A Well-known Bibliographer, Librarian, Teacher and Historian – Taisiia Kivshar

Abstract

The aim of the article is to highlight, summarise and evaluate the contribution of Professor Taisiia Kivshar to the development of bibliological science and education in Ukraine, her pedagogical and social activities, based on a critical analysis of professional publications. The research methodology involves the use of research tools of socio-communicative, systematic, and historical-genetic approaches, which made it possible to determine a complex of factors that influenced the formation of the scientific outlook and professional qualities of the professor. The author of the article also applies historiographical, source studies, analytical, comparative, and bibliometric methods. The scientific novelty consists in identifying the main periods of the formation of Kivshar’s professional worldview, an objective assessment of her contribution to the development of bibliological science and education in Ukraine, the facts and sources of the professor’s biographical and scientific heritage are introduced into scientific circulation, her contribution to bibliology, library science, the history of Ukrainian bibliology, the development of modern librarianship and Ukrainian library biography is scientifically substantiated. Conclusions. About 250 scientific publications of Kivshar on the issues of the history of Ukrainian bibliology, the history of library and book science, library biography, biographies of the founders of scientific thought, as well as the social functions of libraries, the relationship between library and book studies, etc. are a notable achievement of the professor. She succeeded in substantiating certain trends in the book publishing business of Ukraine in the post-war period, introducing into scientific circulation numerous important facts from the history of book and library studies, replenishing the source base of Ukrainian bibliography with documents created both on ethnic lands and outside their borders, and publishing the names of scientists and scientific works banned by the Soviet censorship, as well as trying to determine the contribution of each individual to the development of individual components of bibliology, book studies, library studies, bibliography and spread this knowledge among the professional community. A certain achievement of the professor can be considered the identification and substantiation of library biography as an independent direction in the composition of special biography and library science, the definition of its tasks and substantiation of the development trend in the history of librarianship in the 20th–early 21st centuries. The coverage of the pages of the biography of Ukrainian women outside the borders of Ukraine, the definition of their role in preserving national identity in a foreign language environment, their patriotism and intelligence are also of interest. Kivshar devoted a significant part of her life to pedagogical work, teaching students, postgraduates, and researchers the basics of organising and managing librarianship, encouraging them to study the history of Ukrainian book publishing and librarianship, to familiarise themselves with the main milestones in the history of domestic book culture, the analysis of Ukrainian bibliology, taking into account the achievements of domestic humanities.