Message from Albena Ioncheva, Public Relations

Regional Library “Prof. Benio Tsonev”- Lovech also took part in the celebration of Snejana Ianeva’s life and work. In our profile in Facebook we published information in Bulgarian and in English about the celebration of Snejana Ianeva’s birthday. She is to all of us an example with her profound sense of honesty and justice, with her energy and professional dignity. We set a link to “Snejana Ianeva” Memorial Website.

Link to the publication:

https://www.facebook.com/liblovech

Text of the publication:

Snejana Ianeva was born on the 8-th March, the International Women’s Day. She was an inspired, initiated and developed modern library work in Bulgaria. For 30 years she worked she worked without any compensation, completely free for the development of the Bulgarian Library and Information Association and the establishment and thriving of “Global Libraries Bulgaria” Foundation. She also was a respected Director of the Information Resource Center of the US Embassy in Bulgaria. She dedicated her entire life to the causes and public role of libraries. More than 30 years Ms. Ianeva was the champion for library modernization and for the development of libraries as a part of the foundation of democratic changes in Bulgaria. She worked selflessly, devoting her free time for the realization of this patriotic mission. Like other bright and remarkable personalities in Bulgarian history and culture, she offered gratuitously to the Bulgarian people her broad knowledge, her leadership skills, her insights for innovation, her ability to see clearly in the present and in the future the role of the libraries in the life of every Bulgarian.

With her contacts she contributed to the participation of the Bulgarian Association in the IFLA committees and in the EBLIDA Board. Thanks to her efforts the Bulgarian Library and Information Association increased its prestige internationally and established long lasting contacts with ALA, LIBER Association, UNESCO National Commission, and many others. It was her initiative to offer Sofia as the host city of EBLIDA Board in February 2018. At that session, a joint declaration of the EBLIDA Board and the Bulgarian Library and Information Association was adopted in connection with the project of the EU Directive about copyright in the single digital market. This declaration became known as the Sofia Declaration. Snejana is an example to all of us with her sense of honesty and justice, with her energy and professional dignity. She never made a compromise with her conscience and with the professional standards in our work.  As a President of the Bulgarian Library and Information Association she defended the prestige of the profession and the librarians, she fought for the acknowledgement, which librarians often do not receive. She initiated a lot of proposals for awarding leading libraries and the best library specialists with the “Hristo. G. Danov” awards and with prizes of the Ministry of Culture.

She dedicated a lot of efforts to interactions with the legislative and executive branches of power aimed at the improvement of the national policies about the libraries, the normative basis and the financial mechanisms. Her faith in the library significance was based on her broad knowledge of their historic role in the world culture and in Bulgarian history, and on her deep study and understanding of their new functions and the need of libraries in our digital world. That knowledge informed her purposeful activity that has benefited the libraries and library work in our country!