Ms Kurbatava was born in Ulyanovsk in a family of scientists. The girl had a remarkable aptitude for learning foreign languages.
When Iryna was 8 years old, she and her parents moved to Belarus, Horki. After finishing school, even before entering the university, the girl worked as an English teacher for a year. Then she entered the Minsk State Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages (now Minsk State Linguistic University).
In 1970, Iryna qualified as a teacher of English and French and returned to Horki, where she continued her teaching career at school.
Ms Kurbatova was brought to the State Library of the BSSR named after V.I. Lenin (now the National Library of Belarus) in 1971, when after the death of her father she and her mother decided to return to Minsk. Ms Kurbatava began her professional career in the main library of the Republic as a librarian.
"I joined the library by chance. Having "escaped" from school, I fruitlessly went around various institutions where, in my opinion, my services might be needed, and I was already quite desperate to find a job when friends hinted that there was a temporary place in the Book Chamber, which was then a department of the Library. I went to Ms Viera Adamovich, she agreed to take me and sent me to make arrangements", she recalled this time in her life.
Fluency in two foreign languages allowed Ms Kurbatava from February 1973 to move to the Department of Foreign Literature as Librarian, and from October 1974 she worked as Senior Librarian. She engaged in classification of foreign literature, maintenance and editing of the systematic catalogue, carrying out bibliographic references of varying complexity, translation of foreign articles into Russian at a high professional level and with her usual enthusiasm.
The recognition of her professionalism not only among the staff of the Library, but also among the management of the country's library industry is evidenced by the fact that in 1974 Iryna was recommended for a 14-day tourist trip to the Democratic Republic of Germany, and in 1980 she was a member of the tourist group of the Ministry of Culture of BSSR for a trip to Yugoslavia.
Ms Kurbatava also coped very well with her supervisory duties: from 1982 to 1985 she was Section Head of the Processing and Catalogues Department and from 1990 to 1993 she headed the Department during the maternity leave of Ms Jarokha.
Since 1995, Ms Kurbatava's career continued in the Bibliography Research Department, where she was engaged in the search and bibliographic processing of Belarusian materials published in the countries of near and far abroad, including in various foreign languages.
From 2006, she worked in the Problem-Oriented Product Formation Department of the Information Centre, since 2010 – in the Document Indexing Department.
"A highly erudite, knowledgeable specialist, a friendly and very sincere woman in whom intelligence was inherent at the genetic level... Iryna, in whichever department she worked, was and is always in her place", her colleagues recall her.
Ms Kurbatava was editor of the bibliographic indexes "New Literature On History and Science of Belarus" and "Belarus in the Great Patriotic War (1941–1945)". She took part in the compilation of the scientific and auxiliary index "Charnonbyl", in the formation of the national bibliographic index "Belarus in the World of Press" of the National Book Chamber of Belarus, in the updating of the databases "Charnonbyl", "Belarus: from Past to Present", "History of Belarus", etc.
State awards marked many years of her fruitful work, including the Diploma of the Ministry of Culture of the BSSR and the Belarusian National Committee of the Trade Union of Cultural Workers (1978), the honorary badge of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Belarus (2002). Her name was on the library's Board of Honour several times and she received many commendations from the management.
Based on her life and professional experience, Ms Kurbatava spoke about her choice of workplace, to which she devoted more than forty years of her life: “... When you are young, you rarely understand yourself and are not able to choose your path according to your own temperament and inclination. I've been a bookish person all my life, so I believe that my random arrival at the Library was actually directed by the hand of Destiny. And I believe that Destiny disposed of me wisely, since I do not regret anything."
Unfortunately, Ms Kurbatava did not get to celebrate her 75th birthday; she passed away in March 2021.
Bibliology Research Department
