Librarianship of Bulgaria

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The libraries are the oldest cultural institutes in Bulgaria . Of the medieval prince and monastery libraries, only individual monastery libraries with manuscript holdings have survived during the Turkish period. The time of Bulgaria's rebirth was a time of great educational efforts. It can also be seen from the fact that Bulgaria's first public libraries had their place in the flourishing school system. The first founding date of such a library is around 1840.

The year 1878 marked an upswing for the entire library system . In addition to the city and public libraries, the new foundations included the National Library (founded in 1878) and the Sofia University Library (founded in 1888). The legal deposit act of 1897 benefited the inventory build-up. After 1944 there was an above-average growth in all library collections and types. As is customary around the world, there are two types of libraries: public and academic . The total number of libraries is currently 6,942. The national library, the special libraries and the university libraries are among the 3,065 academic libraries.

Public libraries make up the greater part of this (3,877). They are divided into regional , school and municipal libraries ( читалища ), meaning the people's reading places , which are generally understood to be popular educational institutions that offer libraries with books and magazines as well as lectures, theater performances, lessons and courses of all kinds. As a place of communication and discussion as well as the public reading of newspapers, they had already gained considerable weight in popular education before 1878. The community libraries had done a lot in overcoming illiteracy. Towards the end of the 19th century there were probably 80% illiterate people in Bulgaria, in 1914 only just over 50%. In 2000 the number of municipal libraries ( читалища ) was over 3,400.

The national library "People's Library of Saints Kyril and Methodius" contains copies of almost all Bulgarian books and a large number of Slavic manuscripts from the 13th to 16th centuries. Century, also Persian, Turkish, Arabic and Greek manuscripts and old prints. The National Library is:

  • the Bulgarian Literature Archives, publishes the Bulgarian National Bibliography and is the Bulgarian ISBN and ISSN agency
  • the archive for documents from the time of the Turkish rule, the feudal period and the time of the national rebirth
  • the central scientific library of Bulgaria
  • Research Institute for Library Science, Bibliography, Book Studies and Bulgarian Science
  • Coordination center for library affairs of the 28 regional libraries and the special libraries, in particular the 5 major scientific libraries in Sofia (Central Library for Patents, Technology, Medicine, Agriculture and the Academy of Science)

Initial and continuing education

Continuous and differentiated library training came about only after 1944. The chairs for “Librarianship and Bibliography” at the Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski ” and at the University of Veliko Tarnovo trained academic librarians and documentaries. The training period at the University of Library Studies and Information Technologies in Sofia is shorter and job-related. There is also a further education center for librarians that offers qualifying seminars and courses.

Cooperations

The Goethe-Institut in Sofia has three German reading rooms (in Varna , Plovdiv and Russe ). You own over 10,000 German books, CD-ROMs, video and audio cassettes and periodicals. The German reading room is the result of a joint project between the Goethe Institute and the regional library “ Pentscho Slawejkow ” in Varna. The reading room was opened in 1993 with the support of the German Foreign Ministry. As part of the partnership in the field of cultural policy between the two institutes, numerous book and photo exhibitions are held annually.