site.btaOctober 24, 1928: The Founding of Sofia City Library

October 24, 1928 is considered the date of birth of the Sofia City Library. 

With an order of then Sofia mayor Vladimir Vazov 98 years ago Thursday, a municipal museum was established with three departments: museum, library and archive, the Library says in the History section of its website. According to the first written testimony about the Sofia City Library, it dates back earlier, to 1897, when a commission was appointed to audit the municipality. The members of the commission, after checking all the departments in the municipality, "came across piles of books". The commission found them "piled up randomly and uninventoried, and if one needed to find a specific book, all piles of books had to be searched".  

The official opening took place in the summer of 1929. At that time the library had a stock of 5,311 books. Its first director was Kosta Valev, who held the position of curator of the municipal library and museum.

Since 1995, the Library has been a legally independent organization.

From July 18, 1998 to July 20, 2008, its director was Georgi Belchev, followed by  Mihail Belchev in 2008-2013 and Julia Tsanzova since 2013.  

The universal library funds (about 1,000,000 library units) stored today in the Sofia Library and its branches provide library services to thousands of Sofia residents, and the established computer network and Internet offer access to bibliographic, full-text and administrative Bulgarian and foreign databases.