Valentina Vauchik was born on February 28, 1946, in the city of Gavrilov Posad, Ivanovo region (Russia).
She has devoted over 35 years of her professional life to serving the library. “My path to a profession came from my love for the book, from the desire to share everything I read, from the desire to communicate with people,” Valentina Vladimirovna described her choice of speciality.
However, she did not immediately become a librarian: after graduating from high school, she went to work at the machine-building plant named after V.I. Lenin in Bobruisk as a student of the rod woman in the iron foundry.
A year later, the girl entered the library department of the Minsk State Pedagogical Institute named after M. Gorky (now the Belarusian State Pedagogical University named after M. Tank), which she successfully graduated in 1969. In the same year, she came to work at the State Library of the BSSR named after V.I. Lenin (now the National Library of Belarus).
In whatever positions Vauchik worked, as a librarian, chief librarian, head of a department, head of a section, everywhere she showed herself as a very responsible worker and an excellent specialist.
Good theoretical knowledge and extensive practical experience as a Senior Editor of the Arts Department allowed her to provide methodological assistance to the libraries of the republic. Valentina advised librarians on the acquisition of the collection with visual materials, the organization of catalogues and card files, the popularization of art literature, etc.
The methodological manuals “The work of the art departments of the republican and regional libraries to help the people's universities of culture” (1976) and “Working with graphic materials in the mass library” (1977), prepared by her, received a great response from specialists.
High professionalism and accumulated experience allowed Vauchik to head the Department of Propaganda and Mass Work from April 1989.
Valentina told about that time the following: “Remembering the years of work in the department, it seems to me that for all of us then there was the main motto: the library (department) should provide not only knowledge (literature) but also a feeling of spiritual comfort”.
Vauchik enjoyed great authority and respect from the library's management. The evidences is that she became a member of a special tourist group of the Ministry of Culture of the BSSR for visiting the German Democratic Republic in 1981.
In September 1989, Valentina resigned due to the need to accompany her husband on a business trip to the Republic of Poland.
In 1996, she returned to work at the National Library of Belarus and headed the current acquisition sector. Valentina has achieved significant success in this direction as well. She loved to work with books, actively used new technologies in replenishing library collections, established cooperation with bookselling organizations, took part in the development of a new edition of the “Unified Profile of Acquisition of the National Library of Belarus Collections” and other documents related to the formation of the funds of the country's main library.
Since 2002, having reached retirement age, she continued her professional path in the same structural unit as a librarian.
Her labour biography was closely associated with public work: she was repeatedly elected a member of the local committee, worked in the commission for cultural patronage over the internal affairs bodies, was a promoter of a book on aesthetic education through the society of book lovers, was a member of the sanitary squad and chairman of the library veterans council.
Her professionalism and creative merits did not go unnoticed: she has a number of thanks from the Ministry of Culture, the National Library of Belarus, the Belarusian Republican Committee of the Trade Union. For the results achieved in work and social competition she was awarded the title "Best in Profession", her name was entered on the Board of Honor several times.
On August 12, 2011, Vauchik retired.
This is how her colleagues recall it: “Wow, our Valentina and suddenly a “pensioner”! In addition, the chairman of the library veterans council. She still remains Valya Potapchik for her colleagues, a mischievous, easy-going, attentive and responsive person".
The staff of the National Library of Belarus wholeheartedly congratulates Valentina Vauchik on her anniversary and wishes her good health, longevity, good spirits and inexhaustible vitality!
Bibliology Research Department
Read more: Our History: a Portrait Gallery.
