KYIV LIBRARY HUBS (UKRAINE): FIRST EXPERIENCE AND FORMATION CHALLENGES

Abstract

The publication highlights the innovative activities of library institutions in Ukraine, aimed at transforming their socio-cultural and information space. It is emphasized that the library hub is a fairly new phenomenon in the Ukrainian cultural environment. Of the 16,000 libraries, only a small number have become modern libraries. The creation of library hubs in Ukraine began only in 2016. Their implementation and functioning is an insufficiently studied scientific problem that needs deeper analysis. The article reveals the differences in the use of the term "library hub" in the scientific literature and library practice. The article highlights the changes that are taking place in the organization of the library space for children in Kyiv in accordance with global trends, regulations of Ukraine, decisions of local governments. In the early 2000s the socio-cultural activities of libraries were limited to leisure and educational activities; today the communications of library institutions are considered much more broadly, since they are an integral part of the socio-cultural and information system of Ukraine. Their special mission is to socialize the individual, develop public relations, and organize access to cultural values. The authors’ interpretation of the concept of "library hub" was formulated on the basis of analysis of research results and study of practices. Research of open sources of information, monitoring of library websites, direct study of the public space of Kyiv library hubs for children allowed to summarize the experience of creating a modern cultural and information space and identify the factors of their growing popularity among the population. The study outlined problems that slow down the development and effective functioning of library hubs. It was established that library hubs are modernized open multilevel and multifunctional information and communication systems, which allowed to diversify and modernize the activities of library institutions by zoning the library space and using innovative forms of work with users and visitors.