January 3 marks the 90th anniversary of the birth of Nina Selman, a librarian-bibliographer, who devoted thirty-five years to the librarianship of our country, twenty of which - to the State Library of the BSSR named after V.I. Lenin.
Nina Selman was born on January 3, 1931 in the village of Surazh, Vitebsk district, Vitebsk region.
With the beginning of World War II, Nina's father went to the front, and she with her mother and two brothers left Vileika, where the family lived at that time, to the Urals, to the city of Molotov, Perm Territory of the Russian Federation. There, the girl graduated from the 4th grade of high school.
In 1944, after the liberation of Minsk, the family returned to Belarus. Nina graduated from the 8th grade of secondary school and in 1948 entered the college named after A.S. Pushkin --- At that time, this educational institution was located in Minsk.
In 1952, after graduating from college, Nina studied in absentia at the Leningrad State Library Institute named after N.K. Krupskaya. In parallel with her studies in Leningrad in 1952-1953, she worked as the head of the reading room of the Central City Public Library named after V.V. Mayakovsky, in 1954-1955 - head of the library of the 457th separate construction battalion, but in connection with the redeployment of the military unit she quit.
In 1957, after graduating from the institute, Nina Selman got a job as a bibliographer at the Yanka Kupala City Library (Minsk). Excellent theoretical knowledge, rich practical experience allowed Nina Selman to manage the reading room of this library for seven years since 1960.
Her labor activity in the State Library of the BSSR named after V.I. Lenin began in 1967. On July 3, an order was signed to appoint her as a librarian in the general reading room of the user service department.
In July 1969, Nina Selman moved to the Document Processing Department, where she was appointed Senior Editor four years later. With the entry into a new position, among other duties, she was given responsibility for the creation of a general alphabetical catalog of periodicals.
In 1978, the periodicals sector was introduced in the processing and catalogs department and Nina Selman took over it.
“Nina Selman is a highly qualified specialist who knows not only the work of the periodicals sector, but also the entire department. She is smart, intelligent, tactful in serving users; a capable team organizer. She is distinguished by initiative, exactingness towards herself and her subordinates, adherence to principles. She paid a lot of attention to training young personnel, professional skills, and enjoys a well-deserved prestige in the library, ”– this is how her colleagues characterized her work.
For her professional merits and business qualities, Nina Selman was awarded the Certificate of Honor of the Presidium of the Minsk Regional Committee of the Trade Union of Cultural Workers, the Gratitude of the Directorate for the creation of the catalog of periodicals, her name was twice entered on the Board of Honor of the State Library of the BSSR named after V.I. Lenin.
Having reached retirement age in 1986, Nina Selman worked for another year as a librarian in the processing and cataloging department.
After his dismissal in 1987 from the State Library of the BSSR named after V.I. Lenin, she and her family went to live in the United States of America.
Unfortunately, over time, the connection with Nina Selman was lost and her further fate is not known. We continue our search work and will be grateful for help to everyone who knew her and has any information.
The information was provided by Bibliology Research Department.
You can read about the veterans and employees of the National Library of Belarus in the news section “Our History: a Portrait Gallery”.
