Bulgarian Library and Information Association and the National Library Week

 15 YEARS NATIONAL LIBRARY WEEK IN BULGARIA

  By Nancy Bolt

One of the goals of the America Bulgarian Library Exchange was to help BLIA involve librarians across Bulgaria to advocate for libraries.  A National Library Week is very popular in the US and a way to involve community members and leaders in bringing attention to the library.  In the US, the American Library Association takes the lead in national publicity and supports local libraries in their efforts.  We suggested that BLIA do the same.  At first there was reluctance, not because they did not like the idea but because they were uncertain of the response they would get.   But they had the courage to try it.   Snejana Ianeva, Vanja Grashkina, and Elena Koeva-Yurchenko  were key leaders in this effort.   

We suggested they appoint a national committee of well know people to support libraries. With some hesitation they did and were pleasantly surprised when legislative, government, sports, and arts leaders were pleased to be asked to serve on this National Committee to Support Libraries.  BLIA designed publicity materials about libraries and sent them to local libraries with suggestions on how they could be used.  I do not have the specific data from so long ago, but I know many libraries participated.  It was a huge success and was repeated in subsequent years.

Nancy Bolt was State Librarian in Colorado for eighteen years and now has her own library consulting company, Nancy Bolt & Associates. Since 2006 she has been Project Co-Director for the American Library Association's Library Support Staff Certification Program.