Olga Gromova

Biography

Olga Gromova was born November 22, 1956 in Moscow. In 1979, she graduated from the Moscow Library Technical School and later from the Moscow State University of Culture and Art with a degree in Library Science and Bibliography.

She has worked in various types of libraries since she was 17 years of age; from the library training division at the 2nd Moscow State Medical Institute, to the Soviet Encyclopedia Publishing House Research Library, where she performed the duties of a manager for two years (1982–1983), but was never confirmed as a manager, because she was not a party member and she did not want to join the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union).

Since 1986, she has worked in the secondary education system as a librarian and literature instructor, including from 1991 to 1998 at the Experimental Author’s School.

In 1997, she suggested the idea for the country’s first professional systematic edition for librarians and those who work with children, and was invited to the First of September Publishing House as the Editor-in-Chief of this publication; it was first a newspaper, but now it is a magazine called «The Library at School».

She initiated the creation of a division of school libraries in the Russian Library Association (2000), and was a member of the Division Council from 2000 to 2008. From 2001 to 2004, she was an expert for the National Foundation for training personnel in the education system in the area of library science.

She has authored a number of works regarding issues such as reading and organizing school library activities, and is the Editor-Compiler of several collections about issues dealing with reading problems and developing libraries, and also the book Developing Information Culture for Children in School and Children’s Libraries. She is the author of an original course on the development of information culture; she is a trainer for the «School for Library Leadership,» and conducts training sessions in the library qualification system for those who work with children. She actively collaborates with the Russian Committee for the UNESCO Information for All program.

She was awarded with an honorable certificate from the Russian Federation Ministry of Culture for her large contribution to cultural development.