Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online (SUCHO) is an all volunteer organization of more than 1,300 cultural heritage professionals — librarians, archivists, researchers and programmers — who are working together to identify and archive at-risk sites, digital content and data in Ukrainian cultural heritage institutions while the country is under attack.
Arlington Public Library’s Digital Archivist, Greg Pierce at the Center for Local History (CLH), has been part of global volunteer effort to back up Ukraine’s digital heritage, currently at risk of being erased by the Russian invasion.
Pierce’s involvement includes database verification, task and link wrangling, and internal communications with other volunteers.
He ensures that each submitted website is not already in the SUCHO system and verifies that digital content does not contain malware before programmers back up the website and databases.
"I’m incredibly grateful that my background as a digital archivist has given me the skills to help out in some way," said Pierce. "Though I can’t be there physically to help the people of Ukraine, I can certainly gather online with colleagues all over the world to help preserve Ukraine’s digitized cultural heritage. Librarians and archivists have long been the safeguards of cultural history and heritage during wartime and this is what it looks like in the age of the internet."
Pierce started to volunteer for SUCHO in mid-March. When he is not engaged in volunteer efforts, he can be found at the Library's Center for Local History preserving and archiving historical documents that tell the history of Arlington County.
Interested in getting involved in Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online? Visit SUCHO.org
