Anastasiya Kobzarenko

Anastasiya Stepanivna Kobzarenko (; 8 May 1934 – 1 August 2022) was a Ukrainian director, librarian, and writer. She began her career working as an instructor at the Lykhniv District Department of Culture of the Dnipropetrovsk Region and was librarian of Kryvyi Rih City Library 4. in Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast between 1955 and 1958. Kobzarenko was also an inspector at the Ministry of Culture of the USSR from 1960 to 1966 and director general of the State Republican Library for Children (today the National Library of Ukraine for Children) from the late 1960s to 2013. She authored more than twenty publications on library works and wrote more than 100 articles focusing on the problems faced by libraries. Kobzarenko was a 1998 recipient of the Order of Princess Olga, Third Class and was made a Hero of Ukraine in 2009.

Early life Kobzarenko was born in the village of (today in the Orzhytsia Raion district), in the region of Poltava Oblast on 8 May 1934. Her family were working class peasants; her mother read to her old copies of the works of Taras Shevchenko, Panas Myrny and Ivan Nechuy-Levytsky. Following her graduation from the Dnipropetrovsk College of Adult Education in 1950, Kobzarenko went on to study and graduate from the correspondence department of the Kharkiv State Academy of Culture as a certified librarian in 1957.

Career Kobzarenko's working career commenced as an instructor at the Lykhniv District Department of Culture of the Dnipropetrovsk Region and was librarian of Kryvyi Rih City Library 4. in Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast between 1955 and 1958. She went on to work as an inspector at the department of libraries concerning the functioning and development of libraries for children of the Ministry of Culture of the USSR from 1960 to 1966. During this period, Kobzarenko studied the system of library services for children in Ukraine when the Soviet Union was researching the issues of the reading of children, questioning whether it should be establishing a State Republican Library for Children as a scientific and methodological centre to provide methodological and practical assistance to libraries serving children in Ukraine.

Legacy Kobzarenko received the Medal "For Labour Valour" in 1970, and the Medal "For Distinguished Labour" the following year. Kobzarenko was appointed the honorary title of Honoured Worker of Culture of the Ukrainian SSR in 1979. In 1980, she received the bronze medal of the which was upgraded to the silver medal one year later. She became a recipient of the in 1982; the in 1984; the in 1986; and the Diploma of the Second Degree VDNKh of the USSR in 1989. In 2002, she received the honorary award from the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy and a gratitude from the Mayor of Kyiv. She received a Woman of the Year Award in 2011.