Cyrila and Methodius

A 144-YEAR-OLD TRADITION
NATIONAL LIBRARY "ST. ST. CYRIL AND METHODIUS"
The history of the creation of the National Library is populated with people and events that in golden letters write the construction of the first post-liberation cultural institution.
The knowledge stored behind these majestic walls is immeasurable. And all who serve in the temple of the book - serve knowledge. It is a mission that resists ignorance.
144 years have passed since Mikhail Bubotinov's proposal from April 1878 to establish "a public library necessary for the development of Sofia in cultural and educational terms". And in just a few months from April to December 1878, the thirst for knowledge and the will of the people gave a powerful charge to the birth of our Library.
Thus, a work conceived with light becomes a mission for hundreds of Bulgarians - to have a Library that, through books, protects the national memory.
Today, 144 years after its creation, the National Library is a worthy successor of its founders. Today, the Library can rightly be proud of its achievements, although there are always challenges along the way.
But the library family will overcome them, because the past points the way to a productive future.
For 144 years, library work in our country has been a matter of honor for many intellectuals, educators, people of the word, bibliographers, librarians. Since 1897, when the National Assembly passed the Law on the mandatory deposit of printed publications in public libraries, the activity of preserving and bibliographically registering the publishing output in Bulgaria has been officially assigned to the National Library in Sofia.
The individual types of documents issued on the territory of the country, which the publishers are obliged to provide free of charge to the libraries, begin to form a fund that is inviolable and must be kept under special conditions in order to preserve it for future generations. On the basis of the law, the registration in the current national bibliography of the country is also carried out. During the bombings in the Second World War, a large part of the already accumulated funds in the Archive of Bulgarian Literature were destroyed. Their recovery in the difficult post-war years turned out to be a long and not easy process. In 1954, the Council of Ministers issued a special decree regulating the acquisition of the documents missing from the National Library, issued before 1944. The sources for their collection are the other libraries in the country, antiquarian bookstores,
Today, the Library's collection holds nearly 8.5 million documents. About 70,000 editions are received every year. The National Library "Saints Saints Cyril and Methodius" is the largest book treasury in Bulgaria.