big step towards the openness and towards open science. But then the library, the scientific library where Tetiana works and is director of, is the one managing and hosting that repository. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: And so already in 2011 they managed to launch the first open access journal in cooperation with the faculty of humanities, the philosophy department they were proud of this in their region. The first in the region. And today this journal still exists and it's being indexed in the Web of Science. So it's a continuous effort. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [ Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: And building this expertise, building this capacity, they were able to launch two more open access journals. So in total, they're now supporting three open access journals. One of them is library related, library centered, dedicated journal. It's being indexed in Scopus as well. And it's the only open journal in Ukraine related to library open access. So they're proud maintainers of those journals. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: So they continued the efforts in the realm of openness by reaching out to teachers to university instructors via Lib Guides, via webinars and other information sessions, explaining the added value of going open and archiving articles in the institutional repository as well . And so what they're also proud of is a series of short videos short clips five minutes much longer explaining many processes and concept related to openness. For instance, how to submit your article into an open access journal, or how to find your way in a journal like that or in a repository like that. So they are actively, they have been actively investing into creating such such pieces of information as well. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: And starting in 2019, Tetiana and her colleagues started their first real steps in the world of Open Education. So getting all the knowledge they've gained, they've mastered from the previous years that she's been describing into this new unknown territory of OER and Open Education. And luckily just around that time Tetiana runs into some information about the existence of Paola Corti, about Sparc Europe, about ENOEL, the European Network of Open Education Librarians. And she was just enchanted by all of those. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: would also like to add that besides being the library director, she's also a university professor, university teacher. She works with PhD students and with other university professors. So she teaches as well. She's not only in the library, but also as part of the faculty, the academic staff of the university. She would also like, of course to add about the cooperation with the ENOEL and Sparc Europe, but probably you have a separate question about that. So she'll wait with that section. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: So what Tetiana also did as a university lecturer, she integrated openness into the PhD curriculum. So the students she supervises and teaches also gets to participate in at least two lectures on openness and on open practices. And she tries to integrate that in assignments as well, in their own practices. So she tries to practice what she preaches as a teacher as well. Alan Levine: That is impressive on its own. If it's okay to talk about February 24th I gather Tetiana was home. But how did you stay connected? And how were you able to get through this time with probably not electricity and internet? I would imagine some relied on cellular phones. I can't even imagine that experience. I've lost my electricity a couple days and I thought that was bad, but the idea of being in a bomb shelter and war and guns going on is so impressive and scary to me. Mira Buist-Zhuk: [Ukrainian Translation]. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: We are humans, we're human beings. We are super resilient and flexible more than we think we are. And we are adaptable to new circumstances. And even when you think you're not, you will find a way or yeah some way to, to make it work. So that's what Tetiana's been doing all along. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: On the 24th of February, and Tetiana can now talk about it calmer than more calmly than she used to. Of course, it's easier a bit now. They were woken up by explosions, by the sounds of explosions, just like all Ukrainians. And in Dnipro, the airport was being bombed. She lives quite close to the airport, 25 minutes by car. So she lives in a, yeah, in a house. And she was pretty much shocked by what she heard, but what by what she experienced was happening really close to her. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: So on that day, they actually immediately understood what was happening. Of course, they were not living disconnected. They were following what was happening in the news. They were feeling the tension. So they were somewhat prepared because the caution was and well being announced by the university management, but also by the, yeah, by the government as well. But nobody could truly believe that this was really gonna happen. People were cautioned and warned, but still did not really expect and believe this would happen. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: So they had a secure channel of communication with university management, university board because COVID has prepared them to the distance modes of teaching and learning. So they have had some tactics that already were working for them. Of course immediately the emergency meeting of the university board, the university management team was announced and they quickly formed an emergency operational team, a crisis management team that would be trying to navigate situation. