SUCHO: Protecting Digital Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis

Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online (SUCHO) is a global grassroots initiative of over 1,500 volunteers which supports the digital preservation of Ukrainian cultural heritage. In this talk, the SUCHO co-founders recap the efforts of the initiative and discuss how digital cultural heritage can be pre-emptively protected in the future.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24th was a wake-up call for cultural heritage professionals worldwide. For several decades, cultural institutions have been digitizing cultural artifacts using digital preservation systems. In light of the invasion, however, it became clear that the servers on which these digital copies are stored are as vulnerable as the buildings which house the analog originals. “Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online” (SUCHO) is an international grassroots initiative of more than 1,500 volunteers which formed as a response to the invasion to support the digital preservation of Ukraine’s cultural heritage. In this talk, the co-founders of SUCHO, Sebastian Majstorovic (ACDH-CH, ÖAW), Anna E. Kijas (Tufts University), and Quinn Dombrowski (Stanford University) recap the rescue efforts of the initiative and lay out a set of challenges that should be taken up at multiple levels - from individuals up through international consortia – to ensure that digitized and born-digital cultural heritage is pre-emptively protected in the future. Much as WWII laid the groundwork for robust cultural heritage protection organizations that still operate today, the cultural heritage community can learn from the war in Ukraine to plan for a more resilient future for digital cultural heritage protection in Europe and beyond.