Natalya Nikolaevna Kholodkovskaya: at the origins of bibliographic work at the Military Medical Academy

The purpose of this publication is to comprehensively and fully disclose the contribution of the scientist bibliographer Natalya Nikolaevna Kholodkovskaya to the work of the bibliographic department of the fundamental library of the Military Medical Academy. The preparation of the materials for this article is timed to coincide with two significant dates: in 2021, the bibliography department of the library of the Military Medical Academy will celebrate 90 years and the 130th anniversary of the birth of N.N. Kholodkovskaya. The article is devoted to the pages of the biography of N.N. Kholodkovskaya, her professional development and major achievements in the field of bibliographic activity. In the choice of the profession of Natalya Nikolaevna, the influence of her father, the famous professor, the outstanding zoologist and the original lyric poet Nikolai Aleksandrovich Kholodkovsky, can be traced. For 45 years – from 1921 to 1966 – N.N. Kholodkovskaya worked in the fundamental library of the academy, in different years she held the positions of a scientific bibliographer, head of the department, and from December 2, 1938 to September 1939, she headed the library. With the name of N.N. Kholodkovskaya connected the creation of the bibliography department, the first head of which she became. During the Great Patriotic War N.N. Kholodkovskaya was in besieged Leningrad and helped preserve the richest library fund. The main directions of the work of the bibliography department under the leadership of N.N. Kholodkovskaya were: preparation of bibliographic lists of literature, execution of written or oral address, clarifying, factual information on various topics; deep bibliographic development of large planning topics; development of the reference and bibliographic apparatus, replenishment of the auxiliary reference fund; preparation of written and oral translations, preparation of abstracts of articles on military medicine from foreign journals and books. The translations were regularly published in the Military Medical Journal. N.N. Kholodkovskaya compiled a number of valuable indexes that have not lost their significance. Among them: “Bibliographic index of Russian literature on military medicine”, “Materials for the history of the Military Medical Order of Lenin of the Academy S.M. Kirov”, “The effect of penetrating radiation on the body”, “Sleep therapy” and others. The current profile bibliographic information of the structural divisions of the Academy and individual specialists was at a high level in accordance with their scientific and educational needs and requests. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the fact that this is the first attempt at scientific understanding of the work of the bibliography department of the library of the Military Medical Academy, in attracting previously unpublished documents, memoirs of contemporaries. As a result of the preparation of the publication, materials were found and analyzed that give a more complete picture of the personality and professional merits of N.N. Kholodkovskaya; about its role in the creation and development of the bibliography department, in the confirmation of the principles and methods of bibliographic work, which are adhered to in the department to this day (17 figs, bibliography: 26 refs).