Nina Kalyada was born in Vileika, Molodechno region (now Minsk region) in a worker's family. Having lost her parents early, the girl was raised in orphanages in Minsk from the age of 12.

In July 1921, Nina graduated from the Minsk 5-month lecturer-instructor and teacher courses and received the right to teach elementary school pupils.

Certificate of completion of 5-month lecturer-instructor and teacher courses

Having decided to continue her teaching career, the girl entered the pedagogical faculty of the Belarusian State University. She combined her studies with work: from 1923 for two years she worked as a teacher at the orphanage No. 1 in Minsk, in the period from 1925 to 1930 – as a teacher at the 1-st Soviet school in Minsk.

But fate decreed that Nina had to leave teaching due to a throat disease. She recalled this turning point in her life in this way: "...I worked at school, but for health reasons I had to change my profession. My choice fell on working with a book. I joined the Republican Library Collector as a consultant on Belarusian literature. During these years, I became even more familiar with the work of libraries."

In 1932, Nina Kalyada was sent to graduate school. "The development of librarianship in Belarus has necessitated the further development of bibliographic work and, first of all, recommendation bibliography. At the library (author's note – meaning the State Library of the BSSR named after V.I. Lenin), a group of graduate students was created, which attracted me. The group was attached to the graduate school of the Scientific Research Institute of Com-education. But since there were no library specialists there, the group broke up," she recalled years later the beginning of her scientific training. Taking into account these circumstances, Nina Varfalameeyna was redirected to graduate school at the Moscow Library Institute (now the Moscow State Institute of Culture).

After graduating in 1936, she moved to Minsk and worked for five years at the State Library of the BSSR named after V.I. Lenin (now the National Library of Belarus) He was a senior researcher, scientific secretary, and later Deputy Director of the scientific department.

Certificate confirming the completion of postgraduate studies

During the Great Patriotic War, Nina V. Kalyada was evacuated: she returned to the field of pedagogy and worked as a teacher and director of a secondary school in Mozhga in the Udmurt ASSR. After many years, she mentally returned to the difficult past: "The Great Patriotic War interrupted work in the library, those who managed to leave Minsk scattered, who went where. Many of those who remained in Minsk died. But even during the evacuation, while working as a high school principal, I never forgot the library and my job. I talked about it with delight and dreamed of returning to Belarus as soon as possible."

In 1945, she was awarded the medal "For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War."

Nina Kalyada returned from evacuation in early 1944 at the call of the Central Committee of the CPB and assumed the post of head of the political and educational Department of the People's Commissariat of Education of the BSSR (Gomel), and after the organization of the Library Department of the Committee for Cultural and Educational Institutions under the Council of Ministers of the BSSR (Minsk) in 1945, she was appointed its head.

In the post-war years, in addition to solving material and personnel difficulties, libraries needed special attention to restore lost funds. As the Soviet troops liberated Poland and Czechoslovakia and advanced through Germany, library collections exported from the BSSR began to be discovered, and the possibility of their return appeared. By the end of 1945, about 60 wagons of books had arrived in Minsk. A special commission was created for their distribution, which included Nina Kalyada as well.

A certified copy of the order of the Council of People's Commissars of the BSSR No. 2585 dated 10/24/1945
on the establishment of a commission for the distribution of books from Germany to libraries

N.V. Kalyada returned to work at the State Library of the BSSR named after V.I. Lenin in 1947. At first, she worked "outside the department, under the direct supervision of Joseph Benzianovich Simanovsky," and then was appointed head of the scientific and bibliographic department. Nina Kalyada led this line of work for the next fifteen years until she went on a well-deserved vacation.

From 1946 to 1956, Nina Kalyada concurrently worked as a senior lecturer at the library faculty of the Minsk Pedagogical Institute named after A.M. Gorky (now the Belarusian State Pedagogical University named after M. Tank), generously shared her professional knowledge and experience with young staff.

The 4th graduate of the library Faculty. 1951, Nina Kalyada is in the bottom of row of teachers

N. Kalyada is the compiler and editor of numerous materials of the recommendation bibliography for public libraries of the BSSR.

In 1959, under her editorship, bibliographic indexes of literature were published with the general title "Catalogue of regional and rural library".

Nina Kalyada has devoted 28 years of her professional life to the library industry. She belongs to the galaxy of professional bibliographers who laid the foundation and formed the traditions of Russian bibliography.

The early 1960s.

Her long-term impeccable work was awarded with awards of various levels: a Certificate of Honor from the Ministry of Culture of the USSR and the Central Committee of the Trade Union of Cultural Workers (1957), the badge "For Excellent Work" (1957); a certificate of Honour from the Ministry of Culture of the BSSR and the BRK Trade Union of Cultural Workers (1962); gratitude from the leadership of the State Library of the BSSR named after V.I. Lenin (1962); Certificate of Honor of the Supreme Soviet of the BSSR (1963).