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] So they had this one official channel of communication that the channels mentioned. But besides that, they were using any other communication channel available just to stay in touch and to make sure everybody's doing okay. [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: So the first days, the first weeks were full of waiting of course checking in every day with each other. They of course didn't go to the office. They didn't go physically to the office. But the main task of Tetiana as the library director and the main task of everyone at the university was to make sure everyone was okay. Everyone was safe, alive had connected with each other. So that was her main concern in the first weeks, of course. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: And that's how they found out by staying in touch with each other constantly. That's how they found out what was happening to their employees, to the staff. So one of the colleagues lived really close to to the airport that was attacked in the first hours of that day. And she, along with some other people, had to leave immediately. They left their place. It wasn't possible there anymore. The buildings were damaged. The windows were shattered and they were trying to keep track of each other still, despite the circumstances. [Speaking in Ukrainian] But the reality is, the harsh reality is that everybody was scared. Everybody was afraid of what was happening. Everybody was feeling a bit lost and they were living by the day. And the reality was that they were mainly trying to take care of their own family of the people of the university staff, but also of own families, trying to make sure everybody's safe and secure. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: So they decided pretty early on that everybody who wanted to or needed to should be evacuated, should leave and any case they were asked to stay connected to, to stay in touch, to make sure everybody knows how everybody's doing and that everybody's alive and healthy, first of all. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: And so the next issue they had to resolve after making sure everybody's at least safe, they had to decide what to do with their digital infrastructure, what to do with their digital objects and digital repositories they've been working so hard on, whether they needed to evacuate servers that were hosting all that information, all those digital objects. So that was a big issue and a big challenge back at that time. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: And so also the reality of that situation was that it's mostly women who were left working at the library, at the university in those war conditions. And it was quite scary to get out, scary to get out of the house with air raid alarms happening every 30 minutes or so. They were hiding in bomb shelters. Tetiana was lucky enough because she had a basement. Her house has a basement and she could use it as a bomb shelter. First of all, she ensured that her family is together with her and they could stay together. And those were quite cold month-- February, March are quite cold months. They had to get out now and then to warm up to get some tea, to get some kind of warmth and reception to connect with others. So those were pretty gruesome month and weeks to go through, of course. [ Tetiana Kolesnykova: Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: But already a few days after that , some of the colleagues started returning to the library, to the university, especially those who lived nearby or who could arrange the transportation because public transportation wasn't working back then. They had to return, they had to resolve some very crucial issues, some urgent tasks that they as a library had to take care of. And Tetiana is really grateful to her colleagues for their time and risking their lives literally while doing that. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: So other librarians would understand this as well, says Tetiana. Every librarian knows that there is a sort of like a manual, what to do in emergency situations. And task number one is to try and rescue the books, try and rescue the objects you have in your library. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: So those inventory books talking about, because those inventory books are very valuable to them, they date back to 1930s to when the institutes and the library were first established. So they took care of them immediately. First of all, they carefully wrapped each of them and took them into bomb shelters, took them into safer conditions because those objects, those books contained a wealth of knowledge for them, but also their whole work was contained there. Besides, of course, having electronic registries and electronic repositories, those physical objects were still very important to them. So that was also happening. Alan Levine: Wow. Mira Buist-Zhuk: Yeah, those were the first days in. That's how they managed to stay connected and in touch. Alan Levine: So I'm thinking about all the things they might be in the manual. Obviously the preservation of artifacts. How did they go about contacting students and start to rearrange delivery of instruction? Mira Buist-Zhuk: [Ukrainian Translation] Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: