As part of the Memory Savers project, the Holodomor Museum is digitizing the stock collection

The National Museum of the Holodomor-genocide is a participant in the Memory Savers project, an initiative aimed at preserving and promoting the cultural heritage of Ukraine. As part of the implementation of the project, a student-intern, Eva Tantseva, joined our team. Thanks to the technology received from the program’s partner, the SUCHO Foundation, we have started the digitizing process of the museum’s stock collection. At the same time, Eva acquires new knowledge by participating in an educational online program on digitization that takes place within the project.

“The digitization of museum objects is an important direction of our work. It is aimed at the preservation of the cultural heritage of Ukraine, as well as its popularization, the availability of visual information about museum objects for a wide range of interested parties, especially in wartime, when all museum objects are removed from display, – the chief custodian of the funds of the Holodomor Museum, Maryna Pryn, says. – This is also important for keeping electronic records of museum objects, and during the war – also for preserving visual information about possible losses. Therefore, the stock and accounting documentation is also subject to digitization for the same purpose.”

The chief custodian adds that even in peacetime, only a tiny part of the stock collections is on display and, therefore, accessible to the general public. Therefore, the digitization and publication of the museum’s stock collection provides an opportunity for a broader range of interested people – from scholars to ordinary citizens – to see exactly what is in the stock collection of a particular museum and learn the history of these artefacts. In addition, digitization also contributes to the preservation of museum objects, especially paper ones and old prints, because there is no need to physically move them from storage when there is a need to work with one or another document.

The process of digitizing the artefacts of our museum has been going on for a month. We digitize various groups of storage – from clothes to photos and documents. But, given the specifics of our museum, preference is given to documentary and digital sources.

The Memory Savers project is implemented with the support of the EVZ Foundation.