Bulgarian Memories

15 YEARS NATIONAL LIBRARY WEEK IN BULGARIA.

By James LaRue, May 23, 2021.   

From 1990 to 2014, he was director of the Douglas County (Colorado) Libraries, widely known as one of the most successful and innovative public libraries in the nation. In 2014, he embarked on a career of writing, speaking, teaching, and consulting. From January 2016-November 2018, LaRue was Executive Director of both the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, and the Freedom to Read Foundation. In 2019, he returned to independent consulting https://www.jlarue.com/home

In 2004, I had the pleasure of visiting Bulgaria for the first time, as part of a grant written by Bob Anderson (former lieutenant governor of Iowa) and Nancy Bolt, then State Librarian of Colorado. 

Part of our purpose was to conduct a workshop for Bulgarian librarians about something that was still new in the United States: libraries as centers of community information. We soon learned that we also had much to learn from our Bulgarian colleagues, whose rich traditions and cultural memory extend so much farther back in time than our own.

With Elena Yurchenko, then director of the Dora Gabe Library in Dobrich, and thanks to Nikolai, my translator, I was able to meet representatives of the Mayor’s Office, the Rotary, the Bulgarian Red Cross, the Chamber of Commerce, and a local elementary school. There were many others! I also enjoyed a visit to the Black Sea, and the National Library in Sofia. One of the key library luminaries we met was Snejana Ianeva. Her extraordinary work as Director of the Information Resource Center at the US Embassy in Sofia and the President of the Bulgarian Library and Information Association set the stage for Bulgaria’s first National Library Week. Sneja was a passionate and dedicated advocate for literacy and libraries. Her efforts not only took important steps to highlight the importance of the library in Bulgarian society, but she also cultivated and maintained many international friendships.

I am profoundly sorry to hear of her passing; I am profoundly grateful to have known and had the opportunity to work with her.