This year Ukraine had the first open procedure of forming the list of the books to be added to the library stocks. This list of publications to be bought was formed by the Expert Council of the Ukrainian Institute of Books. 2779 applications were submitted to the contest from which 741 books were chosen. Overall libraries all over the country will receive one million and thirty thousand new books. 120 million hryvnias will be allocated to this end.

I wanted the modern Ukrainain publications to be on the list so that we would not concentrate solely on classic literature since it is already presented in the libraries. If it was up to me, libraries would be full of relevant and contemporary literature.  A new book was published, a person wants to read it and goes to the library to get it. I think the frequncy of such procurements should be increased. Books are published constantly and what was published in January will be avaliable in libraries only in December. Quarterly procuremnts would make library stocks more relevant and appealing to readers.  While selecting books I relied on my own expertice and selected those ones that are the talk of the town. I am constantly reading and always take interest in everything new that appears on the Ukrainian book market. So I think if I have not heard anything about the book, the majority of library visitors also has not heard about it as well. It happened so that I voted heavily in favor of the books that I do not read myself for example detective or romantic novels. But I tried to understand what the supporters of such books would be interested in when they come to the library. That is why I voted in favor of the book devoted to inclusive education because this topic is very relevant and important. Overall there were around 100 books which I personally supported and most of them found their place on the list, - shared his opinion Vadym Karpiak, the member of the Expert Council of the Ukrainian Institute of Books, journalist and the host of Svoboda Slova on ICTV.

The majority of the independent experts positively evaluated the work of the Expert Council and noted the unprecedented for Ukraine level of transparency as well as quality and diversity of chosen books. However, there was a place for critics.  For example, experts on child literature offered to create a separate council for this segment.

This year children's literature and young adult books accounted only for slightly more than 8% of the list - more than 60 publications. The cream of the crop of young adult literature was following books: #WHATISMATH by Kuzko Kuziakin, High School Girl. Freshwoman by Anastasiia Levkova, Tesla and the Car on Cosmic Energy by Luca Novelli, A Brief History of Technology: How to Understand One's Own Gadget by Andrii Tuzhykov, To Youth about Art by Viktor Kublytskyi, the collected writings called Such Love, Murder of Drunken Pioneer by Serhii Oksenyk, Lola's Diary by Olha Kupriian and #IAmNotAfraidToSpeak. The Most Honest Book For Teens by Anastasiia Melnychenko.

Four non-fiction publications from this list focus on mathematics, information technology, physics, and art. The books #WHATISMATH, Tesla, and A Brief History of Technology were published within the charitable project LuckyBooks. Lola’s Diary which is a book prequel of the TV series called School became one of the most noted teenager projects this year. #IAmNotAfraidToSpeak is a book written on the ground of the social network flashmob within which women talked about their own experience as a victim of violence and sexual harassment. This flashmob was widely covered by mass media. Murder of Drunken Pioneer is an unexpected historic village detective novel which transforms into the story about the whole era for readers that were born after the end of this era. High School Girl. Freshwoman and the collected writings called Such Love are the examples of prose for teenagers which focuses on the problems of growing up, the first love and relations with the adult world.

Three popular science publications of LuckyBooks project – #WHATISMATH, Tesla and the Car on Cosmic Energy, and A Brief History of Technology: How to Understand One’s Own Gadget – are already widely presented in the libraries of Eastern and Southern Ukraine. Now readers from all over Ukraine will get access to these books.