EDITORIAL: IEU's unprecedented potential (10/12/03)

EDITORIAL

IEU's unprecedented potential

The front page of our newspaper last week reported on the most significant development in the realm of Ukrainian scholarship in decades: the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine (IEU). The development of this unprecedented resource represents a sea change in the field of Ukrainian studies that has the potential to transform the way the world sees Ukraine and Ukrainians.

The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine will offer more than 20,000 entries on Ukraine's history, people, geography, society, economy and culture, and its diaspora around the globe, along with photos, maps, illustrations, tables and multimedia materials. That will be the end product of the work now being done by a team of specialists at the Toronto Office of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies. Plus the IEU will be constantly expanded and updated. There's one simple word that can accurately describe our reaction to this news: Wow!

To be sure, English-language encyclopedias of Ukraine have been available for decades. The two-volume Ukraine: A Concise Encyclopedia was published by the University of Toronto Press with funding from the Ukrainian National Association; Volume I was released in 1963 and Volume II in 1971. The five-volume Encyclopedia of Ukraine was published between 1985 and 1993 for the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, the Shevchenko Scientific Society and the Canadian Foundation for Ukrainian Studies, also by the University of Toronto Press.

And, Ukrainian-language encyclopedias go back even farther. As noted in Volume I of the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, the first Ukrainian encyclopedia, "Ukrainska Zahalna Entsyklopedia" was published in Lviv in 1930-1935 in three volumes. That work was followed by the Entsyklopedia Ukrainoznavstva, prepared by the Shevchenko Scientific Society, which comprises three volumes divided by subjects and another 10 volumes with alphabetically arranged entries. This mammoth project was released in the years 1949-1989 thanks to the financial support of countless individuals, organizations and institutions. Plus, in 1995, came the publication of an additional volume, containing addenda and updates. (The first portion of the Entsyklopedia Ukrainoznavstva, which was completed in 1952, became the basis for the aforementioned Ukraine: A Concise Encyclopedia, while the second served as the foundation for the English-language Encyclopedia of Ukraine.)

Now, the advent of the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, which is based on the five-volume Encyclopedia of Ukraine, literally changes everything. (For more information on this project's significance, see the interview on page 4 of this issue.) It will all be accessible to anyone anywhere who has access to the World Wide Web, and when completed will be the most comprehensive web-based English-language resource on Ukraine and Ukrainians.

Only a small portion of the IEU's eventual entries - less than 1/20th to be precise - is currently online, but we urge readers to access it and see for themselves the tremendous potential of this undertaking (log on to: www.encyclopediaofukraine.com). How quickly entries appear on the site depends greatly on funding needed to hire additional editorial and web personnel to work on the project. And that's where we all come in, as donors.

In short, the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine is a worthwhile project - a milestone in the field of Ukrainian studies - that deserves our community's wholehearted, and generous, support. To learn more, or to send donations contact: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, 450 Athabasca Hall, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2E8 Canada; telephone, (780) 492-2972; fax, (780) 492-2972; e-mail, [email protected]. (Checks should be made payable to CIUS- Encyclopedia of Ukraine.)

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