CC stands in solidarity with Ukraine and supports those safeguarding public collections, educational resources, and cultural heritage sites

As more than a million Ukrainians flee for safety, the United Nations is calling the exodus Europe’s fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War II (WWII). The war in Ukraine is causing terrible human suffering and death and will impact future generations of Ukrainians. The lives of millions across the continent are now in total upheaval. In the face of the tragic devastation, the question “is this the start of Cold War II or worse yet, WWIII?” is edging into mainstream conversations.

Alongside the humanitarian crisis, the war is also causing irreversible damage to the arts, cultural, education, information, and media sectors.卡塔尔vs葡萄牙分析知识共享与乌克兰站在一起，支持那些勇敢无私、努力保存、维护、保护并分享乌克兰人民知识和文化遗产的个人。

We stand besideEU Ministers of Culture and Media他们表达了对艺术家、记者、文化和媒体专业人士的支持，因为俄罗斯的军事侵略，他们的自由现在受到了威胁。

We also agree with thestatementof UNESCO Director-General, Audrey Azoulay, who called for the “protection of Ukrainian cultural heritage, which bears witness to the country’s rich history, and includes itsseven World Heritage sites– notably located in Lviv and Kyiv; the cities of Odessa and Kharkiv, members of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network; its national archives, some of which feature in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register; and its sites commemorating the tragedy of the Holocaust.”

We commend UNESCO’s efforts in helping Ukraine safeguard museum collections and cultural property. We also encourage volunteers to help archive Ukrainian cultural heritage sites, for example through thisinitiative.

At Creative Commons, we believe that caring for cultural heritage is a social responsibility and that it is our collective duty to continue to protect and celebrate cultural heritage and uphold the fundamental right of freedom of information.Information and culture found in galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAMs) empower people by offering them resources to engage and participate in civic life and build a future for themselves.

In 1940, during WWII, US Librarian of Congress Archibald MacLeish wrote, “Keepers of books, keepers of print and paper on the shelves, librarians are keepers also of the records of the human spirit.”

随着对乌克兰战争的升级，全球图书馆界支持乌克兰图书馆协会的呼吁，与错误信息作斗争，提供准确信息，以支持民主和言论自由。虚假信息和媒体操纵可以被用来改变公众舆论。保护和确保所有人都能获得藏品，通过让所有人都能获得信息、知识、文化和历史，而不是通过修正主义理论来扭曲，可以帮助管理错误信息和错误信息的传播。

在教育领域，随着各国准备接收难民，开放教育社区强调了为儿童和教师提供乌克兰开放教育资源(OER)的必要性。帮助儿童重返学校，获得文化上合适的教育资源，将是确保在这些艰难时期继续提供教育机会的一个关键部分。

The Open Access Research community is working to support Ukrainian researchers through the website#ScienceForUkraine: a platform to support Ukrainian researchers with accommodation, research hosting, and funding. One of our friends and partners, Iryna Kuchma (Open Access Programme Manager at Electronic Information for Libraries -EIFL), lives in Ukraine and has bravely stayed behind with her parents. Her inspiring tweets are a mix of reliance, inspiration and the sadness of war.