The National Reserve "Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra" intends to digitize up to 12,000 cultural objects and 2,500 documents from the reserve's collections with the help of equipment provided by the American company "Digital Transitions." This was announced during a briefing attended by representatives of "Digital Transitions" and the administration of the National Reserve "Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra," as reported by Ukrinform. "The threats to cultural heritage have increased with the war. Therefore, there is a need to preserve our cultural heritage in order to further promote Ukrainian culture in Europe and the world. Thanks to the assistance of our partners, we will be able to achieve our goals in preserving this heritage," said Anastasiia Bondar, Deputy Minister of Culture and Information Policy.

At the same time, Peter Siegel, Partner and Co-Founder of Digital Transitions, explained that the company launched its program to assist with digitization in Ukraine in the winter of 2022. He stated that the main objective of the program is to preserve cultural objects in institutions such as the reserve by providing digitization equipment and offering training to employees. Siegel mentioned that at the end of 2022, the company and the Lavra's staff selected 15,000 objects for digitization. Digital Transitions loaned them a fully equipped reprographic system with high-resolution imaging capabilities for a period of six months.

Iryna Martyniuk, the project curator and chief custodian of the National Reserve "Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra," noted that they will primarily digitize objects from the 17th to 19th centuries, including icons, engravings, wooden relief molds, drawings, and materials related to Kyiv and the Lavra.

Iryna Hlik, a representative of Digital Transitions, demonstrated the equipment by taking a clear photograph of several icons from the late 18th to 19th centuries and showcased previously photographed molds.

"We could only capture high-quality images of the molds through macro photography, where we 'extracted' individual parts of the image. Now, we can obtain high-resolution images in a single moment and see on the screen even what is visible only with a magnifying glass. The complexity of digitizing molds lies in the fact that they are often worn and covered in printer ink. Thus, the relief variations are more noticeable in the current digital images than in ordinary photographs," added Olesia Nosachova, a curator of the book and mold group at the National Reserve "Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra."

Maxym Ostapenko, Acting Director General of the National Reserve "Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra," expressed gratitude to the American partners for their assistance in providing equipment and training for the staff. He emphasized that the new technologies not only preserve heritage but also enhance the professionalism of cultural institution employees. (Quelle: www.risu.ua, 27. Juni 2023)