Founded in 1976, the Slavic Reference Service (SRS) provides research support to students, faculty, visiting scholars, and independent researchers in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at Illinois and beyond. Through inclusive, year-round programming that includes training workshops, research forums, thematic discussions, and cultural events, the SRS is committed to providing a supportive environment for researchers, regardless of institutional affiliation or academic status. To assist scholars, the SRS maintains an extensive online collection of research guides and curated digital collections. These collections are designed to raise awareness of physical collections, sources, and expand access to unique materials for users from around the globe. 

During this webinar, the SRS reference team will highlight four such collections. These include The Blondheim Judaica Digital Library, Memoirs of Russian, East European, and Eurasian Women, The Sisters Khvoshchinskaya, and Central Asian Memoirs of the Soviet Era. Each collection reflects everyday lives and cultural memory from the nineteenth to late twentieth centuries.