From the State Library
To Form an Opinion of Their Own
by Nancy Bolt, Assistant Commissioner, nancybolt@earthlink.net
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The more I travel in Bulgaria the more I am impressed by three things:
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Our trip to Bulgaria this year had a very different purpose than in past years. This year we came focused to do only one conference on one very important theme: Public Access to Government Information through Libraries. We also wanted to honor the six Bulgarian libraries who had asked to form partnerships with Colorado libraries to increase cultural understanding and to help all the libraries build collections. As always with Bulgaria, we got much more than we bargained for.
Access to Government Information
Last year we met Governor Radimir Enev from the Stara Zagora Region of Bulgaria. He was struggling with a directive from the national government to make government information available to the public and didn't have clue how to proceed. We offered to do a conference in Stara Zagora this year that would focus on libraries as the avenue to distribute government information. We spent most of the year planning this conference. We had presentations by me on the main topic; by Mary Redmond from the New York State Library on why a government entity would want to give public information to a library, how a library can convince a government agency to provide the information, and how a library would organize the information for public access.
Bonnie McCune from the State Library blew them away with a presentation on marketing your library to the public (frankly, a new idea for them). Roumi Radenski, a Bulgarian now living in the U.S. and working at the Library of Congress, spoke on automating government document access and delivery.
The conference was attended by the Governor, who gave opening remarks, and by his staff. His PR person, Daniela Miteva, attended. Mrs. Miteva is also an elected member of the local parliament. Of course, local librarians were there from the public libraries and the university libraries. There was actually some tension in the room (surprise!). After our formal presentation and during discussion, Mrs. Duncheva of the public library basically said she had been asking for government documents and they government had been reluctant to give them. Buzz, buzz, buzz. Break. After the break, Mrs. Miteva said that the Governor had now committed that the Regional Government would provide information to the libraries and that she would see that the local parliament would as well.
Now we see if the governmental entities follow through with deposits and if the libraries do in fact organize them for easy public access. A lot of hesitation on both sides.
Partner Libraries
Our second purpose was to visit our partner libraries. There are six partnerships in place (Bulgarian libraries are all named after historical or literacy figures so I'm just going to give you the town):
Jefferson County Public Library Sofia Public Library Boulder Public Library Varna Public Library Bemis Public Library in Littleton Stara Zagora Public Library Douglas Public Library District Dobritz Public Library Eagle Valley Library District Veliko Turnovo Public Library Aurora Public Library Bourgas Public Library As a Partner Library in the Colorado Library Association/Bulgarian Library Association project, all of these libraries automatically became Sister Libraries in the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS). NCLIS provides a very nice plaque, signed by Hillary Clinton, the honorary chair. While I was presenting these plaques to the librarians and mayors in Bulgaria, the International Sister Cities convention was being held right here in downtown Denver and plaques were being presented to our libraries as well.
Our partnerships are just beginning. Veliko Turnovo and Eagle Valley have the most interactive program going. They have already sent one box of books (test case) and there are four more ready to be mailed. The VT librarians also suggested an pen-pal program among the young kids and that is underway. They have been exchanging e-mail and snail-mail letters for several months.
Other partnerships are just getting started. E-mail in Bulgaria isn't always reliable and seems to float in and out of existence. Georgie Beltchev of the Sofia Public Library, however, was able to come to the American Library Association Conference in Chicago where he met Bill Knott. They are looking at a way for Mr. Beltchev to visit Jefferson County after next year's ALA meeting.
We made presentations to all six library directors and either the mayor or a representative from his/her office. The Sister Libraries program recognizes that most local libraries get their support because the local town government provides the funding so they are eager to recognize the mayors as well.
In Sofia, the presentation to Mr. Beltchev and Mayor Sofinanski was made at the American Information Center with Sofia librarians looking on. In Stara Zagora we made the presentation at the reception following the conference. As it turns out, both Mr. Miteva from the local parliament and Mrs. Krusteva from the Mayor's office BOTH wanted the plaque so I had to present it twice and ask them to share it. Mrs. Duncheva accepted for the library.
In Bourgas, we met in the government administrative offices with local librarians watching as Kostadina Hrousanova, the library director and Marusja Ljubcheva, the Deputy Mayor accepted plaques. In Varna we met in the mayor's office. Bulgarians are often very formal and this was the epitome of formality. Mayor Kiril Yordanov had his own translator and I had mine. He had newspaper and TV press on hand to film it all. He sat on one side of the table and I sat on the other, making the presentation a little awkward. He didn't smile except when he pointed out that Hilary Clinton had signed the plaque (which for the first and only time I forgot to mention.) (Clinton is a big favorite in Bulgaria because he visited Sofia last year.) Library Director Emiliya Steneva-Milkova accepted for the library with a big smile.
Dobritch is north of Varna on the Black Sea and far enough away we could not visit it this year. But Library Director Elena Koeva Urtchenko came to Varna and we repositioned all the chairs in the mayor's conference room and filmed the presentation to her as well.
Finally, in Veliko Turnovo, we met in the library director's office and talked for a long while before the presentation. Director Sasha Georgieva told us about the library and we talked about American library programs. Presentations were made to Mrs. Gerogieva and to the head of Cultural Programs, Veliko Ivanova. Later that afternoon we met the mayor, Dr. Rumen Rashev, a former neurologist, now mayor. He is as different from the Varna mayor as possible. We met on the patio of the beautiful Arbanassi Palace, summer home of the Russian communists with a vista of mountains that rivals anything we have in Colorado. The mayor shared his dreams for the economic development of Veliko Turnovo and told us that the library director was retiring and he would make sure the new librarian supported this partner program.
Next month I'll tell you about the Association Tolerance, a new association of mayors committed to demonstrating to the world that ethnic groups in a Balkan country can live in peace.
Click here to return to the Centennial State Libraries August 2000 Index Page.
For additional information, E-Mail: Nancy Bolt, nancybolt@earthlink.net