There was nothing, there were no classes in the first week after the full scale invasion had begun, of course. Alan Levine: I would think, yeah, much longer. Mira Buist-Zhuk: [Ukrainian Translation] Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: So maybe you remember those early images from the first days, weeks of this war when lots and lots of people were trying to get away by train. So there were lots of pictures from Ukrainian trade stations with thousands of people trying to cram into those evacuation trains, trying to get away from dangerous parts of the country as soon as possible. . The crisis management team of the university decided right away that they would recommend students to leave, immediately, leave as soon as they have an opportunity. Their campus also includes six large dorms, and they are also multi-story buildings, actually quite dangerous. The students were urged to leave and go seek shelter elsewhere if possible. Many of the students who go to this university are also from the region, Dnipro region, from the larger region. So a lot of them would live on campus. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: And so many parents of these students came by to pick them up and drive immediately drive to the west of the country, either to stay in the Western regions bordering other countries like Lviv Region, Inano-Frankivsk Region, Carpathian Region, or to go further abroad. So many of them were just educating their children together with them . So after three weeks they already had an idea, had a better view over where the students are, and the communication was already established with them. So the course coordinators the program coordinators knew where each student was, if they managed to evacuate or if they stayed behind in Dnipro. So they had a good overview of what's happening to the student community as well. And approximately in the third week, three or four weeks into this war, the library resumed its work fully online, of course, fully, remotely, but it resumed its services and providing educational and research support to students and to staff. Of course they were trying to do their best. Even in those circumstances, they were getting used to the new normal. They started adjusting. They were being flexible indeed. The reality was also that many of the colleagues from the library, but also many professors, many teachers went as volunteers to fight, to protect the country . So many of them left and joined the army, the armed forces of Ukraine. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: So one of the big challenges for the library was to move everything, move the content in cloud-based environments, trying to use any any tool or any platform they could find . Talking also to other projects who were trying to help Ukrainians digitize the archive everything and move it into the cloud, but also using platforms, existing platforms like Zenodo, like many other known open access related platforms for doing this. And at the same time, they continued providing services to researchers. So they were crazy there, there were crazy enough researchers, Tetiana calls them, who were emailing them 10 days into the war saying, "Hey, Are you still providing research support, publishing support? Would like to submit an article into the science and transport progress journal." That's the journal the libraries maintaining. So they were on the deadline and they were still keeping in touch and doing business as usual despite all the other circumstances. The work was just going on and they were supporting it. Mira Buist-Zhuk: As they had to function was constant blackouts, sometimes eight hour long or more was explosions and that was affecting the function of the website and of their library system, of course. But they, and after they would relaunch everything again after a long blackout, they would still see that students were placing orders, placing electronic orders to, to keep on learning, to keep on connecting was, yeah, was the university, was the library. So that was very amazing in those times, especially. Alan Levine: I will say amazing that you are getting operational three weeks in . My head hurts thinking about that. And I meant to ask, I was gonna ask is there something really special about librarians that keep your motivation going on resilience? And I know there is, but I'm thinking it's the Ukrainian spirit. This is a really powerful statement, the way you were prepared and responded so quickly. My, my heart again goes out to everything that your nation did. Mira Buist-Zhuk: [Ukrainian Translation] Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: Of course anyone who's trying to protect their home, their work environment, their environment in general, even their garden where they're growing their own flowers people are trying to do what they can to survive, no matter what, to be resilient. And their life is not just at home. It's not just private life. Work is also a calling and a big part of their life indeed. And when you see that what you're doing is meaningful, highly needed and requested by the community you're trying to serve, it gives you the energy and the opportunity to go ahead, to go further, to persevere to go no matter what. