The SumDU Library has been named a winner of the international LIBER Award for Library Innovation 2026. The organization received the first award “For Library Innovation” for a joint presentation with the University of Liverpool Library.

The award was announced on 2 July 2026 during the annual LIBER 2026 conference, which took place on 1-3 July 2026 in Trondheim (Norway). It brought together approximately 500 representatives of the European research library community. The conference theme was “The Power of Libraries in an Uncertain World”.

In December 2025, the SumDU Library became a member of LIBER (the Association of European Research Libraries), which brings together over 420 national, university, and specialized libraries. In January 2026, Olha KRYTSKA (director of the SumDU Library) and Matt GREENHALL (director of the University of Liverpool Library) prepared a joint paper for the conference. After a successful peer review, it was included in the program and won one of the conference’s top awards. This year, Matt GREENHALL presented the joint paper “United Libraries: SumDU and the University of Liverpool”. It was dedicated to partnership between two universities, resilience of Ukrainian libraries, and role of international cooperation during the war.

According to Matt GREENHALL, the presentation was attended by about 150 participants. After a video about SumDU was shown, the audience greeted the presentation with a long ovation.

Following the award ceremony, the SumDU Library received numerous congratulations from international partners, the Research Libraries UK Community, the Ukrainian Library Association, and libraries across Ukraine.

This award serves as international recognition of innovative work of the SumDU Library and resilience of the entire Ukrainian library community. Partnership between the libraries of SumDU and University of Liverpool has been in place since 2022 and has evolved into a strong professional collaboration based on mutual support, exchange of expertise, and shared development.