Larysa Dehtyarenko (1946–2022): Half a Century of Work in the Library Field

The article enlightens the life path and scientifi c accomplishments of Larysa Oleksandrivna Dehtyarenko (1946–2022), the head of the department of foreign Ucrainica of the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, who devoted fi fty years of her life to library work. L. Dehtyarenko has been working for many years as a staff member and the head of the special storage fonds, but with its reorganization – as the head of the department of foreign Ucrainica. She was a participant in a turbulent stage in its history, namely the declassifi cation of fonds previously prohibited by Soviet censorship for a wide circles of readers. In this connection, the aim of the research is to analyze information about the professional growth and research activity of L. Dehtyarenko, directed at revealing the secret fonds at the time. Methods of analysis, synthesis, comparative-historical, problematic-chronological and biographical methods were used to write the article. The scientifi c novelty of the research is the representation of the fi rst biography of L. Dehtyarenko, which in its turn reveals the activities of the special storage fonds (1960–1980s), transformed in 1992 into the department of foreign Ucrainica. Conclusions. L. Dehtyarenko devoted years of work to the preservation and promulgation of valuable Ukrainian literature in the VNLU, which consisted of publications of diaspora and repressed authors. L. Dehtyarenko studied the fonds, engaged in book and librarian studies. She was one of the fi rst to start writing the history of the special storage fonds of the Central Scientifi c Library of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. As its staff member tried to protect books and magazines from destruction. However, she could not prevent the removal of books from the main book depository and the total majority of the orders of the General Directorate for the Protection of State Secrets in Print under the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR, to which the special fonds was subordinated. With its closure, she strongly advocated the creation of a scientifi c department of foreign Ucrainica, of which she became the fi rst head and has been organizing its work for more than twenty years.