Compilation of Ukrainian language resources in Canadian archives

Довідник (Archival Ucrainica in Canada: A Guide) is a recently-published Ukrainian-language reference work on Ukrainian and Ukrainian-Canadian holdings in Canadian archival repositories.

The book was co-published by the State Committee on Archives of Ukraine (SCAU, Kyiv), the Ukrainian Research Institute of Archival Affairs and Record Keeping URIAARK, Kyiv), and the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) at the University of Alberta.

At 884 pages, it's the most comprehensive compilation of its kind, and is unlikely to be superseded for a long time.

The guide offers a detailed survey of a wide range of collections, both large and small, throughout Canada. Among these are the holdings of:

• Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa (the largest public collection of materials)
• the Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre, Oseredok, in Winnipeg (the country’s largest community archive)
• the provincial archives of central Canada and the Prairies
• the archives of the Ukrainian Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox Churches of Canada
• various university archives, and etc.

The holdings are described thoroughly. They include accession numbers, size, dates of acquisition, and detailed content listings. The guide covers most, if not all, Canadian depositories containing archival information about Ukrainians.

The driving force behind this project was Dr. Iryna Matiash, deputy director of SCAU (and previously head of URIAARK). She began her research on archival Ucrainica in Canada while visiting here in 2006 as a Kolasky Fellow under the auspices of CIUS. She subsequently oversaw the preparation of the guide by a team of colleagues in Kyiv, who were assisted by several Ukrainian-Canadian specialists.

The compilers serving under the direction of Dr. Matiash were Maryna Kovtun, Anzhela Maistrenko, Liudmyla Prykhodko, Rostyslav Romanovsky, and Khrystyna Vintoniv. Rostyslav Romanovsky and Svitlana Artomanova served as bibliographic editors. All the compilers and bibliographic editors are staff members of URIAARK in Kyiv. Myron Momryk (Library and Archives Canada, retired), Andrij Makuch (CIUS), Orest Martynowych (independent scholar, Winnipeg), and Radomir Bilash (Historic Sites and Museums, Province of Alberta) served as academic consultants for the guide.

Dr. Matiash had earlier prepared a shorter (150-page) work on Ukrainian archival holdings in Canada, published in 2008 (described in the CIUS Newsletter 2009), which focused on the transfer of private archives to public institutions, their typology, and general descriptions of holdings.

Book launches for Архівна україніка в Канаді: довідник (Archival Ucrainica in Canada: A Guide), published earlier this year in Kyiv were held recently in five Canadian cities. They followed its inaugural launch earlier this year at the Canadian embassy in Kyiv on April 19 .

At the Kyiv launch, Canada’s ambassador to Ukraine, His Excellency G. Daniel Caron, stressed that the publication of the guide was a notable achievement involving Ukrainian and Canadian scholars. The final launch of the guide is to take place in Lviv this fall.

Canadian launches took place in Toronto on 1 June at the Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Centre (UCRDC), in Ottawa on 3 June at the Ukrainian embassy, in Winnipeg on 6 June at the Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre (Oseredok), in Edmonton on 8 June at the Provincial Archives of Alberta (PAA), and in Calgary on 9 June at St. Vladimir’s Cultural Centre.

The guide (ISBN 966-8225-39-0) is priced at $49.95 in Canada and is available from the CIUS Edmonton office. Call Iryna at 780/492.2973 or send an email.

At Dr. Iryna Matiash’s presentation in Edmonton (L‒R): Irene Jendziowskyj, Zenon Kohut, Iryna Matiash, Bohdan Klid, Radomir Bilash, Andriy Nahachewsky, Bohdan Medwidsky, and Nadia Cyncar.

Photos courtesy CIUS.