Director of the Luhans’k Regional Universal Scientific Library, Vice-president of Ukrainian Library Association
I started my professional career in 1987 in the Luhans’k Regional Universal Library, where I still work. Over the years, I have made my professional way from a librarian to library manager. I have been the head of this library since 2017.
I received my professional education at the Kharkiv State Institute of Culture (now the Kharkiv State Academy of Culture) in 1996.
Since 2016, I have been working in the leadership of Ukrainian Library Association, which allows me to develop as a professional and influence on development processes of libraries in Ukraine.
The sphere of my professional interests: processes of library automation and information technologies, strategic management of the libraries. From 2004 to 2014 I headed the direction of automation library processes of Luhans’k Regional Universal Scientific Library. For 10 years, we managed to fully automate library and get rid of paper technologies in our work.
Unfortunately, in 2014, all this stopped due to Russian aggression in the east of Ukraine. Part of the Luhans’k oblast’ and Luhansk City were occupied, quasi-republics under the control of the Russian Federation were formed there. I had to leave the Luhans’k and evacuated to the small city in the north of the Luhans’k region – Starobilsk. At that time, I worked as a deputy director.
The library building, all library resources and possessions of which we were proud remained in Luhans’k. We were able to take away only the founding documents. We started all over in Starobilsk, where we resumed the work of our library almost from scratch. This became possible thanks to the creative team of librarians who join to organization of the renew Luhans’k regional library, which we developed it under the “Good Library” brand. During 8 years of work, we collected a new book, introduced innovations and shared them with colleagues throughout Ukraine.
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine destroyed our library for the second time. Starobilsk was occupied, and our team and I left occupied territory again. Now our library relocated to the Cherkasy City.
As for me, the library is not walls, but people: our team and our users. Since 2022, our library has been operating in the “Wandering Library” format. We work online and conduct various activities in different cities of Ukraine. We believe that our work is a brick in the future victory of Ukraine and the future returning to our home in Luhans’k.