Kyiv library is repository of largest collection of children's publications, many of them rare (04/06/03)

Kyiv library is repository of largest collection of children's publications, many of them rare

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - The Kyiv Main Children's Library sits near the left bank of the Dnipro River in an area of the capital that is beginning to take on a contemporary feel. Unfortunately, the renovation that much of Kyiv is undergoing has barely begun to reach the library.

In a row of recently refurbished storefronts, it is the one façade that still retains a Soviet look. Asbestos tiles line the roof and wild ivy vines carelessly hang over the disheveled façade, which is painted a muddy shade of azure blue, a color only the now defunct Soviet system was capable of producing. Three rusted, pockmarked automobiles, old even by Ukrainian standards, sit on the broad walkway just outside the heavy iron, double-door main entranceway.

Across the front doors hangs a sign, "zachyneno" (closed) - because the library has been closed to the public since November, when leaky ceilings made the rooms uninhabitable for visitors.

The 95-year-old library looks as if it has spent all its years at this site, but in fact it has been located on Rusanivka, a man-made island on the left bank of Kyiv surrounded on three sides by canals, only since 1979. What is important, however, is not the building that houses the library or the site on which it sits, but the 265,000 children's books, periodicals and publications of every sort found within - 26,000 of which are considered rare and valuable. The library, founded in 1909 in a building in the center of Kyiv, holds the single largest collection of children's publications in Ukraine and one of the oldest in Europe.

While the Nazis shipped much children's literature out of Ukraine and the Soviet Union during World War II, the valuable archives of the Kyiv Main Children's Library were saved thanks to sly maneuverings and secret storage.

Within the current collection are periodicals dating from 1819 and a copy of an encyclopedia for women and teenagers published in Moscow in 1764 titled, "Everything Required for Women and Children."

The director of the Kyiv Oblast Department of Culture, Viktor Shlapak, acknowledged the past contribution and the current work of the library. Mr. Shlapak said that it remains at the forefront of children's education in Ukraine in developing new educational methodologies. He commended its sociological study "Books in the Family," and noted that the library is poised to become the regional information center for child development in Ukraine.

"The library is truly a distinguished and prominent institution," underscored Mr. Shlapak.

President Leonid Kuchma has proclaimed 2003 as the Year of Culture, which leaves some hope that this year will see improvements not only in Ukrainian publishing, which has been ignored for at least a decade, but also in the conditions of the libraries that hold the books.

Some changes are already evident as a result of the presidential edict and as part of preparations for the commemoration of the library's 95th anniversary next year. Reconstruction work began on the interior walls of the library in mid-March, after oblast officials finally released long-promised funding for capital restoration of its decaying structure, which will include a new roof and façade for the exterior and new floors, walls and ceilings on the inside.

But, the library's essential value - its rare books and periodicals - continue to be stored on wooden shelving in the basement of the building, and while there is some temperature and humidity control, it can be considered only crude and makeshift at best.

And there are other ongoing problems. The library's vast store of publications has yet to be catalogued on computerized discs because the largest children's library in Ukraine does not own a single working computer. The 15,000 children who annually visit the library also do not have the ability to log on to a computer - the main learning tool of the 21st century - and that means no Internet access either.

The shortcomings do not end there. The library has 400 rare LP recordings, but does not own the required high technology sound system on which they could safely be played; it contains a children's cinema room, but the video player, the slide projector and other projection equipment look to be from about the same period as the books found in the underground storage.

Nonetheless, every effort is being made to find the required finances to modernize the place, because the library's collection and especially the children's periodicals from the 19th century are considered among the most rare and most complete in the Slavic world. Assistant director Liudmyla Solianyk, said the magazine collection, in particular, is priceless.

"This I believe is the most unique aspect of our archive. There are no fuller collections of children's periodicals from the 19th century," explained Ms. Solianyk.

The treasure trove found in the basement stores consists of 10,000 copies of various magazines, including one dated from 1819 titled Children's Readings for the Heart and Minds. The periodicals collection contains 103 different titles, including rare mid-century and turn-of-the-century editions of Rodnik and Ohoniuk.

Dora Dobra, an obscure historical figure, is credited with establishing the children's library - the first of its kind in Ukraine - and with developing the vast collection that it contains today. Little was known about her until 1997, when the library's current director, Mykola Znischenko, published an academic thesis on her charitable work as a matron of children's literature.

Dobra, was a pedagogue and librarian by education, as well as a single mother whose family standing in life allowed her to take an interest in developing a unique children's library. Her father was a banker and businessman while her mother and uncle were physicians. In 1909, Dobra, then 43 years old, rented a three-room storefront on Prorizna Street, just off the Khreschatyk. She stocked her new library with books from her private collection and added to it children's publications from the collection owned by her family.

Ms. Dobra belonged to the Kyiv Frebelivske Society, a charitable organization of teachers, which organized nursery schools, children's playgrounds and activities for pre-schoolers in general. Through her ties to the society and with help from benefactors, she filled her library with books and periodicals from the publishing houses of Kyiv and Moscow, as well as Berlin and Paris. Today the collection owns books containing original etchings by famous German and French artists such as Dürer and Doret, according to Director Znischenko, who has run the library for the last 15 years.

Ms. Dobra lost personal control over the library in 1921 after Communist rule was asserted, but remained part of the workers' collective until her death. Soviet Ukrainian authorities recognized the value of the collection and re-named the library the First Children's Library of the Ukrainian SSR after taking control of it.

In the mid 1920s the library lost a good portion of its Ukrainian-language literature, which was moved to the Museum of Print and Publications, located in the Monastery of the Caves complex, where it is found today.

The library was saved from destruction after the Nazi occupation in 1941 by the heroic efforts of Tatiana Hiba, the library's director at the time. She immediately requested official registration and recognition for the library by the occupation force, which allowed it to continue to function. To ensure that the historic archives were not removed to Germany, and before they could be discovered, she entombed them in the basement of the building behind a wall of brick and debris.

Having survived Soviet and Nazi occupation - and the ideological and political pressures associated with them - today the library is experiencing the no less burdensome weight of economic instability. Yet Ms. Solianyk and Mr. Znischenko remain undaunted by what the future holds. Ms. Solianyk explained that even with the financial problems the library is currently experiencing, the overall work atmosphere is better.

"We no longer feel the pressure to promote the ideals of the Pioneers or the Communist Youth League [Komsomol]," explained Mrs. Solianyk. "Now we can work on the basis of a wider humanitarian spectrum, on the children's moral and intellectual needs and on teaching them about the Earth and its environment."

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