The Activities of Library Associations in Ukraine in the 1920-s - Early 1930-s Years

In his article the author explored the historical prerequisites, socio-political and cultural factors of the establishment and functioning of library associations in Ukraine, studied the content and essence of their activities, as well as the importance in the development of the library business in this period. The author showed that the authorized to solve some organizational and administrative issues, library associations were gradually deprived of their independent status, legal rights and material resources for the implementation of library management tasks, as a consequence of the regulation of their activities and control by the political authorities, whose requirements for unification forms, methods, work plans and organizational structures of library associations, as well as centralization of library management scrap inhibited the creative initiative and professional activity of library workers. The development of associations was also hampered by the inadequately defined functional orientation of their activities, which often caused them to duplicate certain functions of the bodies of political education and trade unions. The author analyzed that library associations developed and introduced into practice various progressive forms of organizational work, various means and methods for solving professional problems, and used a rich arsenal of democratic mechanisms for setting and solving many issues of library construction. The main areas of work of library associations were: the formation and development of professional skills among librarians; Improving the efficiency of urban libraries by organizing and coordinating their activities; Establishment of a system of methodological assistance to libraries of various types and types, in particular rural libraries; Assistance in the organization of research, cultural and educational work of libraries. However, in the late 1920 s the partybureaucratic apparatus of the Soviet government established strict control over all spheres of the political, social and professional life of the society, which forced the library associations to gradually give state institutions first administrative and coordinating functions, and then professional and methodical, until they stopped their activity in the early 1930 s years.