Update:

Winter Recess: Harvard Library and the University are closed from noon on Wednesday, December 24, 2025 through Thursday, January 1, 2026. Check library hours and view our services schedule.

Anna Rakityanskaya

Librarian for Russian and Belarusian collections
Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Widener Library

Selected publications:

My Research Guides at Harvard Library 

Born-Digital Humor and Context Saturation: Using Generative AI to Preserve and Interpret Russo-Ukrainian War Memes, Open Library of Humanities 11(2) (2025). DOI: 10.16995/olh.24212 

Belarusian Publishing in Europe: Post-2020 Trends and Implications for Library Collections. Slavic & East European Information Resources, 1–18 (2025). DOI: 10.1080/15228886.2025.2509040

Belarusian Politics and Society Web Archive: Preserving the Belarusian Grassroots Protest. Journal of Belarusian Studies, 12(1–2), 81–94 (2023). DOI: 10.30965/20526512-12350021 

The SUCHO Ukrainian War Memes Collection. Slavic & East European Information Resources, 24(1), 53–70 (2023). DOI:10.1080/15228886.2023.2169634 

Video Appeals to the President of Russia: Creating a Born-Digital Primary Source Collection. Slavic & East European Information Resources, 22(3–4), 344–355 (2021). DOI:10.1080/15228886.2021.2018250 

The Late Soviet and Post-Soviet Ephemera Collection at Harvard Library. Slavic & East European Information Resources, 22(2), 210–227 (2021). DOI:10.1080/15228886.2021.1917067 

With Svetlana Rukhelman. Curating the Library Exhibit “Russian Revolution: Actors and Witnesses” at Harvard University: A Collaborative Experience. Slavic & East European Information Resources, 19(3–4), 201–215 (2018). DOI: 10.1080/15228886.2018.1539060

Roles

  • Collection Development
  • Research, Teaching, and Learning
  • Curation
  • Reference
  • Liaison

Languages

  • Russian
  • Belarusian
  • Polish
  • Ukrainian
  • Bulgarian