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: And work also serves as a distraction to people, of course serving your community, not just work in general, but serving your community as well. In order to go through all these explosions, tears, despair you need to distract yourself and preferably with something meaningful, something needed, something useful such as the work that the Tetiana and her colleagues are doing. And in that way they also came up with lots of new ideas, creative path for achieving some new things and that is quite motivating and help them survive through those times, through that period. Alan Levine: Thank you so much. I just wanna, I don't wanna keep Tetiana too much longer, but I, I just wanna ask like, how are things now? Because I feel like the world has moved on to other things and they're not paying as much attention to the Ukraine and what kind of things through Open Education can we ask or urge people do that would help Tetiana and her colleagues? Mira Buist-Zhuk: She lectures today and very coincidentally, both on openness, both on open practices. That is what's happening today. Alan Levine: I wish I was there! Mira Buist-Zhuk: [Ukrainian Translation] Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: And sometime ago, back last summer or at the end of spring, most of the students were still studying remotely, but also not just remotely, also from other countries. Many of them actually went abroad flat abroad. That was the student audience that Tetiana and her colleagues were serving. . Yeah. So Dnipro still remains a frontline city. The war action is happening right nearby, so they are still pretty much affected quite a lot by what's going on. And Dnipro is now also a large medical hub. They are also serving wounded soldiers and wounded support personnel. Especially from places like Bakhmut, where now very active fighting is going on. So the university is functioning fully, remotely too, for students and teachers, for professors. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: 90% of their teachers have already returned back to work, and they all work from the Ukraine. Most of the students are back too back to Ukraine. Of course, those who went to fight, who joined the Army both students and professors, they get extension of their contracts or extension of their study programs. Many have returned. And Tetiana is also happy to say that the student numbers for the next study year, for the next academic year are growing and they will be larger than they were last year. So it's restoring a little bit even in such difficult circumstances. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: So they're also donating their campus buildings to internally displaced, those from other regions of Ukraine that are now heavily affected by fighting, by the active war, people from Donetsk, Luhansk regions, people from Mykolaiv, from Kherson, from all those cities that are either currently occupied by Russia or have just been liberated by the Ukrainian army. And they are hosting them over a thousand internally displaced persons are using the university as a place of living. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: While the professors and students are working or studying remotely the librarians come in person. They try to to serve the community in person. They try to be there to show up and be there. Alan Levine: Thank you. I had hoped we, we might talk about the connection with the librarians, but maybe we'll do that separately or add it to the article because that's an important part of the story. But I really, I can't thank you enough Tetiana for your time and sharing everything. and this is not too long. My wife's family here in Canada are descendants of Ukrainian settlers, and I don't know if it's the right saying, but when we say "to life" or "diborja" when we take drink of coffee or something else, so " diborja!" Mira Buist-Zhuk: [ Ukrainian translation] Do we still have time to, to discuss... Alan Levine: yeah. Yeah. It's your time. I don't wanna take too much time, but I will sit here all day. Mira Buist-Zhuk: Of course. [Ukrainian Translation] Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: Tetiana would like to continue the conversation if you if everyone is also on board and if you can, if you have some time to spare. Alan Levine: Certainly there's so many things that we would love to, to ask and Tetiana talks so calmly about what seems as superhuman efforts. But again, are there open educational resources that are of need or certain areas of of topics that her and her colleagues, I don't think they need help but I would think maybe there are some things that we can do to assist and support their efforts.. Mira Buist-Zhuk: [Ukranian Translation] Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: The irony of the situation is that the war actually accelerated the adoption of Open Education and OER. On the one hand, a desired outcome. On the other hand, the circumstances are far from ideal. So ironically, the war is playing in favor of Open Education. . And says that this situation now is not comparable to the situation as it was in 2009 in terms of the development of the topic of Open Science, Open Education at their university, because back then when they were just starting the teachers, it was quite difficult. The teachers were laughing. They were accusing them of trying to infringe on their intellectual property. Oh, why would I, submit my article or why would I do things in the open anyway. The situation has changed dramatically by now despite everything. Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: So Tetiana says that that situation is much better for Open Science, Open Access publishing in general, but they are experiencing some similar waves in terms of Open Education and OER explaining the added value, the benefits they bring, and especially it's especially crucial or it especially helps to capture teacher's attention when they face a lack of Ukrainian language educational resources, educational materials. So that is one big need that they are facing, that they're having. And that's where she thinks Open Education could be an answer OER, could be an answer. And Tetiana would like to give the floor to Paola to contribute to this because Paola could tell a few words about what Tetiana is actually doing right now, together with our humble help prepare a list of their needs that they would like to ask the the broad community to collaborate on. Paola, the floor is yours. The microphone is yours. Paola Corti: Thank you. No it's just something that we are, we started a while ago because many people started reaching out and ask, how can I help? Which is wonderful. And in the spirit of the open education community, this is happening also now, which is wonderful again. And we started very practically to list some needs that Tetiana is revising so that we can look very practically to the picture that the situation and start from what is needed immediately during the war. And hopefully in midterm when soon , this war will be over so that the moment to reconstruct comes and then long term to advance open education and its connection to open science and more broadly, not only in Tetiana's institution. So we are going back to this document here and there. And our plan is to share it as openly as possible soon. Also because many of the needs that Tetiana's listing might, might be felt also by other librarians around Ukraine. And I wouldn't limit this list to Tetiana's needs. She's very thoughtful when she thinks about you, you hear her. So you when she thinks about the needs of students, of teachers and researchers, it's not only because the war is ongoing, it's also in general. And the benefits of open education are very clear to Tetiana, and that's what she's doing. It's amazing.... Mira Buist-Zhuk: [Ukrainian translation] Tetiana Kolesnykova: [Speaking in Ukrainian] Mira Buist-Zhuk: Tetiana would like to ask for a specific example of support that the community, the open education community could give her and her colleagues. To have a shout out to those universities and those libraries that already have experience of creating and remixing OER open textbooks in very short term circumstances and also in times of crisis. And I guess that there will be some, especially after the Corona Pandemic who would share their experience with how they launched everything so quickly, how they managed to explain the added value of Open Education and OER to their teachers but also to other librarians so quickly. How do they manage to, to fight the barriers that many teachers still have to using other openly licensed content, but also creating and sharing their own. And so if there are any examples of such initiatives and successful projects but also maybe brilliant failures too, to learn from she would be really happy to hear from colleagues and she would invite them to talk to her, to the librarians, but also to the teachers, to the authors. Alan Levine: We will definitely try to do that. And I I'm just thinking earlier in the week I did a podcast with Delmar Larsen at LibreTexts, and they did a machine language translation of their entire library. And if there is new content that, or subject areas that need covering, I am sure Delmar would be interested in importing that and getting that translated in into Ukraine. I imagine that's the biggest thing is good content in Ukrainian language.... Mira Buist-Zhuk: [Ukrainian Translation] Mira Buist-Zhuk: Tetiana was referring to such type offer and try and, aside for machine assisted translation. Indeed. So thanks a lot Alan for your offer. Alan Levine: And also , I don't wanna focus too much on content, but if there are ways we can connect Ukrainian teachers and librarians who wanna discuss more about pedagogy and practices and ways to be more effective we would like to be and help in any way as well. Mira Buist-Zhuk: [Ukrainian Translation] Paola Corti: [Mira's connection dropped] Mira is gone and I'm unable to translate, and that's what happens here and there. Mira Buist-Zhuk: I'm back. I'm back. Alan Levine: okay. Paola Corti: Welcome Mira. Alan Levine: Okay. Sorry. This is a great example of what happens That's okay. I will think I will do a wrap because we've been here a long time. And just diborja, Tetiana . And this is just my closing. I don't know if we have to translate this, but thank you for listening to this episode of OEG Voices. This is a podcast produced by Open Education Global, and each episode we feature different musical track from the Free Music Archive. And today we have a music called War Mode which actually has kinda like a reggae beat to it by an artist named Kirk Osamayo. And it's licensed under Attribution, Creative Commons license. And this episode will appear as soon as I can edit, at Voices dot oeglobal dot org. And we'll have follow up conversations if we can in OEG Connect. And thank you so much, Tetiana. You are amazing. You are my hero and I just cannot congratulate you enough for the work you've done. [ Ukrainian Translation] Paola Corti: I translated using machine translation your text Alan and sent it to Tetiana directly. That's what we do. Alan Levine: That's what we do. We improvise Paola Corti: Exactly. Alan Levine: I was looking up beforehand how to pronounce hello and I failed a little bit, but okay. Paola Corti: With Tetiana it's easy, she's Alan Levine: Oh. Paola Corti: She's amazing. Alan Levine: She's the definition of this award .